At the Toronto Film Festival in September, Rosalind Eleazar walked the red carpet with her “Misty Green” costars Chris Rock, Daniel Kaluuya and Anna Kendrick.
But for the British-Ghanaian actress, the most
important person there was standing just beyond the flashbulbs.
“I had my mum with me, so it was really cute while I was doing all the things, just watching her in the corner watching me,” Eleazar recalled early last month. “It was very, very sweet. She’s now seen the film about seven times and she’s going again next week. She absolutely loves it and she’s a proud mama.”
“Misty Green” (now streaming on Netflix) is a true star-is-born moment for Eleazar, 38, who has only appeared in roughly half a dozen movies so far, although she’s won numerous fans as MI5 agent Louisa Guy on Apple TV series “Slow Horses.” Already, some awards pundits predict she’ll earn a Golden Globe nomination for the film, on her way to a potential Oscar nod.
Written and directed by Rock, the showbiz drama follows a fading star named Misty Green (Eleazar) who is primed for a potential comeback in a remake of the movie musical “Dreamgirls.” But first, she needs to get out of her own way: Misty is both stubborn and temperamental, with an addictive personality and a drug-addled beau (Adam Driver). She attempts to make ends meet as a lounge singer in Los Angeles, all while going out on auditions and caring for her bipolar brother, Jay (Daniel Kaluuya).
“This sort of character comes once in your career,” Eleazar says. “You see a lot of male characters who are sort of naughty or difficult to like, and I’m so happy that I was able to unpack someone like her.”
Unlike many Hollywood satires, the movie grapples frankly with money and colorism in the industry, as Misty is told that she is “too dark” for Leonardo DiCaprio yet “too light” to play opposite Damson Idris. Eleazar says that she’s never encountered those sorts of comments behind the scenes, although like Misty, she has experienced her share of memorable casting encounters.
“I had an audition with [director] Mike Leigh many years ago, where he just got me to read a book in silence on the sofa for 45 minutes,” Eleazar recalls with a laugh. “He was just sitting there watching. It was such an unusual experience, but I loved it because the key to acting is simplicity and being absorbed in whatever you’re doing.”
For Eleazar, the film’s most “exposing” scenes were of Misty singing Radiohead’s “Creep” and “One Night Only” from “Dreamgirls,” which tap into the character’s desperation and self-loathing.
“The most important thing was to access the purity of Misty. It’s the only time we see her without her armor, so I just wanted to connect to the words,” Eleazar says.
“She has depth,” Kaluuya recalls of watching Eleazar perform. “She’s able to access the meaning of a song and find the emotion – it feels like she wrote it.” That passion carries over behind the scenes, the Oscar winner adds: “She’s an overthinker, like most of us are. She cares a lot and she’ll do whatever it takes. I love Roz, man. She’s a good vibe.”
Since graduating from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic in 2015, Eleazar has worked steadily in London theater and TV. Ever the responsible thespian, her first professional paycheck went directly into savings: “I was lucky that I was living with my mum at the time,” she says. “But it meant something to me and I didn’t want to touch it.”
The up-and-comer has gradually grown accustomed to her newfound fame, as the Emmy-winning “Slow Horses” just wrapped its sixth season last month. Unlike Misty, she’s never been asked to take a selfie during a hospital stay or any place too peculiar.
“There was one time when I was in Walmart and someone screamed, ‘Louisa!’ ” Eleazar says. “You start responding to your characters’ names, so I was like, ‘Yeah?’ ”
She counts Bradley Cooper among her bucket-list directors, and in the future, she’d love to take on a “really physically demanding role like an athlete.” Having worked for her brother’s production company in Ghana, she would also like to write and direct a film of her own someday.
"I'm so open to what may come next," Eleazar says. "I probably won't want to do another 'Misty' sort of character ‒ I want to do something that's completely different."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: This ‘Slow Horses’ breakout has waited her whole life for Chris Rock
