Claire Danes

on Being a “Star”

by Lynn B

Talented and pretty Claire Danes is a star. Well, so, what else is new? We mean, literally, a star. The actress plays a celestial being fallen to earth in the new fantasy adventure film Stardust. Claire started out in one of our fave shows on TV, “My So-Called Life” which had the torture of teen angst down pat. Danes is always solid and believable whether she’s on the big screen as a young veterinarian running from a femme robot in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, a love-confused clerk in Steve Martin’s Shopgirl or co-starring with big guns like Meryl Streep, Glenn Close and Vanessa Redgrave in the recent Evening. Go rent William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet and enjoy a 16-year-old Claire and Leo DiCaprio as the star-crossed lovers.

Sitting down with Claire in Beverly Hills was very pleasant. We were really in awe of her outfit; a very beautiful copper and pewter-colored, silk pleated Alberta Ferretti dress with silver belt, high silver heels and enhanced by a silver and gold ring and silver dangle earrings; stunning! Talk about looking like a star! We really wanted to know what it was like playing a fallen star in a fantasy film and dancing with Robert De Niro and learned about Claire’s on-set injury, favorite fairy tales as a youth and the perils of hair extensions!

AGW: That’s a great dress! You had some really nice costumes in this film, didn’t you?

Claire: I did. Yeah. Some were a little more constricting than others. I loved being the star because I got to digest my lunch.

AGW: Were you puzzled when you got the call to play a literal star?

Claire: It was a strange call to get from my agent [holds imaginary phone to her ear] ‘Like a celestial being? Okay. What’? I didn't have any [concerns] because the script was so strong and so charming and the character was actually kind of layered and complex and relatable and wonderfully so and the cast that they had accumulated was just awesome.

AGW: Speaking of awesome, there is a scene were Robert De Niro is supposed to be teaching you to dance. Was that amazing for you?

Claire: [smiles] He stepped on a few toes. Yeah, no, it was great. It was quite a special moment and we did a version of that scene where all the pirates joined in and were dancing with each other. That was finally cut out but that was one of those pinch-myself kind of moments.

AGW: The film is based on the novel by Neil Gaiman. Didn’t you know him before?

Claire: Yes. I met him when I did Princess Mononoke, the English recording of that. He wrote the dialogue for that.

AGW: Did he suggest that you might be perfect for the role of his star come to earth?

Claire: No, not at all. I was approached relatively late in the casting process for Stardust. I don't know if I should be offended by that. But I got the job so it's okay.

AGW: You have certainly perfected a very believable British accent over the years. Did they ask you to do that?

Claire: No. Stars are [evidently] English. It was kind of arbitrary. It's just that everybody else were English in the movie. Well, except Bob (De Niro). But [I did it] just for the sake of continuity and consistency.

AGW: There is a wonderful “glow” about your character, literally, when you are in love. Did the director just say to you, ‘okay, you are glowing or shining now’?

Claire: Yeah. Occasionally he would remind me what was going to happen after the fact in postproduction, CGI, but it was great. It was like acting MSG. It just enhanced whatever it was I was supposed to be feeling.

AGW: Were you injured at all in the action on set? Your co-star Charlie Cox was telling us about a vase that knocked him out.

Claire: You know what? I did actually acquire an injury but in such a weird way. You know that scene where I land in the crater and I'm kind of twisted? I stayed in that position for a couple of days because we shot it from a lot of different angles and I pulled my Psoas muscle. And it was a real issue because I danced after [filming] this. I did this dance performance and I had to go do physical therapy but because I was lying down. Like what a lame way to get injured, but okay. I wish I could say I fell off of the unicorn [I rode] and it was really dramatic and wonderful like that.

AGW: Are you still dancing then?

Claire: I started dancing about three years ago and I danced as a kid. That's how I discovered acting initially. But yeah I did a solo piece that a friend of mine had choreographed about three years ago and then I did a duet with my friend Ariel in February.

AGW: Are you keeping up with it now?

Claire: I haven't been since we performed the piece, but I will. I love dancing. I really do. It's my other passion.

AGW: Were there any other scenes that were particularly hard to shoot?

Claire: I had to figure out how to ride a unicorn, a horse, it's not really [a unicorn] but, you know that scene where we¹re on the cloud when we're in that limbo? That was kind of tough because we were on an inflated bed. It was like a giant air mattress basically and rain was pouring down. I kept falling. That was actually really hard. I had to scream. I was getting out of breath, but no it was fine.

AGW: Air mattresses are virtually impossible to stand up on.

Claire: Yeah. Or sleep on, I find. I hate air mattresses. But acting on them is just very challenging.

AGW: There is a lot of humor in this film. You get a lot of the choice funny lines. Was the humor fun for you?

Claire: Oh yeah. Some of [the lines] are really witty and clever. Full of juicy irony. But I worked with a dialect coach to get the English accent down and she suggested that I watch a lot of contemporary British television comedy shows and I did because they're great and I had such fun with it. I then found myself acting with Ricky Gervais in Stardust. I had been an avid fan of since 'The Office' for years already, but he's godlike. But yeah I felt very spoiled that I got to meet all of my favorite new stars.

AGW: How to do approach playing a character who has spent her entire life watching humanity [as a star in the heavens above] then, suddenly, has to become a part of it?

Claire: Well, really I think that's just kind of a metaphor for what it is to grow up. It’s just a coming-of-age story essentially. But yeah that was an enjoyable transition to make and, in all romantic comedies, the lovers initially are complete fools. And usually arrogant fools, which is one in the same but yeah, she ‘falls’. I didn't have to concern myself too much with playing her as a celestial being because the writing is so realistic in its tone and so I let the costumes and the makeup and the CGI communicate her other-ness for me. And I just played the scenes kind of straight.

AGW: You have really long hair in the movie. Was that your real hair? [note: Claire’s blonde hair is more just to her shoulders now].

Claire: No. I had a lot of fake hair. I had extensions that tore about a third of my real hair out when I had to take them out. And I'm still recovering from it [She runs her fingers through her hair]. And I'm just shocked that more people don't know about the dangers. I'm going to take the cause on. If you can wear a wig, do. Really, those are the end of my extension days. They're really brutal.

AGW: What are your criteria for choosing a role?

Claire: For me the three essential elements are the script, the director and the actors. It's not a new idea in that, but it's wonderful if all three of those elements are very strong. They're not usually and you have to compromise a little bit, but it really depends. If I want to read past the first 15 pages, it tends to be good. I guess I have a better understanding of what makes a script successful now than I did 10 years ago, but it's still just employing common sense, basically.

AGW: What’s your favorite fairytale; either book or movie from your youth?

Claire: I loved the Grimm fairytales when I was a kid. And the darker and the more perverse, the better. I remember my favorite fairytale specifically was 'Blue Beard', which, looking back on it, is incredibly sordid. It's about a tiny little man with a long blue beard that insists that his wife not look in one particular room. And of course one day when he's out she does just that and finds shelves full of severed heads of all the women he had been married to. I thought it was great. And I just think it's so funny how terrifying a lot of these children's stories are. And lullabies are just rife with plague and tragedy and disaster and vows are breaking and powers are falling. Kids can take a lot.

AGW: Do you think you would ever go back to acting on TV?

Claire: Yeah, maybe. I'm obsessed with 'The Wire' right now. Have you ever seen 'The Wire?' I think that's one of the most brilliant productions ever created so I'm not a snob about medium or genre. I think there are lots of different ways to make good work.

AGW: There is a special edition DVD of “Romeo and Juliet”. What do you remember about doing that film?

Claire: It was great. I was very fortunate to have it. To be 16 and be working with [Director] Baz [Luhrman], who's a total genius and Leo who is I think also a bit of a genius was wonderful. And we shot in Mexico City. It was quite magical.

AGW: What’s next for you?

Claire: I'm doing a play on Broadway this fall. I'm doing 'Pygmalion.' So that should be fun. I start rehearsing in two weeks and that runs until December 16th so just enough time for me to do my quick [Cockney accent] thing.

AGW: So you are working on your Cockney accent to play Eliza Doolittle?

Claire: Yeah. I’m, sorry I'm not there yet. I can't give a little demonstration. People are asking me a lot now. It's making me sweat.

AGW: Are you an actress who just loves the immediate audience reaction that theater gives you?

Claire: Yeah, and I just think that actors have so much influence on stage. There's no editor, there's no director to interrupt and interfere and mess it all up. But I've been rescued by them too. It'll be really interesting to have such control.

AGW: How was working with Michelle Pfeiffer on this film? Didn’t you work with her a long time ago?

Claire: We worked on a movie together when I was 15 called To Gillian On Her 37th Birthday so I'm friends with her and she's so smart and she's so talented and I think that's often overwhelmed by how exquisitely beautiful she is.

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