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Meg Ryan (left), appearing in the erotic drama In the
Cut, is one of many high-profile actresses looking to
expand their acting range by tackling edgy films.
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TORONTO -- Actress Meg Ryan never asked to become America's
Sweetheart, but it happened just the same, thanks to her roles
in popular comedies like When Harry Met Sally, French
Kiss and her two films opposite actor Tom Hanks, Sleepless
in Seattle and You've Got Mail.
Ryan has played dramatic roles before -- the military drama
Courage Under Fire, Flesh and Bone and her most
recent film, Proof of Life. Yet her giggly laugh and
trademark smirk are what audiences want to see, and when they're
missing -- as in her latest film, In the Cut, an erotic
thriller by veteran auteur filmmaker Jane Campion -- Ryan
has some explaining to do.
"Jane is great, and I always wanted to work with her," Ryan
says, speaking to a small handful of journalists gathered
in a hotel room here. "This is an incredible character and
a chance to do an exploration of a complicated woman. This
is a dream come true."
It's midweek at the 2003 Toronto International Film Festival,
and Ryan has come to town with Campion and cast members Mark
Ruffalo and Jennifer Jason Leigh to help launch In the
Cut to festival audiences and the assembled press.
The film, based on Susanna Moore's novel, tells the story
of Frannie Avery (Ryan), a writing teacher in New York City
who studies street slang. Her lonely life changes after she
meets a rugged NYPD detective (Ruffalo) who's investigating
the murder of a woman near Avery's apartment.
In the Cut is an edgy, audacious drama from Campion.
While its serial killer plot feels superficial, Campion manages
to create a serious, complex and mature look at the troubled
life of a complex, mature woman. In the Cut is what
audiences have come to expect from Campion, but it's a huge
surprise for Ryan.
Back at the hotel, Ryan speaks passionately about her audition
for the role. She refers to In the Cut as her dream
job. Yet she faces journalists asking her to defend her decision.
There are 339 films at the Toronto Festival, a combination
of 63 world and 104 North American premieres. Journalists
outnumber the films, and premiering a film at Toronto guarantees
a worldwide explosion of media coverage. The hope is that
favorable reactions will also lead to year-end awards and
successful commercial releases. That's the case for the people
involved with In the Cut, as well as many other independent
and studio movies in line for a theatrical release in the
next three months.
On a more personal note, a film festival like Toronto offers
actors and filmmakers a chance to tweak their profile, expand
their acting range and show just how versatile they can be.
For actresses, a successful Toronto launch is doubly important.
During the rest of the year, high-profile performances for
women are usually found in forgettable blockbusters like Charlie's
Angels: Full Throttle and Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The
Cradle of Life. At a major festival like Toronto, an actress
can try something different, hopeful that audiences will go
along for the ride. The result is a women's world of diverse
films featuring lead performances from actresses young and
old in projects both big and small.
Actress Neve Campbell partners with veteran filmmaker Robert
Altman in the documentary-like dance drama, The Company,
starring Campbell as a dancer with Chicago's Joffrey Ballet.
Newcomer Kate Bosworth stars opposite Val Kilmer in director
James Cox's eclectic drama, Wonderland, about the 1981
multiple murders on Wonderland Avenue in Los Angles involving
local drug dealers and porn star John "Johnny Wadd" Holmes
(Kilmer).
Bosworth's gritty Wonderland performance as Holmes'
abused girlfriend, Dawn, is worlds apart from her lead role
in last year's surfing movie, Blue Crush, which is
partly what attracted her to the role.
Australian actress Toni Collette steps away from comedy
for the satisfying romantic drama, Japanese Story.
Actress Emily Mortimer is the target of Ewan McGregor's
abusive womanizer in the Scottish film, Young Adam.
Chloé Sevigny earns notoriety for a graphic fellatio
scene near the end of Vincent Gallo's experimental road movie,
The Brown Bunny. Their performances are edgy, yet somewhat
degrading by the stories around them.
Watching a film like Young Adam raises the prospect
that a woman's touch is helpful when it comes to actresses
seeking out chancy roles.
Nathalie director Anne Fontaine and her star, Emmanuelle
Béart, received the red carpet treatment, complete with
media line at Roy Thomson Hall, Toronto's massive performance
hall that's converted into a cinema for the festival. In Nathalie,
Béart plays a prostitute hired by an upper-class woman
(Fanny Ardant) who's interested in catching her husband (Gerard
Depardieu) in adultery.
Nathalie is an erotic drama, but Béart remains
honest, complex and moderately respectful. Credit belongs
to Fontaine for making an erotic drama where the women characters
remain in control.
Speaking near the festival's end, I ask Fontaine if she
believes in a "woman's touch" when it comes to adult dramas.
"I've heard that from other journalists," Fontaine said,
speaking at a café between introducing a morning screening
of Nathalie and returning for a post-film answer session.
"People are asking me about the Campion film. Can you tell
if a woman directed it? All I can say that when I write my
films I write with a blank slate. I write neither as a woman
or a man."
Fontaine says she set out to make an erotic movie that all
people would see as believable and the same thing can be said
for Ryan's In the Cut performance. The veteran actress
bares herself emotionally and physically in the film, taking
part in explicit sex scenes guaranteed to shock many longtime
fans.
"Jane showed us every shot and it wasn't so terrible," Ryan
says. "Its not the greatest day in your life. It's uncomfortable
and awkward and strange. You have to have your support squad
there. Jane was going to take her clothes off too but Mark
told her we had enough to deal with and to keep her clothes
on."
Truth About Celebrities and Actresses
There is a Maple Leaf formula behind launching films at the
Toronto Festival. If Toronto audiences and the press react
favorably, a film might be on its way towards a successful
release and plenty of year-end awards. It's worked brilliantly
for past films like American Beauty and Crouching
Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The goal is for a film to achieve
breakout status, although that requires a delicate balance
of advanced publicity and on-the-spot promotion.
Writer/director Peter Hedges' comic drama, Pieces of
April, starring Katie Holmes as an East Village twentysomething
trying to connect with her ill mother (Patricia Clarkson)
was purchased at Sundance earlier this year and comes to Toronto
to generate publicity. The positive word was already out on
Pieces of April, which means that the press shifted
their attentions to newer films.
Nicole Kidman, the undisputed queen of this year's festival,
came to Toronto to support two new films. In The Human
Stain, an adaptation of the Philip Roth book, a college
dean (Anthony Hopkins) becomes the subject of town gossip
when he begins a romance with a young woman janitor (Kidman).
In Dogville, Lars von Trier's daring new film, a woman
(Kidman) tries to start a new life in a Depression-era Rocky
Mountain mining town.
A private press conference was set up for Kidman on the
evening of Sept. 6 at one of Toronto's luxury hotels. The
event was an invite-only affair, and the rules were strict:
No photographers; journalists were forbidden from approaching
Kidman's table; tape recorders were to be turned on before
she entered the room.
In the courtyard of the nearby Inter-Continental hotel,
the unofficial festival headquarters and location for most
interviews and photo ops, crowds of journalists and photographers
squeeze into a paneled bar, adjacent restaurant and outdoor
area too small for the hubbub.
Actors and filmmakers move from table to table, pausing
to say hello to friends, then, continuing to rattle off a
series of interviews. The atmosphere is hectic, but friendly.
It's the Toronto Festival at its best, and it's the spot one
can find actress Patricia Clarkson, participating in interviews
on behalf of her films Pieces of April, The Station Agent
and the film she stars alongside Kidman, Dogville.
Meanwhile, Kidman is nowhere in sight. She and her handlers
have opted for a private press conference. What the event
lacks in spontaneity, Kidman tries to compensate with lengthy
responses to questions about her career plans.
At the end of the press conference, Kidman leaves the room
as smoothly as she entered. Her publicists have successfully
transformed the usual chaos into something more polite. The
one item worth mentioning is that hotel staff removed a large
number of chairs prior to the press conference to make the
room look full. It appears a press conference stripped of
chaos is a conference unappealing to the members of the press
it was meant to serve.
Actress Cate Blanchett looked to match Kidman in the arena
of red-carpet razzle-dazzle on behalf of her new film, Veronica
Guerin. Blanchett appears in almost every scene of Joel
Schumacher's skilled melodrama, a Disney release about the
crusading Dublin journalist who was murdered by Irish gangsters
in 1996 in retaliation for her series of stories on the Irish
drug trade.
Veronica Guerin is a likable, competent drama, but
it failed to wow Toronto audiences. The same thing can be
said about the audiences' more hostile reaction to Ryan's
film, In the Cut. It's the risk an actress takes --
even one as beloved as Ryan -- when tackling an unusual film.
Nothing derails a heavily anticipated film's fall launch like
a cool reception at Toronto. It's as if all the momentum has
been sucked out of the theater and no red-carpet photo op
can stop it. ©
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