Patty Clarkson's 2010 Triple: Cairo Time, Easy A and Shutter Island

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Patty and the NYC premiere
this summer

Earlier this month I met with Patricia Clarkson to discuss another fine year in one of the most pleasurable of modern character actor filmographies. Hers. I was waiting for the right opportunity to share it with you, and since Cairo Time is out on DVD, Academy voters are busy weighing the various Best Actress options, and today is Patty's 51st birthday, it was high time.

Through an unfortunate scheduling snafu I was less prepared when I met her than I am accustomed to being. I apologized with a wee warning that I'd be winging it. I bring this up because, as many of will remember, I have closely clocked her career. She came in at #2 in my 2005 countdown "Actresses of the Aughts" (yes we should revisit that list now that the decade has wrapped) and because I just want to share the unedited transcript. She was just so delightful to talk to. The punctuations and descriptions are my own of course to convey the flavor of the conversation. Happily, she's as vivacious and fun to interview as she is to watch onscreen.

Our conversation started by chatting about the NYC premiere of Cairo Time this past summer.

Nathaniel: Really enjoyed the movie. We didn't get a chance to talk afterwards at the banquet but you seemed very buoyant and happy that evening.

Patty: Yes. It was very nice night and it had been a long journey with the film. So... just up until then my mother and sister were in town. It was just a wonderful night to share it with my friends and my family [pause] ...and strangers.

[Laughter]

Nathaniel: Strangers like me sitting at the corner table. But it was wonderful to see you carry a whole movie for change.

Patty: It's a nice thing. It's rare. You know, I've been the female lead in a few things but it's rare to really kind of carry a film -- especially for me but it's even rare for women in general. We're always sharing top billing with somebody, you know what I mean? Or we're often the supporting people. It's beautiful that Ruba [Ruba Nadda the writer/director] wrote a film with a woman, almost 50, in the lead. That's how she wanted it. I'm very thankful to her for that always.

Patricia as Juliette.

Nathaniel: This character ["Juliette" in Cairo Time] has a really slow burn. I mean the character arc is very gradual.

Patty: Very! So gradual. It's really truly one of the most deceptively difficult parts I've ever played in my career. Not only because you're in every frame and you're shooting every day all day. But emotionally, oddly, it was... [her voice trails off thinking of the work]. It's a very, very quarter-inch by quarter-inch slow burn progression.

Nathaniel: In a situation like that do you have to have a lot of trust that the editing, for example, would bear you out since there's not that one scene? If you compare it to something like Far From Heaven where you can play a hairpin turn in the character that's just so devastating.

Patty: Right. Well that's also such a more forward character. This is... she [Ruba] wrote a very passive protagonist -- I found it very beautiful -- a very setback reluctant, for lack of a better world, woman at times. Antithetical to me and often to many characters I've played which are very forward and very gregarious and very present. This is a woman who is reserved, truly reserved. But I still think lovely and approachable in her own way.

Nathaniel: One thing I loved about the movie was the costume design.

Patty: Beautiful dresses, yes.

Nathaniel: They went along with the gradual arc so well. And the resolution of the movie -- those final scenes are just beautifully played.

Patty: Oh, thank you. It's the courage that Ruba had to really trust that those scenes would work, that they'd stay with the film and take this very, very subtle intimate --no bells and whistles! -- film and be around for the end and have the payoff. Most of the people I've seen have gotten it. They took the journey and were moved and transported. So...

Patricia & Alexander Siddig in the final scenes of Cairo Time

Nathaniel: Would you reteam with Alexander Siddig when you could let 'er rip more?

Patty: IN ANYTHING! There will be a sequel to Cairo Time. And it's just me and Alexander on a train. I've already written it. Ruba doesn't know about it but I've written it. And neither does Alexander.

[Much laughter]

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The Gluttonous Golden Satellites

You guys. I really can't be bothered to talk about the Golden Satellites (a.k.a. The International Press Academy, who can't even be bothered to update their own website) and here's why: When you nominate everyone* under the sun, it's hard to take you seriously. The Satellites have more categories than any of the important precursors and then, as if the orgy of categories weren't enough, they have 7 to 10 nominees in every category. I kid you not. It's... insanity. I can't care. But if you must, Awards Daily has the list.

*Even when you nominate 7-17ish people per category (some categories are doubled up between types of genre) you will still, rather amusingly, be snubbing people who are noteworthy. How do you have 7 comedy actress nominees, for example, and not include Emma Stone in Easy A? Her movie may be a frail invalid but she is its primary caregiver, its walker, its equilibrium, its lifeblood, its court jester, its boss, and its whole goddamn raison d'etre. And whenever her movie starts death rattling she performs CPR. Shunning her in a category of 'let's nominate everyone!' is S-T-U-P-I-D. I don't expect Emma to win favor with the Golden Globes either exactly, but since they'll only have 5 nominees the shunning won't be as tough to take. I'm expecting that we'll see: Bening, Hathaway, Hawkins, Moore, and ??? as the five girls walking the red carpet as "comedy" nominees once the Globes roll into town. But I sure wish someone would recognize the "comedy" in the comedy category and throw Stone a bone.

All Good Links

Before we get to today's link roundup -- I went a little crazy as I sometimes do -- enjoy the heat sensor-like photography of the All Good Things poster. Perhaps Ryan and Kiki were a bit jealous of the ruckus Jake & Annie's nude poster caused online.

P.S. Jake Gyllenhaal is obsessed with Ryan Gosling. Just saying. I would try to quote his answer from Saturday night when the audience question 'who would you like to work with?' popped up but it was so rambling and long and confusing that I can't. But let's just say it began with Ryan Gosling, was jilted by Ryan Gosling via text "I'm busy" and then ended again with a circular non sequitor shout of "Ryan Gosling!" Jake likey. Ryan Gosling is what you might call an actor's actor... since everyone seems to want to work with him.

On to the linkage...
Candy Magazine A double take of pleasure. Yes, that's James Franco to your left continuing his trans formation from one of the great herd of Hollywood pretty boys to an actually interesting celebrity.
My New Plaid Pants is an über fan of Let the Right One In. Doesn't hate Let Me In. Since the response has been so positively muted like "it's good: also, a recreation" I've decided not to see it.
Broadway.com Carrie the Musical being revived. Wow.
Cinema Blend Me pal Katey basically says all I have to say about the trailer for Julie Taymor's Tempest so I don't need to cover it here. What she said, minus the positive bits since I liked the movie even less than she.
The Big Picture Tony Curtis grand sendoff in Las Vegas
Hero Complex Emma Stone will play Gwen Stacy in the new Spider-Man. I'm glad that early reports were wrong. Why do the whole Mary Jane story again. That said, isn't it weird that someone known as a redhead is going to play Spidey's favorite blonde and someone known as a blonde was cast as his favorite redhead. Weirdness.
The Awl Sasha Frere-Jones and Natasha VC on The Social Network. If you haven't read enough yet, it's fun as always to read these two.
50 Best Theater Blogs I'll have to investigate this list.
Just Jared Joseph Gordon-Levitt lost his older brother. So sad.
Towleroad celebs speaking about gay bullying on Larry King Live
Movie|Line offers tips to Renée Zellweger on how she could regain her A list status. I love the suggestion of a brilliant twitter feed. I hope she calls it @Zeéeee after my new nickname for her. Zeéeeee reads me right? *

Double Duty!
Movielicious Have you seen this great mashup poster for Toy Story and Tron? I wish I knew who did it to give them proper cred.
Scott Feinberg "Are Bening *And* Moore All Right." Some smart words on the The Kids Are All Right Oscar campaign.
John Luciano a Calvin & Hobbes mashup with Let the Right One In. Teehee. I used to love Calvin's girlcrush but can't remember her name right now

*Obviously I am kidding. Someone I am acquainted with who works in the industry once told me that every star googles themselves --whether they admit it or not -- and is familiar with their biggest cheerleaders and nemeses online. But I chose not to believe her because it weirded me out too much to think of Beelzebub, She Who Must Not Be Named, La Pfeiff and The Bening reading or even knowing of my puny existence.

Easy A Review

Is it better to blend in or stand out?

It's a question everybody must have asked themselves at some point or another, particularly in the (peer) pressure cooker of high school. Easy A is about a good student named Olive (Emma Stone) who blends in. One day, ashamed of a lame weekend she spent alone at home, she lies to her best friend Rhiannon (Aly Michalka) and makes up a story. The lie quickly escalates as her bestie grills her. Before you can say "George Glass," Olive has not just invented an imaginary beau but she's also lost her virginity to him.

Word gets out...

Read the rest @ Towleroad

P.S. And in case you missed it earlier, I raved about Emma Stone's star-making moves a couple of days ago for Tribeca Film for my "Best in Show" column.

Emma Stone Gets an Easy A

Molly Ringwald in Sixteen Candles. Winona Ryder in Heathers. Alicia Silverstone in Clueless. Reese Witherspoon in Election. Lindsay Lohan in Mean Girls. Ellen Page in Juno. You're already smiling reading the list. Is there anything quite as sparkly as a breakthrough actress in a high school comedy? This weekend a shimmering new student transfers in to Movie High.


In Easy A, a new comedy from first time feature screenwriter Bert V. Royal and Fired Up! director Will Gluck, good student Olive (Emma Stone) shares a first person account of how she pretended to be promiscuous for the notoriety and novelty of it. In so doing, she rapidly goes from anonymous loner to the center of a social hurricane...

Read the rest at my Tribeca Film column

I'll try to say more about the actual movie itself tomorrow. [Helpful obvious hint: Emma Stone is way > than the Movie.]
*

Vanity Fair "Dolls"

It's that time of year again. Vanity Fair refers to these nine actresses as "dolls" and we're certainly not here to dispute their smooth porcelain loveliness (the median age here is 23 and they're all lily white). But when I hear "dolls" now I think of only the Dollhouse, and I'm wondering just what "imprints" we're dealing with here. Which one of these girls is actually a savage killer? Or skilled in all positions of the kama sutra? Or a hostage negotiator? Or a genius computer programmer?


But more importantly, which of them will seem like a big "duh" for the cover treatment seven or eight years from now and which will be like a, "who...what now?". If you click on the Vanity Fair label below you can see past investigations of this Hollywood Issue's covergirls (and boys).

Abbie Cornish. Kristen Stewart. Carey Mulligan. Amanda Seyfried. Rebecca Hall. Mia Wasikowska. Emma Stone. Evan Rachel Wood. Anna Kendrick. Where will they be in 2020: The A-List? In the land of obscurity? headlining a TV series? at the Kodak Theater? Uninsurable has-been? Box Office Queen?

I know I ask too many questions but which doll do you want for your own? And which invisible doll (in this age range) are you angry you can't see on this magazine cover?