Cherry Jones didn’t understand a lot of the humour in ‘The Party’.
The 60-year-old American actress jumped at the chance to work with director Sally Potter and co-stars including Kristin Scott Thomas, Emily Mortimer, Cillian Murphy, Patricia Clarkson, Bruno Ganz, and Timothy Spall on the black comedy, especially because it was based in London, but she admitted many of the cultural references went over her head.
She told BANG Showbiz: "Honestly, I’m feeling a little sheepish answering this because being American, the script and some of the humour in the script passed right over me.
"It was Sally Potter and this cast and it was London that made me want to do it. I had the opportunity to be here a month."
Meanwhile, Sally, who also wrote the script, was delighted to get her first choice actors for all of the roles in the movie, which is centred around a number of revelations at an intimate party.
She said: "I wrote the script first and without trying not to imagine any particular actor. One way of thinking about it.
"As soon as I finished it and there was a draft, it felt right to present to these actors.
"And after a read through with these actors they were all my first choice actors and I could see what they could do with it individually and together. And how they could interpret it and they responded very well to it and it went from there."
And Sally felt the subject lent itself to being shot in black and white.
She explained: "Black and white is much more colourful from an emotional point of view. People can project their imaginary sense of realness onto what is a slightly abstracted image. The brain makes sense of it. Something happens in the brain that fills the details.
"And of course – a lot of my favourite films ever are in black and white and puts this film in that image."
Cherry Jones baffled by movie humour
