“If the films aren’t being made that feature black women [or] Asian women in the lead role, then they don’t even stand a chance of being nominated.
“So we always have to come back to the opportunities in the first place, the work being made, the stories being told.”
Notably, Jean-Baptiste now lives in Los Angeles – a place many British actors have moved to for the sake of their careers.
“Well, I was being offered work out there, so it made sense actually, because in the end I left to do a job that would require me to be there for an extended amount of time,” she explains, referring to her 2000s TV police drama Without A Trace.
“Because that show went on for seven years. I’d been flying back and forth for the first year or two of the show, and then it was like, you know what, this is a lot. It’s a long flight just for a weekend.”
When she’s back in the UK, she relishes the chance to catch up on British theatre and read books on the London Underground (“You have to drive in LA, so it’s books on tape”).
For now, though, her focus is on Hard Truths, which will be released in the UK on 31 January. Jean-Baptiste hopes viewers ultimately leave the film with “a bit more compassion for people, difficult people”.
“Not to avoid them, necessarily, but just sort of ask your aunt what’s going on, and if there’s something you can do to help. Don’t assume you’re going to be berated for doing it.”
Older and wider, we all begrudgingly are. But Marianne Jean-Baptiste is clearly quite a lot wiser, too.
