San Jose Mercury News

January 1998

Masterpiece Theater turns up the heat.

'Reckless' star's been there, done that

by Ron Miller, Mercury News Television Editor.

In "RECKLESS," British actress Francesca Annis plays Anna Fairley, a married
woman who takes up with a passionate doctor more than a decade younger than
she.

"That's why this script is good," says Annis. "It's a messy
relationship--and life is like that."

In "Reckless," the entertaining six-hour miniseries that starts Sunday night
on PBS's "Mobil Masterpiece Theater," Anna Fairley isn't a predatory older
woman on the prowl. She's a career woman settled in a comfortable but
passionless marriage. She accidentally meets young Dr. Owen Springer (Robson
Green) and, out of loyalty to her husband (Michael Kitchen), initially
resists him.

"She's like a lot of us -- just going along with something for years," Annis
explains over tea. "It's only when someone new comes along and taps
something in you that you see the situation differently and realize you've
been fooling yourself. I think that happens a lot in longtime relationships.
It's quite painful, actually."

She ought to know.

Romantic Change

Annis, she doesn't believe in marriage, surprised many last year by leaving
photographer Patrick Wiseman, her consort of 23 years and the father of her
three children, for Ralph Fiennes, 35. What makes that romance special is
that it bloomed during "Hamlet" in London and on Broadway, with Fiennes as
the troubled prince and Annis as his mother, Gertrude.

Fiennes broke up with actress Alex Kingston in order to be with Annis.
(Kingston was "Moll Flanders" on PBS last season and currently is Dr.
Elizabeth Corday on NBC's "ER")

Annis is philosophical about common threads running through "Reckless" and
her own recent life, but admits, "I've lived a life that's a bit like the
show." She's glad of her various romantic relationships and says she often
draws from "the fabric of my life" to root her performances in reality. It
was "a relief" playing Anna's story, she says, because "It felt like I was
playing my own -- although I'm a bit older than the woman in the film."

Though the heart of "Reckless" is the budding love affair between Anna and
Owen, it's much more than just a bittersweet melodrama about the breakup of
marriage. Written by Paul Abbott ("Cracker"), "Reckless" is also a poignant,
irresistible drama about many different relationships -- husbands and wives,
fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, and some outrageously funny moments
as well.

One finds Annis in another of those saucy scenes she frequently plays on
screen. Owen is making love to her while she's leaning against a tree when
suddenly a dog starts biting Owen in highly sensitive areas.

When "Masterpiece Theatre" executive producer Rebecca Eaton recently asked
Annis to "delicately" describe the scene at a press conference, Annis
laughed. "I don't think I can do it delicately. They're having a screw - up
against a tree. I think it's called a knee-trembler or something like that."

Complicating the filming of the scene, Annis recalls, was the fact that the
dog involved was "this miserable little rat" who was too gentle for the job
and didn't really sink his teeth into the part. They ended up having to dub
in his growling.

Though Annis has a number of bedroom scenes with Green, who's also a British
pop music star, we don't see her nude. She says people seem to think
"Reckless" shows a lot more than it really does. But that may have something
to do with viewer expectations, especially in the United States, where Annis
has rather wicked screen persona.

"It's true I've played more mistresses than mothers," she says. "In England,
I've done such varied work, but in the ones that have been popular here,
I've mainly been mistresses and the like."

U.S. viewers know her best from her grand roles on PBS, such as "Lillie," in
which she played the immortal Lillie Langtry, who had a 40-year old lover
when she was 70; as Flaubert's "Madame Bovary" or as Agatha Christie's
stylish 1920s flapper/detective Tuppence Beresford of "Partners in Crime"
and "The Secret Adversary." In all of these, Annis' looks and sex appeal
served her well.

On the big screen, she's best known here for the science fiction film
"Krull" and especially "Dune," the cult classic David Lynch made from Frank
Herbert's novel, in which she played Lady Jessica, the mysterious, powerful
mother of an interplanetary messiah. Then there was Roman Polanske's 1971
"Macbeth," in which Annis was the first nude Lady Macbeth.

The notoriety of that film, which was financed by Playboy and generated a
steamy love affair between Annis and co-star Jon Finch, probably added to
her US persona as a temptress. In retrospect, Annis thinks Polanski's
"Macbeth" was pretty mild. "I just walked across the screen (naked) as I
got out of bed," she says. "There wasn't much to it."

Trained as a dancer, Annis was acting professionally by age 14 and by 16 was
playing one of Elizabeth Taylor's handmaiden in "Cleopatra." Hailed as one
of England's most promising young actresses, she make a smashing Broadway
debut in 1969 as Ophelia to Nicol Williamson's "Hamlet." When that show
played Los Angeles, the movie offers flowed.

Youth and attitude

But Annis arrived here with loads of attitude that interfered with all the
would-be star-makers. Raised in a strict household, she had been rebelling
for years. She was a feminist -- she's still one, but not so militant -- and
didn't like the idea of turning over control of her career to any male-run
movie studio.

"I know it sounds so naive now," she says, "but I felt that they wanted to
project me purely as a sex object. Well, of course, I can see now that's
what my profession is very much about."

Does that mean Annis is growing more conservative now that she has a few
lines in her face? "I've mellowed," she says. "I haven't become a
reactionary. I've just lost the arrogance of youth. I shot myself in the
foot a few times in the past and certainly wouldn't do that now." Is it
still fair to call her "unconventional? Annis shrugs and says she supposes
so, but adds, "It's amazing how unconventional a lot of people are these
days."

While "Reckless" was showing in England, Annis says she was constantly
approached by viewers who wanted to know, "Does she go with Owen?" Demand
for another chapter of the story was so intense that Annis has just finished
a sequel: "Reckless: The Finale."

Though Annis doesn't get racy contemporary roles like Anna that often these
days, it's bound to remind people she's still one of England's best actors
and a viable candidate for provocative love stories. And the ongoing
publicity about her romance with Ralph Fiennes certainly won't hurt.

(Submitted by Tara)