Patricia Clarkson is een rasactrice. Ze maakte haar speelfilmdebuut in The Untouchables (1987) en stond een jaar daarna aan de zijde van Clint Eastwood in de vijfde Dirty Harry film, The dead pool. “Jeez, that twenty years ago,” lacht ze wanneer ondergetekende laat weten dat hij daar onlangs nog in zag op DVD. Momenteel is Clarkson in de Nederlandse filmhuizen te zien in Elegy naast sir Ben Kingsley en Blind date, de Amerikaanse remake van de gelijknamige film van Theo van Gogh maar nu onder regie van Stanley Tucci. Blind date beleefde zijn Nederlandse première op Film by the sea en Clarkson kwam daarvoor naar Nederland.
In haar verschijning is ze klein maar in hartelijkheid groot. Patricia Clarkson is iemand die graag over haar ambacht praat en gaat zitten alsof ze alle tijd van de wereld heeft. Gewoon aan een tafeltje in het Cinecafé van het Cinecity complex in Vlissingen. Ze heeft haar jas nog aan want ze komt net van buiten en rilt van de kou. Ze rilt nog eens extra wanneer ik haar eraan herinner dat ze die avond over de rode loper gaat en dat zal vast niet in een trui zijn. “I don’t think so,”grapt Clarkson,”I’ll have to get inside quick.”
CH: How did you get involved with the Blind date remake?
PC: “Well I know Stanley, he’s a dear friend and I’d done a film with him before, Joe Gould’s secret (2000), so he approached me when he wanted to make this film. He explained to me there were going to remake three of Theo’s films with three American filmmakers and I said ‘great.’ I saw the original film and its so beautiful, really a remarkable film and I loved the script. And it was because of Stanley, because he’s a different kind of filmmaker that I thought this is good, we will make a different film. You cannot just make Theo’s film again. It has been made and made beautifully. Stanley’s film is a new interpretation.”
CH: Why do you think a rather small Dutch production like Blind date got an American remake?
PC: “Well Theo wanted these three films to be remade in America for an American audience. You know it played very well at the Sundance festival. Its devastating and depressing but I think it will land with American audiences. It won’t be a large American audience that will see this film but it’s the exact audience that should see this film.”
CH: You played a lot of different characters in films and on television during the last twenty years.
PC: “haha, yeah I know I’m exhausted!”
CH: I actually saw you last week with Clint Eastwood on DVD in The dead pool
PC: “Oh my God, I was 28 years old. I made that movie exactly twenty years ago, isn’t that funny? Then it was just another Dirty Harry movie but now he is one of the great American auteurs.”
CH: It was quite a different role from the part of Janna in Blind date. You mostly play the more serious en dramatic parts. Is that here your heart is?
PC: “It’s funny you know, I play a lot of dramatic parts but I love doing comedy. I just worked with Woody Allen. I did a small part for him in Vicky Christina Barcelona but he gave me a large part in the film we just finished shooting and I was in heaven. Well I mean its Woody Allen, who wouldn’t be in heaven but I love doing comedy and even in Blind date there are great comic things. Unfortunately there is not much great comedy written for women. It’s a boys club…”
CH: You have seen the original Blind date. Did it have any influence on how you approached the part of Janna?
PC: “Yeah, probably subconsciously somewhere but I saw the film once and didn’t see it again and it was quite a long time between seeing it en shooting the film. I didn’t go back and see it because once I read Stanley’s script, once we started shooting I had to enter the movie in my own world. In a different approach.”
CH: You worked with Stanley Tucci as a director before in Joe Gould’s secret. What kind of a director is he? Is he an actor’s director?
PC: “He’s definitely an actor’s director. You know actor’s directors trust actors. They cast you because they are confident that you can do it. They’re confident that you take their directions. They know how you work and trust you with it.”
CH: Did you have any time to see some of the other films in Vlissingen?
PC: “Unfortunately not. It’s a very tight schedule. We arrived yesterday, had diner last night, today we have the interviews and tonight the premiere of the film. And tomorrow I have to leave again.”
Interview en foto’s Constant Hoogenbosch
©Movie Machine 2008
