MANY FACES: I’m on an exploration, says Nicole Kidman.

The actress’ depiction of Patti Lomax in The Railway Man is a quiet portrait of a woman fighting for her husband’s sanity.

By Jeffrey Fleishman

It’s too easy to start with the face or what she wears, how she sits. The colour of her earrings. The essence is in the vowels, the way she holds and releases them. The voice drops a register, as if in a conspiracy, and a morning conversation drifts across art, ambition, age and riding camels in the desert.

Many roles come to mind when Nicole Kidman speaks: inconsolable mother, suicidal writer, dangerous weather girl, nuclear scientist, gangster lover, top-hatted cabaret singer and Southern femme fatale with an unorthodox remedy for jellyfish stings. They are all there, unapologetic, in tones of tenacity and risk that have defined her career. One senses she is the kind who would either win big or lose it all at the track.

“I’m going to make choices. I’m going to live and die on them. I’ll take the flak. I’ll take the hits. I’ll take the accolades,” said Kidman, who won the Academy Award for lead actress for her rendering of Virginia Woolf in The Hours. “I’ll take whatever comes with it, but ultimately I’m on an exploration. I want to excite myself.”

Her latest role — as the dutiful wife of a psychologically scarred former prisoner of war — is not adorned in eccentricities; it is more steady flame than fireworks. It does not flaunt the diamonds and intrigue in her upcoming portrayals of Princess Grace Kelly and Gertrude Bell, a spy and explorer who trekked the deserts of the Middle East.

Her depiction of Patti Lomax in The Railway Man is a quiet portrait of a woman fighting for her husband’s sanity. “I’m usually larger than life and this is real life,” said Kidman. “I think Baz (Luhrmann) said once, ‘You’re never going to be cast as the girl next door,’ and I’m, like, sometimes I’d love to be cast as the girl next door. I really see Patti as the girl next door.”

The film is based on the autobiography of Eric Lomax, a Scot in the British army who was tortured by the Japanese during World War II. It is a tale of atrocity, memory and how two broken men — Lomax and his tormentor — are healed decades later in an unanticipated act of forgiveness. Kidman’s part is small, poignant and distinctive.

“I had never played a role where I just got to love on screen, and I think that’s what Patti does, in a very pure way,” said Kidman, who spent hours watching taped interviews of Patti, a 77-year-old retired nurse. “She’s very sensible in that Scottish way and she’s very pragmatic, yet she’s very loving. ... They navigated through it as a couple, and that’s what I find very compelling and comforting.”

Portrayed by Colin Firth, Lomax, then in his 60s, is obsessed with war crimes and mass graves and through strange circumstance sets out to confront Nagase Takashi, the English-language translator in the torture sessions. His is the voice Lomax’s younger soldier came to hate. For years Lomax, who died in 2012, had plotted revenge, but after meeting Takashi realised that retaliation would not erase what he and thousands of soldiers had endured.

“Torture, after all, is inconspicuous; all it needs is water, a piece of wood and a loud voice. It takes place in squalid rooms, dirty backyards and basements, and there is nothing left to preserve when it is over,” Lomax wrote in his autobiography. “Marks on the body can fade quickly ... (but) the hidden traces which can’t simply be built over are uncovered and brought back into the light.”

Such were the demons Lomax carried into his marriage to Patti, who speaks in matter-of-fact sentences. “It was quite a unique event when Eric and Nagase met,” she said in a phone interview from Japan, where she was touring with the film. “The psychiatrists didn’t want us to do it. It had never been done before. ... Eric was fully intending to kill him. He was desperate to get this ogre in his mind, but when he got there (in 1993) it wasn’t the man from his past. It was an old man wanting forgiveness. Eric’s anger just drained away.”

Directed by Jonathan Teplitzky, the film is one of a number in recent years, including the upcoming Unbroken, the story of American GI Louis Zamperini, to examine World War II and Japanese prison camps. Kidman said many old veterans “are carrying around huge burdens” and young soldiers returning today from Iraq and Afghanistan are “deeply traumatised ... it’s devastating.”

Kidman is a busy actress and a prodigious researcher, sifting through the layers of characters, such as Martha Gellhorn, the war correspondent in the HBO movie Hemingway & Gellhorn, and Grace Kelly, movie star and royalty in the upcoming Grace of Monaco.

She is discriminating, and when she speaks of larger-than-life roles her Australian vowels flatten and harden with intensity. She equates Australians with Texans — independent, spirited, inured to harsh terrains and vast expanses. “I try to be right in there, and that allows me the emotional kind of well with an enormous amount of experience now,” said Kidman, 46.

“I don’t have to struggle to find things, which is a great place to be as an actress. It’s just I then have to be careful what I choose, where I choose to place it and whose hands I put it in. At this stage, I don’t want to waste my time because it’s so precious. I want to work with people who want to delve deeply. I’m not interested in lightweight stuff.” — Los Angeles Times/MCT

 

Working on The Secret Service was fantastic, says Mark Strong

Actor Mark Strong, who has once again teamed up with director Matthew Vaughn — this time in The Secret Service, enjoyed working in the film and says it has “a lot of fantastic set pieces in it.” The Secret Service is a big screen adaptation of Mark Millar’s comic book The Secret Service. “It was fantastic. Matthew has made four films now, all of which are terrific. He has a real eye and a fantastic touch. I love working with him. He is now a good friend,” femalefirst.co.uk quoted Strong as saying. “I thought the script was great, mad, funny, irreverent and a thrill a minute: There are a lot of fantastic set pieces in it. It should be good,” he added. The actor has previously worked with Vaughn in Kick Ass and Stardust. In The Secret Service, the 50-year-old stars alongside actors Samuel L Jackson, Colin Firth, Michael Caine and Jack Davenport. — IANS

Sharon Stone to act with Kristen Stewart?

Actress Sharon Stone will reportedly feature with Twilight star Kristen Stewart in the upcoming movie American Ultra. The Social Network actor Jesse Eisenberg is also expected to be a part of the movie.

Stone is likely to play Victoria Lasseter, a government agent who is in charge of a sleeper cell programme. Eisenberg will act as Mike, who is a small-town stoner who doesn’t realise that he’s a highly trained killer. Stewart will reportedly play Phoebe, Mike’s girlfriend, reports showbizspy.com. The movie is likely to be released in 2015. — IANS

 

Freeman excited to work with favourite actor Depp

Actor Morgan Freeman has teamed up with Johnny Depp in sci-fi movie Transcendence and confessed that he always wanted to work with him. Freeman, who is a big fan of Depp, stars as Joseph Tagger in Transcendence, which has helped him achieve his lifelong ambition, reports contactmusic.com.

The 76-year-old told Today’s newspaper: “There were three or four attractions to the role, one being Johnny himself. Always wanted to have a shot at working with him.” The actor has had a successful career in the Hollywood industry with films like The Magic of Belle Isle (1991), High Crimes (2002), and The Bucket List (2007). In the film, Tagger is a scientist and mentors doctor Will Caster, essayed by Depp. They will be joined by British actress Rebecca Hall as Caster’s wife Evelyn. — IANS