He Ain’t Heavy: Greta Scacchi is a very proud mum working with daughter Leila George

Working with your family is not the same as working with everyone else as Greta Scacchi discovered as she, for the first time, shared the screen with her daughter Leila George.

Scacchi and George are both in the WA-shot Australian drama He Ain’t Heavy, in which they play Bev and Jade, the mother and daughter of an addict (Sam Corlett) who is imprisoned by his sister in an effort to force him into withdrawal.

It’s a harrowing story that requires the cast to plumb some dark emotions. For Scacchi, she usually liked to keep things light-hearted between takes, to have some “relaxed time”, but that wasn’t exactly how George worked.

Scacchi recollected, with a warm laugh, “She wasn’t very friendly with me, but then she’s a method actor and I’m her mum, so she didn’t even have to try and bond with me because the bond was already there.

“So, if Jade was grumpy with me, (Leila) could just be grumpy with me and probably behaved more rudely with me than she ever would’ve dared with any other actor. I missed a little bit of the grace that comes with unfamiliarity.”

It’s that existing connection between Scacchi and George that gave their characters a layer of lived-in closeness, and families can be snippy with each other, especially when things are strained. The tension couldn’t be more heightened in He Ain’t Heavy with Jade and Bev in fierce disagreement over how to cope with Max’s addiction.

So whatever iciness George may have shown her mother between takes, it was in service of the work, and it translated beautifully on screen.

Scacchi is clearly proud of George, her daughter with American actor Vincent D’Onofrio. Over a 20-minute chat, Scacchi said “I’m in awe” of George three times.

She is particularly complimentary of the scenes, of which there are many, in which George is alone as her character Jade sits with the internal conflict of keeping her brother locked up out of desperation to help him. But also, to an extent, to help herself. Jade is someone who’s stuck, unable to move on with her life out of perpetual obligation to and fear for her kin.

“To be alone is the hardest thing for an actor to do, whether you’re on stage or on film in front of the cameras — to act alone and in your thoughts, to concentrate and have a purpose and go about things as if you’re not being watched, when you’re being watched very closely on monitors and with all the crew in the room.

“I really am in awe of what she has done, of how she captured that thing that is so challenging for actors, that aloneness.”

George was the first to receive the script for He Ain’t Heavy through the Australian agent she and Scacchi share. Scacchi urged her daughter to take the offer seriously because she saw the creative potential of the role.

“It was a fantastic vehicle for any actor, even though it’s in a tiny, low-budget first film, the other side of the world, it was a role that would challenge, and it would be an experience even if nothing ever happened with it. It would be a useful experience,” she said.

Before George signed on, the idea that Scacchi could play her onscreen mother was already being mooted. The two had previously worked onstage in Perth, in a production of Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull. Perth was where Scacchi lived for two years during her final stint at high school.

“I felt my life began as soon as I arrived in Perth, and it made such an impression on me,” she said.

While she moved back to the UK to study, she always maintained a connection to Australia, where her mother and stepfather had stayed, and Scacchi has starred in some beloved local films including Cosi and Looking for Alibrandi.

George, who was born in Sydney, also made her film debut on this side of the world, albeit across the ditch in New Zealand in the Peter Jackson-produced Mortal Engines in which she played Hugo Weaving’s onscreen daughter.

Despite her family connections, Scacchi insisted George never wanted to exploit them.

“It was so important for Leila to carve her path on her own. She didn’t want any advice and didn’t want any leg-ups anywhere,” Scacchi said.

“It was really important to her that she was autonomous, and it’s thrilling now to see her success because not only is she wonderful in He Ain’t Heavy, but she did Alfonso Cuaron.”

This month is a big one for George. In addition to the release of He Ain’t Heavy, she is also one of the key players in Cuaron’s streaming miniseries, Disclaimer, which also stars Cate Blanchett and Kevin Klein. Scacchi went to the London Film Festival screening of the first three episodes.

“In episode three, Leila does some stuff that people are going to be talking about, I think, for decades. It’s really radical stuff and it’s very brave. Again, she’s just so convincing and just brilliant.

“I’m in awe of my daughter.”

Mother knows best.

He Ain’t Heavy is in cinemas now