I recently got to interview Iranian film director Marjane Satrapi about her latest movie, “Radioactive.” It is the incredible true story of Marie Curie and her Nobel Prize-winning work that changed the world and stars Rosamund Pike and Sam Riley. The film will be available to stream on Amazon Prime Video July 24th. Enjoy!
*Note: There were a few places during the middle of the interview where I couldn’t understand what Marjane was saying as our connection was not very good. They are in bold, red ellipses.
Isabelle Anguiano: Hi there. Today I am speaking with Marjane Satrapi about her new film, “Radioactive,” which stars Rosamund Pike and will be available on Amazon Prime Video on Friday, July 24th. How are you Marjane?
Marjane Satrapi: Hello Isabelle. How are you?
IA: I’m good Marjane. How are you this morning?
MS: Thank you very much. I’m very well, but it is afternoon for me because I’m in Paris.
IA: Oh, really?
MS: Where are you?
IA: Oh, I’m good. I’m still a little bit sleepy. But I have my coffee with me, so I’m doing really well. And I’m so glad to be talking to you this morning, or morning for me, but afternoon for you.
MS: Yes, where are you?
IA: I am in Dallas, Texas.
MS: Okay. I know Dallas very well.
IA: Oh really?
MS: I’ve been there many times.
IA: That’s awesome. Yeah, I hope you come visit again when things get kind of more under control here. But yeah, I’m here to speak with you today about your new film, “Radioactive” and I just want to start off Marjane, I actually never learned about Marie Curie until watching this film. Which yeah, just astounded me, but what was it about her and her story that made you want to make a film about her?
MS: Well unlike you, I’ve heard about her all my life. I grew up with a mother who groomed for me in the night that I will become an independent woman. And for that, you know, I had to choose a role model and really, the important person for that was Marie Curie. But I basically can’t remember a moment that I did not know about her, it was like I grew up with her. But then I knew the beat lines. I knew she was the only person in the world that had two Nobel prizes in two different fields. And, you know, like these things, like the scientific aspect, the historical aspects of her life, I knew, but not direct.
MS: And then when I was proposed, I mean, my agents talked about this film and I was like, “Oh why, you know, why would there be films about her, et cetera. You know who cares?” And I read the script and I think that it’s very, it had the words to save the day. Only to have a neat way of saying, only if it has another constituent. And his story was complete because suddenly it’s wasn’t solely about the scientist and actually we will talk about science, but I would also talk about the aftermath of the science. It was made like the whole, beautiful story in which I could follow her story together with the use of radioactivity. And at the same time, it is a very deep love movie. And at the same time, it was a scientific movie.
IA: Exactly. Yeah. I loved that. I loved how you balanced both aspects of the film, the love story, and the scientific. I think it blended really well together and you can kind of see that you know, Marie was just more than just her science. She had a loving, her family also meant everything to her, not just her passion for science.
MS: Exactly. But I think she’s a passionate person in general. And I think when you are passionate, you are just passionate. You know like when your passionate, you are passionate about everything, or you don’t have any passion.
IA: Yeah.
MS: And I think that she has a fire in herself that just goes, you know, on all the aspects of her life.
IA: Exactly. And I noticed. I realized while watching your film, that even though there are tons of biopics made each year, there are actually not a lot that are made about women in science. The last one that comes to mind for me was “Hidden Figures,” which came out like about four years ago now. And I was just wondering, why do you think that is? And do you hope “Radioactive” plays a part in changing that?
MS: What you say is so true because they’re not, I mean, half of the population in the world are women. So mathematically, even without wanting to be feminist, whatever. Just mathematically, as we are half of the population of the world, like half of the films should be above us, but it’s not the case.
IA: I know, unfortunately.
MS: And you always have to be related to someone. I mean, a woman is such, she’s the daughter of someone, and she’s the girlfriend of someone, then she becomes a wife, then she becomes a widow. She ends up being the one mom baking cookies. She never, it is like, she can never be like herself by herself. Her own existence was not sufficient, but she needs to find a justification in somebody else’s. So, yeah, it’s very sad. I mean, it is not only about women in science. And just women’s films, I mean you don’t have so many, and that is quite sad, but hopefully, you know things are changing and they will change. And hopefully is that if my film can force it to go, you know into creating location, or you know by kids getting interested. Like all this is talked about in the field, they’re human beings and they’re interested in human beings then maybe I have done something. Yeah.
IA: Yeah, exactly. And yeah, since Marie is such an inspirational figure in science, I was wondering, did you have a favorite science class in school or is there a particular field science that fascinates you?
MS: Oh yeah. I mean all my childhood, my favorite subject at school was maths and physics.
IA: Oh really?
MS: Especially mathematics because mathematics is so abstract. That for me, it’s very close to, I don’t know, I don’t know, poetry, philosophy, art. It’s something very artistic about math because it’s completely abstract and it’s at the same that it’s completely factual. I mean, no matter it’s not subject to interpretation, the mathematics is just the most factual thing. So I always love this. Yeah.
IA: That’s awesome. Yeah.
MS: Not that I don’t love art and literature too, but you know my favorite subject of course has always been mathematics.
IA: That’s awesome. Yeah. And you actually adapted this film from a graphic novel much like how you adapted “Persepolis” from your own books. Can you compare the two experiences? Were they similar or how different were they since “Radioactive” is live-action and “Persepolis” was animated?
MS: Well, believe it or not, I did not. An adaptation was made by the screenplay writer, Jack Thorne. I mean, when I read the script, I did not know that there was a graphic novel behind it. It’s a great script. And then they send me the book and “oh okay there’s a book.” And then they said was like oh there is a book and it is so accessible and an excellent one. And what Jack managed to do, is basically to take this incredible kind of way of […] you know and tie the science and radioactivity together with the story of Marie Curie. That was extremely interesting. And that adaption was really done by him. And then, you know, the thing is that I am a visual person. I come into the story, I have a whole world that becomes a very distinct one and that’s where I … that is when I decided to make it.
IA: Oh okay. Did you find that there was more pressure adapting your own story or, or somebody else’s like Marie? Cause I think for me, yeah, I would just, I would want my own story, I would be a perfectionist about it, yeah.
MS: No, I want you to know, like when you love a story, you have to choose specifically because you know […] Even in a documentary, you have to choose. You have to make it, to be pulled in this new thing. If it comes to my desk and what bothers me or what doesn’t bother me […] I shouldn’t even be something that you get myself, but then you make you feel, especially about somebody you have admired your whole life. You really want to do it right.
IA: Exactly, yeah.
MS: It’s not your legacy, it’s hers. And obviously it would be good considerably. I’m talking about her story and I am being her voice. So I have to be pretty careful. And what I would be most careful about was to be the most faithful possible to her story. She was a big, fierce woman. She was never compromising. She had an integrity that I have never seen in anyone. She really did not care about any kind of normal applause, or medals, or awards, whatever. So it’s been very important you know too, to be faithful to the spirit. And directing, I always make it to be drama here and there […] can get there. But yeah, I think I was ready. I have been faithful to her spirit.
IA: Yeah. And I would say, yeah, you definitely were as well. But was there anything from the script that you wished was included more in the film? I know I was really interested in that sequence that kind of gave a glimpse at the negative effects of radium with that the creation of the atomic bomb. That sequence I found really interesting.
MS: Yeah. Because you can imagine that Pierre Curie, he wrote in 1902 in Stockholm, and said radium can make up harm. And 41 years after, maybe 31 years after. But 39 years after he’s dead, you have the first atom bomb. So you can imagine like when you read that […] It can be dangerous because what can we do? I mean, it’s just discovery. Because if you go this way, you know, the first human being that discovered the fire, he must be responsible for what is bad in this world, but he’s also responsible for us, like every […] So the question is not really the science. The question is that we as human beings, what do we do when we have all these new things? What kind of […] do we make […] as human beings […] this is our condition. But then it’s impossible for me, it is impossible to talk about Marie Curie, to read, without really talking about her science. She talked to her about the science without talking about the aftermath of the science. For me, the story wouldn’t be complete if it didn’t talk about all the aspects.
IA: Yeah. And what was it like working with Rosamund Pike and how did you collaborate on the character of Marie?
MS: Working with Rosamund Pike is like the biggest gift that somebody can be given. She’s so talented and she is so devoted. What I can say is that she’s a really kind person. She’s a good soul, she’s a good person. And we cannot say that about lots of people that they’re genuinely kind. So she’s a very kind, devoted person. So it’s a present, it’s like the biggest gift is right there. Yeah. It was, it was a gift for me to work with her. And it was hardly work you know, we had the same material. Basically most of the diary and the correspondences of Marie Curie. And we realized very quickly that both of us have the same understanding of the character, so from there the collaboration becomes easy. In my way of working, obviously we have worked with not very professional actors, or there are some people that, you know, they just start there and go back, that’s another way that I really control them and I really direct them. When you ask somebody in the group, like listen, I also like to give her a big space of where she can propose things because, you know, I think about the thing that actually, let’s say, how would I put it. In a very intellectual way she becomes the character, she gives the character. So yeah, I prepare to, I like very much to trust her.
IA: Yeah.
MS: And that is how we work together.
IA: Yeah, Rosamund did a great job of just capturing Marie.
MS: Oh exactly, yeah.
IA: And do you wish that “Radioactive” got a theatrical run? I know, given the time right now, that’s not exactly possible. But for me, I tend to believe that the theatrical experience because it’s communal, it has more of an impact on the viewer and the audience. What do you think about that?
MS: Oh yeah I think you’re completely right. You’re completely right. You know what I mean? I don’t know one director of film when they make the cinema film, not for it be released in the theater you know? All the details I have to take care of between wanting to be seen on the small screen. Of course, I will not get all this attention because nobody will see it, so you know what’s the point? And with theaters, you are completely right. It’s another experience, in a dark room with lots of people. You know I go now and now I see people are like I feel like peeing and now I’m hungry and my mother text messaged me. And this is a kind of experience. Of course, I would have loved it 1000 times better if it was a theatrical release but given the time that is not possible. I feel very happy to be among the ones that have finished her film. You know many films, they have stopped in the middle of the shooting. I mean, they have big, big problems. So I keep in mind, people will get to see it. But this week, it was theatrically released in New Zealand and in Germany and in Sweden. I have theatrical releases somewhere, but I wish it was the same it was the same case in the United States. Yeah.
IA: Yeah. But at least it got there in those other countries. Unfortunately, COVID-19 is too high over here in the States.
MS: I know.
IA: Yeah. And then, what do you have next in store? Is there anything that you can tease us with?
MS: Well you know right now I am writing a script. And I’m working on a British film with my friend, Gemma Arterton, who I already worked with once. So you know, I cannot say more. Let’s get it started with them once I have my script written, cause I’m writing it now, then I’ll show you. I will let you know, the first one.
IA: Alrighty! I cannot wait to see your next project. Yeah. Thank you so much for speaking with me Marjane.
MS: Thank you very much. Thank you.
IA: I can’t wait ‘til “Radioactive” is available on Amazon Prime Video next Friday, July 24th. Thank you so much for your time today and the best of luck with the streaming premiere of your movie.
MS: Thank you very much, dear. Thank you.
