Alessandro Nivola; he wanted nothing more than the courage to talk to that French waitress, and came to one conclusion: fame would be a lot easier

Interview, April, 2003 by Anita Sarko

Alessandro Nivola's looks may be responsible for his status as an Internet pinup, but it's this 30-year-old's chameleonic range that has movie insiders buzzing. In only a handful of years, he's played everything from a psychotic criminal (Face/Off, 1997) to an aristocratic English cad (Mansfield Park, 1999) to an American sap (Best Laid Plans, 1999), with a bit of crooning and shuffling to Shakespeare (Love's Labour's Lost, 2000) thrown in for good measure. Presently, Nivola can be seen as a debauched Brit pop star alongside Frances McDormand, fellow Internet cult hottie Christian Bale, and Kate Beckinsale in Lisa Cholodenko's delightful Laurel Canyon. We caught up with him a couple of days before his wedding in England to actress Emily Mortimer.

ANITA SARKO: So you're getting married?

ALESSANDRO NIVOLA: I am. Emily and I have been together about four years, so it doesn't feel like a momentary lapse of reason.

AS: [laughs] Well, I feel kind of guilty about disturbing you at a special time like this, but maybe chatting with me will serve as a bit of a respite during what must be a crazy time.

AN: [laughs] Sure. And I'm really fond of Laurel Canyon, so it's not exactly a sacrifice to make people aware of it. It doesn't set out to change the world, but there's a hilarious truth to the characters, and the performances are great.

AS: And the relationships are great, and honest, too. My favorite was the one between you and Frances McDormand. As someone married to a younger man, I was thrilled to witness the romance between you and Frances depicted as neither oedipal nor exploitative. It was just hot.

AN: That relationship serves both my character and Fran's so well. She is this legitimately sexy woman who is able to command the attention of this younger guy. It completely destroys the stereotype of musicians chasing after 20-year-old blondes. That's really what the movie is about: It deals with important relationships in a realistic but fairly whimsical and unpretentious way and speaks to the idea that people can become more willing to accept each other. The tone of it is so surprisingly different from Lisa's last film. I'm not saying that High Art [1998] was heavy-handed, but if this material had been treated with the same seriousness, it might have been embarrassing.

AS: What I found kind of fun was that, except for Frances McDormand, everyone played against their natural accents: You're from the East Coast and you play a Brit; Christian Bale, who's Welsh, and Kate Beckinsale, who's English, play Americans; and Natascha McElhone, a Brit, plays an Israeli. How many dialect coaches were there?

AN: Not one! We've all done this sort of thing so often. Most English actors, if they're working in Hollywood, play American parts, and by weird coincidence, I've ended up with a lot of parts in English films, or English parts in American films. It all started with [director] Michael Winterbottom, who brought me to England to do / Want You [1998]. It was the most preposterous casting: I played an English fisherman who'd been in prison. I had originally met him for an American film, then he changed his mind and decided to do / Want You instead.

AS: What was the American film?

AN: The Cider House Rules. This was before Lasse Hallstrom was attached to it. It [I Want You] was a kind of fluke. I hadn't heard from Michael in six months, and then the script arrived at my door. I think he casts impulsively, and when that happens, as an actor, you feel like you've been given a great vote of confidence. I've never been a good auditioner. My first big job was on Broadway in A Month in the Country, and I auditioned about seven times. And they offered it to someone else, who turned it down. [laughs]

AS: Last night I had a mini Nivolafest researching your work, and it struck me how varied your performances are. There were movies of yours I'd seen before but hadn't associated you with, because the characters were so different from the ones I had seen in prior films.

AN: And many have been so different from myself.

AS: Well, I certainly hope that your character in Face/Off was different from yourself I

AN: [laughs] Yeah. That was a great movie.

AS: Where did you come up with that sniveling voice you used for Pollux Troy [the younger brother of Nicolas Cage's character, Castor Troy]?

AN: At the time, I was obsessing over a documentary about [comic-book pioneer] Robert Crumb [Crumb, 1994]. He had this brother named Charles, who's in the movie, and I stole his voice. I played a tape of the film for Nicolas Cage, and he said [imitating Cage], "Ah, yeah... errrr ... very dark. I like it." Nic had a really big impact on me. It was my first film--I'd never been to L.A., or anything. He really urged me on and gave me the confidence to be daring.

AS: Well, your singing in Laurel Canyon was pretty daring. Of course, you also sang in Love's Labour's Lost, but the rock songs in Laurel Canyon were just great.

AN: Thank you. I had played in bands all through high school and college--'80s punkish bands, cover bands. I wasn't doing anything innovative, and I never really had any musical ambitions, but when this job came up, I thought, If I don't get to actually sing the songs, I don't want to do it. I spent two days in my living room with my mini recording equipment spread out all over the floor, and I recorded a song of my own and sent it to Lisa.