The Hobbit's Hunks I: Orlando Bloom

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is Playing in Theaters

The Hobbit's Hunks I: Orlando Bloom

(from Sag Harbor Onlin3 12/20/13)

It’s an amazing statistic.  In its first weekend in theaters nationwide, The Hobbit:The Desolation of Smaug bested the second-place movie at the box-office, Frozen, by a whopping $51 million. Among the theaters that contributed to its $73.6 million gross was the UA Southampton 4, where there have been repeat viewers at both its 3-D and 2-D screenings.  That nearby theater will surely continue do boffo (an industry word!) business through the holidays. There are many reasons that the second part of Peter Jackson’s adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkein’s marvelous fantasy classic–a prelude to his The Lord of the Rings trilogy–is attracting so many viewers.  One reason that is getting little mention is sex appeal.  Lost’s lovely Evangeline Lilly has been added to male-dominated cast, playing an alluring elf who is not in the book.  And those who look past the nonsexual Bilbo, Gandalf, and Gollum, who are front and center, will notice that several of the male characters, who come in all shapes and sizes, are played by hunks.  Several months ago I was sent by the Australian magazine FilmInk to participate in an international press day with three of them: Lee Pace, who plays Thranduil, the Elvenking; Richard Armitage, who plays Thorin Oakenshield, the leader of the dwarves who are on the epic journey to reclaim their fortune and kingdom (which requires they battle the dragon Smaug on the Lonely Mountain); and heartthrob Orlando Bloom, who was so appealing as Thranduil’s elf son Legolas in Jackson’s Rings trilogy that the director inserted the character into his new film although he isn’t in Tolkein’s book.  Next time I’ll post the roundtables with Pace and Armitage.  The following roundtable was with Bloom, who was rehearsing Romeo and Juliet for Broadway at the time. I note my questions.

Q: So you’re back to play Legolas.  Did you expect it or was it a surprise?  Did you jump at it?  Were you hesitant?

Orlando Bloom: It was all of the above. I sat down with Peter Jackson, and my first thought was, “This is great!”  I thought it would be great returning to Peter’s world.  But my next thought was, “How will Legolas feature in the story because, of course, he’s not in the book.  How’s that going to work?”  But Peter had a very clear vision for the elves world and how Legolas’s story would intertwine with the story of Thranduil [Lee Pace], his father.  I also was a little apprehensive that it was treading ground previously tread. But that was only a fleeting thought, because I love the character and I love Peter. And I love New Zealand.  So those are three pretty big boxes to check. Peter gave me my start in life, you know. He plucked me out of drama school, pretty much, and put me on the map. He gave me the opportunity to play a crazy mad cop in Zulu, which I just did in South Africa, which was amazing for me. He also gave me the opportunity to go to Broadway.  In many ways, I’ll always be grateful to him.  So if he said, “Just start jumping in a circle,” I’d say, “How high?” So it was: here we go back to New Zealand for eight months, and we’ll figure out how it’s all going to come together.  It was exciting and wonderful.

Q: Is that how Peter Jackson typically works, expecting things to come together?

OB:  It’s a unique way that Peter makes a film. In his creative process, which involves a lot of preparation, he explores things on the ground and finds more things in the mining and all those things start to move, develop, and grow.

Q: And did things come together with your character to your satisfaction?

OB: Yeah, I had a great time.  I wasn’t entirely sure how my character’s and the elves’ stories were going to play out, but ultimately I’m really happy with what we did.  The elves of Mirkwood are unique. They’re not run-of-the-mill. I think Tolkien said the elves of Mirkwood are less wise, more dangerous. It’s kind of true. I see them as being militant.  Legolas, who is a Mirkwood elf, was always different from the Rivendell elves. He’s got a bit more of an edge.  His father Thranduil has an edge, too.  They’re not messing around. The journey that Legolas goes on in the second and third Hobbit movies leads beautifully to his journey in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. You can see why he would go on the Rings journey and became a member of the Fellowship of the Rings. The writers and the creators of this world, and Peter as a director, really thought that through.  They’ve had one eye on Tolkien and his world and maintained a healthy balance of integrity with that, while taking some creative license to make the story entertaining for a mass audience. I think the second movie is riveting, a really exciting film. If you think of the stories, the threeHobbit movies as one, this is the middle piece that you want to ride to the closing in Part III.  I’m excited to see what this second movie brings.

Q: Has Peter Jackson’s style of directing changed since you last worked together?

OB: No, he’s remarkably the same. Of course the world is bigger–the technology of the world that he’s created down there has advanced at an alarming speed–but in terms of his personal demeanor and character, he’s still very youthful.  Peter’s a wonderful man who has a childlike quality, which I think is what you see in his movies. He’s like a big child; he likes things, he collects things. We get on pretty well because he’s got a funny sense of humor that reminds me of my mates at school. We discussed scenes prior to shooting. For big moments, we would always have good conversations before we shot them. There was always an opportunity to bring up what we wanted to change. At times things developed really nicely through conversation. I went back for reshoots and I did a lot of stuff that played interestingly that had come up in conversation.

Q: Would you say you’re a different actor from when you did the Rings trilogy?

OB: I would hope I’m a different actor from the previous trilogy, which I did years ago. I would say that a lot of what I’m doing in The Hobbit is what’s being provided for me.

Danny Peary: In the trailer, you suddenly appear with a bow and arrow.  Is that Legolas’s entrance into the movie?

OB: How did you know that?

DP: I guessed. I assumed your character would make a grand entrance.

OB: It’s quite a cool entrance with Legolas confronting Thorin with his drawn.  I kind of appear from behind.

Q: Did doing action scenes come back to you easily?

OB: I went back and did some training with the bow and arrow and some movement training, and horse riding. I spent about five weeks doing that. It was great, because it was a refresher and a reminder of what we had done, a great way of getting back into the character. I still have fun with a bow and arrow.

DP: In The Lord of the Rings trilogy, your character reminded me of the supercool, smoothly-moving master swordsman in The Seven Samurai.

OB: Funny you should say that, because that was one of the big influences on the character from the get-go in The Lord of the Rings. I love looking into the movement of elves and how they carry themselves with grace.

DP: Did Peter Jackson ever mention Akira Kurosawa’s film to you?

OB: Yeah, I’m sure he did.  We watched movies all the time and we talked about film, and he provided a really great platform to experience and talk about stuff. I can’t remember talking specifically about Seven Samurai but I know I did watch and I wouldn’t be surprised if that had been on his recommendation.

Q: Legolas has a love interest in this film, Tauriel, played by Evangeline Lilly.

OB: She has the responsibility of being the sole female elf, aside from Galadriel [Cate Blanchett]. Tauriel is kind of a rookie elf. She’s a willful and kind of petulant and does what she chooses to do, which is something Legolas is both excited by and annoyed by on some levels. There’s something rather attractive about that quality that she has. I always thought, wow, if you were an elf and lived for eternity, those feelings you have would be very deep and rich, and not as fleeting as ours.  It’s a very different kind of thing.  I wouldn’t say it’s an elven love story, I’d say it’s an interesting connection between them. There are some complications to it. I think their story along with the father-son dynamic, acted with Lee Pace as Thranduil, plays really well and adds interest to Legolas’s story and the film’s story.

DP: What role does the father-son relationship play in the film?

OB: It helps us see why Legolas goes on to be a part of the Fellowship.  That’s important because in those films you wonder why he would leave his elven world and go on the journey. I think the clever way we play out this father and son story explains a lot about who Legolas is and why he would go off. It’s a struggle. I think the father-son dynamic is for most actors, most men, not too difficult. It doesn’t take the greatest leap of imagination. Having the responsibility of my child now has put a lot of life into perspective –it has been a really wonderful thing–but I’m not sure having a son is necessary to understanding fathers.

Q: As an actor, do you still like taking risks, liking starring in Romeo and Juliet on Broadway?

OB: I feel like I’m taking quite a lot of risks, including playing Romeo on Broadway.  It’s my Broadway debut, and I’ve never played Shakespeare before. Of course I went to drama school but I’ve never actually mounted a production of Shakespeare and doing it in front of a live audience eight shows a week is, I feel, like climbing Mount Everest on my own.  And I’m excited by it.  Anything could happen…which is kind of cool.  I think that taking risks keeps me young and sharp. I think that pressure is what keeps me going. It keeps me hungry and eager to try different things.

Pom Injects Life into "Oldboy"

Playing in Theaters

Pom Injects Life into Oldboy

(from Sag Harbor Online 12/14/13)

By Danny Peary

Pom Klementieff  Photo: DP

In Spike Lee’s Oldboy, Pom Klementieff proves that you don’t necessarily need to speak to get the viewer’s attention.  Surely the young fashion model turned actress confirms that an image can be worth a thousand words of dialogue.  There are many startling images in Lee’s surreal remake of Park Chan Wook’s cult favorite, but among the ones you’re most likely to remember are those of Pom as the silent Haeng-Bok, who at first is a sweet-looking temptress with an umbrella and later morphs into the villain’s lethal, kinkily-garbed companion/henchwoman.  If you’ve been wavering about the seeing the violent, twisted film, which is still playing in Manhattan and in various theaters on Long Island, Haeng-Bok beckons you to take the plunge.  The actress herself was championing the movie at this brief roundtable in New York a few weeks ago.  I note my questions.

Q: Have you seen the original 2003 version of Oldboy?

Pom Klementieff: Yeah, of course, it’s one of my favorite movies. I’ve seen it many times.  I first saw it in theaters in Paris when I was 16. It was the first time I was going to movies on my own, and I loved it. I wanted to be inside that movie. The director Park Chan Wook is Korean, of course.  My father is Russian and French, but my mother is Korean, and I think that was my link to the movie.

Q: Do you think the Asian roots of the original are preserved in the new version?

PK: When I read the script I was afraid that the American version would be more puritanical and the ending wouldn’t be as strong, but not at all. It’s even more twisted. It’s good.

Q: Tell us the casting process.

PK: It was so funny. I had an audition thanks to the producer Roy Lee, who’s American but has Korean parents.  We were doing a remake of a French movie and he told me about this audition. I auditioned for the casting director, and when I was leaving, Spike Lee entered the room.  And I was like, “Oh, my god, it’s Spike Lee!”  And he said, “Can you please do the audition in front of me?”  I was wearing a training outfit and had to show some martial arts movements. I had been training in Paris, and I was not that good.  But I was okay.  I also read some lines.  As you know, Haeng-Bok doesn’t speak in the movie, but he wanted to know if I could actually act.  So I did that, and he said, “Ok, the character is feminine and sexy so I’d like to see you in another outfit. Maybe you can go home, change your outfit, change your makeup, and come back. The assistant of the casting director will drive you home and we’ll wait for you.” I said, “Yeah, of course, yeah.” I was staying with a friend and didn’t have keys to her place, so I called her up to let me in.  And it went to voicemail. “Crap! I don’t care, I’m going to buy a dress, some lipstick, and high heels.”   Everything takes forever in LA because it’s so spread out, but we had to be as quick as possible so I bought everything in one store. I bought a dress that was short, tight, had cleavage, and was really sexy, and red lipstick.  When I came back, Spike said, “You look like a totally different person.”  I said, “Thank you. I look like a whore now.” I think he laughed, and he said, “Can you please do the lines again.” So I did them, and the casting director was punching him and asking for improvisation, so I was improvising the character. Then Spike thanked me and asked me questions about my family and what I thought of the first movie.  Something happened that I felt was special, you know. So I put my sneakers back on, and we thanked each other and I left. And one day later he called me and we had tea. He talked about the movie and shooting in New Orleans, but he didn’t say, “You’ve got the part,” so it was weird. I was thinking, “Maybe I’m so stressed out that he told me I got the part but I didn’t actually hear him.” And so I went back to Paris not knowing anything.  Then I got an email from the casting director saying, “You’ve got the part.” Yeah!  She was like, “Don’t get too excited because now you have to get a work permit and visa.”  But I got them!

Q: So how was it working with Spike Lee?

PK: It was great. Spike loves actors and you get to be in constant conversation with him about your role. He knows exactly what he wants but he likes to give you freedom, so that you can really add your personal touch.

Q: What about Josh Brolin?

PK: It was great to work with Josh, too.  Josh is nice with everybody on set. He’s really generous, because I asked him during rehearsals to train with me sometimes, and when I was stressing out, he was always telling me, “It’s going to be okay, don’t worry.”

Q: Did you get to hang out with the cast?

PK: We went to a casino together, but most of the time I was hanging out with the stuntmen, training with them and talking to them. They were like older brothers who were stuck in my room. I was stressed out because I wanted to be good enough for Spike and I wanted not to hit Josh in the face. I was practicing with sneakers, and I knew that I would have to do the movements wearing high heels, and that’s superhard.  It’s hard to be a woman and badass at the same time!

Q: Haeng-Bok makes several appearances in the film but I wonder if  there were other moments that you shot that ended up on the cutting room floor?

PK: Yeah, maybe, I don’t remember now. I don’t have one of the lead roles. I play a supporting role.  So I shot a lot of things, but the movie focuses on the lead actors, you know what I mean?  What’s funny is that twenty years happen between the beginning of the movie and when Joe is released, and during that time Haeng-Bok doesn’t age.  It’s because I’m Asian, you know! [Laughter].

Danny Peary: The role of the villain’s henchman was changed from male to female in this film, so what is the on relationship between her and him that was created to justify this?  I think there’s a lot that happens off-screen between them.

PK: It’s nice that the writer, Mark Protosevich, whom I love, turned the role into a woman, adding another woman to the movie. I wanted to be in this movie and couldn’t have if the part was a guy!  I think it’s interesting that there’s a girl instead of a guy, and that she’s stayed for twenty years with this crazy guy and they have this strange relationship going on.  She is dedicated to Adrian, serving him and giving herself to him until it turns out really badly. I think it’s a crazy, abusive, twisted relationship.  Sometimes you stay in an abusive relationship; it’s happened to everybody, I think.

DP: Is their relationship is sexual?

PK: I think so. There’s kind of an S&M atmosphere.  But we didn’t show anything in the movie, no real sexual stuff, so everyone can imagine what he wants–which is good.

Q: Were you fine having no dialogue?

PK: I’m such a bad actress that Spike Lee said, “Oh, no, she’s not going to talk.” [Laughter].

Q: For someone who doesn’t say a lot, she has a very menacing presence on screen.  She’s  also very unpredictable for people who don’t know the story and are really not sure who she is and what she’s going to do..

PK: I think it’s what I brought to the role personally. I did things without really thinking about it. And it was about a crazy look, too. Her crazy outfits speak for themselves, I think. She’s a weird character, kind of mysterious.

Q: How challenging is it to find a complex role as a female?

PK: I don’t know. There are more and more interesting parts for women and every role is complex.  It’s never easy, you always have to add layers.

Sophie Helps Judi Bring "Philomena" to Life

Playing in Theaters

Sophie Helps Judi Bring Philomena to Life

(from Sag Harbor Online 12/5/13)

Sophie Kennedy Clark who plays the young Philomena Photo: DP

By Danny Peary

Philomena, a highly-recommended crowd-pleaser that is playing at the UA East Hampton Cinema 6, boasts of a director, Stephen Frears, and male lead/screenwriter, Steve Googan, who each have a legion of fans, me among them. But certainly its top drawing card is its beloved leading lady, Judi Dench.  I expect Dame Judi will collect some best-actress nominations for her standout performance as Philomena Lee, a goodhearted, religious Irish-Catholic woman who asks a discredited BBC journalist (Coogan as Martin Sixmith, author of the nonfiction bestseller, The Lost Child of Philomena Lee) to help her find her son–who the callous nuns at her convent gave up (sold) for adoption fifty years ago.  It is a flawless, triumphant portrayal. But surely we wouldn’t care so much about her Philomena if not for supporting actress Sophie Kennedy Clark’s emotionally-charged performance as theyoung, unmarried Philomena who toils in the convent laundry to be near her child, only to have him sent away.  Clark deserves a nomination or two herself.  A few weeks ago I took part in the following roundtable with the delightfully gregarious Scottish actress.  I note my questions.

Danny Peary: I’ve read about your audition for Philomena.  It’s a great story worth repeating…

Sophie Kennedy Clark: Ah, right, here’s my audition story. I basically found out that there was a part for a young Judi Dench, so I thought I’d just go in, meet Judi Dench, do this nice little scene, and have the casting director say, “Okay, great, thanks very much.”  But I got a call-back and found out I was meeting Stephen Frears.  So I do this nice little scene again for him, and he goes, “Was that your interpretation of an Irish accent?” I’m thinking, “Well, Stephen, I’m a big fan of your work, lovely to meet you, have a nice day!”  I thought I could at least put the idea of playing the part out of my mind, and carry on with my life.

Then I found out I’ve got a third audition.  Now I’m thinking that he’s just toying with me, but I’ll go along anyway. It’s self-preservation when I go in thinking I’m not going to get a part, and I don’t tell anyone I’m auditioning because I don’t want them to keep bringing it up when I don’t want to talk about not getting a job.  So I kept the auditions forPhiomena a secret, and I went for the second callback.  This time they told me that I was going to be doing the scene where Philomena has just watched her child taken away. Now, at 10:30 on a Tuesday morning, you want to play a scene like that as much as getting a hole in your head.  Losing your child!?! I’m not a mother, so I had never had a child or lost a child.  To do the script and Philomena justice I knew I was really going to have to commit to it, but it was quite nerve-wracking knowing I’d have to completely break down in front of strangers.  At the time I’d never met Philomena and didn’t know Stephen well enough to feel I was in safe hands.

They’d rented out a big room below the casting office for me to do that scene. So I knocked on the casting office door and the casting director said, “Sophie, I’m afraid they’ve given the room away.”  I knew it!  She told me not to worry and then I heard Stephen’s booming voice from inside the casting office, saying, “Bring her in anyway!” I’m like, “Hi Stephen, nice to see you again.”  He’s like, “We don’t have the room downstairs but you’re going to have to do something, aren’t you?  Well, why don’t you just give birth instead?”  He now wanted me to do the scene in which Philomena gives birth to Anthony!  As an actress, you have to go, “Yeah, of course, I was working on that scene, last night. Let’s do it, Do you want me to do it here?  Here’s fine.  Do I go now?”  And Stephen tells me to begin.  Now he’s sitting there with a handheld camera. I put my head back, my legs akimbo, and I looked up and thought, “I’m going to so make him regret this. I’m going to scream the bloody roof off!”

I had to commit because I’d have looked like a fool if I didn’t.  So I worked myself up, put myself into it and started screaming. He really left me out there, and there was a moment when I was looking at him and thinking, “Seriously?”  Then after quite a long time, he said stop.  I ended up with my body shaking and in a fit of tears. I could barely speak, so I just got up and walked out of the room. I had almost completely lost control because of where I put myself in my head, and of the very unnatural position I put my body in–because I was not really giving birth.  I had plans to get coffee with friends afterwards, but I had to very quickly cancel because I looked like a train wreck. I was thinking, I never want to think about this again–but I haven’t really stopped thinking about it since.  So that was my audition for Philomena.  As luck would have it, two weeks later I got the role.

Q: How many takes did you have to do when you actually shot the birth scene?

SKC: I did it three times. The first time was kind of a run-through. The second time they told me Philomena was on set–and for me it was game over.  The weird thing is that I’m not a crier. My friends believe that I don’t have tear ducts.  But then I found myself in that situation and the tears came really easily. Acting for me is being remotely human. When you’ve got your legs up and nuns are there and they come towards you to plunge a forceps between your legs, that will make you scream! It was so clinical and horrible being in that room with those utensils. They didn’t have breathing exercises back then so the only advise you were probably given was stay alive. I mean it was monstrous. And that was in the 1950s, not even that long ago! So Nymphomania seemed a bit like a walk in the park.

Q: Had you already worked with Lars von Trier on that film when you did this audition?

SKC: I was in the middle of filming Nymphomaniac when I got Philomena. That was a thrill.  Proud parents! They couldn’t really tell their friends, “You know, Sophie’s in Nymphomaniac.” My father said, “Well she’s in a convent now!” My mom is a big fan of Judi Dench, so she was very happy, too.

Philomena hugs her son.

DP: Do you think that Judi Dench’s older Philomena is consistent with the young Philomena that you play?  Do you see a believable transition?

SKC: I can almost watch the movie objectively because I don’t look at the young Philomena and recognize me. I have a different accent, and I’ve never had short hair.  So I look and sound completely different and I am playing Philomena with a certain naiveté, and when I see Judi’s style and her face shape and that she also plays Philomena with a certain naiveté, I think the transition goes nicely. I’d like to think it does.

Q: When first seeing the film, were you so pleased that you were able to translate the character that you didn’t worry people may think you are not glamorous?

SKC: Ultimately, my job as an actor is to be a chameleon, and I feel the only healthy relationship an audience member has with me as an actor is believing I am my character. I felt that the way I appeared in the film did justice to the situation that Philomena went through and to everything that this film teaches people.  That Philomena felt I was doing a good job for her was at the forefront of my mind.   I know that she has seen the film four times now and absolutely loves it. She’s very pleased with both Judi and me, which is very important to both of us.

Q: Did you talk to Judi Dench about playing a younger version of the woman she was playing?

SKC: I actually made the decision not to speak to Judi.  It was not because I haven’t wanted to speak to her forever and always, because she’s amazing.  I decided it was best not to speak to her–and Stephen Frears felt strongly about this, too–because she plays Philomena at a stage in her life where she has been so shaped by what happened to her,  whereas I play her at a point where she’s very raw and naïve. Those girls in the convents didn’t know anything. They didn’t have access to any kind of information, so what they were told they believed. The only person that I felt could really give me the information that I needed was the real Philomena. So I made the journey to her house in London to meet her, and she very kindly invited me inside for a cup of tea.  It was difficult because I knew I was going to be asking her incredibly personal questions. I was meeting someone in her eighties who had been through an incredibly tragic circumstance, so I was nervous speaking to her about it.  But she was so open and lovely and accommodated all of my questions very, very honestly. It was quite emotional because what happened still makes her well up. She still goes over this situation every day in her mind.  I was asking her about certain types of situations with the nuns and her relationships with them, asking, “Why didn’t you just run away?”  Because these days, kids fight back.  She was like, “Don’t you worry, I’ll put in a good word for you with The Man Upstairs.”  I was like, ” You’ll what? You’re still talking to Him?”  She was like, “Yeah, He owes me one.”   I was like, “He owes you one?  I’d say He owes you quite a few!” It was amazing to realize that this woman still has a sense of humor, because through religion she found forgiveness–and if we can find forgiveness in any realm of our lives, we can go on living.  That’s why I feel that in addition to telling Philomena’s story and the [harsh] truth, comedy is so important because that’s who she is, too.

Q: Why do you think she was able to walk away from what happened and not be totally scarred or damned by it?

SKC: Philomena’s faith wavered for a long time. She said that she always still prayed, always had faith, but she started to heavily question some of the lessons she’d been taught and the reasons behind some people’s behavior. Her “therapy” came from her becoming a psychiatric nurse and speaking to many other people who had gone through equally terrible things.  She realized that it was not her faith that was the problem. What had happened was the problem, and that didn’t mean she should lose her faith.  What happened to her in the convent didn’t cause her to demonize religion. You’ve got to give it to the woman to be able to find goodness.  The “religion” she experienced was awful, but as a psychiatric nurse she got to understand psychology, and I think for her that was very important.  Philomena is an incredibly strong-willed woman. She and Judi Dench, two women I’m completely in awe of, taught me things that I’ll try to have for the rest of my life.

Q: Did you look at pictures of her as well, when she was your age?

SKC: She was in a convent when she’s like 18, 19; it’s completely mind-boggling. I’ve seen one or two pictures. The picture of Anthony as a two-year-old! When you see that little face and know the story, I defy you not to weep.

DP: Philomena left the convent and eventually married and had a daughter.  We learn in the movie, in a scene with Judi Dench, that the young Philomena enjoyed the sexual encounter that led to Anthony’s birth.  I doubt if you asked her this, but do you think Philomena had premarital sex again?

SKC: I think she probably did.  She said the sexual experience she had at the fairgrounds was the most amazing thing, like with a knight…

DP:  But she was always told by her parents and the nuns that she had sinned, and she believed that.

SKC: Maybe when she was getting married again, she looked back and said it wasn’t a sin.  You can rationalize it more when you’re slightly older and you’ve lived a life, as opposed to when you’re a child and have no access to any kind of information, and have no family to tell you otherwise. You believe what you’re told. Once these girls, who have no families and no money, are stripped of the title of Mother, they don’t have anything. I think when they move on and meet other people, they will try to block all that out.  So I can’t say for sure, but I believe she would have had sex again before marrying.

Q: Have you had experience with nuns?

SKC: My experience with nuns is very minimal, although my sister went to a Catholic school for a while.  I’m Protestant; my mother is Protestant, my father is not so religious.  My mother’s always dragged my brother, sister, father and me to church every Christmas. She a practicing Christian and there’s nothing wrong with that, but I just don’t particularly want to go to church.  We all had to go, wherever were in the world.  Now my father seesPhilomena as his opportunity not to go. He does send me texts now and again, still seething he is at the Catholic Church. But I feel this is just to get out of going to church with my mother.  He says, “I’ve seen that film Sophie did. I’m not going anymore!  She’s like, “We’re not even Catholic!” I’m now used as a scapegoat! I think this film brings to life a very extreme side of religion. My sister’s experience with nuns was not like Philomena’s, but it was atrocious.  She won’t be very happy to read what I’ve said. Oh dear, she just got married, so she’ll have my guts for garters, I swear!

Q: Will your parents see Nymphomaniac?

SKC: I’m sure they will. I think they’re curious, like the rest of the world, after seeing all those little snippets they keep on releasing.  They are something I didn’t really want to ever discuss with my parents, to be honest. I don’t know if you’ve ever discussed your orgasm with your parents, but I certainly haven’t.

Q: You’re also going to be in Brad Anderson’s Eliza Graves.

SKC: I made that in the summer.  It’s also wonderfully different.  I’ve been very lucky that it’s been a really diverse year. I’m doing a bit of repetition though, only doing movies with Sirs and Dames. Eliza Graves has got Sir Ben Kingsley and Sir Michael Caine in it. along with Kate Beckinsale, Jim Sturgess, two fine, fine British actors. Getting to work opposite Sir Ben Kingsley was astonishing  It has a real corker of a script and is wonderfully fantastical in that Edgar Allan Poe way.  It was a lot of fun being the ultimate weirdo that is within us all.  She’s a lunatic.  It wasn’t much of a stretch!