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Roaring forties

By Jim Schembri
May 17 2002

Up against it: Andie MacDowell and Kenny Doughty get close in Crush.

Ensconced in her North Carolina home with kids, relatives, and with Aunt Dot on the other line, Andie MacDowell says - with that distinctive South Carolina twang - that there's nothing more she could hope for right this minute. At 44, she's relishing work much more than when she started in Steven Soderbergh's 1989 indie hit, sex, lies and videotape.

"At the time it was so incredibly exciting, but also quite terrifying," MacDowell says with a light laugh. "I don't think I really settled into myself for years. I must say I really enjoy acting now much more than I ever did 10 years ago. Now I really feel comfortable with what I'm doing."

And her filmography since sex, lies has given her a lot of seasoning. Her more notable excursions include Harold Ramis' Groundhog Day, Peter Weir's Green Card, Robert Altman's Short Cuts and, of course, hit British comedy Four Weddings and a Funeral, in which MacDowell played the object of Hugh Grant's affections.

Her latest outing, Crush, again took her to Britain. She plays Kate, a school headmistress and single woman who, along with two single friends, Janine (Imelda Staunton) and Molly (Anna Chancellor), is trying to get through her 40s without an anxiety attack.

"I think everybody goes though some kind of transformation when they turn 40," MacDowell says. "There's such an emphasis in our society about that particular age that you can't help but question yourself.

"These three women, in particular, are in positions where society may judge them as incomplete, or they may feel incomplete themselves. They find solitude and comfort in each other, but in a sense they form a kind of dysfunctional family, and it takes something tragic in order to change how that family operates."

Kate's bumpy emotional ride through the film offered MacDowell the type of character journey rare in women's roles. "You just don't read scripts like this every day, particularly scripts that give you the opportunity to portray a character that has as much to do as Kate," she says of director John McKay's screenplay.

"The fact that these characters were women is really hard to comprehend." It's an ever-present problem, MacDowell agrees - at least in the US. "There aren't a lot of opportunities for women in their 40s here, and it's interesting, because they don't have that same perspective on life in London. It just doesn't exist over there.

In Europe and England, most of the great work you get to do comes in your 40s, your 50s and 60s. Youth has such a strange impact on the culture of America, because the majority of people that go to films are young. "But there's a large amount of older people that also want to see films they can relate to. I do think Crush is the kind of movie that people of my generation really will go to. I don't know how long the lines are, but I think it's given those people something."

In 1992, MacDowell was one of a huge roster of stars who did cameos in Robert Altman's Hollywood satire, The Player. Because the gig came so soon after her breakthrough performance in sex, lies and videotape, her participation had more to do with a bright-eyed desire to work with Altman than any comment on the way the Hollywood movie machine works.

Since then, though, she's witnessed just how accurate many of the film's comic observations about film makers were. She recalls a producer who wanted her as the lead in his film. He gave her the script, which she liked a lot, although she felt it would be better served by someone such as Renee Zellweger. MacDowell quickly discovered her suggestion was academic. The entire script was to be rewritten for a male lead so the producers could raise the money. "I looked at him dumbfounded," she says.

She finds the male domination of leading roles in mainstream film confounding. "They have this very strange concept that, supposedly, people go to see movies more if there's a male lead. I believe it's not true; I believe it's a formula they've come up with and they've made it true."

MacDowell may sound like an armchair militant when it comes to gender and age in films, but, relevant as the issues are, she openly confesses to being fatigued by them. "Truly, it actually is kind of a boring subject, because after a while you get tired of complaining! And I don't know that complaining changes anything.

"I'm not going to worry about it. I'm sorry it exists, but after a while it's just exhausting. I don't think you can change people's minds, and I don't know what to do about it. I'm doing good work and I'm actually pretty happy, so I'm not going to go out there and fight the war by myself."

Before her big break in sex, lies and videotape, MacDowell was one of the best-known models in the US. By the age of 24 she was living what she describes as the model's ultimate dream: she had billboards in Times Square, cheeky Calvin Klein ads on TV and a highly recognisable face. Other successful actresses have come from modelling - Sharon Stone, Jessica Lange, Geena Davis, Demi Moore, Anjelica Huston, Candice Bergen - but few had MacDowell's face value.

"I was famous at a very, very young age for modelling," she says. "I didn't have to work in a bar or wait tables like most aspiring actresses; I had a job that provided me with the opportunities to live comfortably, study, go to school and work on my craft. I could take my time and not take bad films."

At 24, she landed a contract with L'Oreal and proudly maintains the association through her TV ads. Few models manage to maintain careers into their 40s. She laughs.

"I know. It used to bother me when people would say stuff to me about still being a model, because it's not like I'm going down the catwalk! I work about 10 to 12 days a year for L'Oreal. You can't really say that makes me a model, but now I find it quite comical that anybody would want to call me a model, because I'm 44!" She laughs again. "And they can call me a model all they want! I think it's really quite charming to still be called a model!"

Careful though MacDowell has been in her film choices, she's managed a couple of big-time stinkers. She's intrigued as to which two they are, and the mere mention of the titles yields illuminating comments.

Town and Country, the expensive Warren Beatty comedy fiasco, and the Bruce Willis comedy-action clunker Hudson Hawk, which, she says, has become something of a cult movie.

"It was a similar story on both those films," MacDowell says in her defence. "They had a script and they kept changing it. The movie I was going to make on both of those occasions are not the movies that were made.

"They both had a similar vibe as far as the process goes, a very confusing vibe. I'm on the set and I feel like somebody's not telling me something. I swear that's what it felt like."

At least she'll always have sex, lies, Green Card and the immortal Groundhog Day with Bill Murray.

"Groundhog Day is a great movie," she says proudly. "It's kind of like It's a Wonderful Life. It's a good movie."

Crush opens next week.


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