“Hereafter” is an ethereal drama written by Peter Morgan
starring Matt Damon and Cecile de France

Jenifer Lewis maximizes cameo role in Clint Eastwood’s “Hereafter”

Award-winning film director Clint Eastwood (“Million Dollar Baby”) ushers “Hereafter” into theaters, the story of three people who are haunted by mortality in different ways, starring Matt Damon and Cécile de France with a cameo role by Jenifer Lewis. Peter Morgan (“The Queen,” “The Last King of Scotland”) wrote the screenplay.

George (Damon) is a blue-collar American who has a special connection to the afterlife. On the other side of the world, Marie (de France), a French journalist, has a near-death experience that shakes her reality. When Marcus (George McLaren and Frankie McLaren), a London school boy, loses the person closest to him, he desperately needs answers. Each on a path in search of the truth, their lives will intersect, forever changed by what they believe might—or must—exist in the hereafter.

In a tremendous opening scene, a massive tsunami tears through a small beach town in Indonesia, dragging a French journalist under the waters and into a fleeting death. On the streets of London’s harsh projects, an accident causes a young twin to be cut off forever from the brother that has always guided him. And, across the world, in San Francisco, a man disconnects from life to shut out the voices of the dead.

Clint Eastwood

What happens after death?

“We don’t know what’s on the other side, but on this side, it’s final,” says director Clint Eastwood. “People have their beliefs about what’s there or what’s not there, but those are all hypothetical. Nobody knows until you get there.”

“Hereafter” is a drama that explores three characters’ search for answers about their own lives in the face of what lies beyond.

Warner Bros. Pictures Presents a Kennedy/Marshall Production, a Malpaso Production, “rated PG-13 for mature thematic elements including disturbing disaster and accident images, and for brief strong language. “Hereafter” is French with subtitles and English language.

Jenifer Lewis

I talked to Jenifer Lewis (The Princess and the Frog, Not Easily Broken, Cars, Cars2) by phone from her Los Angeles home about “Hereafter” and her future plans--

Talk2SV: When one is celebrated for a cameo appearance, it underscores their valued-added name in this industry. Similarly, tell me about the opportunity to work with Clint Eastwood who, too, is a value-added brand.

Lewis: It was an honor and a thrill; literally, I kid you not, to work with an icon and a legend. He was very intelligent and the humanity surrounding him was unspeakable. I saw where the poetry comes from when he puts these stories on screen, all of them. He just has a way of approaching the humanity, the sea of humanity beneath these characters that he portrays. Million Dollar Baby (in this film, Eastwood directed the Oscar winning performance of Morgan Freeman) was staggering. The performances and the reason he gets these performances from these actors is because he puts them at ease, he doesn’t even say, ‘action.’ He just says, ‘when you’re ready.’ What? He trusts the artists and I have to say that because he put me so at ease. I was able to do some of my best work. It was a very intense scene; the character desperately wants to speak with her daughter who has passed away and is on the other side. The urgency and pain of this mother presented in this scene was quite a challenge for me and I was put at such ease. I was able to do a very good job and I rarely say this but I’m very proud of my work.

Talk2SV: I have to agree. Given the brevity of the performance to take what you did and turn into a punctuated moment, you had to feel good about it …

Lewis: And, I had no idea because I was actually coming off the flu the day that I shot the scene. I was like, ‘oh my God,’ how could you come this far (in my career), get a Clint Eastwood movie and mess it up! But, obviously, I didn’t because what you do as an artists is you use that, the fact that I was feeling weak, thus the underlined madness of a parent who loses a child was present but repressed. Therefore, the scene did not go into the melancholy type of performance that it could have, if you know what I mean.

Talk2SV: I do. When you infer where the scene could have gone, the interpretation of this film circles the perimeter of an area that most of us are curious about but we have few answers by virtue of the fact of how you have to get there. You have to die to get there.

Lewis: Well, I ain’t dying for nobody and you can print that. I ask people, ‘where do you think we go after death?’ I say, ‘I don’t know where we go honey but I know I’m going to be fabulous wherever I’m going’ (laughter). But, I think the way he (Eastwood) presented the subject matter was pretty brilliant; he just told a story, didn’t preach, nor teach, nor any of it. He just implied there it is, this is what we experience. And that tsunami scene…

Talk2SV: Yes, a most impressive scene…

Lewis: During an early screening of the film, I sat next to the man who designed it, people were coming over to him to congratulate his work. I turned to him and said, ‘Honey if you do nothing else in your life, you presented a tsunami.’ In a moment, that’s how it happens. In a moment, your entire life can change in a moment.

Talk2SV: Jennifer that’s a great jumping off point because I believe in confluent occurrences; I believe when things come together as they should it is for a reason. You talk about a tsunami happening in a moment; instances like that change your view on living the rest of your life. What has been a turn-the-corner-moment in your life that causes you to live in the moment and maximize every single moment?

Lewis and beau, Arnold Byrd

Lewis: Good Lord that is probably the best question I’ve been asked today. Let me start at the beginning and take from it what you will. I was in a tornado when I was 10-years-old, in St. Louis, Missouri, the day before my 10th birthday. It picked up the house and threw it back down.

Talk2SV: Sounds like the Wizard of Oz.

Lewis: You got that right baby. When something like that occurs, if you don’t find out that the answer is in your backyard and [that] your backyard is right inside of you. I was in the Northridge earthquake (1994 in southern California), so I know. Before a tornado strikes, you can see a funnel coming; you can see a hurricane coming, you can see just about everything coming, but an earthquake, not so. You understand me, girl?

Talk2SV: Yes, I do.

Lewis: So you see, that happens in a moment. And, it’s moments like that and moments after that, that define who we are. But, there are also the small moments, when somebody is struggling to get through a door and can’t get it open and you open it for them. Its moments when somebody sends you a flyer in the mail that informs you of children that need books and you go and get them some. We have to serve others --that’s what gets me through a day-- I make sure [that] before I go to bed that I’ve done something for somebody.

Talk2SV: Hearing you describe your life's manifesto and knowing that you are too a master of the one woman show, where is this story? Is this story forthcoming?

Lewis: You know that story is in all of my stories because at the end of all of my stories I'm basically saying to my audience to look in the mirror and stop blaming anybody but yourself for your choices. Take responsibility for your own choices --then and only then-- will you choose well.

Talk2SV: That assertion could be very jolting to a person who has not been at the precipice of a life-altering scenario.

Lewis: Too bad, get there, enough with the excuses. Everybody has been there. If you have had one experience that you came into it and you were afraid and you are still alive then you've been there. There are no degrees of fear and all of that stuff, fear is fear, joy is joy. Girl, don't get me started on this phone.

Talk2SV: I love it.

Lewis: There is no in between, there are two emotions: one feels good and one feels bad. Choose today which one you're going to feel. You want to feel better, change the channel. It's as simple as picking up that remote and changing it. Oh girl, don't start me. And, when I say it's simple, I mean, it is as easy to put a smile on your face as it is a frown. It's your face, ain't it?

Talk2SV: Yeah…

Lewis: So, we are all the same, nobody is better or worse than the other is. We are simply where we are and if you want to change --you're going to change anyway, everyday we change-- why not decide how you're going to change, why not make a choice as to what that change will be instead of saying, they didn't give me the job, they didn't let me do this, who is 'they?' 'They' don't even exist, that's some stuff 'they' made up; you think 'they' are choosing for you therefore 'they' are.

Find your way, it is a personal journey, life is a personal journey. You tell the truth and go on about your business. Truly, the truth will set you free because we are as sick as our secrets. So tell the truth, tell somebody. Go and get that aunt who is down in the basement and never comes out. Ask her how she's doing? You go ask that cousin who is running around like he's crazy, 'Are you OK today?'

Reach out and try to help somebody. You can't change them, but serve, do some kind of service, go get a kid from the big sister, big brother program, go do something for somebody. If you don't know what to do with yourself but hurt yourself, do anything but hurt yourself. Life ain't easy, nobody said it would be. Make choices that will make you at least smile. If they don't make you laugh, make a choice that will make you smile.

Talk2SV: I honor your strong declaration and the platform that you speak from; I celebrate it. But, it also makes me wonder who are the people in your circle that can stand flatfooted alongside you, walk this path with you and take this journey with you. Jenifer, this proclamation is a statement of being.

Lewis: The ones that are drawn to me, whatever's in front of me honey is a reflection of me; if it's a puppy, if it's a baby's eyes, if it's a man, whatever it is. Life is a personal journey…every life is personal. I say these things so that you can stand on your own two feet. I say these things so that you can look in the mirror and take your own journey and be kind enough to allow me my own. Don't stand by me because it's a personal journey. You just let me have mine, go, and take yours.

Cécile de France

Sandra Varner (Talk2SV): American audiences along with the American film making community are enamored of Clint Eastwood. What is your interpretation of him?

Cécile: You know, in France he’s like a God, really, because all of his films move the world deeply. He’s never settling down where we expect him and because he chooses universal subjects and is inspired by real life, as an audience, we can identify ourselves in the characters and the story. Because for him, I think he likes to stick with the simplicity instead of having a pretentious direction. He loves to create, to generate real emotion from real life and it’s very European, I think. For example, in this film, I really love the way that he filmed the beginning. It is very fast because this is about death and because it could happen tomorrow to you or me; the second part is more slow and it’s more about real life. It’s like death with silence and with breath. It is very brave, you know. For me, for us, French speakers, it’s also very brave from Clint Eastwood to keep the French language because we all know Americans are not used to watching movie and having to read subtitles. But, it’s more realistic and believable and it’s very smart from him to dare to do that.

Talk2SV: If you could elaborate more on “the French way, versus the American way,” Clint Eastwood is a mature man. Sometimes, in many cultures outside of our own, there is a higher appreciation for people as they mature. What did you gain from him as an older person who has so much vision, talent and creativity?

Cécile: For example, for me, the first day of shooting was in Germany and it was supposed to be in Switzerland. As I was looking at him, I said to myself, ‘oh my God, I really want to be in his skin, I really want to be him.’ Very quickly, you see how he found his inner peace, he is completely at peace with his ego and I think that comes from serenity and trust. It’s amazing to see how he trusts everybody, so, it looks cool to be like Clint. He’s completely confident and, of course, because I think he really loves his work and the simple joy of being in the present, he’s got a great sense of humor so he laughs a lot on the set with everybody.

Talk2SV: Did you receive any special direction to help with the “afterlife” concept of this film?

Cécile: The script is very complete and very complex because these characters are not super heroes rather normal people with their weaknesses, defects and their progression. With my character, we can see her fragility and her weakness during her journey to self discovery. For an actress it’s very interesting to play a character who changes and she’s getting more mature, more open-minded after her journey to the afterlife. She profits because a beautiful life is waiting for her at the end of the story and it’s quite romantic. It was very interesting to play a character who is very strong and very powerful at the beginning and more mature at the end.

Talk2SV: The tsunami during the opening scenes was incredible; it felt real just watching it. Describe that particular shooting day?

Cécile: Yes, that scene was shot in one day indeed. We shot it in a tank at Pinewood Studio in London. We prepared during three or four days of rehearsal without Clint, just the stunt men . The funny thing is that I had already done two films with underwater scenes so it was not the first time, but it was the first time with English people and I was a bit scared. The tank is very dark and you have sticks of iron everywhere; you see nothing and with the oxygen, it’s very scary. I prefer to hold my breath and did it very well so I was happy with that. There is a very dark underwater scene and another scene with a green screen where my head is above the water. I was happy to do my own stunts.