With Lady Di holding out for the money and Fergie
wanting to model, thank heavens for Britain's other royal
family. ..its actors. Miranda Richardson follows in the
exalted tradition of Sir Laurence Olivier and Dames
Maggie Smith and Peggy Ashcroft: an actor with a capital
A who has little tolerance for the banality of promoting
a movie.
Richardson, 38, has been known to treat writers with
the same disdain that most Brits hold for people who
drink weak beer -"piss water," as they call it.
The actress has divulged a few sketchy details of her
life:
The daughter of a marketing executive and a housewife,
Richardson grew up with her older sister in a seaside
town north of Liverpool. Today she lives in a modest
London neighborhood with her two Siamese cats, Waldo and
Otis.
"That's why they call it personal," she has
said when asked for more intimate details of her life.
And for God's sake, don't inquire as to whether she's
related to any of those other famous Richardsons (she's
not).
Richardson's own profile increased dramatically in
1992, when she played the dowdy Rose in Enchanted
April, the middle-aged wife of Jeremy Irons in Damage
and the IRA terrorist who changes identities with
bewildering speed in The Crying Game.
"Oh, God, you know, I did the rounds," she says
of the time. "Obviously I didn't see anything that I
ended up doing."
That is, until now. This month, Richardson can be seen as
the opiated wife of an adviser to President Franklin D.
Roosevelt in Robert Altman's Kansas City,
and later this year she'll rival Shirley MacLame for Bill
Paxton's affections in The Evening Star,
the sequel to Terms of Endearment.
You've been compared to Vanessa Redgrave and
Glenda Jackson...
I don't know what it means, comparisons like that. I
think it's sort of lazy, really. I don't think I'm like
either one of them.
What finally lured you back toHollywood?
Well, Altman is a maverick. I think his work is
terrific.
How did you achieve that drug-induced haze tbroughout
tbe film?
I'm afraid I didn't find that too difficult. I can
be quite spacey sometimes, so I guess it was just tapping
into that.
This isnt the first time you've played an emotionally
tortured woman. What does immersing yourself in tbat kind
of cbaracter do to your psyche?
You have to be prepared for people to assume that there's
some kind of link between you and these characters, that
you have a tragic existence off screen, which isn't the
case. It's acting, and it stops there.
You went to theater school with Daniel Day-Lewis.
Wbat was he like?
He used to run eight miles every lunchtime. He was
very sweet-natured, and then he'd do something
extraordinary at the cabaret at the end of the year, very
sort of punk. That was another side of him coming out.
You've been to the Oscars. Anything to share?
I remember some idiot asking me-because it doesn't matter
if you won or not, they ask you the same idiotic
question: [Whiny voice] "What does it feel
like?" That was the year that [David] Letterman
hosted, so I said, "Well, do you remember Sadie the
spinning dog? It's kind of like that."
You've said that 'Damage'
was a difficult shoot. Has too much been made of the
problems you had working with Louis Malle and Jeremy
Irons?
Oh, yeah. People are desperate for anything to talk
about. If somebody is too frightened by something in an
article to ever give me a job, well then, maybe I
shouldn't be working with them anyway. That's how l have
to look at it. I think it's dumb.
Did you have a better experience working on 'The
Crying Game'?
I liked working with Stephen (Rea) enormously. I'm
sure he won't mind my saying this: I remember he decided
not to drink during shooting 'cause, you know, long hours
and being able to do his job properly. I think it made
him a bit miserable.
It must have been a wild wrap
Well, I don't remember it so well, so, yeah, I had a
very good time.
Do you ever see Jaye Davidson?
I don't know what he's up to. It wasn't a hugely
social film. Some movies are, and some aren't. I mean,
you're lucky if you I make a good friend in this
business. You make a hell of a lot of acquaintances.
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Created by Clive
Sarney
e-mail to sarneyc@senet.com.au
This page created June 14th, 2001;
last modified August 21st, 2001
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