Quote:
"In the book [Women Talking], [Miriam] Toews' narrator is August. As the only man in the hay loft, he's the only one with the skills to write down what takes place, and so the book is drawn from his perspective as an outsider-turned-insider. And, for the film, [Sarah] Polley attempted to replicate this effect, even having [Ben] Whishaw record the entire script's worth of voiceover narration before she realized something was missing. 'Suddenly, you have the immediacy of and the intimacy of sound in your ear and images in front of you,' she told the press conference audience. 'Suddenly, you needed the voice of a woman who had gone through one of the attacks in a way that you didn't need [it] in the novel.'"
-- Lauren Puckett-Pope

Source:
Puckett-Pope, Lauren. "The simple yet remarkable feat of the best picture-nominated Women Talking." Elle, January 24, 2023.