Directed by Michael Morris from screenplay by Ryan Binaco (inspired by his own relationship with his mother), TO LESLIE centers on a woman who, many years after winning a $100,000-plus lottery jackpot, is estranged from her family and caught in the throes of addiction. When she shows up on her now-grown son’s doorstep, causing conflict with her binge drinking, she returns to her childhood home to reckon with the past and the people she has hurt, and to get her life back on track.

While that support influenced Academy voters to consider To Leslie‘s central performance, Riseborough herself says that receiving the best actress nomination says just as much about the power of her film as it does about her performance. Hours after hearing the news of her Oscar nom, Riseborough spoke about the power of the film and why capturing the attention of her peers is so important for her.

Were you watching the livestream of the nominations?

No, I wasn’t. My partner was watching it, and I was busying myself — sorting out socks, or looking for a sock, you know, just sort of taking my mind off of it. For the most part, I thought that this would not happen. It’s very difficult to imagine, considering that we’ve not really been in the running for the other previous awards ceremonies, and they all tend to go hand in hand.

Meaning of nomination for you as actor and for the film?

I’ll address the film first, because I think that’s the massive win. So many more people than we anticipated are going to actually have access to the film, and I hope it brings only good things. It’s a beautiful film. It’s shot on film, and it’s a very simple, pure story about somebody who’s very magnetic and hugely self-destructive. People seem to have just connected so deeply with it. I’ve actually not been in this position before. So many people have shared deeply personal things after seeing it. We’ve had so many personal connections with the audience. It’s fantastic that people are going to be able to connect with that on much larger scale. And for me, it’s such warmth to feel the support of my community, which at the end of the day, is what we all aspire for. In whichever industry we’re in, it’s marker of achievement when the people you admire appreciate something you’ve been part of.

From the moment I read the script, I felt very much like I knew who she was if I were to play it. I do feel like each piece is a challenge for a different reason in different ways. For this, I think, the most challenging thing was spending such a good deal of time without hope. Leslie’s really battling with that internally, and the isolation was no picnic. The creative experience was such that we became such a well-oiled machine, because we had so little time. We were shooting on film, and that gave us all sorts of different constraints. We knew we didn’t have too many takes, and there was total commitment from every crew member, every cast member, in order to be able to realize the film.

Attention you’ve received from your peers. 

That list is endless, and it’s almost embarrassing to talk about. I’m still in a bit of a state of dissociation with all of that, to be honest. I’m aware it’s happened but … the support has been astounding and baffling. Maybe not everyone’s driven by this, but for me, that’s very important — being accepted by a community as an equal, to be doing things and have them be seen and appreciated. It’s important that we celebrate each other’s work; very important. It’s completely taken me aback.