The ensemble cast of women in Evening is one of the finest ever assembled. Nineteen Oscar nominations, three wins and a Golden Globe for Miss Claire Danes highlight the accolades. The mother-daughter combinations here are impressive in their own right, the first being Meryl Streep and newcomer Mamie Gummer (who will have a big career, trust me). Then you’ve got Natasha Richardson and Vanessa Redgrave sharing their last (according to Natasha) screen time together. Throw in Toni Collette and you’ve got the gist.
I had a chance to sit down with Claire Danes, Mamie Gummer, and Natasha Richardson a Sunday in New York City – here’s what they had to say:
So nice of you to do this on a Sunday!
Mamie Gummer: Well, church was canceled.
Talk about the themes presented in the movie.
Natasha Richardson: It touches on so many things, growing older, mothers, daughters, the love of your life, missed opportunities. So many things.
Rumor has it that you two (Claire and Mamie) are best friends now.
Claire Danes: Yeah, I feel very spoiled because we’ve gotten to do al of our press together.
(to Natasha) Did you and Toni strike up a friendship as well?
Natasha: Oddly enough, no. We got on fine, but she had her husband there and I had my mum there.
What did you think of the script when you initially read it?
This summer features movies based on a ride (POTC: At World’s End) and a toy (Transformers) so I’m wondering, if they decided to extend your role from the Gap commercials would you be in to that?
Danes: (laughs) We had a lot of fun with that, the directors of Little Miss Sunshine (Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris) directed it. When we were shooting it a crewmember said “We’re going to move a lot of product!” and I got so excited by that by that phrase. I came home and said “We’re going to move product!”
(Note: Check it out for yourself. My guess is they did indeed move product)
Mamie, you were never on set with your mom, (Streep, because they play the same role) so did you tell her not to screw up your part?
Gummer: In the end I was very happy with her work (laughs).
Have either of you (Mamie, Natasha) with your mom before before?
Gummer: Only when I was a baby, in a movie called Heartburn, I was a little orange-headed baby.
Richardson We (Vanessa Redgrave) did Chekhov’s The Seagull when I was 22. And then she played my aunt in a film called The White Countess. But it was only like a minute of screen time. This was the first and last time we’ve played mother and daughter though, so that’s why it’s special.
Why the last?
Richardson: I can’t imagine anyone else will ask us to do it, because we’ll have done it in this.
What is it like to have a famous mother?
Gummer: Well, I don’t know what’s it like not to have a famous mother.
Danes: I think all moms at least feel famous too. My mom is the most famous person I know.
Lajos (the director) talked about creating a family atmosphere on set, how did he go about that?
Gummer: Scrabble! No, the house we were shooting at, people were living at, so everyone camped out.
Richardson: Obviously it’s incredibly painful to watch your own mother lie in bed and seem convincingly ill. For me, Lajos restored my faith in movie making because he’s so sensitive and appreciative. He just created an atmosphere; he was like a horse whisperer.
Danes: Yeah it was very communal. I remember having a conversation with Michael Cunningham about what our favorite punctuation mark was, semicolon was our favorite.
Gummer: I still don’t even know when a semicolon is called for (note: I’m sort of with her here).
Danes: Well it’s when you’re saying kind of a related thing. We also like the ellipsis and we’re very wary of the exclamation point.
Claire, do you feel different as an actress now than you did on shows like My So Called Life?
Danes: Actually I just showed a friend of mine the pilot episode of that, it was the first time I’d seen it in like ten years. Boy was that challenging!
Danes: Yeah, it made me want to look at myself as a one year old, because I could make more sense out of that.
What’s next after Evening for you?
Danes: I just did Stardust which is this big fantasy epic. That had it’s own set of challenges, it was more difficult, it’s more stylized, it had a lot of green screen. It’s with Robert Deniro, Sienna Miller, Peter O’Toole, Michelle Pfeiffer, lots of people. I play a star who crashes to Earth, like an actual celestial being.
Typecasting!
Danes: Duh! But I get kidnapped by a young naïve boy, or boy on the cusp of being a man, he’s played by Charlie Cox who I didn’t know before this but was impressed by.
Richardson: I’m going to do a movie that shoots in England this summer but since we’re still negotiating I can’t say too much…
And with that our time ended. Evening opens this Friday at around 900 theaters, one of them bound to be near you! For more on the film including pics, clips and trailers click here.
