Frances Fisher, well known to the general public for having played Kate Winslet’s mother in Titanicis the distribution of The big tidea psychological thriller that takes place on a small island in Newfoundland.
Bobby Bentham (Clayne Crawford) and his wife Grace (Lara Jean Chorostecki) have just lost their baby, stillborn. The next day, the man who is also the mayor of a fishing village far from all civilization, discovers an infant, a little girl he calls Isla (Alix West Lefler) and whom the couple naturally adopts. Endowed with astonishing healing powers, Isla becomes, 10 years later, the central figure of the community until a tragic event prevents her from continuing to help the inhabitants. Frances Fisher stars as Faye, Grace’s mother and Isla’s grandmother, who carefully limits access to the little girl.
“I really liked the story when I read the script,” she explains during an interview with the QMI Agency. I felt like I could really delve into my character to make his actions understandable. If I played well, I knew the audience would be able to understand why she acts the way she does.”
“I carefully reread the script and constructed Faye’s life by writing the events she experienced. I then researched the effects of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease and learned about all the stages of the disease as Faye goes through several of them. I wanted to be as authentic as possible.”
“I imagined the history of her family, the moment when her ancestors arrived on the island, the reasons why she became a professor. I wondered if she had left the island to go to school. She voluntarily isolates herself from the rest of the world and teaches what she wants to teach the children. I also looked into the fate of the other inhabitants of the village, those who came to settle there,” says the woman who studied at the Actor’s Studio in New York under the direction of Lee Strasberg, creator of the method actingthis method of acting which consists of immersing yourself in the psyche of your character to the point of completely inhabiting it.
“The era in which the film takes place is intentionally vague. Yes, television exists, as we can see at times, and we see a number of modern inventions. Everything takes place in a place that gives the impression of not existing.”
Filmed in Keels, a town of 50 inhabitants, The big tide features villagers who voluntarily cut themselves off from the world and decide to live and raise their children far from the harmful effects of civilization.
“It was amazing to film there,” exclaimed Frances Fisher. I can tell you that I have never seen 50 residents. We traveled 45 minutes every day to reach the plateau. It was wonderful! The houses date from the beginning of the last century and the residents maintain them wonderfully.”
“The weather was very changeable, as is always the case in Canada,” she adds with a laugh. But Christian Sparkes was not forced to add filming days. The brightness was exceptional. During the scene in the cemetery, the clouds appeared spontaneously which made it even sadder, Christian did not particularly expect the sky to be this color. Basically, nature gives us what we need.”
The big tide hits theaters from April 26.
