Gillian Anderson is 56 years old, and while she looks appropriately weather-beaten in her latest film project, the important part to her was age-appropriate casting.
The actress stars alongside Jason Isaacs in The Salt Path, the film adaptation of Raynor Winn's best-selling memoir about walking a 630-mile stretch of coastline after she and her husband became homeless.
© Alamy Stock PhotoSpeaking at a preview screening, Gillian exclusively told HELLO! why her casting as Raynor, one half of the husband-wife walking duo, was so important to her, and how age features in the film.
"The fact that two people, our age, their age, can do a distance like that is something to be proud of. I [like] the fact that that they cast us age appropriately. And also that people our age still are in love and have sex."
Both Gillian and Jason told HELLO! who they would bring with them should they ever walk the coast path featured in the film, with Jason opting to bring his wife of 24 years Emma Hewitt, while Gillian said she would bring her three children, Piper, Oscar and Felix.
© Alamy Stock PhotoInside the casting of Gillian as Raynor
Director Marianne Elliott told HELLO! of the casting: "I met Gillian because I knew she loved the book, and that told me quite a lot. And then when we met and talked about it for quite a long time, it felt like it had very personal resonances for her. I talked to her about the way that I wanted it to be done, and the way I wanted Raynor to be, and she was really up for it.
"The thing is, she's a serious actress, so she may have been cast a lot in glamorous, sex idol roles, but that's not all the things that she [can] do. I think she was really keen to do something different."
Gillian and Jason's preparation for the role
To prepare for the role, Gillian spent the day with Raynor to learn from her, and the duo put the tent up together and took it down again, a repetitive action that formed much of Raynor's life while walking the South West Coast Path with her husband Moth.
Jason told press at The Salt Path screening of his journey playing Moth: "I felt a heavy burden, a real responsibility. I've played real life people before. I know Gillian has as well. I've never played anyone really nice before. And I felt this, not only to get his condition right and be honest about it and share the vulnerabilities he shared with me, but that he was man enough to ask for help and be weak, which is difficult for him.
© Alamy Stock Photo"I got a sense of him, how concerned he was that Ray should be okay, and she worried us and to keep her laughing when he was actually suicidal and depressed. So he was so extraordinarily generous to me about opening up and pulling the layers back and showing me who really was, that it was incredibly helpful, but also felt like I felt a very keen burden of responsibility to get myself out of the way and try and tell his story."
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Raynor's response to the film
Raynor told HELLO! that she visited the set for a day, and felt overcome with emotion when she saw Gillian and Jason in character.
"We went to the Valley of the Rocks. It's on the north coast, and we haven't been back there since we walked through with our rucksacks. So that was an incredibly emotional day for me, because I hadn't been there, hadn't examined that landscape since. And then when the two characters of Ray and Moth walked over the headland, I had to just step back a bit because it felt too close, too much."
© Alamy Stock PhotoExplaining what she hopes viewers will take away from the film, Raynor said: "I'd really like them to go out of the door, see a homeless person in the doorway and say, actually, that's an individual. It's not a troublesome statistic. It's an individual with their own story."
Gillian echoed the sentiment, telling press: "When I was listening to the audiobook, it definitely affected my compassion for anyone, and I hope it does the same for the audience too, and particularly today, because of the uncertainty. It really does feel like any of us could find ourselves in that situation."
© Alamy Stock PhotoA surprise cameo by Ted Lasso star James Lance
Keen-eyed Ted Lasso fans might spot a familiar face in The Salt Path. Actor James Lance, who played the dry-voiced journalist Trent Crimm, makes a brief appearance in the film.
He spent a few days filming alongside Jason and Gillian, telling HELLO!: "They're two artists at the very top of their game. So I think when you're lucky enough to work with people on that level, you can't help but just try and absorb and observe what it is they're doing and what it is they're not doing. They've both got very different approaches from what I can witness and were both really effective."
© Getty ImagesJames also made a sweet revelation about which Ted Lasso character would join him on The Salt Path, saying: "I'd have to take Billy Harris's character, Colin, who I did all my scenes with in season three. We had this beautiful storyline where Trent Crimm was mentoring him. Colin is a gay footballer, and Trent takes him under his wing. It would have to be Colin, because I just love him, and we're great mates in real life. We developed a beautiful friendship off the back of working together, we often hang out."
