Priority
You’re probably feeling a little maligned by now. A little brushed to the side, perhaps?
Cate Blanchett’s role is being praised from here to the hilltops and rightly so, but this film’s beauty is in it’s contrasts. And Sally, your role as Ginger, warm, robust and earthy to Cate’s delicate, particular flower, Jasmine, is essential. Without the golden and orange hues Ginger and her family bring to the mix, Blue Jasmine could so easily have been, true to its name, a very blue, woeful melodrama.
When we meet Jasmine she’s living the high-life travelling first class, wearing a mish-mash of high-end designers and speaking on and on about her fantastic life while she waits with her fellow passenger for her Louis Vuitton luggage. But this is an illusion that is quickly shattered. Jasmine’s broke and, after a mental breakdown, not just in the monetary sense. She’s been electro-shocked and if squeezed could spit Xanax pills machine-gun style. Yet no matter the severity of her breakdown or the alarming number of trespasses her former husband took against her, we’re given no doubt that Jasmine did this to herself. Even though Hal, her ex-husband, was running some sort of Ponzi scheme whilst dilly-dallying with an assortment of younger women, Jasmine turned a blind-eye, as it suited her. The IRS having now taken all her money, Jasmine’s forced to turn to San Francisco and Ginger, her adopted sister. Although it seems she is unable to face reality. Her delusions are many and she’s really only interested in herself.
But while Jasmine’s cracking up the light-hearted jazzy-blues soundtrack and sumptuous visuals of Ginger’s warm home and Jasmine’s luxurious former lifestyle keep this from becoming a maudlin affair. As does the comic lack of sophistication in Ginger’s love affairs compared to Jasmine’s; although Ginger is at least true to herself while Jasmine spins lie after lie.
So Sally, while Cate provides the emotional breakdown in this character study, Ginger and yourself provide the heart and anchor. Your character is the reason we care for this pampered and deluded soul, because Ginger does, and Jasmine seems to have some desire to help her sister, no matter how misinformed and misjudged her designs.
It’s a relationship which will no doubt lead to Blanchett thanking you in her Oscar acceptance speech. Not that it’s too early to judge these things or anything.
All the best,
Emily Cracknell
