Me In Glasgow

Dearests,

That's me in Glasgow now. I am loving my BBC and all the cooking shows my family watch. Everyone is a great cook it seems here, even my artsy friends are total pro chefs who cook up feasts for each other. When I get back to LA, I'm totally making everyone Eton Mess, which is from the English boarding school, Eton, that the Royals William and Harry went to.

My mum Basia and my Papa John make their own bread all the time. I am loving getting to spend all this time with them all, my niece is 7 and she's such a dream. She can cook as well! It's all very impressive.

The trains come every three mins and the underground is so clean and small. It is very easy to be fit here, because you walk everywhere and there is always stuff to see. People talk to you and care about you in the small moments. People care about who you are more than what you do.

I am having great fun working with Peter, it is very easy at this point as the film is mostly improv and my character is basically me, just in the 1970s. But I have red hair, which is amazing actually. Talking to the non actors playing neds has been special for me, the film is changing the direction of all their lives, instead of having to knife and fight their way through their lives, they are making art about it now with this film, and hopefully reflecting on the options they now have for the future. I like helping them with that. I want them all to come visit LA. It is magical, I feel so lucky to be a part of this. We haven't even started shooting yet and it has already changed my life.

Peter is such an intelligent director. I am learning more than I can say. Everyone on the crew is unbelievable to talk to, everyone has the smartest ideas, everyone just wants to make it real for the actors. It is so based in gentle kindness, and the truth of the art of film. Peter is playing my brother in law in the film. Start shooting on Friday.

This trip feels like treacle, it is so rich and Glasgow is so full of deep feeling and thick art. Everyone is making things in a constant stream and all the fruit trees are ripe because we are in summer here. I think I'll be taking Tara berry picking this weekend on my day off from the film. It is very hot here and the sun goes down at 11pm and comes up at 20 to 4am, it is such a fairy land. Tara's bedroom in Paisley is also a fairy land. It is so beautiful, it is not something I can begin to describe. It would take a novel.

We are shooting in Mount Blow, which is a rough area and very different from the magical family life of great cooking and nature that I get to experience in Paisley. Mount Blow is a place you should google image to see if you've never been there. It is so powerful to be part of a film that is giving a voice to the voiceless in such an accurate way. And generally illuminating the situation, making the rougher areas of Glasgow better to live in in the long run. Depardieu said in the film "Green Card" that "you can't save that place," meaning the bad neighbourhoods. That they will always be like that. But that's shite. You totally can. I've seen it.

There is no one else who could make this film in Glasgow, Peter is so shockingly genius in every moment. He is a national treasure, if I told him that though, he'd probably tell me to Fuck Off, so I'll not mention it.

Google image Eton Mess if you want as well, someone told me that they were making a trifle for the school boys back in the day, and someone dropped it, and then they gave it to the school boys anyway and then a new dessert was created. It is out of this world.



I was like, "Oh, you could make this with organic eggs so easily!" and everyone was like, "That's a great idea" There was a programme (haha, British spelling!) on the TV where they showed you the difference between an organic egg and a battery hen's egg. It was shocking. A lady was on the programme talking about how everyone should have a chicken in their garden, as they lay frequently and are simple to look after. She saves the chickens from battery cages, when they are on their way to being killed. So she has lots of hens and loads of eggs.

There is a Paisley farmer's market on the 2nd Saturday of every month so I'll be checking that out this Saturday. I wonder what they'll have. Everything is so colourful (haha) and rich here. I feel like I am on drugs, I'm so happy. Everyone talks like me and has the same attitude. I'm back on my own planet. I love Scotland in the summer. I'm never going to visit in the winter again. It is too cold and dark then.

ALL MY LOVE,
LOVE YOU LOADS
Marianna xxxxx