Breaking Baz: Michele Austin On How Her 30-Year Friendship With Marianne Jean-Baptiste & Mike Leigh Injected Truth Into ‘Hard Truths’

It’s amazing watching Mike Leigh’s film Hard Truths, starring the extraordinary Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Michele Austin, in an American theater. Another layer is added as audience members, mostly women at the regular afternoon screening I attended, engaged in the story of two sisters who are the complete antithesis of each other. Jean-Baptiste’s Pansy is pernickety, house-proud, and