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Feb. 21st, 2006 07:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mooging"She's one of Britain's favourite actresses, but isn't sure how she got there, or where to go next (India maybe?)...
Andrew Duncan searches for the real Miranda Richardson"
I type up reams and reams of Miranda interview from the Radio Times.
"It's important to be on your toes with Miranda Richardson: one sloppy question and she flings back an answer with the contempt it deserves, albeit it smiling and tossing her light auburn hair. She doesn't try to ingratiate, frequently avoids eye contact, and is alternately frisky and hesitant, searching for the right word. She's 48 this week. 'I don't suffer fools gladly,' she warns. 'If I feel I'm connecting with you - possibly mistakenly - this will be fun.'
She's luminous, witty, perhaps a bit nervy, but anxious to please. 'All of us who are in the public eye are up for grabs,' she says. 'It sounds egotistical but, if I read this interview, something might come through which allows me to know more about myself. I live in hope. If you're comfortable with your celebrity, you circulate, have conversations about your work. I'm not good at that. Ever since I was a girl I've been expected to be hauled over the coals and told off.'
Insecurity is essential for good actors. 'But not for everyday life,' she laughs. 'You like to know who you are when you shut your front door. I constantly want to learn more about myself. Doesn't it take a lifetime to feel comfortable in yourself? It doesn't for everyone. I suppose some people are like that at 16, which must be brilliant. I say I don't take my work home with me, but I've never been happy with completely dropping a character either. It implies a lack of application and you wonder if you're taking it seriously enough - although on the other hand, you poo-poo it. As Laurence Olivier said - perhaps apocryphally - to Dustin Hoffman when he was searching for the meaning in a character: "Try acting, dear boy." I have a problem with those for whom work is the only thing in life, though.'
She pauses, giggles almost girlishly but not in an affected way, and shouts: 'I don't know! Those words will be on my gravestone. I spent my early career thinking I was something from another plant, batting about London and L.A., a little mad. It helps to have a well-screwed-on head, hopefully with imagination.' She lives alone in west London with two dogs and two cats. 'I'd have more if I had staff,' she says, putting on a grande-dame voice. Her axolotl (an aquatic salamander) died, so she bought a pair and they also died. 'I had to get a postmortem on them because I was freaked out. It wasn't my fault, but it put me off sufficiently not to replace them.' It's not too late for marriage, she says. 'It would be very good for me, but I'm not sure why. I hope I've been in love several times.'
She's quoted as saying, 'Love is an illness.' She looks askance. 'For God's sake. One might say in hindsight you didn't recognise yourself because you were in an altered state with chemicals flying around, and it all went wrong.'
The weekend before we meet she returned from a spontaneous visit to Rajasthan, which was 'potentially life-changing. I loved the acceptance there of how life is, and thought what a crabby miserable lot we are. It flipped in and out of my brain that I should move to India, but it's impractical at the moment.'
In Gideon's Daughter, by Stephen Poliakoff, with whom she's worked several times before, she plays Stella, a mother who's lost her son and who embarks on a relationship with a disillusioned publicist called Gideon (Bill Nighy). 'It's more emotionally engaged and accessible, I venture, than Stephen's previous plays. I wasn't necessarily convincing in some bits. Good old self-flagellation. It's difficult to live with. One should have a good healthy balance, see what you are as a commodity, and what, if anything, you might need to change. I don't think I have a thick enough skin for this job, although sometimes I surprise myself.'
Born in Southport, Merseyside, the younger daughter or a marketing executive, she acted at school before enrolling in the Bristol Old Vic theatre school and spending five years in rep. 'I went into acting because it was something I could do. I don't know how I do it. I wish I had a secret. I don't mean to be mysterious. I was a jolly show-offy child, who turned into a moody adolescent and became more introverted than is good for me. At first I wanted to be a vet - so trite - a farmer, or direct John Wayne in westerns. A lot of horses, that's me. Every now and then a little flicker goes through my brain saying maybe I should direct. It would be with a few friends - you want to surround yourself with cushions. Of course, I might lose them all.'
She was acclaimed for her first film role in 1984 in Dance With a Stranger, as Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in Britain. 'After that I was offered lots of women who stab of shoot. It was: "Ok. She's a murderer." It's rather insulting when people tell me, "You're very good at those parts." It's nice they think you're good in anything, but they try to bracket you. I want to do roles that interest me, usually something I haven't done before. It stops me being bored.' Among many others, she's played Elizabeth I in Blackadder II, Vanessa Bell (the painter and sister of Virginia Woolf) in 2002's The Hours, and Rita Skeeter the gossip-columnist in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
She declined the Glenn Close role in Fatal Attraction. 'The film's unbearable. I've watched bits, but never the whole thing.'
'I constantly think of giving up, but I must want to continue if I find some work irresistible. I'm also practical. It's what I do for a living, so if I can manage not to compromise too much I'll accept parts predominantly for money. I never think I'm working enough, and that's daft. In England it's much more duck and dive than America, where the pay is obscene. It makes monsters very easily. They sit in a caravan for eight hours, come out for 20 minutes, and a limo is provided for their tired limbs. Acting isn't so easy as people think, but neither is it as much of a chore as one is led to believe sometimes.'
She's twice been nominated for Oscars, in 1992's Damage, as the duped wife of Jeremy Irons, and TS Eliot's wife Vivienne in Tom and Viv two years later. 'The business cares about awards. So perforce I do, although it's bonkers, and there's corruption: who has the most bully boys and money. It's nice when someone says: "We've noticed you", but I never expected to win.'
Louis Malle, who directed Damage, says she was tense on set. 'I wasn't. He was. The film was an unhappy shoot.' So, for her, was The Hours with Nicole Kidman. 'What do you want me to say? I didn't get to know Nicole, or have the most marvellous time. The chemistry wasn't good. It can be difficult; egos, or maybe something's going on in someone's life. I don't confront it. I do the opposite. I say: 'Ok, I'm doing this on my own.' and get on with it.'
She's worked with America's top directors: Steven Spielberg for Empire of the Sun, and Robert Altman in 1995's Kansas City - which I got but nobody else did. 'I've never lived in Hollywood. It's not in my psyche. My instincts said: [she puts on a ghostly voice]'No, don't do it,' so I didn't. I found L.A. spooky and not life-affirming. Riding in from the airport, you see signs for vasectomies, or crematoria. The places reeks of mortality, and yet it's the land of eternal youth. You see how dark I get about L.A.? But I've got a handle on it now and can be humorous about it.'
She was offered a part in the second series of Desperate Housewives. 'I broke my leg, so that's why I didn't accept,' she says, smiling, and implying she probably wouldn't have done it under any circumstances. 'I wouldn't like to do something like that because it's too much of a committment. I enjoy the nomadic, circus feeling of filming, watching how a team settles in. It's crazy, unnatural, the stupidest business in the world, because you're with a group who are friendly and then it disbands. It's potentially unstabling, so you develop a skin."
Does it help to be mad? 'You seem to be harping on a theme. It's implied there's madness - either in me, or in the people I play.' Not at all, I say, and as we part I tell her how unexpectedly delightful she's been.
'Is that a relief?' she asks. Frankly, yes."
Links: The BBC's Poliakoff Site
MRAP
They linked to Clive's site! In the Radio Times!!
There's also this bit about Gideon's Daughter, I'll add that here.
The Gideon's Bible
In Gideon's Daughter - the second of Stephen Poliakoff's two dramas examining the 1980s and 90s - the director pulls apart the world of political spin, focusing on the 1997 general election and the death of Princess Diana. Bill Nighy discusses his role as jaded PR guru Gideon.
"What makes Stephen's writing so good is that he sees things that the rest of us don't notice. He has this incredible ability to pay attention at alevel that eludes most normal people. And when he puts his director's hat on, he's able to give an accurate representation of those ideas on the screen. You watch any of his work and there's an amazing sense of visual style.
I suppose you could also say that he's a peculiarly British writer. He's soaked up so much information about this county's recent history - well, that is his job - that his stories become incredibly authentic. And very personal, too. We have this very grand, universal theme of us losing sight of our humanity, but we see it through Stephen's eyes.
Unfortunately, I just wouldn't be capable of that. My problem is that I just travel through life like a goldfish, not really noticing what's happening around me. If we'd had a test about 1997, I would have failed miserably.
I've worked with Stephen before [on 2003's Lost Prince] and although this is a very different story, I tend to approach things is pretty much the same way. It doesn't matter what period a drama is set in, what silly trousers you're wearing or what accent you're doing, you have to act as though it's current. It has to be today!
Yes, we all know that 1997 was an incredible year, and Gideon's Daughter is informed by the events that took place, but as an actor is doesn't help to clutter up your mind with ideas about the past, because it will affect what comes over on screen. Actually, that's where me being a bit of a goldfish comes in really handy, I can't even remember what happened last week, never mind what happened nine years ago!" As told to Danny Scott
Interviews both from 'Radio Times', February 21st, 2006.
Andrew Duncan searches for the real Miranda Richardson"
I type up reams and reams of Miranda interview from the Radio Times.
"It's important to be on your toes with Miranda Richardson: one sloppy question and she flings back an answer with the contempt it deserves, albeit it smiling and tossing her light auburn hair. She doesn't try to ingratiate, frequently avoids eye contact, and is alternately frisky and hesitant, searching for the right word. She's 48 this week. 'I don't suffer fools gladly,' she warns. 'If I feel I'm connecting with you - possibly mistakenly - this will be fun.'
She's luminous, witty, perhaps a bit nervy, but anxious to please. 'All of us who are in the public eye are up for grabs,' she says. 'It sounds egotistical but, if I read this interview, something might come through which allows me to know more about myself. I live in hope. If you're comfortable with your celebrity, you circulate, have conversations about your work. I'm not good at that. Ever since I was a girl I've been expected to be hauled over the coals and told off.'
Insecurity is essential for good actors. 'But not for everyday life,' she laughs. 'You like to know who you are when you shut your front door. I constantly want to learn more about myself. Doesn't it take a lifetime to feel comfortable in yourself? It doesn't for everyone. I suppose some people are like that at 16, which must be brilliant. I say I don't take my work home with me, but I've never been happy with completely dropping a character either. It implies a lack of application and you wonder if you're taking it seriously enough - although on the other hand, you poo-poo it. As Laurence Olivier said - perhaps apocryphally - to Dustin Hoffman when he was searching for the meaning in a character: "Try acting, dear boy." I have a problem with those for whom work is the only thing in life, though.'
She pauses, giggles almost girlishly but not in an affected way, and shouts: 'I don't know! Those words will be on my gravestone. I spent my early career thinking I was something from another plant, batting about London and L.A., a little mad. It helps to have a well-screwed-on head, hopefully with imagination.' She lives alone in west London with two dogs and two cats. 'I'd have more if I had staff,' she says, putting on a grande-dame voice. Her axolotl (an aquatic salamander) died, so she bought a pair and they also died. 'I had to get a postmortem on them because I was freaked out. It wasn't my fault, but it put me off sufficiently not to replace them.' It's not too late for marriage, she says. 'It would be very good for me, but I'm not sure why. I hope I've been in love several times.'
She's quoted as saying, 'Love is an illness.' She looks askance. 'For God's sake. One might say in hindsight you didn't recognise yourself because you were in an altered state with chemicals flying around, and it all went wrong.'
The weekend before we meet she returned from a spontaneous visit to Rajasthan, which was 'potentially life-changing. I loved the acceptance there of how life is, and thought what a crabby miserable lot we are. It flipped in and out of my brain that I should move to India, but it's impractical at the moment.'
In Gideon's Daughter, by Stephen Poliakoff, with whom she's worked several times before, she plays Stella, a mother who's lost her son and who embarks on a relationship with a disillusioned publicist called Gideon (Bill Nighy). 'It's more emotionally engaged and accessible, I venture, than Stephen's previous plays. I wasn't necessarily convincing in some bits. Good old self-flagellation. It's difficult to live with. One should have a good healthy balance, see what you are as a commodity, and what, if anything, you might need to change. I don't think I have a thick enough skin for this job, although sometimes I surprise myself.'
Born in Southport, Merseyside, the younger daughter or a marketing executive, she acted at school before enrolling in the Bristol Old Vic theatre school and spending five years in rep. 'I went into acting because it was something I could do. I don't know how I do it. I wish I had a secret. I don't mean to be mysterious. I was a jolly show-offy child, who turned into a moody adolescent and became more introverted than is good for me. At first I wanted to be a vet - so trite - a farmer, or direct John Wayne in westerns. A lot of horses, that's me. Every now and then a little flicker goes through my brain saying maybe I should direct. It would be with a few friends - you want to surround yourself with cushions. Of course, I might lose them all.'
She was acclaimed for her first film role in 1984 in Dance With a Stranger, as Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in Britain. 'After that I was offered lots of women who stab of shoot. It was: "Ok. She's a murderer." It's rather insulting when people tell me, "You're very good at those parts." It's nice they think you're good in anything, but they try to bracket you. I want to do roles that interest me, usually something I haven't done before. It stops me being bored.' Among many others, she's played Elizabeth I in Blackadder II, Vanessa Bell (the painter and sister of Virginia Woolf) in 2002's The Hours, and Rita Skeeter the gossip-columnist in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
She declined the Glenn Close role in Fatal Attraction. 'The film's unbearable. I've watched bits, but never the whole thing.'
'I constantly think of giving up, but I must want to continue if I find some work irresistible. I'm also practical. It's what I do for a living, so if I can manage not to compromise too much I'll accept parts predominantly for money. I never think I'm working enough, and that's daft. In England it's much more duck and dive than America, where the pay is obscene. It makes monsters very easily. They sit in a caravan for eight hours, come out for 20 minutes, and a limo is provided for their tired limbs. Acting isn't so easy as people think, but neither is it as much of a chore as one is led to believe sometimes.'
She's twice been nominated for Oscars, in 1992's Damage, as the duped wife of Jeremy Irons, and TS Eliot's wife Vivienne in Tom and Viv two years later. 'The business cares about awards. So perforce I do, although it's bonkers, and there's corruption: who has the most bully boys and money. It's nice when someone says: "We've noticed you", but I never expected to win.'
Louis Malle, who directed Damage, says she was tense on set. 'I wasn't. He was. The film was an unhappy shoot.' So, for her, was The Hours with Nicole Kidman. 'What do you want me to say? I didn't get to know Nicole, or have the most marvellous time. The chemistry wasn't good. It can be difficult; egos, or maybe something's going on in someone's life. I don't confront it. I do the opposite. I say: 'Ok, I'm doing this on my own.' and get on with it.'
She's worked with America's top directors: Steven Spielberg for Empire of the Sun, and Robert Altman in 1995's Kansas City - which I got but nobody else did. 'I've never lived in Hollywood. It's not in my psyche. My instincts said: [she puts on a ghostly voice]'No, don't do it,' so I didn't. I found L.A. spooky and not life-affirming. Riding in from the airport, you see signs for vasectomies, or crematoria. The places reeks of mortality, and yet it's the land of eternal youth. You see how dark I get about L.A.? But I've got a handle on it now and can be humorous about it.'
She was offered a part in the second series of Desperate Housewives. 'I broke my leg, so that's why I didn't accept,' she says, smiling, and implying she probably wouldn't have done it under any circumstances. 'I wouldn't like to do something like that because it's too much of a committment. I enjoy the nomadic, circus feeling of filming, watching how a team settles in. It's crazy, unnatural, the stupidest business in the world, because you're with a group who are friendly and then it disbands. It's potentially unstabling, so you develop a skin."
Does it help to be mad? 'You seem to be harping on a theme. It's implied there's madness - either in me, or in the people I play.' Not at all, I say, and as we part I tell her how unexpectedly delightful she's been.
'Is that a relief?' she asks. Frankly, yes."
Links: The BBC's Poliakoff Site
MRAP
They linked to Clive's site! In the Radio Times!!
There's also this bit about Gideon's Daughter, I'll add that here.
The Gideon's Bible
In Gideon's Daughter - the second of Stephen Poliakoff's two dramas examining the 1980s and 90s - the director pulls apart the world of political spin, focusing on the 1997 general election and the death of Princess Diana. Bill Nighy discusses his role as jaded PR guru Gideon.
"What makes Stephen's writing so good is that he sees things that the rest of us don't notice. He has this incredible ability to pay attention at alevel that eludes most normal people. And when he puts his director's hat on, he's able to give an accurate representation of those ideas on the screen. You watch any of his work and there's an amazing sense of visual style.
I suppose you could also say that he's a peculiarly British writer. He's soaked up so much information about this county's recent history - well, that is his job - that his stories become incredibly authentic. And very personal, too. We have this very grand, universal theme of us losing sight of our humanity, but we see it through Stephen's eyes.
Unfortunately, I just wouldn't be capable of that. My problem is that I just travel through life like a goldfish, not really noticing what's happening around me. If we'd had a test about 1997, I would have failed miserably.
I've worked with Stephen before [on 2003's Lost Prince] and although this is a very different story, I tend to approach things is pretty much the same way. It doesn't matter what period a drama is set in, what silly trousers you're wearing or what accent you're doing, you have to act as though it's current. It has to be today!
Yes, we all know that 1997 was an incredible year, and Gideon's Daughter is informed by the events that took place, but as an actor is doesn't help to clutter up your mind with ideas about the past, because it will affect what comes over on screen. Actually, that's where me being a bit of a goldfish comes in really handy, I can't even remember what happened last week, never mind what happened nine years ago!" As told to Danny Scott
Interviews both from 'Radio Times', February 21st, 2006.
