She's Mcteer—And She's Here! - Janet McTeer in "Tumbleweeds" - Brief Article

Interview, Dec, 1999 by Helen Eisenbach

Is the ever-so-English Janet McTeer's breathtaking portrayal of a Southern belle on the lam in Tumbleweeds the performance of the year?

Two years ago, when Janet McTeer landed on Broadway with a sexually charged, emotionally riveting performance that Imploded the stereotype of the trapped housewife In Ibsen's A Doll's House, she went from respected British stage actor to overnight sensation, reminding audiences of what a life-altering thrill theater can be. This year, American audiences will discover how bold raw talent fused with classical training can Ignite a screen In the Tony winner's first starring film role. Playing a wild Southern woman untamed by motherhood whose hunger for love--whether for the daughter she uproots at every turn or the men she repeatedly misjudges--sends her careening toward every target but the right one, McTeer Is mesmerizing: at once exuberantly larger than life and breathtakingly subtle, sensual and brashly funny, world-weary yet filled with a childlike hopefulness. McTeer's big-screen star turn Is the year's most magical transformation.

HELEN EISENBACH: What an exhilarating performance you give as Mary Jo In Tumbleweeds. How did you manage to slip so Invisibly Into a character that I assume is quite different from you?

JANET MCTEER: I think she's someone who grew up feeling a little like an outsider in her culture.

HE: Did you?

JM: Very much so. My mother thinks I was swapped at birth. I was brought up in a small town in the north of England; I think I was expected to be more of a wife and mother, not necessarily someone swanning off around the world.

HE: Do you remember the first time you acted?

JM: I was quite old. I had never been on a stage until I was maybe seventeen. I used to sell coffees in a theater and I really liked the people there, so I just decided to go to drama school. I remember being unbelievably nervous on my first audition. I was doing Juliet. I'm more likely to play Tybalt now. But that was that--I felt I belonged.

HE: When did you throw yourself Into British theater proper?

JM: When I left RADA in 1984. I was pretty shocked, to tell the truth; I thought I probably wouldn't work too much until I was older. I'm six feet tall, so I didn't think I would go up for any of those ingenue roles. But there was a gap for someone strong to play those young classical parts, so in the first five years of my career, I played all the Shakespearean heroines--apart from Juliet--and did a lot of modern plays, a plethora of fabulously big, strong parts.

HE: How did Tumbleweeds happen?

JM: I went on the Charlie Rose Show to talk about A Doll's House. Gavin O'Connor [the Tumbleweeds director] was watching it and called his brother Greg [the producer] and Angela [Shelton], who cowrote the script, and said, "Oh my god, that's it, she's her!" which is extraordinary because I had very short black hair at the time, very modern and funky. There was nothing of a Southern belle about me at all. I think he thought I was quirky.

HE: Where would he get such an idea?

JM: Who the fuck knows, mate? So Gav came to see Doll's House--

HE: ... and fainted prostrate at your feet?

JM: Something like that. And off we went for a drink and ended up talking for hours and hours.

HE: Had you always wanted to be in films?

JM: I've done a lot of stuff in England, but there's not that many huge parts for leading ladies who don't look like Michelle Pfeiffer. I'm not particularly interested in being a movie star per se, but I love the actual filming.

HE: Were you worried about creating a Southern persona?

JM: I was more frightened about that than anything else. Gavin and Greg were offered a lot of money to cast someone famous in the role, but they just wouldn't do it.

HE: You had wonderful chemistry with your screen daughter [Ava, played by Kimberly Brown].

JM: That was brilliant casting on Gavin's part. I tried to create a relationship with Kimberly similar to that between Mary Jo and Ava, people who could talk about anything. There wasn't a sense of "I'm the grown-up and you're the child."

HE: Do you know women like Mary Jo?

JM: There was the idea that she was someone who'd grown up in a place that didn't suit her and become a sort of vagabond. I've had my little house in London for fifteen years now. I don't think I could get a backpack, put it in my car, and go, "That's it, we're leavin'."

HE: What about her attraction to violent men?

JM: A lot of people who make a real mistake about masculinity confuse gentleness with weakness. That's not something I can particularly relate to, but I can certainly understand the nature of someone who doesn't really know where she is. You take the seed of something you can empathize with and expand it in your imagination.

HE: DO you want to direct?

JM: Yeah. I've been asked to direct a number of times and every time I think about doing it, I end up acting instead. This business is so shitty for women over a certain age--once you get to forty-five, no one wants to know. Then they all want to know you again when you're sixty; I figure that's when I'll start to direct. I've written a screenplay for A Doll's House, which is hopefully going to be filmed next year.