By Other Voices voices@moviecitynews.com

Actor’s Corner Vinessa Shaw (Two Lovers)

Posted Monday, October 27th, 2008 - Comments Off on Actor’s Corner Vinessa Shaw (Two Lovers)
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You have seen her opposite Tom Cruise in Eyes Wide Shut and Will Ferrell in Melinda and Melinda. She has done admirable time in both Westerns (3:10 to Yuma) and Horror (The Hills Have Eyes). And while she may not have immediate name recognition to the average filmgoer, Vinessa Shaw does have name recognition to people with names like Woody Allen, James Mangold, Kathryn Bigalow and (the late) Stanley Kubrick. James Gray joins that grateful group of directors having utilized Shaw’s talents in Two Lovers. In the film, she plays the third member in a love triangle that includesJoaquin Phoenix and Gwyneth Paltrow. While they may have the more showy sides in the tormented romance triad, Shaw once again delivers a spot on performance as the proverbial beautiful forest that Phoenix’s character can’t see for the trees.
How did you become part of Two Lovers – through an audition or were you approached outright for the role? What drew you to want to play this particular character?

I was actually very fortunate with the whole casting process for the film. The way James hired me was not in a typical Hollywood fashion. Apparently, he had spoken with the producer, Donna Giolotti about finding a young Claudia Cardinale-type for the role of Sandra. I think it was a week or so later and Donna told James she found the young Claudia in 3:10 to Yuma. He then went to the premiere of the film and within a few days I had read his amazing script, met him at a nearby pizza place and said I would be honored to do this film. This scenario rarely happens and I couldn’t believe it happened to me.

What drew me to Sandra was her purity and honesty. I especially liked how she relates with ‘Leonard’. She had a wonderful combination of being shy, yet direct. She is upfront with how she feels about him without being too pushy. Amazingly, she never judges him when he’s being so clearly unavailable. She’s even-tempered, very compassionate, and kinda awkward too!
Did you have any awkward experiences getting fixed up on dates from your past that you could draw on for your initial scenes with Joaquin Phoenix?

Unfortunately, I’ve only had bad dates, not awkward ones. I never really liked nor understood the idea of dating. Either you like somebody or you don’t. Dating itself is awkward
What is it about films you do that are set in New York (Two Lovers, Melinda and Melinda, Eyes Wide Shut) that make it necessary for your hair to go darker?

Ha! Ha! Well, actually, my hair was blonde in Eyes Wide Shut! For Melinda and Melinda, Stacy was supposed to be sexy and mysterious which makes it funnier when she flips out in the end. It was all about the character not being quite who she seems. For Two Lovers, I think James wanted Sandra to be less glamorous, simpler, and an obvious contrast to Michelle.

This was not only reflective in her hair color, but also in her make-up and clothes. Sandra is just a more earthy and grounded character, which in essence matches her look.
To date, you seem to be putting together a somewhat eclectic filmography spanning all genres and choosing roles that seem to place a considered distance between the character in your latest film and the character you played in the film prior. How much forethought and strategy has gone into those choices?

All I really can do is be the kind of actress that I want to be. There’s no stability in the film business, so no one can ever truly strategize. I like challenging myself. I want to play characters who have something to say about humanity and can actually teach me something in the end. I choose the characters I play without judgment. I don’t care where she comes from or if she’s evil or good. Just as long she grows and I grow by the end of the film. I think because of that, the roles I end up playing are from all different genres and all walks of life.
Your mother was and is an actress who has been successful and worked consistently through the years. What was the key lesson she taught you about navigating your way through the industry?

She taught me that acting is what you do; not who you are. I didn’t know what she truly meant by that until I rode the ups and downs of this business. I think it’s so easy to get confused with work being your identity.

It’s important to have a deeper sense of self and understanding of life so that you don’t get swept up by the disappointments nor the successes. Because I was twelve when she first told me this I don’t think I possibly could’ve understood. I didn’t have experience as an actor yet. I think now I see how right she was.
Be honest here. In the real world – who is Joaquin going to choose? You or Gwyneth?

Gwyneth, of course!!
Two Lovers screens 7:00PM November 1 @ ArcLight 10 and 3:30PM November 6 @ ArcLight 10. Vinessa Shaw will attend the first screening and participate in a Q&A afterwards.

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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon