| Essexboys -
Film |
ALEX KINGSTON
Lisa Locke
With a strong list of theatrical credits behind her, including
a term at the Royal Shakespeare Company (playing Cordelia in
Nicolas Hytner's production of King Lear amongst many), Alex
Kingston leapt to the British public's attention with her stunning
portrayal of the ubiquitous heroine of Moll Flanders in the
acclaimed television series. Based most of the year in Los Angeles
now, she is known to a world-wide audience of ER as Dr Elizabeth
Corday.
Alex Kingston's other film work includes Peter Greenaway's The
Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, Christopher Hampton's
Carrington and Mike Hodges' much admired The Croupier.
Alex sees some similarities between Dafoe's Moll and Lisa Locke:
"I'd describe both as consummate survivors. Ultimately
both are victims of their circumstances, although essentially
very strong women. Like Moll, Lisa certainly has her own steadfast
ideas, but comes from a background where women don't really
get their own say. They're streetwise and quite bright, if not
highly educated - and they choose to use their intelligence
for rather shady means.
"In a sense I feel Lisa definitely knows what is right
and wrong. She knows what her husband's work involves (which
is drugs and probably anything relating to petty crime) and
she accepts this without batting an eyelid. She's also very
ambitious. Because her husband has done five years for something
that he shouldn't have taken the rap alone for, she definitely
wants him to get a share of the pie now. In fact she really
wants him to take the lead of the group.
"While her husband has been in prison, she has been watching
how the other guys work. So she knows how they wheel and deal,
and she can see where their dealings aren't quite working, and
where things could be improved.
"But Lisa is still a woman in a man's world. She could
never let anyone else know that she is the brains behind the
scenes. And she knows that she has gone too far when she gets
beaten up by Jason. In his own macho world he doesn't like to
be seen to be told what to do by his wife. But she accepts this
as part of her lot - in the same way that the other wives and
girlfriends I imagine also accept it. It's just part of their
life.
"It's odd, I do think she loves Jason in her own strange
way. It's a toughie because I think she also knows that she
isn't well treated by him, but she accepts it. Lisa's very aware
of her age, and that her husband's eyes tend to wander to young
girls. I think she's aware that, because she can't have children,
the power she might have had over Jason is now lost. He regularly
makes nasty comments in public about her getting older. Ultimately,
she finds out that her survival is more important than anyone
else's, and that she can achieve just as much as the men. Although
that's about as much of the ending as I want to give away!
"I really built up Lisa's history through what she says
in the script. We know that she and Jason were at school together,
and that he was kind of the local stud. There is a point where
she says 'she got him', so definitely she was out to beat the
other girls to him. I remember when I very first met Jeff (Jeff
Pope, Producer) and Terry (Terry Winsor, Director) I said that
I could imagine he would probably have impressed her with the
whole champagne/cocaine thing. And for somebody like Lisa it
would have been a glamorous life - going up the West End all
the time.
"There's also a reference to him having slept around in
the past, and having had a child with someone else. I can imagine
that would have really affected Lisa, and I think in a sense
that's probably when her own unconscious bitterness would have
set in - when she realises that she has to make something of
her life if she can't make a child.
"Also I put some research into the Essex Girl as a whole.
I mean, everyone thinks they know what an Essex Girl is because
of the jokes about white stilettos and corned beef legs. But
as I'd been away for a while I approached it as somebody who
didn't have those pre-conceived ideas. Looking at people like
Denise van Outen and even the Spice Girls - they're much more
sophisticated than that, certainly externally, and it's not
so cheap anymore. It's very much the designer label look. Usually
if you go shopping and people ask how much something was, you
play it down, you don't want to be seen to be spending outrageous
amounts of money. But I found in Essex that they actually like
to show off how much they spend.
"One night we went out to a big Chinese restaurant in Brentwood,
and just watched all these women. Most of them were there having
hen nights or parties. And there were a lot of really bad dye
jobs. At the time I worried about my own hair colouring not
being right, but there was no way I could bleach it because
I was still filming ER at the same time.
"When we were filming in the big country house in Essex
- the owners of the house and their friends were so amazingly
generous and friendly, and it was really interesting talking
to the women. They had good jobs in the city, earning good money.
At weekends they would go to all the latest clubs in London.
"I know that Terry is in love with the whole film-noir
genre. But we didn't want it to be some kind of moody LA Confidential
because it's got to be absolutely rooted in brutal reality.
Nevertheless I wanted to just occasionally have a hint at the
femme fatales of the past. It's a great part, and I love the
way Lisa uses her sexuality when she wants to get somewhere.
"Initially I wanted a speech coach to get the accent completely
right. There is a difference between London and Essex accents,
and I didn't want to confuse them. But Terry and Jeff were adamant
that I had caught it - as was Jeffs wife who is natural born
Essex girl. I even got a great compliment from one of the crew
who was convinced that it was my normal accent. It will be interesting
to see how my voice comes out in the episode of ER I was working
on at the same time as this!
"The commuting during that time was hard going for me.
I came over to England twice between the LA shoots. My problem
during the first trip was that after rehearsals I was buzzing
because I was still on LA time. So that was why we went out
to the casinos in Southend and that Chinese restaurant in Brentwood.
I would be out until 3am in the morning, and then had to be
up again at 9am. That week was very intense, and I found it
especially hard when I got back to LA, . The second time I came
to England was for the night shoots. This was fantastic for
me because again I was on LA time, so I could just sleep during
the day.
"I chose to give up my break during ER because ESSEX BOYS
was the best script I had read in a long time - I thought the
characters were wonderful. Also, I remember the true incident
that fuelled Jeff and Terry's imagination. It was an extraordinary
mystery in a sense, seeing this Range Rover with these three
men in it in a middle of a field. It intrigued me.
"For a woman in your thirties, most of the time you will
be sent scripts in which you play the wife of either the comic
star or the dramatic star. Sometimes those roles can be nice,
and you feel that you could inject more into that character,
to make her three- dimensional instead of one-dimensional. But
to then be sent a script full of male characters, and where
the main female character is a really strong and interesting
person to play. That was great, so I jumped at the chance to
do this role.
"It is a conscious decision for me to keep a general acting
career going whilst still working on ER, not necessarily just
movies, but working in the theatre as well. It's just to actually
keep working, and make people realise that I'm an actress, and
so I can play a lot more than Elizabeth Corday. I've been in
the business a long time and I know that I have quite a versatile
spectrum. So, as much as I love playing Elizabeth Corday, it's
nice to have another personality in my life for a while. I also
like to play somebody different to avoid becoming typecast,
because that can happen easily.
"I don't think that I've consciously gone for strong, meaty
roles, but that they have more come my way. When I was at drama
school I played quite a lot of character roles. Then when I
started theatre, I did a lot of Shakespeare (both in rep and
then at the RSC) and still got these strong character roles.
I think it has something to do with my physique, because I'm
built strongly. Also, I have quite a deep voice. I'm thrilled
because on the whole, if I think of actresses who tend to play
strong roles in the movies - Meryl Streep, Kathy Bates, Angelica
Huston, Sigourney Weaver - it's the sort of company I would
like to keep!
"The physique helps me in other ways too. There are quite
a few times when Sean has to slap me around. He knew that I
would allow him to do what he wanted. I'm not one of these actresses
who say that you mustn't hit me hard, or you must only pretend,
because I think that on the big screen you can't pretend. We
did have a fight director there, but he would just basically
make sure that we were working within a safe environment. We
both trusted each other to allow each other to do what we wanted
within reason.
"I was really nervous about the big punch up in the garden,
because it also involved having my head thrust under a freezing
cold tap. The minute my hair goes under water it goes all curly
again. So we knew that if we had to do another take it would
be two hours minimum to finish straightening my hair and resume
filming. So there was quite a lot of pressure on that night,
and it actually happened that we were able to do that part of
that scene in one take. But certainly people who were watching
seem to have been quite shocked by the violence. I was fine
then, but the next day it hit me. I was exhausted, and bruised,
and definitely went into shock a little after that fight.
"After scenes like that I am still able to be around Sean
- I don't have to cut him off completely. Sean is quite a shy
person, so our off-set relationship wasn't really one of going
down the pub anyway. We did a little rehearsal before the shoot
- but it was a bit like we didn't need to talk about it. We
both instinctively knew who our characters were, and how they
would be with each other. I'm an instinctive actress, and watching
Sean, he seems to be an instinctive actor too. He's very at
home physically with his body. We seemed to work well together
as a couple - we were well matched.
"There is a certain amount of nudity in the film. But I
didn't worry about that aspect at all. If you read a script,
and you see your character has scenes that involve nudity etc,
then if you want to play the character you have to accept that
you are going to do it. I really have very little time for actresses
who say 'please let me do this role', and then once the contract
is signed refuse to have anything to do with the nude scenes.
They should just have refused to accept the job. I felt those
scenes are part of the character of Lisa - making up the texture
of who she is. Also in a sense it highlights her vulnerability
and the fact that only through physical contact does she feel
confident - through being sexually attractive. I think those
scenes are definitely valid. Again, like in Moll Flanders it
shows the character's cunning manipulation of people, but it
also displays her vulnerability." |
| Contact : bernard.omahoney@bernardomahoney.com |
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