By Christina Radish

Julia Ormond at the premiere of "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" held at the Mann Village Theater in Westwood, Calif. on December 8, 2008.

Playing Daisy’s daughter, Caroline, British actress Julia Ormond, who first worked with Brad Pitt in Legends of the Fall (1994), spoke to MediaBlvd Magazine about making this unusual film.

MediaBlvd Magazine> Had you been familiar with this short story at all?

Julia Ormond> No.

MediaBlvd> What did you think of this concept?

Julia> I thought it was a really unique story idea, that someone is born with an affliction that means they live their life experience backwards, and I found it amazing how much that ends up saying to us about life and death, and our life experiences. It was just extraordinary. It’s really one simple idea that just continues to deliver. I love how it says that life is so cyclical. It comes right back in a circle. If you’ve ever nursed somebody to death, they revert back to being a baby. My grandfather was 97 when he died and he was in a pattern of sleeping for three hours and then waking up and wanting to have a little bit of something, just like a baby. And, your mental capacity and memory deteriorates. There is something so beautiful. It feels like the story of the film goes around in a circle, instead of being a line. I love the courage of it being a piece that has the love story within it, but it’s also so much about people who come and go in your life, and the experiences that affect and shape you. I found that very powerful, when I was watching it, in terms of how that actually accumulates into quite a profound experience, yet David was so disciplined about not delivering the predictable climactic scene that I think would have somehow lessened it. The choice of what is not said and the choice of the scenes that aren’t played was so important. In my character arc, I’m there for the moments leading up to Daisy’s death, but then I’m gone when she actually dies. You never get to see the moment where she comes back and discovers she’s dead, but hopefully, if it’s done right, you don’t actually need it.           

MediaBlvd> In an interesting way, your character gets to experience that powerful realization about life. Was it interesting to play that, since your character gets all that information and emotion in a short time? Was it difficult to take all of that on?

Julia> When we were doing it, it felt like what was really happening was that, when Caroline initially gets that book and her mother wants to read it, she fears that it will somehow get in the way of her having an intimate experience with her mother and that she’s lost it, mentally. She wants to spend this time in denial, and she doesn’t want to talk through stuff that’s unresolved. She wants to focus on this scrapbook that this guy left her. But, it’s her death and it’s what she wants to do. Ultimately, what happens is that the mother shares something that she has held secret from Caroline, for Caroline’s own good, and it turns into the exact intimate experience that they’re both seeking. When we filmed our stuff, it was very much about the mother-daughter relationship and how you would respond to hearing this news and asking for this, and just the fact that she’s fading away. It was just about the intimacy of being with someone, as they’re looking back.

MediaBlvd> Was this movie shot out of sequence, like most are?

Julia> Not for my section. I was really, really lucky. David actually filmed it as the last section. He filmed everything else and then I actually got to see a cut of the movie, just without the Caroline and Daisy bits in it, so that we could have some sense of what the juxtaposition of the scenes would be, coming out of and going into that. And then, our bit was shot over two weeks in L.A., and we were able to do it sequentially, which was a really remarkable experience, in terms of filming. Normally, you’re juggling it and trying to hold a sense of the arc, so that was really quite a luxury.

MediaBlvd> And, that was actually Cate Blanchett that you worked with?

Julia> Yeah. She had hours of make-up and delivered a performance that just filled the whole room, with this elderly lady, dying. You could feel the atmosphere, when you walk into a room, that was very much like a hospital. She was very funny about it because she said she was really looking forward to having two weeks in bed, but then she said it was exhausting to play that your body is failing you and that it’s hard to breathe. She found it way more physically demanding than just playing the age. There were very funny moments where she would get hot under the lights and the blankets, so she’d kick off the blankets and you’d have this 80-year-old-plus woman at one end, and then these perfect legs. It was an optical illusion that was very funny.

MediaBlvd> How was it working with Cate? Did you talk about how you would approach that sequence?

Julia> Most of my preparation, to be honest, was with (screenwriter) Eric Roth and David. We did a read-through, so all of the cast came together then, but most of my detailed prep was with them. David was able to talk about choices that Cate had made, and then we would discuss each scene, as it came up. Before we set out to film it, we talked, in a general sense, of how everything would come together. And then, within each scene, we talked about the specifics that we wanted to bring into it. But, she was great! I was one of the only actors in the film who didn’t have to sit through five hours of make-up. I don’t know how the others did it. They waved the turn-around time. They came in at three in the morning and would sit there for four or five hours to get the make-up done. And, at the end of the day, I don’t know that it helped them feel older because they just had stuff on their face or their body. I was the one that got the benefit of all of that. But, Cate is beautiful, she’s smart, she’s very intelligent, and she has no starry ego or hierarchy on set. It was a very sound and gratifying acting experience, and I thought David was just phenomenal. I can’t think of another director that would have shouldered so much technical stuff and special effects. In your average film, you might be dealing with some of that technical stuff, for maybe five days of filming, where the acting takes second place to it, but he really delivered us a concrete platform from which he then wanted us to fly, and he was very specific about what he wanted. It was great!

MediaBlvd> Did you do some research into what it was like sitting with someone and feeling that claustrophobia?

Julia> Yeah. The nature of it actually fed into the experience, and what we were feeling while we were filming was actually what people would be feeling, in that circumstance. I love the way that it’s such a rich movie with amazing sets with a big, epic scale, but when it comes down to it and it’s your time to die, it’s just you and that person and your relationship, and the other stuff drops away. All of it felt like it fed into the right circumstance.

MediaBlvd> Have you kept in touch with Brad Pitt, over the last 15 years, since making Legends of the Fall with him?

Julia> We’ve bumped into each other at various stuff. The mega-stardom that he’s hit must have changed him, in some way, but he always just seems to be the very sweet guy that he was when we were doing Legends.

MediaBlvd> As a representative of someone who is losing a parent, was there a sense of responsibility to get that relationship right, knowing that it is very relatable to a lot of people?

Julia> It’s got to be about the most painful moment. The only other thing that would be more painful would be losing your child. Losing a parent must be one of the most painful things you can go through, even if it is at the very end of a very full life. You cannot help but feel that that person has been taken from you. So, there is a challenge in how you deliver a performance that speaks to the magnitude of that moment. But, it’s great to be given a role where you’re given a shot at that.

MediaBlvd> This daughter is concerned that she hasn’t lived enough for her mother’s liking. As someone who has been as successful as you have, how did that feel for you?

Julia> When Daisy talks about Caroline in her youth, I took that and felt that, if you were the daughter of this very dynamic, poised, beautiful woman, the impact of the secret that she holds back affects her. Caroline is a little dwarfed by her mother and is struggling to find her identity because Daisy is so complete, and that leads her to be somewhat insecure and vulnerable with her mother. As anybody’s death is approaching, you hope that you have lived up to your parents’ hopes and expectations of you. And, in a very short amount of text, with good writing, it conveys a wealth about their relationship.

MediaBlvd> David Fincher is known for doing many takes. What was he like to work with?

Julia> People have talked a lot about that, and I’ve heard actors say that he’ll do 45 takes. We didn’t do that. I didn’t experience him like that. What I experienced was a director who was very specific about what he wanted and knew when he had it and knew when he wanted to keep going. It was nice was to be given that luxury, in terms of time to prep your character and time to have with him to talk about it and the time to do the number of takes that was needed to get what he wanted. I loved the fact that he was always very, very specific. Sometimes he would get what he wanted, and then we would move on to playing it a different way, so that, at the end of the day, he had choices in the editing room. When you put a film together, you can’t actually tell, until you’re in the room, putting the pieces together, which take is going to work best. There were certain moments where we shot a number of different lines that just gave him editing options.

MediaBlvd> This film was shot digitally. Was that your first time working with those kind of cameras?

Julia> With David, it always feels like there’s some heightened level to it. I’ll be really honest, as an actor, I know there was special effects stuff, like the make-up that Cate was dealing with, and things in terms of making the windows rumble because of the wind, but in terms of cameras and that, I just let that stuff go. I don’t want to feel too obsessed by the fact that, if you use this footage versus that camera, one is very stark and will show every pimple, and the other will make you look better. When people aren’t working on film, it’s great to know that there isn’t a consciousness, on behalf of the director, of how much stock he’s using. It allows you to go again and again and again.

MediaBlvd> You haven’t been seen in many films for awhile. Did you decide to take some time off?

Julia> I had a period of time where I felt really creatively wiped and somewhat confused, and felt like, as an actor, I’d gotten myself into a rut, in terms of how I was being cast and seen. To continue, at that point, along the same vein, would have had diminishing returns, and so, I consciously took time off, aware that, if I wanted to come back in, I would be starting again, and that was what I decided to do. So, I’ve been doing a lot of philanthropic work, and focusing on having a kid, and looking for work that would be more challenging for me and that would ring the changes. In the last two years, I’ve been given the opportunity to do a wacky character in Inland Empire, and do Lisa Howard in Che, which is completely different, and be in Kit Kittredge. That has felt like much more of a fulfillment of what I would like the acting experience to be. It doesn’t really matter to me that they’re not leads because I love the process of creating the character. It’s the challenge of it. What I love about playing a supporting role is that everybody seems much happier for you to completely go out on a limb. With Che, Lisa Howard is documented in questions and answers, and she’s white-blonde, and I turned up for a week’s work and Steven [Soderbergh] was like, “What about the wig?,” and I said, “I just don’t buy it. Let’s dye it!” I couldn’t do that in a lead because everybody would go, “No! You’re hair’s going to fall out. It doesn’t matter. We’ll just make her brunette.” I’ve just found that the risks that producers and directors will let you take in a supporting role are that much greater, and that’s much more fun to play.      

MediaBlvd> You have one child?

Julia> Yeah, a daughter, who’s four.

MediaBlvd> How has that changed your life?

Julia> Totally. Mom is the best role you’ll ever get. 

MediaBlvd> What was it like to work with Steven Soderbergh and Benicio del Toro on Che?

Julia> That was another fabulous experience, but a very, very different directing style. The thing that was true about both was that, however small the part was, they allowed me to talk it through. They were both passionate about going after the detail of it and making choices that are informed by exploring all the different possibilities. Very often, if you have a small role, you don’t get as much time with the director to talk that stuff through. Steven works incredibly quickly. David certainly works efficiently, but he’s not going to be rolling camera on you, when you think you’re in your downtime, whereas Steven was just grabbing footage, left, right and center, and everybody was scrambling. You’d see the lighting department run by, going, “Are you shooting?” He’s his own cinematographer and his own cameraman, so he just knows when he’s ready to start rolling. They were both really special experiences for me. It’s wonderful to work with people who have not just developed their own style and have their own strengths, but who are really devoted to how we create character and how to best achieve that, on the day.

MediaBlvd> If you had the choice to age backwards, especially being in this industry, would you want to?

Julia> No. When I look at the film, there is so much loneliness for him, as a result of that. It poses an interesting question, but no. I wish I had known certain things, when I was younger. I think I worried a lot, as a kid, about how I was going to cope and what I was going to do. I worried about not being able to deal with problems. It just seemed like there was so much that was unknown, that you would have to deal with in adulthood. I wish I’d known to just take a chill pill and let it be what it would be. I think I’m happy that it’s gone forward rather than backwards.