I am… is one of the most interesting creative experiments on recent television. Developed by Dominic Savage, this peculiar series presents a different story with a different protagonist in each of its episodes. What really differentiates Savage’s series from similar formats is that these stories are created in collaboration with the performers who star in them. Samantha Morton, Emma Chan and Lesley Manville have passed through I am…. We are not talking about little girls who are just starting out. Savage trusts them to talk about uncomfortable and very specific topics, gives them authorial leeway, and they respond with extraordinary work. Kate Winslet’s in I am Ruth, the first episode of the third installment, was awarded two Bafta awards. Winslet went up to collect both: one alone, for best actress, and another, for best series, accompanied by Dominic Savage. It was very fair.
I am Ruth arrives in Spain, at Cosmo, this Tuesday, December 12. With its hour and a half duration, it is neither short nor light entertainment, but it is a magnificent example of what a scriptwriter as focused as Dominic Savage and an actress as capable as Kate Winslet can achieve. Her Ruth is, like the longed-for Mare (of Easttown), a wonderfully ordinary woman with not-so-wonderfully ordinary problems.
I am Ruth is the story of a middle-aged mother and a teenage daughter. There’s no more. What else do you want. The daughter is Mia Threapleton, Winslet’s real-life daughter. However, the episode at no time enhances the morbidity of seeing a mother and a daughter playing a mother and a daughter. Winslet and Threapleton’s performances are, each in their own way, fascinating. We already imagined it. Dominic Savage too.
All the episodes of I am… are interesting, but perhaps Ruth is the one who has stretched the rope of her concept the most. Of all the actresses participating in the project, Kate Winslet is by far the highest in the showbusiness hierarchy. She has long measured herself against the Streep, Huppert, Blanchett or Moore of her industry. That is to say: to access sweet projects she does not need to strategically expose herself to products made for her show off. On the other hand, I am… gains a lot of visibility having Winslet on board, but it would survive perfectly without her.
The debate about whether interpreters are authors or not is complex and thorny. Some have built very specific careers simply by choosing their jobs well. Others have written or directed, thus making their title as creators official. Between the actress who is simply a performer and the total creator there are many possibilities. For some actors, the title of artist is too big for them. Others go too far when they call themselves stars. Kate Winslet is both. And she is also the mother of a 23-year-old girl who makes us suspect that some talents may be inherited.