She is known for her delicate fragile portrayals of complex emotions in films like the South African drama “Skin,” “Dirty Pretty Things” and her Oscar-nominated role as Tatiana in the historical drama “Hotel Rwanda.”
In “Mouse” she wonderfully embodies Helen Bell, a British classical pianist who loses her teenage daughter in a car accident.
Directed by Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson, “Mouse” is set in the summer of 2002 in Arkansas and follows Minnie (Katherine Mallen Kupferer), an introverted high schooler who has spent her life content to exist in the shadow of her popular best friend, Callie (Chloe Coleman).
A tragedy can bring everything out in the open and when Callie dies suddenly in a car accident, Minnie, looking for a place to process her pain away from her own chaotic household, spirals into a deep grief and finds comfort spending time with Callie’s grieving mother, Helen (Okonedo).
Both find some solace with each other after the life-altering tragedy and the film’s core is about how they finally have to deal with their grief and what happens in the aftermath.
“I rang my agent and said I want to do this based on the script alone,” said Okonedo who weaves profound emotional vulnerability throughout the film. “It just felt so true, but in a really unusual way,” adds the actress who received an award for her role by the Critics Choice Association’s Celebration of Black Cinema.
A theatrically trained actress with an extensive career in film, television and stage, she fully embodies the character letting subtle ripples of heartbreak move seamlessly across her face.The changes she goes through during the movie, especially upon learning her daughter has died, is one of the saddest scenes in the film.
“I am incredibly sensitive, which makes me good for acting and after filming the scene when I found out that she had been in an accident I felt heavy when I came home, but it’s part of my job,” shares Okonedo.
With multitudes of emotions, “Mouse” is a film about identity, motherhood, loss, tragedy and dreams deferred. Perfectly cast, it also stars Tara Mallen Kupferer and Christopher R. Ellis.
Photo Credit: Nate Hurtsellers and Luke Dyra
Samantha Ofole-Prince is a U.S. based journalist and movie critic who covers industry-specific news that includes television, film and music.