Actress Laura Linney speaks about her role in a film about Parkinson’s disease
American actress Laura Linney said at the Toronto International Film Festival in Canada that working on the film “Onwards and Sideways” changed her. As Asharq Al-Awsat reports, Linney played Emma, one of two people diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease on the same day.
The story of two characters
The film by director John Madden, known for “Shakespeare in Love,” premiered at the festival on Sunday. In the story, a neurologist tells Emma and Tony, played by Rhys Ifans, about their diagnosis and predicts they have “five good years.” After that, the characters’ paths cross.
Madden stressed that he did not seek to make the film a lesson about the disease. According to him, he was interested in what would happen to two people linked by a shared diagnosis. The director also noted that Parkinson’s disease is still associated with significant stigma.
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Screenplay and actors’ responsibility
The screenplay was written by Paul Mayhew-Archer, who lives with Parkinson’s disease himself and also appears in the film. Madden initially decided not to work on the project because someone close to him had received the same diagnosis. He later received the screenplay again and noted its humor and the author’s defiant attitude toward the disease.
Mayhew-Archer, one of the hosts of the “Movers and Shakers” podcast about everyday life with Parkinson’s disease, said that serious illnesses do not necessarily have to be treated seriously all the time. In his view, the film should support people with such a diagnosis, give them confidence and at the same time give them a reason to smile.
Preparing for the roles
Linney and Ifans spoke about the difficulty of portraying the physical changes their characters undergo over the years. Ifans plays a teacher who hides his diagnosis, unlike the energetic Emma. Both actors emphasized the responsibility of portraying people who live with Parkinson’s disease every day accurately and respectfully.
