Combustible Celluloid - Interview with Oliver Parker

OLIVER PARKER talks about AN IDEAL HUSBAND

by Jeffrey M. Anderson
with Lara São Pedro

Oliver Parker is in high spirits. He's just been dragged to the Bay Area from L.A. and is getting his second wind. "I was feeling a bit queasy, but now I feel good," he says. He has a lot to feel good about. His second movie, an adaptation of Oscar Wilde's "An Ideal Husband", starring Cate Blanchett, Minnie Driver, Rupert Everett, Julianne Moore, and Jeremy Northam, has just opened, and the response has been quite strong.

Parker - bottom left - with Cate Blanchett and Rupert Everett

Parker is a jolly fellow with thin dark hair and dark eyes. It's not surprising when he mentions that he used to be a stand-up comic. "I was just trying things out," he says. Parker worked in the theater, acting, directing, and stage managing. He soon found himself playing the part of Iago in "Othello". "I was obsessed with the play and realized how exciting it was and how it should really capture an audience in a more physical, visceral way." So he began developing his own version of the play. And it got bigger and bigger, and he gave up the idea of playing Iago. "A lot of people were getting interested in the project--sizable personalities. I couldn't afford to be thinking about myself. I thought, 'I've got to give all my attention to these people.' More importantly, when I wake up at 6:30, I don't want to worry about whether or not I look like shit or not."

"Othello" turned out to be the excellent 1995 film starring Laurence Fishburne in the title role, Kenneth Branagh as Iago, and Irene Jacob as Desdemona. Parker earned both praise and boos from Shakespeare purists for cutting the text down for the movie. "You're always gonna bump up against the purists. I don't give a damn. Part of the reason I do the thing is to make sure I'm stirring it a little bit. I've acted in Wilde and Shakespeare myself, and so I don't feel like an outsider coming to the material. I feel like an insider who has a passion to deliver what feels to be the essence of these pieces, which tend to be much more vibrant than they often seem. And if you do them without making any alteration for the new medium you're working in then I think you're going to do the piece a disservice. It's sort of obvious to me. You have to do something or "Othello" would be four hours long!"

Parker never acted in "An Ideal Husband" on stage but did act in Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest". "I had a lovely time in that. I thought it was a critical moment in my relationship to Wilde. Before that I always thought he was a bit of a smart-aleck--a clever, clever, little heartless bastard. I always admired him, obviously, but I wasn't sure that there was anything of substance. And then, when I got to do the play ten years ago, I really got to know him. I read all his work. I found that the opposite was true--that he had a huge heart. There was incredible compassion. It was just this fantastic literary facade that took me a while to see. And part of the fun of this film for me is the opportunity to try to pull the veil back a little bit and let some of that out a little more obviously for an audience and connect it to an emotional reality a bit more."

Parker eventually changed quite a few things about "An Ideal Husband" to get it to work on the screen, cutting some dialogue and coincidental plotlines. In addition he added certain scenes that tied the movie together, like Northam's speech in the House of Commons and Everett's counter-bet with Moore. "When I started to do the adaptation I went to see the original manuscript, which you can go and see in the British library. [You can] see the thing he was working on--his hand-written manuscript. And you can see what comes easily and what doesn't. And there was this whole thing of a brooch. And I always found that a bit too melodramatic. Although some people love it. I discovered he added that ten days before they opened. You can just imagine the producer saying, 'hey we need a little more plot twists and turns here.' I think he was deliberately at times undermining his plotlines. There was a fantastic letter he wrote to Conan Doyle. I can't remember the wording, but it was the equivalent of how he 'would gladly sacrifice a good plotline for a good gag line.'"

Parker was blessed with a dream cast on this film. He confesses that he loves working with other actors. "Certainly one of the things I'm most interested in is the process of a performance and aiding an actor to reach potential with a part. And my experience as an actor I'm sure helps me to do that. But already I find I'm in danger of moving them around like they're chess pieces. So I want to keep in touch with that understanding. Also I think it's great fun! I miss the simple job of focusing on one perspective, just one point of view. In fact, that's one of my weaknesses as an actor. I always looked at it from every angle and you've really got to try to see it like that. And I sort of long for that now."

Parker talked about one particular day of filming, the very end sequence, which comes after all the lovers have kissed, and everyone is ready to live happily ever after, but Northam's character objects to a wedding. "It was always a difficult scene, and I wasn't even sure whether to do the scene I'd written. But then when we were doing it it was so much fun. [The actors] weren't nearly relaxed together. I was just nudging them a bit to get them laughing, which they weren't quite getting to because they seemed a bit off. And suddenly they got it. Suddenly they all laughed. And I just left the camera going for a while." The actors waited for Parker to call 'cut' and just kept on acting. Finally Cate Blanchett delivered the goods. "There was that line when Cate says, 'I need a drink,' and goes off. That was her improvising. There's a payoff to the repressed emotions."

Parker is in awe of Cate Blanchett. "[Gertrude is] the toughest of the parts. There's a chance in film to get close up and see that there's a fight going on in her, where she believes one thing but actually feels something else. When you've got someone of her caliber you can really watch that battle going on."

But that doesn't mean Parker doesn't admire Jeremy Northam. "I think he's a really interesting actor; a lot more depth and range than people are aware of. He carries something quite secret around with him on screen. And he's getting older, too. There's something rich coming in there."

While all the actors are outstanding only Rupert Everett seems to get under the skin of the material. "I think he's born to play the part. I watched it again last night and thought, 'God, he just gets it every time.' He's got such style himself. He has real awareness. He has a kinship with that period. He brought a whole bunch of things I hadn't counted on. I think he has a sort of brooding quality. In some scenes he opts for something that gives nothing away. As an actor I would have made different choices...but he kept it down."

Parker doesn't plan to make a career out of movie adaptations of classic plays, although there has been talk of doing a film of "The Importance of Being Earnest". "We could have 'An Ideal Husband' going on in the background," he jokes. But he is working on a project with writer/director John Sayles called "Fade to Black", set in post-war Italy with Orson Welles as the main character. He also hopes to work with his old friend Clive Barker on a play version of the movie "Hellraiser".

Parker believes that 1999 is the perfect year to release the film and is convinced that "An Ideal Husband" has very contemporary themes. "As we approach the end of the century, there is a sense of re-evaluating things. I was intrigued by what seemed to me to be the essence of the piece, tolerance and forgiveness and acknowledging the ambiguities in life. This is the heart of what you discover when you get into his work more. And I find that very moving."

June 11, 1999