ALL FOR PRIVACY: Liv Tyler stars in The Leftovers, a tale about a mysterious rapture that has transported 2% of the population into thin air.
By Luaine Lee
Though she’s been acting since she was 16, Liv Tyler doesn’t revel in the limelight. The star of films like the Lord of the Rings trio, The Incredible Hulk, Jersey Girl and That Thing You Do says, “I never wanted to be an ‘actor,’ to be the superstar, to be the center of attention.
“I always wanted to be working with groups of people that would teach me and elevate me and inspire me so I always sort of thrive in the company of other people,” she says, seated in the living room of the famous Chateau Marmont in Hollywood.
She fulfills that wish this week when she stars in HBO’s spooky new series, The Leftovers, a mysterious tale about the unexplained disappearance of 2% of the population and a cultish group that tries to gain control. Tyler plays one of the “leftovers” who’s being cultivated by the cult. But just before the script arrived, she was considering quitting.
“I started praying to the universe: ‘Tell me now, am I meant to keep going, keep focusing on being an actress or am I meant to pursue my other passions and dreams?’ I think being second generation to the entertainment industry and being bitten by the bug, that happens when you’re a performer in some kind of way,” says Tyler, sipping Earl Gray tea as the evening sky begins to darken.
“It’s made me a little bit head shy about the whole experience of fame and attention. I’m kind of shy in a lot of ways and don’t like a lot of attention, which is strange. Whenever I get a lot of attention, I get a little bit like, ‘OK, thanks, thanks, thanks.’ It kind of goes in one ear and out the other. And I just want to take my high heels off and crawl back to my room.”
But she’s never been able to do that. Born to model-singer Bebe Buell, she is the biological daughter of Steven Tyler of Aerosmith fame, though her mother lived with musician Todd Rundgren at the time of her birth. She thought Rundgren was her father until she was eight.
“I think I’ve always wanted to have some kind of a normal life just growing up in the household of entertainers and seeing that experience, because it’s very extreme,” she nods.
“There’s big emotions and big feelings and one minute you’re being home and you’re totally normal and everything’s in order and the next thing everything’s chaotic and crazy and nuts and full of mystery and new people — and it’s sort of back and forth. So I’ve tried very hard in my life to keep something sacred for myself and sort of private.”
She aims to foster that balance for her nine-year-old son, Milo. “I actually just bought a country house; I found a place that I felt good about so that’s our next adventure to sort of incorporate that into our life ... I’m always dreaming of moving to the country on a farm with Milo where he can be totally free and I can be totally dedicated to being his mom. That’s my secret fantasy.”
Tyler, 36, is divorced from British musician Royston Langdon. “When Roy and I got divorced I went through that whole period — I really had to retreat for a couple of years to sort of heal that and make sure that I was OK and that he was OK and Milo was OK,” she says.
“I think it’s easy to sort of sublimate all those feelings and just go into work and try to avoid those feelings ... When things come up for me I have to go toward them instead of away from them. My dad always said when I was a little girl, I never forgot it: ‘There’s no way out but through.’
“And I always think about that when things come up. Be brave and deal with this NOW. And go fight the beast and slay the dragon.”
“The Leftovers” marks her first venture into television, an adjustment from film work. “I’m used to seeing a whole script and knowing the whole schedule,” she says.
“With this we get the script five days before an episode, so we’re all waiting. At first that was tricky for me being comfortable with being uncomfortable. But now I love it because it’s an incredible challenge, and I don’t have that much time to think about it. The truth is that’s how we are as people. We don’t really know what’s going to happen tomorrow or next week.”
Because of her gentle demeanour, people often overlook her resilient core. “People think I’m timid,” she shrugs. “I’ve never thought of myself as timid but I think people think I’m quite soft spoken and I come across as being that way.”
Not so, she insists. “I remember those little moments when something sort of snaps inside of you, and you’re aware of standing up for yourself and for what you believe in. I remember feeling that at such a young age just in the way I grew up and having this job at such a young age, you have to be very, very strong in order to be around all these different kinds of people and in those situations.
“It’s not for the timid at all,” she laughs, “or you can’t survive it.” — MCT
Kelsey Grammer wants X-Men return
American actor Kelsey Grammer would love to play his mutant superhero alter-ego Beast in the next X-Men movie. The 59-year-old made a brief cameo as the ape-like mutant superhero at the end of the Marvel franchise’s most recent instalment, X-Men: Days of Future Past, and would jump at the chance to play the part again, reports contactmusic.com.
‘’I hope to do another. I hope they find some way to come up with a new story that involves Beast in my timeline,” said Grammer. The actor, who first appeared as Beast in X-Men: The Last Stand, revealed he took the initiative to call director Bryan Singer and asked to make a return because he had such fun filming the 2006 movie.
He said: ‘’Actually I called Bryan. I bumped into Hugh Jackman and he said, ‘Oh you’re gonna be in another X-Men, mate!’ and I said, ‘No I’m not, I don’t know anything about it.’
‘’So I made a couple of inquiries, got a hold of the script, found out that it’s primarily dealing with the past and that timeline I don’t have a place in, but I saw that at the end there was this coda where he made an appearance. I said, ‘Listen, I really want to be involved,’ so Bryan arranged for it and I had a lovely time,” he added. — IANS
Rupert Grint wants invisibility cloak
Actor Rupert Grint wishes he could wear an “invisibility cloak” at music festivals because he sometimes has a problem with drunken gig-goers. The Harry Potter actor has joked he would like to use some of the magic accessories from the wizard series to allow him to walk around without being recognised and mobbed in public, reports contactmusic.com. “I’ve sometimes had a bit of trouble at music festivals. It’s usually fine, but if you’re in a massive crowd of drunken people and one of them suddenly spots you, it gets hard to move around,” he said.
“Sometimes you want a bit of invisibility. Perhaps I should wear an invisibility cloak — that would be handy! But I have actually experimented with disguises. Once I wore a horse’s head disguise for an entire festival.” “It wasn’t comfortable, and I got quite claustrophobic, but it really worked. It was quite liberating. I felt completely free,” he added. — IANS