We interview star Yolonda Ross about her role in Absolution, working with Liam Neeson, getting her start as a background extra for SNL, and how music helps her acting process.
At the beginning of Absolution, the new crime thriller directed by Hans Petter Moland, we are taken to a dingy Boston dive bar. Woman (Yolonda Ross) is immediately taken by Thug (Liam Neeson) after he punches out her loutish, violent boyfriend. Woman is a flittery chatterbox that has developed a goofy, extroverted shell as protection against the struggles of her life. She comes from a wealthy Wellesley family, but now lives on the bad side of Boston. Following Thug, as Ross puts it, “like a little puppy dog,” a relationship develops, a sort of situationship between two street-wise, middle-aged adults.
The passion is palpable, but both have been burned by past romances and know that this relationship will only end in flames. This is upset by Thug’s receiving a diagnosis of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease. Woman moves into the role of a caretaker, accessing a more mature side of her personality and gently dealing with Thug’s memory problems and mood swings.
Absolution was released in the United States on November 1. Today we sat down for an interview with multi-talented, multi-disciplined, two-time Independent Spirit Award nominee, NAACP Award Nominee, and Gotham Film Awards Winner Yolonda Ross about her role as Woman and her creative process.
Yolonda Ross On Her Beginnings As An Actress
How did you fall in love with acting?
Yolonda Ross: I have always been artistic. Growing up I played instruments, sung, and painted. I went to school in New York for fashion business. School was about merchandising, all the kinds of jobs behind the scenes, and I did a bunch of different jobs in the fashion industry.
I worked with someone who used to do background work for SNL, and one week around Christmas, she got sick. I had the thought, “could I just fill in?” A couple hundred dollars for the day, you get to see the musical stars, do all this stuff. They let me and they kept letting me, until I got my AFTRA card, because at the time, the unions weren’t together. So I became AFTRA, and got an agent through AFTRA.
Then I got my first audition, which really did something for me. I had started getting really bored with fashion, and what was going on in that business. What I felt when auditioning for this part, like becoming someone else, learning how to break down a script, what works for me, how I find emotion, which is through music: all of that was very interesting and new to me. I ended up booking the part.
You got the part on your first audition?
Y.R. : Yes, New York Undercover. Let me preface this that I did not think I was suddenly an actor at that point. I was still in the fashion business:. This was a one off. I didn’t think, “Oh, no, this is my new profession.” I didn’t do anything else until four years later. The company that I worked for ended up closing. I took that to be a sign for me to try this thing. There’s no How To book for acting, because it’s different for everybody, and I just went in trying to figure it out.
Getting Cast In Absolution And Working With Liam Neeson
How did you become involved with Absolution?
Yolonda Ross: I had just finished wrapping the season of The Chi at that time, so I had time when the audition came through. And I was like, “oh, yo, this is opposite Liam. This is amazing.” I actually knew him already through a mutual friend, but had not spoken to him in a while.
I had the audition on, say, a Monday. And then Friday I had the call back to see the director via zoom. Then Monday, I got the part. It was like a boom, boom, boom. It was wonderful that it happened that way. As an actor, that gives you that feeling of “This was meant to be. This is mine.”
There was this excitement of getting to work with Liam, because, first off, it had been so long since I had actually seen the dude.Then, to actually be on the same level, working opposite each other, was pretty amazing.
Had you worked with Liam before? Or did you just know him?
Y.R.: No, I knew him through a friend.
Was that what attracted you to the project?
Of course. He’s Liam Neeson. Woman, which is the name of my character, was very different for me. She’s somebody that functions without a filter. She does what she feels in the moment. You know, I’m a very laid back person. I feel the energy is very different. I think about everything before it comes out of my mouth, and she does not. Playing a person with that kind of spark was also very interesting to me.
Yolonda Ross On Hans Petter Moland
Throughout your acting career, you have worked with some very esteemed filmmakers: Todd Haynes, John Sayles, David Mamet, Denzel Washington and Angela Bassett. What was it like to work with Hans Petter Moland?
Yolonda Ross: Hans was great. It was interesting, because he’s very reserved with emotion. I feel like maybe some of that comes through with the film as well.
I do think that came through in the movie. It’s very muted and quiet, but that makes the emotional beats stronger, because they stand out. You mentioned the character that you play, Woman. She doesn’t have a given name in the movie. Did you give her a name in your mind?
Y.R.: You asked me what drew me to it. Oddly enough, besides Liam, it came back to the names.
I did a short music film [Blinded by the Light], and with my characters, I didn’t find that having a specific name was an important thing. Who are these people in the film? What is the essence of them? But just Woman, I thought that was very interesting. And he is Thug. That’s who they are in the essence of the movie. I don’t think a name would have mattered. Carrie, Lucy, who are they?
Yolonda Ross On The Use Of Archetypes In Absolution
It’s almost as though the characters in Absolution have turned themselves into these archetypes. He sees himself as a Thug and that’s all he is. Then the movie is both of them moving out of those confines and stereotypes. He learns that he’s more than a thug and she learns that she’s more than like a woman who gets mistreated by the men in her life.
Yolonda Ross: I agree with you. I do feel that they are playing out their character names, how they have seen themselves for so long.
For me, with Woman, when it then comes to the point of dealing with him, and finding out that he needs care, that he needs help, she becomes a caregiver. And that, to me, is what kind of flips her and makes her connect in a better way. Now, unfortunately, things get blown up between them. But in those brief moments I feel there’s like a little bit of a leveling up or adulting up in her character, compared to when you first meet her in the bar.
You mentioned earlier that you were attracted to the fact that Woman was so different from you. Were there parts of the character that you were able to connect with?
Y.R. : You have those parts in you; they just don’t always come out.
She’s almost like a little puppy dog that follows him around. I know, I can be that way, when I like somebody: you just kind of want to be around them. You get a little more lighthearted, you get a little more goofy. And I like that part of myself. But not everybody can see that part. You don’t feel that way all the time. So certain people could see certain parts of you at different times. And in that way, parts of Woman are in me.
The Experience Of Acting In Absolution
In your scenes with Liam, both of you are asked to go to some fairly dark, vulnerable places. Could you talk about the process of getting to those places? How do you prepare for that with the other actor?
Yolonda Ross: I do feel that helped just because there’s a level of “Okay, he knows me;” it’s not like he’s just this major star that you might feel nervous around.
We are these characters. When I’m working, I’m a character. That’s what comes first. As far as us two people, from what I got, because we didn’t talk about the process, that’s how he was functioning.
There’s only one scene that we actually talked about, and it was more the physicality of it, not any emotional stuff. I felt like we were both coming from it in the same way.
We are the characters. And as far as Yolonda and Liam, we’re cool with each other. And that’s what’s coming out.
I’ve heard actors talk before about how when they’re working out the character, they suddenly have an “aha” moment where the character clicks and falls into place. They find the right pair of shoes and that tells them everything they need to know about the character. What was the key that unlocked Woman for you?
Y.R.: That’s a good question. The freedom of her really, really did speak to me. I can’t say there was a clothing thing, but her hair was a thing for me. Hers is very specific.
There was something that her energy was really what spoke to me, just kind of keeping not one thought in your head, but multiple things. I would say movement and timing are what really made me connect with her. No matter what the dialogue is, it’s like, make sure your mind is jumping somewhere else coming back to that, because the delivery is not going to be even with her mind going all over the place.
Yolonda Ross On The Character Of Woman
In action movies and thrillers, women can often get trapped in the role of the long- suffering nag. I think that in a much worse movie than Absolution, Woman could have very easily filled that role. I was wondering if falling into that cliché is something that you worried about? How did you go about making sure that Woman wasn’t just in service of Thug and his story?
Yolonda Ross:I know what kind of character you’re talking about, but I never found Woman to be the kind of character that would fall into that space. For me, I am going to think of my character as like the lead of everything. Woman has her own demons she had to deal with, which I felt were family issues. She had a personality where she didn’t fit into her family and they didn’t understand her. That messed with how she moved forward in life. She has her own stuff going on. I never felt she was an assistant to Thug, or to what he had to do. I saw them more as two broken people that found each other in this bar, and kind of kept coming back to each other, even though they both knew it would end explosively.
I was really impressed by the writing of Woman and the way that so much is inferred about her background. She doesn’t have a big page-long monologue explaining that she came from money and something bad happened and then had a series of bad relationships. But the audience is able to fill in so much of her history.
Y.R.: I appreciated that too. Why state everything that’s obvious. She does say a little bit about her background to him when they meet, but that’s enough.
Yeah, I think it shows a trust in you as as an actor, and also a trust in the audience.
Y.R.: Audiences are very smart. We don’t have to overwrite and overtalk all these things.
Yolonda Ross On Her Acting Process
Earlier you mentioned your love of art. You worked in fashion and you’ve sung and directed and written. How do your other artistic pursuits affect your acting?
Yolonda Ross: I think they help immensely. I use music a lot. There’s a repertoire of music, in your body, and in your mind, that makes certain emotions come out of you. When I break down a script, I will write things out musically, where you might want your voice to go, or how long to hold a note. It’s like reading sheet music.
I feel like directing and writing teaches you to look at things from the outer part, and think about what you want to reflect and how you want to do that.
Is there anything you want people who watch Absolution to look out for?
Y.R.: Go watch Absolution in movie theaters.
Watch me on TV, The Chi. I’ll be directing next summer, my first feature. Follow along.
That’s so exciting.
Y.R.: It’s exciting to get it out there finally.
This was such a fun talk. Thank you so much for your time.
This interview was edited for length and clarity.
Absolution was released in US theaters on November 1, 2024 and is now available to watch on digital and on demand. In the UK, the film will be on Sky Cinema from November 30.
Header credits: Yolonda Ross attends the 19th Annual Voices Gala at The Ziegfeld Ballroom on May 09, 2024 in New York City. (Joy Malone/Getty Images) / A still from the movie (Samuel Goldwyn Films)
