Yoshino Kimura couldn't have chosen a more daunting project to make her first-ever appearance in an English-language film: in Fernando Meirelles' Blindness - an adaptation of Portuguese writer Jose Saramago's novel - she plays a temperamental and cynical character who loses her sight soon after her husband (Yusuke Iseya) does, among the first to succumb to what will eventually become a contagion that will leave their whole city blind.
It's a very demanding film, not least because of the need to deliver a convincing turn as a visually impaired individual. With those afflicted by the endemic quarantined in a makeshift prison, law and order soon breaks down and power plays soon bring trauma to the female inmates. Kimura - who was born in London - has fond recollections of the experience: working alongside a multinational cast including Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Gael Garcia Bernal, Alice Braga and Danny Glover has been 'fun', she says.
How did you prepare for your role? In Tokyo I went to a training centre for people who lost their sight because of illness and disease. I joined their lessons - [to learn to] walk with a stick, to cook, to live. I talked with these people and they taught me a lot of things. How do you see your character, who's not the chirpiest soul on Earth? My character is very selfish and hard, and [she and her husband] don't have a kid. She's a very powerful lady - but after losing her sight she gets very depressed. She loses her confidence. The couple's relationship is very, very bad. They don't co-operate. I think they love each other, but they are facing it in other ways. After they become blind, the husband tries to cheer her up, but she denies him, and gets very, very depressed. She thinks she can't live like that, she changes her way of thinking and she has to do something - and after that she becomes another person, more honest and not that selfish, and the couple's relationship gets better. The film involved location shooting in Canada and Brazil, among other places. What was it like? It was my first time working in an international production and it was fun. I used to live in London and New York so I'm used to being with people from other countries. Julie [Moore], Gael and everyone are nice, nice people. We're like a family. What was the biggest challenge in making Blindness? I didn't get homesick really, I just missed my family. But it was fun all the time, and I love challenges. I'm a big fan of Fernando and Julie, so I was honoured to work with them. Being able to speak English certainly helped in making this film, didn't it? I couldn't understand Portuguese [Meirelles is Brazilian]. But when you look at people's eyes, they tell lots and lots of things, so it wasn't a big problem.
Blindness is screening now