Delayed by the pandemic, Faithfull starts shooting soon – and is based on Marianne’s astonishing 1994 autobiography, which charted her rise to rock aristocrat, then the drug addiction tailspin that bottomed out in homelessness, and her subsequent recovery.
“She was everything you would want her to be and more smart,(says Bolton) with that wry sense of humour,” she says. “[Marianne] looked me up and down while analysing: ‘Can she do this?’ And then concluded: ‘Yeah, OK’.’ Just to share that time and space with her was the coolest.”
“Her romantic relationship with Mick Jagger and her influence on one of the most creative periods for the Rolling Stones – ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want’ and ‘Wild Horses’ were two songs she influenced – became an overshadowing factor. She also developed a drug problem that led to a period where she was homeless and anorexic. The hard miles took a toll on her voice, but many felt it improved her ability to convey emotion in the songs she wrote when she had a comeback hit album with Broken English and veered into jazz and blues.”
She achieved popularity in the 1960s with the release of her hit single "As Tears Go By" and became one of the lead female artists during the "British Invasion" in the United States
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One of the reasons Boynton accepted the role, she says, is because it offered her the chance to redress Faithfull’s image. She sees a true creative whose achievements have often been minimised by sexism, whether it was being dismissed by her own manager as “an angel with big tits” or being seen as the girlfriend, or at best muse, of Mick Jagger, rather than for her own artistic works. (NME)
“Marianne Faithfull is someone who’s constantly had her identity prescribed to her or narrated on her behalf,” says Boynton. “I think she’s an extraordinary woman because she’s never been diluted by that. She’s so palpably herself and has always been yelling to us about who she is.
“The media cast her in a way that was convenient to them as the ‘girlfriend of’. They played up the slightly more salacious sides of those stories or cast her as a young, angelic virginal thing. [This film] is an interesting look at how women were seen at the time and how women are used by the media.”
Marianne Faithfull’s life has unquestionably been dramatic, but is she really a big enough star to warrant a film of her own? We'd be front-and-center for a Replacements biopic when it comes out, but their story – much like their music – seems a little too far removed from the mainstream to expect box office success.
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Born in Hampstead, London, Faithfull began her career in 1964 after attending The Rolling Stones party where she was discovered by Andrew Loog Oldham. After the release of her hit single "As Tears Go By", she became an international star. Her debut album Marianne Faithfull (1965) (released simultaneously with her album Come
My Way) was a commercial success followed by a number of albums on Decca Records. From 1966 to 1970, she had a highly publicised romantic relationship with Mick Jagger. Her popularity was further enhanced by her film roles, such as I'll Never Forget What's'isname (1967), The Girl on a Motorcycle (1968), and Hamlet (1969). However, her popularity was overshadowed by personal struggles in the 1970s. During that time she suffered from heroin addiction, alcoholism, and anorexia.
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Releasing nearly two dozen albums over the course of fifty years, the multi-talented artist has dabbled in everything from musicals (she played Pink's mom in Roger Waters' rock opera, The Wall) to multiple fil
m roles (one of which was Empress Maria Theresa in Marie Antoinette with Kristen Dunst). Basically, if we had to pick anyone whose life should be turned into a Hollywood blockbuster, it would hands-down be Faithfull's.
