Melora Hardin has been acting professionally since age six and dancing since age five. Her career has taken her from theater to television and to films. She originated the iconic role of Jan in the legendary NBC sitcom The Office, and she received an Emmy nomination for her outstanding work as Tammy in Amazon Prime’s Transparent. She played the role of Fantine in a star-studded performance of Les Miserable In Concert at the Hollywood Bowl. She also stepped behind the camera and directed the independent feature You as well as other television directorial opportunities. She is also a celebrated artist with a collection of collage-style fine art panels exhibiting at Galerie LeRoyer in Montréal last month.
So, you could easily say that Hardin is always pushing herself as an artist. That drive to undertake something new, something bold, and something that will continuously stretch her creatively led to her most audacious role yet – starring as Mabel Montgomery-Mayflower in the independent one-woman film Golden Vanity.
Not only was the experience a challenge, but it also fulfilled a deep personal need.
“I think like a lot of people I struggle with the idea of being not enough. The flip side of that same coin is being too much. I wanted to do something where I could do everything, and I could like, you know, basically kill myself to prove that I actually am enough. I think that’s ultimately what attracted me to [the film],” Hardin reflected. “With Mabel Montgomery-Mayflower, I think that’s what I tapped into so deeply with her. She has that in spades. She has that tenfold over Melora, so I related to her very, very much.”
Co-written by Max Abram and Taylor Minas and directed by Abram, Golden Vanity introduces the audience to Mabel on what we assume to be the darkest night of her life. After causing an elaborate scene at an awards show in 1967, she flees to her mansion where she embarks on an unhinged recording of her life story. At times, she’s accidentally too candid, revealing painful truths that continue to plague her. In other moments, she carefully orchestrates her version of the truth where she emerges as a blameless and put-upon star.
It’s an incredibly complex role, written by Abram and Minas specifically for Hardin. She responded with a performance into which Hardin sinks everything she has as a performer.
“[Abram and Minas] sent the script to my agent. He knew I’d taken three or four different writing classes with the intention of doing a one person show, so he read it and thought I’d really respond to it,” Hardin shared. “I read it and thought it was really smart and really interesting. So I sat down with Max and Taylor, and they proved themselves to really be artists. I saw that we were going to be able to collaborate, and I’m always looking for opportunities to be creative. It was an incredibly, incredibly good opportunity to be creative.”
When finding the center to Mabel Montgomery-Mayflower, Hardin looked to both her own childhood and to the lives of childhood inspirations like Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand. Hardin was fortunate as a child. Her parents supported her early drive to perform, initially through dance and later through acting. They originally agreed to let her go on 10 auditions and then planned to ease her out of the performance drive should the auditions fail to come to fruition. But Hardin booked her first audition, and she’s never really stopped since. Her career has been driven by a deep joy for performing.
Mabel Montgomery-Mayflower, according to Hardin, also felt that focused drive and immense joy. As she says in the film, all she wanted to do was sing and to be there for the audience. It’s something that Hardin deeply understood and helped her emotionally connect with the character.
The physicality of the character comes from “the outside in,” as Hardin explained. She engaged a creative team to design Mabel’s look. Costume designer Deena Appel created Mabel’s awards-show gown, while Tonyia Verna and Jean Webber collaborated on makeup and hair, respectively. That allowed Hardin the opportunity to look in the mirror and see Mabel looking back at her.
“I really like to work outside in. I wanted that cigarette holder because that made me feel like her, and I wanted the nails because they made me articulate my fingers differently. The dress felt a certain way which affected the way I moved,” Hardin said. “Developing her style was very collaborative and made it so that I could see her. As soon as I can see her and feel her, I can become her.”
Golden Vanity is now playing at the Cinelounge Sunset in Los Angeles until December 17. Hardin can also be seen currently reprising her role as ‘Trudy Monk’ in Mr. Monk’s Last Case: A Monk Movie.
