After Princess Margaret, the actress plays a mother giving birth. Her research took method acting to a new extreme

MAGAZINE SCANS > 2021 > JAN 3: THE SUNDAY TIMES ‘CULTURE’

For the first half-hour of the film Pieces of a Woman, Vanessa Kirby pretends to give birth. She breathes heavily, swears, writhes around naked in a bath. But the baby is dead. This is not a spoiler: the film is about her year-long process of mourning as her character, Martha, goes on to deal with grief and blame. The film does not mess about. Kirby will leave you shattered as she heads off to receive umpteen nominations for best actress to add to the award she won for the role at the Venice Film Festival last year.

The issue for Kirby was that she had never given birth. And unlike, say, driving a car, bringing life into the world isn’t easy to mimic if you have never done it. Portray the complex character of Princess Margaret for two series of The Crown? Simple in comparison with the agony endured in labour. Given that, Kirby did what any normal person would do and contacted the Whittington Hospital in London to ask if she could observe a birth. And one woman actually said yes.

“I walked in in my scrubs,” Kirby recalls. “We had asked permission and unbelievably she said yes. Not sure I would. Some random actress in there.” Was the woman on drugs? “No! No drugs. But she was on a trip, if you know what I mean. Anyway I sat next to her on the bed and vaguely waved. I was in awe. Her mother was there too. I hardly breathed for six hours.” Did she offer encouragement? “No! Can you imagine? ‘Go on, girl!’ No, I was silent. It was a greater achievement than I’ve seen anybody do. There were forceps.
“At one point she looked at me,” Kirby continues. “Halfway through a difficult contraction. I blew her a kiss. Why? So embarrassing. And when he was actually born the nurses brought me round to see him come out. I was crying my eyes out. All colour came back to the mother. It was holy. And then I was introduced, and they went, ‘Oh God, Princess Margaret!’”
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