Miranda Richardson is quite the chameleon. The British
actor has deftly fashioned herself a spectacularly
caustic personality for The Evening Star's
Patsy Carpenter by blending equal parts Absolutely
Fabulous and Dallas.
The fabulously wealthy and totally conniving widow Patsy
truly exudes her Ab Fab namesake in many ways. She has
that troublesome fashion sense, a far-reaching bent for
alcohol abuse and a catty swagger that says: "Here
comes trouble!". And Richardson ties it all together
with a southern drawl.
"I went shopping in Houston," she recalls.
"And that was a crash course in Texas-speak."
The Evening Star is a bit of a
stutter-step in Richardson's career. It's decidedly more
mainstream than her Oscar-nominated roles in Louis
Malle's Damage and Tom & Viv,
or the edgy Crying Game and then Robert
Altman's Kansas City.
Needless to say, it's the first time in a long while
we've seen her grab the comedy bit between her teeth with
the kind of verve she displayed as Elizabeth I in British
TV's Black Adder.
It was an interesting evolution for Richardson, she went
all the way, especially with the fashion. Patsy's
look features a preponderance of gold -- stopping just
shy of Ivana Trump.
"We went through a lot of different ideas for the
look. But I'll tell you, when it came to the clothes some
of the things we tried
were a lot more extreme than this," Richardson says
with a coy grin.
As it turns out, she felt that the film version of Patsy
came out rather differently than what people might expect
after reading the novel.
"I skim read Evening Star,
and found Patsy's character to be a whole lot darker than
what we've now got."
The animosity between Aurora and Patsy builds and builds
throughout the film and eventually erupts in a hilarious,
knock-down, drag-'em-out cat fight.
It looks to have been a very physical scene and
Richardson says it wasn't a walk in the park.
"I'll admit that the fight was tough. "It
took a lot of work for the both of us and we were both
really worried about our blouses.
"That day on the set was certainly a hard day
but also a happy day because of what we got."
The Evening Star is a film that exudes a
modicum of humor, but it comes in fits and starts that
usually involve Richardson.
Patsy's quest to steal Aurora's therapist away from
her is part of Patsy's overall mission to disrupt her
rival's life.
Her interplay with Twister star Bill
Paxton -- who plays therapist Jerry Bruckner is also
hilarious -- but she admits we'll miss out on one of the
funniest scenes.
"There's a part in the film where I meet up
with Jerry for dinner, but it got a little out of hand
and ended up like something out of Tom Jones -- where we
were feeding each other and all of that.
"Unfortunately it got cut."
Richardson has been heralded as one of the bright new
female lights in Hollywood and she agrees that, as part
of the newest wave of actors, there's certainly hope for
the future.
"You know, it's cycling around again. And because of
the fact that there are so many new faces out there it
feels like there's a breath of fresh air in the business
these days."
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Created by Clive
Sarney
e-mail to sarneyc@senet.com.au
This page created November
6th, 2001; last modified November 6th, 2001
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