Anjelica Huston:
Like Father, Like Daughter
By Kevin Lewis
For Anjelica Huston, making Agnes Browne was coming home. As
she told the audience assembled for Director's Take, the
co-sponsored evening of the Independent Feature Project (IFP) and the
DGA, at the DGA Theater in Manhattan on March 6, 2000, although she was
born in America, the daughter of Hollywood royalty, director John
Huston, she spent much of her early life in Ireland when Huston moved to
St. Clerans, a castle in County Galway, and had visions of using Eire as
a production base.
IFP moderator Adrienne Shelly asked what was the defining moment when
the Academy Award-winning actress (Prizzi's Honor, 1985)
decided to become a director. Agnes Browne is her first theatrical film,
following the movie for television Bastard Out of Carolina (1996)
for which she received a DGA nomination. "I had a real epiphany about my life in 1982 when I had a really serious car crash. I found
myself in California and living with a famous man (Jack Nicholson). I
was feeling thwarted and the phone calls weren't for me but I really
didn't know what to do about it." The accident and operations
galvanized her into serious acting and eventually directing. "[The
accident] was a wake-up call and it changed my energy around."
Because she was faced with playing Agnes herself when Rosie O'Donnell
who had originally been cast in the role bowed out just weeks before
shooting, she observed her actors closely and their Dublin speech
patterns. "I would say it was mostly on roundtable readings that we
all sort of became acquainted with each other," she said.
"Casting is paramount. I cast people I like, who I like for the
part. Also, I generally end up liking the people I cast.
"I follow my instincts. If something sounds true to me then I
take it at that value," she added. "One of the things I really
liked about the script [by John Goldsmith and Brendan O'Carroll based
on O'Carroll's novel The Mammy] was the way the scenes went
all the way up and all the way down just in a matter of seconds. That
was a challenging idea, and obviously the Irish element, and the fruits
and vegetables [that Agnes and her friends sell outdoors] is an analogy
for the people on the street. I like stories of women's survival. I
think women need a boost and I'm here to help them along."
She used the mood of her father's productions to set her tone.
"His empathy was very much there for his actors and his crew. It
always felt like a family. My father's sets were very tight and there
was wonderful respect for him on his sets, and he also had a sense of
having fun. I think it should be fun. You're with this band of people
and you're out like gypsies, inventing something, creating something.
That's what's great about making movies. That's why I like to work
with kids. They bring a lot of joy to a set."
When asked what was the difference in directing children and adults
she replied, "I don't know if it was that much different. I think
children are just like adults. They know when you love them and know
when you appreciate them. It was actually remarkable because I'm of
two minds about casting children. I've seen the effects of movies on
children. It can really make horrors out of them."
However, on this project, she discovered happily that the opposite
was true. "Several of them were not that affluent and not that
experienced. For the twins, it was the first time they had ever worked
on a film. They had no idea what was going on. They wouldn't look at
me for the first two weeks - they lifted their shoes and made grunts.
By the end of the movie they were looking in my eyes, they were hugging
me in the morning."
Huston felt the most difficult part of directing is going home each
day disappointed about the things that didn't work out. She said she
learned not to hold herself hostage the next day to those negative
feelings.
As for directing herself, she said that she was surprised at how
fluid she became, a lesson she learned as a dancer and on her father's
films. When she appeared in her father's film The Dead (1987),
she fretted over her major scene where she had to register emotion in a
wordless memory scene.
She remembered that her father asked her, "He said, ‘How's
your horse?' I said, ‘Fine.' He was actually trying to break me
down from this emotional turmoil I had willed upon myself for hours. I
found that it's not really necessary to agonize over it. I can get to
where I want to get very fast if needs be. I guess that's also what I
learned on Agnes Browne, that it didn't take hours to get to
where I need to be. It's hard to watch yourself, it's hard to listen
to yourself and for anyone going in to this I'd advise that they have
as good a cameraman or DP as I did with Anthony B. Richmond."
|
