‘Hillbilly Elegy’ alum Haley Bennett pours bottle of female entrepreneurial spirit in ‘Widow Clicquot’
Haley Bennett plays a wine industry pioneer in “Widow Clicquot," an artful indie biopic that premiered last fall at the Toronto International Film Festival and finally opens in movie theaters nationwide this Friday.
In the 2017 mystery-thriller “The Girl on the Train,” her character’s murder was avenged by Emily Blunt jabbing a wine-bottle corkscrew into the killer’s neck.
Call that foreshadowing as Haley Bennett now plays a wine industry pioneer in “Widow Clicquot,” an artful indie biopic that premiered last fall at the Toronto International Film Festival and finally opens in movie theaters nationwide this Friday.
“Widow Clicquot is known as the Grande Dame of Champagne,” Bennett told WTOP. “She is the woman behind the iconic yellow label that is a household name, but not many people know that ‘Veuve’ means ‘Widow.’ Bringing the Widow Clicquot’s story to life was a mighty effort, it was not easy, we made the film independently, there were many forces against us just like the Widow Clicquot herself, which may be why her story has been bottled for so long.”
Set during the Napoleonic Wars in Reims, Champagne in the former Kingdom of France, the film explores the life of Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin Clicquot (1777-1866), who took over her husband François Clicquot’s wine business when she was widowed at age 27, building Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin into an iconic luxury champagne brand.
“I’m so proud of this gift of a story that we got to bring to the screen,” Bennett said. “After 240 years, the Widow Clicquot is finally being recognized as a character in flesh and blood like so many men in history with great achievements just like hers, so in some ways it feels like we’ve liberated her from the bottle.”
As an actress, Bennett found it to be a juicy character to play, juggling grief and romance as she mourns her husband, then falls in love with her wine distributor, but has to legally be a widow in order to run the company. At one point, she describes grapes as a metaphor for herself: “They need to struggle so they can find their strength.”
Not only does she star, Bennett also co-produces, striving to tell the tale of one of the world’s first female entrepreneurs who not only outsmarted Napoleon (who forbid women to own companies), but also innovated techniques like “riddling,” turning bottles upside-down at a 35-degree angle to combat yeast and sediments.
“The film is every bit of female empowerment as it is about creativity, ingenuity and resiliency, all things I admire,” Bennett said. “She had a unique talent and vision that was incredibly rare — and her innovations have stood the test of time. For anyone regardless of gender, but especially for females, we have to lay down our lives and be brave to do anything worthwhile. That was a story that resonated with me as an actor and producer.”
Bennett co-produces with Christina Weiss Lurie (part owner of the Philadelphia Eagles) and Joe Wright (acclaimed director of “Pride & Prejudice,” “Atonement” and “Darkest Hour”), who recently executive produced Bennett’s psychological thriller “Swallow” (2019) and directed her in the musical romance “Cyrano” (2021).
“It really is a small miracle that we could make the film at all,” Bennett said. “It was such a bumpy road getting it made. Christina Lurie, my producing partner, had the rights for eight years before we even intersected.”
Now, Wright’s former assistant director Thomas Napper (BAFTA nominee “Jawbone”) directs “Widow Clicquot,” collaborating with music composer Bryce Dessner of the band The National for a dreamlike atmosphere.
“The film is so atmospheric and really draws you in with the musical tones and it has a very tactile feel to it, which is really enhanced by Bryce’s score I think,” Bennett said. “Working with Thomas was very fortunate. He has a shorthand with Joe as producer. … Working with Thomas, he’s so friendly, he really embraced this woman’s story, he jumped on fairly late in production and we were so lucky to have a man with such a sensitive point of view.”
Based on Tilar J. Mazzeo’s book “The Widow Clicquot,” the screenplay is adapted by Christopher Monger (“Liz & Dick”) and Erin Dignam (former professional tennis player who qualified at Wimbledon). The script doesn’t follow a straightforward narrative structure, instead jumping between flashbacks and present day to simultaneously show her interacting with her then-living husband and then grappling with his death, all deliriously intercut.
“It probably would have made a fantastic miniseries,” Bennett said. “It started with a script that was incredibly ambitious. We really wanted to boil it down to it’s essence, we had to become inventive, we made the production smaller, it was scrappy and we had to embrace some of the challenges that go along with making a film right now, especially a historical period drama starring a woman all set on location in France made independently.”
It’s the latest role for Bennett after co-starring with Denzel Washington in Antoine Fuqua’s “The Equalizer” (2014) and Fuqua’s remake of “The Magnificent Seven” (2016), as well as her aforementioned role with Emily Blunt in Tate Taylor’s “The Girl on the Train” (2016) and Danielle Deadwyler in Chinonye Chukwu’s “Till” (2022).
Of course, the film that everyone is talking about this week is Ron Howard’s “Hillbilly Elegy” (2020), in which she played the sister of author J.D. Vance, who just accepted the Republican vice presidential nomination on a ticket with former President Donald Trump. Bennett didn’t share her thoughts on Vance’s political record, but rather commented on an astonishing turn of events that neither she, nor her co-stars Glenn Close and Amy Adams could have predicted.
“It’s been wild,” Bennett said. “I’ve received a lot of calls from family and friends. It’s a wild revelation.”
Hear our full conversation in the podcast below: