Exclusive: Jason Isaacs and Alba Baptista Discuss Bringing Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris to Life

At first glance, the summer film lineup seems golden. There are big blockbusters like Top Gun: Maverick and Thor: Love and Thunder in one corner. Animation fodder with the likes of Minions: The Rise of Gru, in the other. And even a gritty outing like The Black Phone. What may be lacking in Summer 2022’s movie slate is a little warmth and heart. And that’s where Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris comes in. The Focus Features film seems destined to stand out alongside those other films for several reasons, but mostly because it evokes a sense of humanity from its main character, Ada Harris—brought to life to winning ends by Lesley Manville (Mum, Phantom Thread)—a determined British housekeeper whose dream of owning a couture Christian Dior gown sends her on a Paris adventure.

Director Anthony Fabian gives Paul Gallico’s popular 1950s novella, Mrs. ’Arris Goes to Paris a refreshingly inventive tweak here, bringing aboard Jason Isaacs (Sex Education), Alba Baptista (Warrior Nun), Ellen Thomas (In The Long Run), Isabelle Huppert (Greta), and Lucas Bravo (Emily in Paris), among others. Collectively, these stars take what screenwriters Fabian, Carroll Cartwright, and Keith Thompson gave them and create some onscreen magic.

“When I read the script, the world had come badly off the rails,” recalls Isaacs, who plays friendly gent/Ada’s ally, Archie, in the film. “I’m a catastrophist at the best of times and there was this disease keeping everyone awake at night, and the future seemed very bleak. And suddenly, here was this film that reminded us that people are kind. And I loved, firstly, that it was about a woman of a certain age who dared to dream and dare to find romance.” The actor also resonated with other themes in the story. “Basically, through Ada Harris’s compassion and fearlessness, she melted cynicism around her,” he points out. “That ripples outward—the kindness, positive energy, and optimism that comes off somebody is powerful and profound.”

Who can argue that? Thus far, reviews for the film have been predominantly positive. Vanity Fair calls it “the summer vacation we need.” This critic found it to be a joy from beginning to end—one of those rare, feel-good films. Of the movie’s appeal, Isaac shares: “Some of these things—bringing out the humanity and such—seem very esoteric, but I believe we all need a great story now, and I knew this was going to be a visual feast in Anthony’s hands. It was easy to say yes to.”

He wasn’t alone.

Exploring The Acting Process

For Baptista, who plays Christian Dior model Natasha in the movie—and one-half of the story’s potential romantic pairing of Natasha/André—saying yes to Fabian’s film was a given. It was also a dream come true and an “inspiration” on several levels. “I’ve always admired the Dior brand, so to portray a part of Dior history when it was at its prime in the 1950s was such a remarkable experience,” the actress says. “It’s a woman’s story and a woman who’s ahead of her time. And that sort of thing has always inspired me.”

Baptista, who hails from Portugal, has always been drawn to the arts, exploring everything from painting to music. Acting wasn’t exactly on the roadmap for her, but at the age of 15, she leaned into the craft and got hooked. That kind of curiosity mirrors Mrs. Harris’s in the film in some ways, delivering, perhaps a welcoming message: magic can happen if we stay open to new possibilities.

“My mother was a big influence,” Baptista goes on. “She always told me, ‘If it’s meant to be yours, it will be yours.’ It’s a very simple phrase that we’ve all heard, but it has such depth, and it just soothes me instantly.” That credo filters into Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris. The character of Ada is so intent on nabbing that Dior gown, after all. Ultimately, she realizes the importance of just being in the moment and enjoying the “adventure” the winds of fate have sent her on.

Baptista seems to adhere to those ideals, too. “My mother was a creative person by heart, and that influenced me,” she says. “As a kid, I watched her paint and found it therapeutic. Over time, I realized that expressing myself was important, too. And I loved to do it, whether it was painting or acting. I’ve always felt drawn to things that were ‘out of the box.’ I think that’s one of the reasons I said yes to this film.”

Related: Exclusive: Director Anthony Fabian Reveals the Allure of Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris

Unwrapping The Film’s Message

Clearly, Isaacs and Baptista had a strong emotional connection to the project. Isaacs had just come off several creatively intense projects, Mass, being one of them. The gripping tale of two sets of parents coming together to deal with loss in the aftermath of school violence was as “real” as it gets. “For me, that film was about the power of forgiveness in an exploration of loss,” Isaacs reflects. “It’s a call for forgiveness and the necessity of forgiveness, and how we can destroy ourselves by carrying resentments and hatreds for other people. Mass deals with that very directly; Mrs. Harris… in a less direct way but we see it through the celebration of kindness, honesty, self-belief, and compassion—all those things that are strikingly absent from news coverage. Mrs. Harris… is a film set in another time, yet it’s a film completely for our times.”

From the get-go, Isaacs knew that Fabian’s tale would be an exceptional experience for an actor. And he was jazzed to take on the role of Archie—a charmer, and Ada and Vi’s friendly pub mate. He recalls a moment during pre-production, when he, Fabian, and others shared a meal. It was a well-prepared lavish meal prepared by remarkable cooks, in fact. Immediately Isaacs thought: “Oh, God—this guy is over all the details. He’s going to be a wonderful director.”

On set that proved to be true—everything looked and felt “great,” too, “but what I really didn’t understand was the depth of Anthony’s talent to put together a mood piece that was this subtle,” Isaacs adds. “The film could so easily have lapsed into cliché at any point. But then, very quietly, the characters at some point surprise you, revealing something to themselves or to the audience. In that respect, Anthony turned out to be a better director than I had imagined. Hopefully, I gave some of that creativity back on screen.”