Sissy Spacek brought her Texas charm to Cannes, where the Oscar winner regaled an intimate crowd with stories from her 50-plus- year career.
The conversation was lively and funny, with the actress discussing her defining role in 1976’s Carrie and nearly missing out on Lynne Ramsay’s current Cannes title, Die, My Love.
It was all part of the fourth annual live Cannes taping of the Awards Chatter podcast, hosted by Scott Feinberg, THR’s executive editor of awards.
Spacek first met Carrie director Brian De Palma through her husband, famed production designer Jack Fisk. The night before her audition, she stayed up late, rereading the Stephen King novel it was based upon, and “feeling very tortured.” She showed up to the audition looking rough, in full Carrie mode. She put Vaseline in her hair and wore a torn dress. After the screen test, she was certain she’d blown her chance.
“I thought, ‘He hates me. He’ll never want me in his film and I’m not going to get this,’ ” she recalled. Her husband was the one who broke the news that she landed the lead role, which would earn her an Oscar nomination.
The conversation took place overlooking the Bay of Cannes at the Campari Lounge in the Palais, with the iconic red bitter brand returning for a fourth year as an official partner, continuing its role as curator of aperitivo occasions and celebrating the creativity and passion of visionary filmmakers who shape cinema.
Spacek was in Cannes for Die, My Love, in which she plays the mother-in-law to Jennifer Lawrence’s character, who is going through postpartum depression. Her agents begged her to meet with director Ramsay, but she declined because she was babysitting her grandkids. When she finally agreed, she couldn’t understand the Scottish director’s accent, while director Ramsay had trouble understanding her Texas twang.
Said Spacek to laughs: “Fortunately, her producer, Andrea [Calderwood] would explain. I’d look over say, ’What did she say?’ So we had a great thing going.”
