Polish director Agnieszka Smoczyńska makes her English feature debut with The Silent Twins. June and Jennifer Gibbons were daughters of Caribbean immigrants who settled in early seventies Wales. The girls (Leah Mondesir-Simmonds, Eva-Arianna Baxter) were ostracized and bullied for being black. This led them to retreat inside and stop communicating. They didn’t speak to anyone but each other in a bizarre cryptophasia. The girls developed a rich fantasy life expressed in their writings. They were forcibly separated by school officials, but returned home after trying to escape and harm themselves.
Letitia Wright and Tamara Lawrance portray the Gibbons twins as teenagers. Their infatuation with a local bad boy leads to sex, drugs, criminal vandalism, and eventual incarceration at Broadmoor, a psychiatric hospital. They spent over a decade physically and mentally deteriorating under cruel treatments.
Fascinated From the Start
Smoczyńska (The Lure, Fugue) arrived to the film from an out-of-the-blue request. She was contacted by screenwriter Andrea Seigel, who adapted the screenplay from Marjorie Wallace’s book about the twins.
Smoczyńska: I got the script from screenwriter Andrea Siegel. She found Marjorie’s book and was obsessed with the story. She found me on the internet, on Facebook. She watched my first movie debut, The Lure. She was looking for the right director to tell the story of June and Jennifer. She had an amazing story, her passion project. Maybe I would like to read to it? June and Jennifer were black twins from Barbados who decided not to say any words. They were excluded from society. They started to write stories. That’s what Andrea wrote me, more or less. I was very intrigued. The script fascinated me from the first moment to the last scene. I couldn’t believe this could happen. The story moved me very deeply. I couldn’t stop thinking about what happened to them. They were amazing, extraordinary girls. They suffered. I really wanted to do this.
The Gibbons twins were subjected to extreme psychotropic drugs during their stay at Broadmoor Hospital. I wondered if the girls had any actual mental problems or were on the autism spectrum.
Smoczyńska: No, I don’t think they were mentally ill. I think they were misunderstood and misdiagnosed. I also think, because they refused to communicate with the outside world, were victims of systemic racism. They were condemned to Broadmoor. For me, it was very heartbreaking. They spent eleven years in Broadmoor. They were put on strong drugs. They were paralyzed. They were treated like schizophrenics.
Casting Issues & Lockdown During the Pandemic
Smoczyńska spoke at length about their difficulties casting the film; which got worse with the pandemic. The UK lockdown forced a year delay in shooting. The production moved to Poland. She used the time off to rehearse with the actors and delve deeper into the sisters imaginative writings.
Smoczyńska: First was Letitia, we knew she was June. We tried to find her sister, someone with chemistry who could be as strong as her, and who could fight with her. The whole movie is about their relationship. That’s how we found Tamara through an amazing UK casting director. Letitia saw an amazing girl in the theater. It was Leah Mondesir-Simmonds. Through Leah, we searched for her sister. We couldn’t find her for a very long time. Two weeks before shooting we found Eva.
Smoczyńska: Everything was online. There was a pandemic. When we were supposed to start the movie, there was a lockdown of the UK. We had to bring all of them to Poland via private jet. It was really hard. Our motion director was working with them in the UK for a few days. Then because of the pandemic, we had a one-year break. During this time, we worked with Letitia and Tamara. We studied Marjorie’s book and the girls’ writings. We could analyze every chapter of the book and work on every scene of the script. We discussed all of these elements and dived much deeper into the characters.
The way they spoke to each other was very strange. They talk through their teeth. Was that true or artistic interpretation on your part?
Smoczyńska: It was how June and Jennifer really spoke. Letitia and Tamara had a speech coach that worked with them. They had surgery when they were nine-years-old because doctors thought it would help pronunciation.
Bringing a Fantasy World to Life
The fantasy sequences are fascinating and well-done. The end card says they were taken directly from their writings. Did you get any input from June or the Gibbons family?
Smoczyńska: June gave her blessings for our movie. She’s very happy the movie is going to be released, but lives a private life. She didn’t want to be involved in the movie at all. But we got from Marjorie’s book all of their writings, diaries, and poems. She’s very close with her [June]. We got some more materials from them to read. I felt it was very important to present them as human beings. But they were also artists who wanted to communicate with the outside world.
Smoczyńska: I wanted to adapt their writings to the cinema. That’s why the script, for example, we have stop-motion from The Pugilist, a book written by Jennifer that hasn’t been published yet. I found the story very heartbreaking and beautiful. I really wanted to not only present June’s story, you can read Pepsi-Cola Addict, but dig much more into their imagination. Just to show that they were communicating to the outside world, but in a different way as artists.
We closed out the interview with Smoczyńska’s recollection of the best and worst days directing The Silent Twins.
Smoczyńska: (laughs) I loved every day to be honest. I loved every day I was on set. It was very challenging. The worst day was when I couldn’t be on set because of a second unit director. For me, it was a nightmare. It was a huge torture. It was the first time that somebody directed my scenes. I couldn’t stand it and had to be on the set. I was at home and had to go to the set. I had to control it. This was the hardest moment. When they were on the set without me.
The Silent Twins will have a theatrical release on September 16th from Focus Features.
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