There's loads of irony that 26-year-old actress Anne Hathaway was
featured in two very different films about weddings this season.
Bride Wars was a noxious bit of inconsequential fluff (directed
by once credible Gary Winick) loaded with cringe-inducing clichés
about the madness of the upper class getting married. It was
throwaway commercialism. On the other hand, Hathaway's shambling
performance in Rachel Getting Married got ample praise as an
edgy piece of indie-styled work. Until he made this film, vet
director Jonathan Demme, an Oscar-winning auteur The Silence of
the Lambs), had abandoned fiction features in recent years for
making politically-charged docs.
Support for ramshackle and understated indies rich in stirring
performances such as Frozen River and The Visitor, has
become de rigueur for the voting constituency of the Academy. So a
digitally-shot, steady-cammed work like Rachel Getting Married
— with its slice-of-life story of a crash-and-burn, logorrheic
young woman out on a weekend pass from rehab trying to cope with her
normal sister's blessed event — garnered Hathaway an Oscar nom.
Since addiction — a driving force of Rachel's Getting Married
— is a favored subject of playwrights, actors, and rock stars, it
seems like a too-familiar, overplayed territory. But thanks to
Demme's unique approach and Hathaway's genuinely awkward, almost
geeky and sincere improvisations, she informs her annoying character
Kym Buchman with a touching vulnerability.
When Kym returns home for Rachel's (Rosemarie Dewitt) wedding, she
brings her long history of personal crises, family conflict and
tragedy to bear — and Hathaway does it so convincingly. While
the wedding couple's abundant friends and relations gather for the
joyful weekend of feasting, music and love, the conflicts seething
under the surface emerge thanks to Kym-as-catalyst. While everyone
else keeps it buckled in, Kym's biting one-liners and flair for
bombshell drama pop open the Pandora's box of long-simmering
tensions in the family. Director Demme, first-time writer Jenny
Lumet, and a stellar acting ensemble leaven the drama of these
difficult yet compelling people with a wry affection and
generosity.
And what funny little character Hathaway can be in person. When
Hathaway spoke before this interviewer and a few other journos,
rapidly and nervously around the time of the film's original
release, she revealed with a self-effacing manner, a few things that
attracted her to Kym.
Are
you anything like your character Kym?
That's so funny because another reporter asked me that. I mean, I'm
not going to lie. She was herself, first and foremost. But I
definitely could draw some similarities between her and people that
I know. And yes, I did tell them so!
Were they happy to hear that?
I think so! I mean, the people that I'm friends with would get along
with someone like Kym. I would get along with someone like Kym, too.
So for my group of friends, it's a compliment. But for some other
people, it might not be!
Did you audition for this role?
I didn't! Jonathan [Demme] saw The Princess Diaries, and he
didn't see me as a goofy young girl. He saw a budding actress. I was
so amazed, because nobody ever saw me like that. Well, maybe my
parents! (No, they're gonna get mad at me for that.) But Jon sent me
the script with a note attached saying, which role do you want to
play?
So why did you choose Kym?
Just that thing. I mean… not to sound like a B.S. actor, but I knew.
I just knew [I was perfect for her]. When I read Brokeback
Mountain, it was the same thing — you know, a note attached, and
I just knew [the part] was going to be Lureen. With Kym, I just
got her — her whole emotional makeup — that really appealed to
me. Once I understand something, I understand it for life, and when
I know something to be true, I can't change my opinion about it. I
can't go back and feign ignorance. Kym just made sense to me from
the first.
So
why do you think Kym was an addict?
Well, I believe addiction is a disease, and that it's genetic. I
can't tell you why, until they figure out why people have this
disease. I can tell you how it got exacerbated. I think she grew up
in this permissive household, where she probably saw people drinking
and smoking. And she probably, you know, occasionally smelled weed.
But she's this sort of extreme person, so she would always want to
go faster and faster. Growing up in suburbia she probably started
drinking at twelve or thirteen. I'm sure somebody brought over some
weed, so they tried doing that, and kinda liked it. Probably by the
time she was fourteen, somebody had gotten some cocaine, and so she
tried that. And she really liked that! Then she wanted to do more,
and more, and more.
Do you think that her mother was the cause?
Uh... what are you hoping I'm going to say? Well, her mother
probably had her wild moments too. But I always see her as not the
most open of people. I think she had to distance herself from being
a mother. There was stuff that was too painful. So she's trying to
be a mother, but she's also trying to protect herself. But I don't
want to blame Kym's parents. I think that it's a complicated issue,
and blame doesn't do much. However, I do think Kim's soul is very
evolved, and very mature, especially at this point in her life, in
how deep she goes, and how well she loves. And that's astonishing,
and I thought, so beautiful — you know, that you have this girl who
is struggling so hard, but never gets any credit.
You
have this honesty about you, where you just say whatever is on your
mind. Where does that come from?
Oh, that comes from my father... Yeah.
How did you and Rosemarie DeWitt, who plays Rachel, get such intense
and really smart chemistry going between you?
How do I say this without sounding like an asshole? You can never
play a part smarter than the part is. You can never play a part as
having a more interesting emotional makeup than the part has.
Otherwise you're just chewing up the scenery, and putting yourself
before the character and the story. The language that's used in this
script, and the fact that Kym was not formally educated and that she
is so comfortable with it, really informed her as a character. And
her insane level of intelligence — you know, how fast her mind is
able to work. So yes, that did have an impact, in terms of just
blowing the cap off the top of my imagination, and where I could
take her.
How
far did you want to push that, making her as big and broad as you
could?
I'm sure somewhere on the cutting room floor, there are [a lot of]
takes that have that. But I just gave the most truthful, dynamic
performance that I could think of. I just concerned myself with
telling the truth. And I always clear everything with Jon before
doing anything, because I have this fear of wasting film! If you you
fuck up a line on film, it costs like five hundred dollars! And I
just hate that pressure on me. I won't bore you with all those
stories, but yeah, Jon was fine with it.
How about one story?
Well, Jonathan is the master, like the big guy on set, and I don't
want to be that actress who causes enormous problems. I don't
want to do that. You know the scene where I tell the musicians to be
quiet? I was trying to be really diplomatic when I couldn't hear
anything while we were doing a scene. So I believe I said, "Are they
going to do that all fucking weekend?" I didn't tell anybody that I
was gonna do that, so they all kind of sat up. And I saw Bill
Irwin's face collapse in relief! He told me later, "I was having the
same problem!" So that became a really organic part of the scene.
You don't see it coming, and it gets a huge laugh in the movie. So I
was really happy.
Well, it ended up in the trailer too.
Did it? Oh that is so funny!
CLICK HERE TO SEE WHAT ANNE HATHAWAY HAD
TO SAY TO US IN 2011!
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ANNE HATHAWAY HAD TO SAY TO US IN 2013!
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TO SAY TO US IN 2015!
