Me,
Myself, and Kenneth
Mail on Sunday - February 20, 2000
Alicia Silverstone describes herself as
passionate, selfless and deep. Now, after starring
opposite Kenneth Branagh in his new Shakespeare epic, she
thinks she's found a kindred spirit.
The young woman who walks into the vegan restaurant in
midtown Los Angeles, wearing blue shirt, jeans, and
acuffed sneakers, appeares utterly unremarkable.
Alicia Silverstone's latest film is Love's Labour's Lost,
Kenneth Branagh's reworking of Shakespeare's arguably
most accessible comedy. The film is set in the 1930s with
the action interrupted 10 or so times by songs - 'Let's
Face the Music and Dance' for instance, and 'Fancy Free'
- more familiarly found in Fred and Ginger movies.
She has, she says, always been crazy about Shakespeare:
'He's my own little private addiction'. But she despairs
of the intellect of the masses. 'He wrote as he did
because that's how people talked and that's what they
understood. Ordinary people were so much smarter than
they are now. We've unlearned so much. People are getting
dumber and dumber.'
Then, don't start her on Branagh. 'I could go on and on
and on about him,' she says. And, indeed, does. 'He is so
prepared when he goes into a project. He knows just what
he's doing. He knew this baby of his, inside and out.'
But she insists he's no control freak. 'He has this
genius way of bouncing ideas around while remaining
completely focused. It's like he can see the clear path
ahead. I felt so safe with him - and stimulated, too. He
challenges you to give your best performance. I love his
dedication, his hard work, his rhythm.'
Alicia was, indeed, uncharacteristically in awe of the
company she would be keeping throughout the 10-week shoot
at Shepperton. Branagh had originally asked her to
audition for the part of Rosalind in November 1998. She
was sure she wouldn't get it, 'but there was no one in
the world I'd sooner had a work-out with.'
A month later, he got in touch, asking if she would
accept the (much larger) role of the Princess of France.
'Kenneth told me it was just an instinct he had. And as
soon as I read her part, I connected to it in an even
deeper
way. It was so dead-on.' (Natashca McElhone, first
spotted in The Truman Show, was subsequently cast as
Rosalind.) 'Then he told me to have a good Christmas and
not to think about the film. As if!'
Before she got to Britain, she says in studiedly stagey
inverted commas, 'I worked my butt off to master the
text. I was going to be the only stupid American girl
walking into this team of thespians.' As it turned out,
Geraldine McEwan, Timothy Spall and Richard Briers took
her to their bosom and, although she had pangs of
homesickness when she thought of her best friends and her
dogs, she was sad when it was time to return to LA. 'I
felt like I never wanted to be parted from this club.
Wasn't there a sweatshirt I could buy?'
Her fondest memory is of the three weeks of rehearsal
before filming began. 'Screw shooting,' she says. 'I
don't like hair and make-up. I don't like hanging around
the set. What I love is creating the character. It felt
like I was in Fame. It was just so cool.' And once she'd
had lessons from singing teacher Ian Adams, she felt more
confident about the film's big numbers. 'He was just so
funny. He talked about muscle control and my pelvic
floor. He told me he was going to make me into the best
sex in town. I told him he reminded me of Austin Powers.'
Now, she heads her own production compny, First Kiss,
bankrolled by those few lucrative film parts she elects
to accept. 'I think Kenneth picks projects that will move
people's minds, and I want to do the same. I have
no wish to be any part of trash.'
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