Post by Ace on May 23, 2008 12:36:18 GMT -5
By Lorrie Lynch with Kathy Rowings
blogs.usaweekend.com/whos_news/2008/05/save-for-frid-1.html
Mamma Mia! star Christine Baranski
May 23, 2008
Baranski This summer, "Greece" is the word for Christine Baranski. The impeccably coiffed comedienne heads to Plato’s stomping ground as Meryl Streep’s girlfriend in the musical Mamma Mia! on July 18 (they're both pictured at right). And honestly, the whole experience sounded more like a holiday than a job. Baranski is another of the supporting players we feature on this weekend's Who's News page. Read on for even more of Jon Tollestrup's interview with her.
Were you a fan of ABBA’s music before Mamma Mia! or did this experience turn into a formal introduction?
Like most people I didn’t realize I was a big fan of their music until I saw the musical and thought, “Oh my gosh, this music has been background music for so much of my life!” I do have a distinct memory of being in a big record store on 42nd street [and they were playing] Dancing Queen. I was in the store buying some music and hearing this music and then walking out of the store and then walking back in to continue hearing the song because it was so happy. I didn’t see the show until I got cast in the movie. I know my daughter Lily went to see the show and I went to see some high-brow thing called Metamorphoses based on the poetry of the Ovid and thinking, “Oh my daughter is going to see this silly musical, why isn’t she coming with me to this really, truly wonderful piece of theatre?” [Laughs] Little did I know that years later I would be in it.
I guess be careful what you scorn in your thoughts.
Yeah. But then I saw it in New York and then I saw it again when I started working on it in London and by the end of the show people are standing in the aisles dancing and it just is so uplifting and joyous and sensuous. And certainly working on the musical was one of the happiest, if not the happiest, work experience of my career.
So did it take awhile for the songs to finally leave your head after the film wrapped?
[Laughs] Oh you have no idea. I’m still not sure they are out of my head yet. When one pops in it just keeps playing and playing and playing.
In looking at the cast, on the female side there’s you, Julie Walters and Meryl Streep. Then you’re all sort of evenly matched on the male side with Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgård. So did the set ever turn into a friendly battle of the sexes?
The jokes came as we got to Greece. In London we filmed for months and at the end of the shooting day people were tired and went back to their homes or their hotels. But I have to say once we hit the Greek islands we were all in basically the same hotel, we’d eat together every night and then it became this joke of “so many tavernas, so little time.” The social scene was irresistible and people were just bleary-eyed from the amount of socializing, just eating on the beach and having the Greek wine and the Greek dancing. There’s this thing called Cipro, it’s like Ouzo, and on nights before a day off we could indulge a little, and even if you don’t have that much, the next morning if you drink water the whole thing kicks in again so you find yourself a little drunk for the rest of the day. So there were a lot of jokes about how we really needed to get off the Greek islands just to detox.
Let me ask you about working with Meryl Streep. She’s obviously an incredible actress, but she’s always talked about in sort of super-human terms. So what was she like in reality and as a regular person?
I’d hoped to connect with her because on a very basic level she kind of lives not so far from me in Connecticut, and I always appreciated the fact that she raised kids, she has a long marriage, she kept her life private, she managed to be a mom and have this astonishing career. I always thought if I could spend time with her we would have so much to talk about and I always thought she would be cool to be around. It’s clear to me that one of the reasons she’s such a great actress is that she’s so alive, she’s so in touch with life, so curious and so fun and you get that when you’re with her. I think the more we got to know each other and have fun with each other the more that communicated on film. So in a way I always said we were doing research whenever we hung out together [laughs].
Do any memorable moments or conversations come to mind when you think back on working with her?
There are so many that are dear to my heart. We spent one afternoon on a boat with Phyllida [Lloyd, the director]. It’s the boat that’s in the movie and it’s called “The Fernando” and it’s the boat that Stellan’s character has. So Phyllida invited us to spend the day on the boat and we brought a picnic and we just were sailing all day on our day off lounging on this boat. It was just dreamlike, it was so wonderful. And I remember giving Meryl a foot massage and we were just hanging out.
Apart from Meryl Streep you also get to work with Pierce Brosnan. I don’t think I was the only person who did a double take upon learning that James Bond was going to be singing and dancing to ABBA songs. So as a witness on the frontline, how did he do?
I’m telling you, I can’t speak highly enough of Pierce. He’s such a gentleman and such a lovely and accessible human being, but honestly we were all just agog at the quality of his singing voice. He comes off with such a sincerity and it’s effortless and he’s not self conscious. His singing voice is kind of a rocker voice. It’s very deep and sexy and the women were just standing there and our mouths were hanging open when he started singing to Meryl. He gets down on his knee and starts singing to her and we were all a little overwhelmed. But all the guys were really good sports about having to dance and there were a lot of jokes about it and all, but they just threw themselves into it and I think you’ll be surprised. But all the men were just terrified about singing because singing and dancing is suddenly talking Arabic or something. For an actor it can be so strange to do that and make that jump. You won’t see it on film, but they were uncomfortable. I think they expressed all of their anxieties beforehand.
Speaking of the men and their fears, I read this tidbit on the Internet, which of course can’t be trusted, that talked about this scene where Colin, Pierce and Stellan have to jump off of a cliff. What I read said they wouldn’t do it until Phyllida Lloyd did the jump to demonstrate that it was safe. Is this true or just an Internet rumor?
You know what I wasn’t on the set that day. I know there was much talk about how it was a really scary jump. That much I know because I was with the guys at the taverna that night and they were talking about how incredibly scary it was. It was quite a height. I think it was either Phyllida or, well I know the cinematographer jumped in and there were several very brave people who just unabashedly jumped in. But the poor actors; none of them were comfortable with that jump and they had to do it and there were many jokes about it. I wasn’t there that day and thank God I didn’t have to jump. I have a fear of heights and it would have been unbearable for me.
It’s funny to hear they were nervous, especially Pierce because you tend to think he’s James Bond, he’s jumped out of airplanes so what’s a little cliff jump into the ocean?
That’s kind of the wonderful thing is that he’s James Bond, but he’s so human. But you should talk to him or any of the guys on the topic of that jump because they’re so funny on the topic. Also, I don’t know if they want me to say in the press that they were scared. Maybe they want to make it seem like they were completely fearless.
Finally, what’s next for you now that Mamma Mia! is finished?
I’m actually in rehearsals for a Broadway play called Boeing, Boeing and it’s really fun. You know putting a farce together is always very challenging because it quickly reaches heights of absurdity. You have to pin it down with a great sense of truth and conviction and energy, but ultimately when it plays it’s kind of like serving dessert to an audience. So that’s going to take up a lot of my time, I have at least a six-month contract on it. Then Mamma Mia! opens in the summer. It’s curious how many musicals I’ve done at this point in my life. I’ve done more musicals in the last five, six years. I was in Chicago, and that was another movie where I got to be in this great musical number with all the guys. I’ve been blessed to be in these musical numbers with all these young fabulous dancers. Then I did Mame, Follies and Sweeney Todd in Washington, D.C. So I seem to be singing more later in my career and I really love it, it’s such a great medium. So maybe there’ll be more movie musicals.
blogs.usaweekend.com/whos_news/2008/05/save-for-frid-1.html
Mamma Mia! star Christine Baranski
May 23, 2008
Baranski This summer, "Greece" is the word for Christine Baranski. The impeccably coiffed comedienne heads to Plato’s stomping ground as Meryl Streep’s girlfriend in the musical Mamma Mia! on July 18 (they're both pictured at right). And honestly, the whole experience sounded more like a holiday than a job. Baranski is another of the supporting players we feature on this weekend's Who's News page. Read on for even more of Jon Tollestrup's interview with her.
Were you a fan of ABBA’s music before Mamma Mia! or did this experience turn into a formal introduction?
Like most people I didn’t realize I was a big fan of their music until I saw the musical and thought, “Oh my gosh, this music has been background music for so much of my life!” I do have a distinct memory of being in a big record store on 42nd street [and they were playing] Dancing Queen. I was in the store buying some music and hearing this music and then walking out of the store and then walking back in to continue hearing the song because it was so happy. I didn’t see the show until I got cast in the movie. I know my daughter Lily went to see the show and I went to see some high-brow thing called Metamorphoses based on the poetry of the Ovid and thinking, “Oh my daughter is going to see this silly musical, why isn’t she coming with me to this really, truly wonderful piece of theatre?” [Laughs] Little did I know that years later I would be in it.
I guess be careful what you scorn in your thoughts.
Yeah. But then I saw it in New York and then I saw it again when I started working on it in London and by the end of the show people are standing in the aisles dancing and it just is so uplifting and joyous and sensuous. And certainly working on the musical was one of the happiest, if not the happiest, work experience of my career.
So did it take awhile for the songs to finally leave your head after the film wrapped?
[Laughs] Oh you have no idea. I’m still not sure they are out of my head yet. When one pops in it just keeps playing and playing and playing.
In looking at the cast, on the female side there’s you, Julie Walters and Meryl Streep. Then you’re all sort of evenly matched on the male side with Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgård. So did the set ever turn into a friendly battle of the sexes?
The jokes came as we got to Greece. In London we filmed for months and at the end of the shooting day people were tired and went back to their homes or their hotels. But I have to say once we hit the Greek islands we were all in basically the same hotel, we’d eat together every night and then it became this joke of “so many tavernas, so little time.” The social scene was irresistible and people were just bleary-eyed from the amount of socializing, just eating on the beach and having the Greek wine and the Greek dancing. There’s this thing called Cipro, it’s like Ouzo, and on nights before a day off we could indulge a little, and even if you don’t have that much, the next morning if you drink water the whole thing kicks in again so you find yourself a little drunk for the rest of the day. So there were a lot of jokes about how we really needed to get off the Greek islands just to detox.
Let me ask you about working with Meryl Streep. She’s obviously an incredible actress, but she’s always talked about in sort of super-human terms. So what was she like in reality and as a regular person?
I’d hoped to connect with her because on a very basic level she kind of lives not so far from me in Connecticut, and I always appreciated the fact that she raised kids, she has a long marriage, she kept her life private, she managed to be a mom and have this astonishing career. I always thought if I could spend time with her we would have so much to talk about and I always thought she would be cool to be around. It’s clear to me that one of the reasons she’s such a great actress is that she’s so alive, she’s so in touch with life, so curious and so fun and you get that when you’re with her. I think the more we got to know each other and have fun with each other the more that communicated on film. So in a way I always said we were doing research whenever we hung out together [laughs].
Do any memorable moments or conversations come to mind when you think back on working with her?
There are so many that are dear to my heart. We spent one afternoon on a boat with Phyllida [Lloyd, the director]. It’s the boat that’s in the movie and it’s called “The Fernando” and it’s the boat that Stellan’s character has. So Phyllida invited us to spend the day on the boat and we brought a picnic and we just were sailing all day on our day off lounging on this boat. It was just dreamlike, it was so wonderful. And I remember giving Meryl a foot massage and we were just hanging out.
Apart from Meryl Streep you also get to work with Pierce Brosnan. I don’t think I was the only person who did a double take upon learning that James Bond was going to be singing and dancing to ABBA songs. So as a witness on the frontline, how did he do?
I’m telling you, I can’t speak highly enough of Pierce. He’s such a gentleman and such a lovely and accessible human being, but honestly we were all just agog at the quality of his singing voice. He comes off with such a sincerity and it’s effortless and he’s not self conscious. His singing voice is kind of a rocker voice. It’s very deep and sexy and the women were just standing there and our mouths were hanging open when he started singing to Meryl. He gets down on his knee and starts singing to her and we were all a little overwhelmed. But all the guys were really good sports about having to dance and there were a lot of jokes about it and all, but they just threw themselves into it and I think you’ll be surprised. But all the men were just terrified about singing because singing and dancing is suddenly talking Arabic or something. For an actor it can be so strange to do that and make that jump. You won’t see it on film, but they were uncomfortable. I think they expressed all of their anxieties beforehand.
Speaking of the men and their fears, I read this tidbit on the Internet, which of course can’t be trusted, that talked about this scene where Colin, Pierce and Stellan have to jump off of a cliff. What I read said they wouldn’t do it until Phyllida Lloyd did the jump to demonstrate that it was safe. Is this true or just an Internet rumor?
You know what I wasn’t on the set that day. I know there was much talk about how it was a really scary jump. That much I know because I was with the guys at the taverna that night and they were talking about how incredibly scary it was. It was quite a height. I think it was either Phyllida or, well I know the cinematographer jumped in and there were several very brave people who just unabashedly jumped in. But the poor actors; none of them were comfortable with that jump and they had to do it and there were many jokes about it. I wasn’t there that day and thank God I didn’t have to jump. I have a fear of heights and it would have been unbearable for me.
It’s funny to hear they were nervous, especially Pierce because you tend to think he’s James Bond, he’s jumped out of airplanes so what’s a little cliff jump into the ocean?
That’s kind of the wonderful thing is that he’s James Bond, but he’s so human. But you should talk to him or any of the guys on the topic of that jump because they’re so funny on the topic. Also, I don’t know if they want me to say in the press that they were scared. Maybe they want to make it seem like they were completely fearless.
Finally, what’s next for you now that Mamma Mia! is finished?
I’m actually in rehearsals for a Broadway play called Boeing, Boeing and it’s really fun. You know putting a farce together is always very challenging because it quickly reaches heights of absurdity. You have to pin it down with a great sense of truth and conviction and energy, but ultimately when it plays it’s kind of like serving dessert to an audience. So that’s going to take up a lot of my time, I have at least a six-month contract on it. Then Mamma Mia! opens in the summer. It’s curious how many musicals I’ve done at this point in my life. I’ve done more musicals in the last five, six years. I was in Chicago, and that was another movie where I got to be in this great musical number with all the guys. I’ve been blessed to be in these musical numbers with all these young fabulous dancers. Then I did Mame, Follies and Sweeney Todd in Washington, D.C. So I seem to be singing more later in my career and I really love it, it’s such a great medium. So maybe there’ll be more movie musicals.