Sally Hawkins is happy-go-lucky over film career

TORONTO — Sally Hawkins was the essence of faith and optimism in “Happy-Go-Lucky,” filmmaker Mike Leigh’s comic drama that won her a Golden Globe two years ago.

In person, Hawkins has the same sparkle as “Happy-Go-Lucky” heroine Poppy, sharing her character’s big-eyed attentiveness, her giggly bemusement with what’s happening around her, and her ability to convey the impression that she’s smiling, even when she isn’t.

Hawkins sounds very Poppy-like in her indebtedness for the secure, comfortable upbringing in southeast London afforded by her parents, who write and illustrate children’s books. Their own childhoods were harder, her parents growing up in working-class families not unlike those depicted in Hawkins’ new film, the autoworker drama “Made in Dagenham.”

“I was always very aware of how lucky I was, because I had them and their incredible, strong work ethic and mentality, which still prevails today. They work phenomenally hard. Too hard,” Hawkins, 34, said in an interview at September’s Toronto International Film Festival, where “Made in Dagenham” premiered ahead of its U.S. theatrical debut Friday.

“It really instilled something in me, gratitude, really, and the fact that you have to work hard in this life if you want to get anywhere, and nothing is owed to you. And to be grateful for where you are. Happy, healthy, know you have a good life. I was always brought up with that.”

As Leigh’s films have done before with “Secrets & Lies” stars Brenda Blethyn and Marianne Jean-Baptiste and “Vera Drake” star Imelda Staunton, “Happy-Go-Lucky” flung relative unknown Hawkins onto Hollywood’s awards radar.

The role earned Hawkins the 2008 Golden Globe for best actress in a musical or comedy. She beat out contenders that included two-time Academy Award winner Meryl Streep, who was nominated for the hit musical “Mamma Mia!” , along with fellow Oscar winners Emma Thompson and Frances McDormand.

But when Oscar nominations came out just days later, Hawkins got her next big taste of Hollywood life: the awards snub. She was not among the five best-actress nominees, despite riding high on prediction lists all awards season.

Hawkins beams and shrugs it off with Poppy-like grace.

“It was kind of, well, I’ve got a Globe. What more do I need?” Hawkins said. “Then people were outraged on my behalf, which was lovely, but I thought, well, I’m doing OK, you know? I haven’t done badly. But it was very nice that people were outraged, and to even have been in those lists of contenders was mind-blowing for me.

“So no, I was very happy. I mean, the Golden Globes? God knows what the Oscars would have been like. I mean, my heart would have exploded, I think.”

Based on actual events, “Made in Dagenham” has put her on the awards watch again for her role as a 1960s British Ford factory worker who leads other women in a strike to demand equal pay as men.

It’s a serious film told with great heart and humor, which Hawkins hopes might help it break out with audiences beyond Britain the way “Happy-Go-Lucky” did.

“You don’t want it to be a polemic, and you don’t want it to preach at people,” Hawkins said. “You just want to tell good stories, so I hope it does catch fire.”

Before “Happy-Go-Lucky,” Hawkins had a slow, steady rise in British theater, television and film. Among her credits are Leigh’s “Vera Drake” and “All or Nothing,” the crime thriller “Layer Cake,” the period piece “The Painted Veil,” Woody Allen’s dark drama “Cassandra’s Dream” and the lead in a TV adaptation of Jane Austen’s “Persuasion.”

She also had small but pivotal roles in two Carey Mulligan dramas, last year’s “An Education” and this fall’s “Never Let Me Go.”

Mulligan said Hawkins is “instantly lovable in person” but that she can play nasty characters just as well.

“It’s not like she’s an actress who uses her own personality,” Mulligan said. “She’s played horrible, horrible people and been so effective. I think she’s like the actress I want to become, I want to be, really. ... I’ve never seen a false note in anything she’s done.”

“Never Let Me Go” director Mark Romanek worried that Hawkins might feel the part he offered was too small, as a boarding school teacher who is bluntly honest with students about a terrible fate awaiting them.

“It’s an important scene, and we wanted a little overkill in terms of who we had. We wanted to make sure we had somebody stunning for that scene,” Romanek said. “When she said yes, that was a very happy day for us.”

Hawkins, whose upcoming films include the comedy “Submarine,” the romance “Love Birds” and the Irish drama “The Roaring Girl,” said size does not matter when it comes to roles.

“I don’t see it as counting lines,” Hawkins said. “I love great, intelligent scripts and working with great, intelligent, creative people. If there’s something about it that hooks me in that I know I could create a life, a real, 3-D life around a character, that’s interesting. That’s what really excites me.”