Pieces of a Woman: Netflix drama starring Vanessa Kirby was inspired by real grief

Film follows a couple dealing with the aftermath of the death of their newborn baby and the trial of their midwife

Kata Wéber and Kornél Mundruczó, the writer and director couple whose new film Pieces of a Woman is released on Netflix this week, have spoken of the real-life grief that inspired the drama starring Vanessa Kirby.  

Talking to The Telegraph, Mundruczó said Wéber’s script was based on their own experience of losing a child during pregnancy.  

The film, which seeks to address the social taboo surround miscarriages, follows Boston couple Martha (Kirby) and Sean Carson (Shia LaBeouf) after their devastating home birth experience at the hands of a flustered midwife.  

During the story, Martha has to navigate her grief while dealing with the midwife’s trial over charges of criminal negligence, the public scrutiny, and her troubled relationships with her husband and her mother.

“We just didn’t talk about it,” Mundruczó said of his and Wéber’s miscarriage. “And then later on I unexpectedly read a few fragments from Kata’s notebook [depicting an argument between a mother and daughter over the right way to grieve the loss of a child] under the title Pieces of a Woman and I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, how deep did you push this down?’”

Wéber, 40, said she didn’t realise she was grieving at first: “Writing was like therapy. You begin to understand your own feelings.”

Pieces of a Woman is released on Netflix on 7 January.

In the interview, Mundruczó and Wéber did not comment on the allegations against Kirby’s co-star, Shia LaBeouf, in which his former partner, artist FKA twigs, accused him of abuse.

Earlier this month, twigs shared a statement accusing him of sexual battery, assault and emotional distress caused during their year-long relationship.

A lawsuit filed by the singer also claimed that LaBeouf “knowingly gave [her] a sexually transmitted disease”.

FKA twigs filed a lawsuit against actor Shia LaBeouf (Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

“What I went through with Shia was the worst thing I’ve ever been through in the whole of my life,“ she said in her statement.  

“I don’t think people would ever think that it would happen to me. But I think that’s the thing. It can happen to anybody.”

In an email sent to the New York Times, LaBeouf responded to the allegations, saying he had “a history of hurting the people closest to me”.

“I’m not in any position to tell anyone how my behaviour made them feel,” he said.  

“I have no excuses for my alcoholism or aggression, only rationalisations. I have been abusive to myself and everyone around me for years. I have a history of hurting the people closest to me. I’m ashamed of that history and am sorry to those I hurt. There is nothing else I can really say.”

Last week, it was reported that LaBeouf was fired from Olivia Wilde’s psychological thriller Don’t Worry Darling over “off-putting” behaviour.

A report in Variety said that LaBeouf clashed with people associated with the project, including Wilde, who is known for her “zero asshole policy” on sets.  

LaBeouf has yet to respond to twigs’s lawsuit.