Mélanie Laurent cast an assortment of different actresses with disabilities for her new film “The Mad Women’s Ball,” which is set inside a 19th century French psychiatric institution. Because the film is about how women in this time were frequently mistreated and misunderstood, she wanted to make sure her movie could celebrate these women.
“It was to be like, make sure the audience is going to be attached and moved by those women,” Laurent told TheWrap’s Beatrice Verhoeven as part of the Toronto International Film Festival. “I wanted to be close to them and respect them and be sure that they will be important in the movie.”