Watch the full interview below!
The stars of Mouse Sophie Okonedo and Katherine Mallen Kupfer discuss their film’s emotionally complex portrayal of loss, the unconventional relationship at its center, and how improvisation and real-life experiences helped bring its most intimate moments to the screen.
For Okonedo, understanding Helen meant looking beyond the tragedy that defines much of her journey. Before losing her daughter Callie, Helen had already lived a life shaped by unexpected choices, including leaving behind her ambitions as a classical pianist in Europe to build a family in Little Rock, Arkansas.
"I found that fascinating," Okonedo explained, describing how she approached the character by considering the circumstances that led Helen to that particular life.
Rather than viewing Helen as a woman trapped by domesticity, Okonedo understood her as someone who had deliberately chosen it. Her daughter became the emotional center of that decision.
"Callie was the center of that, the golden, you know, her north star," Okonedo says, explaining that Helen had made her life revolve around her child.
That understanding became essential to portraying what happens when the foundation of Helen's world suddenly disappears. Okonedo also clarified her approach to preparation, emphasizing that her seemingly spontaneous performances are grounded in extensive character work.
"When I walk onto set, I've done all the work. So then I empty myself out"
For Kupfer, Minnie's journey begins from an entirely different emotional position. Before Callie's death, Minnie is comfortable allowing her more outgoing best friend to occupy the spotlight. In fact, Kupfer deliberately approached their early scenes together with the intention of making Callie appear to be the film's central character.
"It was important to me that it felt more like the audience would think that the movie was going to be about Callie's character a little bit more than Minnie"
Minnie has become so accustomed to existing in her friend's shadow that Callie's death leaves her without a clear sense of who she is independently. As she navigates that absence, Minnie begins experimenting with aspects of Callie's personality, including pursuing opportunities she previously would have avoided and developing a closer relationship with Helen. Kupfer described Minnie as having a missing piece that she is desperately trying to fill.
One of the most significant influences on that transformation is Cat, a confident and unapologetically expressive young woman who encourages Minnie to embrace her own individuality.
"I think that's the type of person who shows Minnie that it's okay to just be who you are because Cat is completely who she is"
Their developing romantic relationship becomes an important expression of Minnie's growth. From initiating their first kiss to taking physical risks she previously rejected, Minnie gradually becomes more comfortable making decisions for herself. Kupfer also saw similarities between Cat and Callie, particularly in their shared confidence and willingness to attract attention. But rather than simply replacing her lost friend, Cat offers Minnie something different: permission to experience happiness again.
"The thing that Cat really allows Minnie to do is to have fun again," Kupfer explained.
At the center of Mouse is the evolving relationship between Helen and Minnie, two people grieving the same person but experiencing fundamentally different losses. Their connection is affectionate, complicated and frequently difficult to define. For Helen, Minnie is simultaneously her daughter's best friend, a reminder of everything she has lost and someone with whom she can forge a new relationship. For Minnie, Helen becomes both a maternal presence and a person who understands the particular emptiness Callie's death has created.
"Oh yeah, the boundaries kept getting crossed. Lines were being blurred all the time," Okonedo said.
She described the emotional contradictions that constantly reshape Helen's perspective.
"She's a replacement. No, she's not a replacement. She's a friend. She's my daughter's friend. She's my daughter. It's constantly changing all throughout."
Kupfer similarly acknowledged that Minnie sometimes views their experiences as interchangeable, even though their individual relationships with Callie make that impossible.
The film finds particular poignancy in seemingly ordinary moments, including a scene in which Helen helps Minnie choose a dress from Callie's wardrobe for a school dance. The interaction allows Helen to experience a maternal milestone she should have shared with her daughter, while simultaneously strengthening her connection with Minnie. Yet neither actor wanted the relationship to become an idealized portrait of two people healing one another.
"Grief is really messy, isn't it? Sometimes we were kind to each other and sometimes we'd be annoying or sometimes I'd get angry with her just in the kind of surprising moments." Okonedo says.
That unpredictability became one of the qualities she valued most about the screenplay.
"It constantly surprised me when I read the script and then when we performed it that it wasn't, it felt so real because it was unusual and life is unusual. It's never kind of storybook."
Ultimately, Mouse explores grief not as something that can be neatly overcome, but as an experience that changes the way people understand themselves and one another. For Helen, the loss of Callie forces her to confront the identity she built around motherhood. For Minnie, the same tragedy creates an unexpected opportunity to discover who she might become outside her best friend's shadow.
Their relationship offers moments of comfort without suggesting that either can replace what the other has lost.
