| By Elliot V. Kotek (Cinequest 2007) Accepting the Maverick Award at Cinequest 2007, Minnie Driver laughed as she took off her sunglasses and apologized for her bloodshot eyes. It had been a long night of filming the TV show "The Riches," she said - into the little hours of "what was this morning." Applauding Cinequest for what she described as "a lot of really leading-edge thought about filmmaking" and saying, "I'm really happy to be here - exhausted, but happy," she let Moving Pictures Magazine catch up with her. Do you consider yourself a maverick? Have you considered yourself a maverick all these years?
Minnie Driver: Gosh, that's a good question. I think Laurie Ann Bekker is kind of a maverick. I don't think I've ever really fit into any mold that Hollywood encourages you to fit into - because it's easy that way, unless you get enough attitude - and it's certainly way into my, you know, my early thirties that I'm really realizing how much there is I do, having established somewhat of a name. If you were to choose to spread your wings and not be afraid..., you can be as maverick as you care to be, and that's very exciting, I must say. I think I'm a maverick when I want.
Which is the role that you would like to do most of all?
Driver: I'm honestly playing the role I've always dreamed about playing right now: "The Riches." And there's no one from Fox here encouraging me to say this - it's just genuinely extraordinary. Very strange and incredibly unpredictable even; passionate, dramatic, fun. All the things that you want as an actor. Which is your favorite of the roles you have played?
Driver: Probably Grosse Pointe Blank, really, because being part of that whole film was such an intense improvisation. It was an amazing experience. John Cusak [is a] truly amazing actor. He made me a much better actor. If you wanted to play a role, like some famous person...
Driver: I'd like to play Amelia Earhart. I would very much like to play her. My name is Amelia, actually - my real name. Though I don't know if that really counts for anything. You challenge yourself not only in film but also in music. So what drives the Driver, artistically?
Driver: (Laughs) I played music my whole life. And, you know, I was a singer as well. I was singing before I was acting professionally. There's a confluence of things that go on if you're an artist. I paint, I cook, I want to have children. You know, we're creative creatures. I'm not a scientist, but you're not encouraged to be in any way or shape... It's actually frowned upon to want to have more than one creative outlet, [like people are] somewhat threatened by it. And it seems to me, people think you're being greedy if you want to do more than one thing, which I simply can not ascribe to. And all my acting, my singing, my writing, my cooking, surfing, yoga comes from the same place inside me. It's just sort of a natural spring to that.
I read that you got your inspiration to act from Meryl Streep. Which film was that?
Driver: Gosh, I think it must've been - what year was The Deer Hunter? '80 or '81? So I must've been eight or nine, and I remember seeing that. There was something about her that was so utter and so truthful, even now the brilliance comes back, and it's so frightening. She is always connected. I mean, if she's nominated for The Devil Wears Prada, she's nominated for a confectioner film. And, yet she [has] unbelievable truth and grace. She's just it for me. She's always been unparalleled. There are other fantastic and great actresses, but there's something... She's a creature, a beautiful and amazing creature. You've done a lot of animation films, from the upcoming Simpsons movie to Princess Mononoke. How do you approach those roles in which you can't use your body language and you just have your voice?
Driver: It's great! You don't have to wear makeup or anything. That's my favorite part of the work. It's different; it requires you to really [be] disciplined. You have to bring it straight down to cut away all the fat. You get straight to the medium of what it is, whether that's incredibly funny or very dramatic. So it's a discipline, and it's very challenging. When will you have your new CD out?
Driver: The amazing Jim Scott, who just won two Grammys for the Dixie Chicks' record, mixed the record. Quite by chance he's friends of friends, and he has a big fancy mixer, and we had a little tiny outfit out of the back of my friend's garage when making my records. So that's really exciting. It should be out by the summer. You were in Phantom of the Opera about fives times. How early did you start with singing lessons? How much time do you invest in that?
Driver: Well, you know, don't tell anyone, but it wasn't me singing in Phantom of the Opera. [Laughter] I sing, and I sing a lot, and I actually sing the song at the end of the movie - which was nominated for an Oscar - quite brilliantly. But I don't sing on the film because I'm not a bel canto soprano and that really is years of training. My voice is trained somewhat, but I'm not a soprano. I could be an alto. Could you talk a little bit about the Maverick Award you're receiving today, and being a part of the film festival here in San Jose?
Driver: I haven't experienced San Jose. I have been to Saratoga. I played the most amazing music with Chris Isaak in this beautiful winery - getting gigs the last year or so, which is amazing. It's really nice to get an award, it really is. Listen, effecting change in any which way... I'm not curing cancer; what we do is, really, purely entertainment, but there's a lot to be said for that. Making people laugh, making people feel. You know, it's hard to get into being imaginative, and I think people do that vicariously through actors. I'm happy to do it, to open it somewhere. So, it's fun being maverick in your life. I think we could all use a bit of that. You may not have sung in Phantom, but you did an Italian dialect - and accents are something people think of when they think of Minnie Driver. Can you share at all about the process that you use to adapt to dialect and make it more in character?
Driver: Well, I really did make that accent up. I think that any Italian would be, like, "That was a terrible accent. I didn't believe it for one second." I really love them. I get into it because I'm musical, and my mom speaks about five or six languages and I speak French and Italian a little bit, and it's musical. I really believe that, and I love music, and I like to sing it the way it was sung there. We were in a pilot for the show in New Orleans, and just being down there for three weeks and listening to how people speak - it was an amazing accent in Louisiana, and I just kind of got it from there. But it definitely finds a character for me, an accent. I mean, it has to. I live in a foreign country and I'm not indigenous, in case you can't hear, you know, so everything's an accent to me. As the industry moves more into a digital realm, how is that affecting you, both as an actress and as a producer?
Driver: I love the fact that it's gotten easily accessible. I hate elitism. I can't stand the whole mention of, "Well, we're only going to be releasing here, and you can't have any film there." And, slowly, the Internet started blowing everything out of the water. It's like, "Nope, you can have it when you have your cup of tea in the morning - on your terms." I don't think that's going to destroy the film industry in any way. There will always be original [works]. I mean, information should be shared. It should be available to people in India and Nebraska and, you know, Oslo. You mentioned Grosse Pointe Blank is one of your favorite films, and your chemistry with John Cusak in it was great. But there must've been times in other movies where your chemistry was terrible. How do you work on it when you have bad chemistry with the other actor?
Driver: Do you know, I don't think I have. I honestly think you can really find good stuff in everyone. That might sound really, incredibly self-righteous, but it's not, necessarily. You don't need to want to leap into bed with them or marry them, but everyone has something wonderful - particularly the actors I've worked with, who have been sort of phenomenal. But you connect with what it is they're offering. You find out what vibrates in you that corresponds to them. It's really how you feel about yourself. You can be very resistant to anyone, even the perfect person. As long as you're [connecting] in the films, it's brilliant, thrilling, wonderful. I really think the whole notion of chemistry and, "Oh, we're really going to get along," says more about where you're at than where they are. I think there's always a way to make it work. You know - within. Having jumped around from large musicals to personal, more independent film, has there been anyone in particular who has mentored you - especially coming from another country to the U.S.?
Driver: Well, there are certain people who have. Sort of. I don't call them that. I mean, mentor is a tough [role to fulfill]; there's a real consistency. There are people who I find remarkably inspiring - like Angelica Houston, who has afforded amazing advice inadvertently as we've crossed paths over the years - who I admire so much. I think she's such a spectacular example of a woman in Hollywood who's vibrant and connected and great and talented. And I look to her work as well, but who she is as a person, you know, rolls away. You're not normally in a place where you can have that consistent relationship with somebody. My family has really been my best mentor. And my friends.
Do you have any upcoming film projects you can share with us?
Driver: Yeah, there's this great independent film called Take, with Charles Oliver, that's a really, really beautiful film. It's about the lives of the kidnapper, and the woman, and the child. It's a very beautiful, accomplished film.
(For video of Moving Pictures Magazine's interview with Charles Oliver about Take, click here.) When are we going to see that?
Driver: Well, I'm going to say the end of the year, just to put it out there. How tough is it doing mainstream Hollywood films as opposed to trying to find independent work, and trying to keep your name in the Hollywood buzz and also doing independent stuff?
Driver: You don't really try to keep your name in the papers. All of these magazines and people's interest and the Internet and blogging - today, people will know about you from what you buy in the supermarket. There's this constant obsession with celebrity. I've never actively pursued keeping my name in the spotlight. I'm really busy with work; if I'm not working, there's a reason. I really want to step back on my days off. And you just have to trust that...there'll be attention when it'll be attention when it'll. It will all surface back and you just have to trust thatfrom what you buy in the supermarket. Thers needed and that you can back off when it isn't. I don't think you can court any of it; you just have to do good work and to look for good work. You need to do great work where you can find it, and I always have. My dad always said, "Never, never, make a movie you wouldn't want to pay ten bucks to get in." Except then he was saying, "Five fifty." Celebrities are beginning to use their names to support certain causes. Are there causes you support?
Driver: I've been doing sponsored runs and swims, you know, with a jelly jar of coins since I was about six or seven years old. So, being able to then use the wares of being a celebrity to draw attention to stuff that you are interested in... Women's labor rights is something that I'm very, very interested in bringing attention to. It's interesting, it's really cool and it's the best thing that you can do with celebrity. I know that there's kind of the cause célèbre thing that's got a kind of offensive, cynical aspect to it as well: photo opportunities. But when you really get into it, really start working with an organization you love, you're looking to effect change in the long term, not just drawing attention. I don't know; it's how I was raised. Image courtesy of Ronald Grant Archive. |
