Naomie Harris, star of the previous two Pirates of the Caribbean films (as Tia Dalma) and the 2006 feature Miami Vice, plays Jane Obinchu, a school principal who serves as the teacher to illiterate 84-year-old Kenyan Kimani Ng’ange’a Maruge in the fact based drama The First Grader. Directed by Justin Chadwick (The Other Boleyn Girl), the picture was the runner-up for the Audience Award at last year’s Toronto Film Festival (The King’s Speech received the honor).

During a recent interview, Harris talked about the satisfaction she received from working on such an intimate and inspiring story.  “It’s much more like a family atmosphere,” said Harris, who recently reunited with 28 Days Later filmmaker Danny Boyle for a London stage production of Frankenstein (the play wrapped over a week ago).  “It’s great to be part of big budget movies, but it’s harder to feel like you’re really contributing in a sense that it’s such a big machinery that’s behind those movies.  Wherein with a little movie like this, there were only seven of us who flew in (the film was shot in Kenya) from England and the rest were all local hires. We really felt that we were immersing ourselves in the culture and we really felt we were immersing ourselves in the community.  And we also were much more collaborative in the way we made the film.  It was a really different experience and it’s one that’s more rewarding, I find.”

Click on the media bar and listen to Harris elaborate on meeting Jane Obinchu.

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posted by Greg Srisavasdi