[IMG:L]With a range of beautifully drawn work that easily earns her one of the top two tiaras in the pageant for risk-taking filmmaking, few actors come to mind as readily as Lili Taylor when thinking of steadfast thespian pioneers of the independent film cannon.
Truly bursting on to the scene in the mid-ninteies, in a glorious Sundance award-swept year, with two landmark films (her blazing lead work in Mary Harron‘s alarming I Shot Andy Warhol and her unforgettable ensemble work on Jim McKay‘s rules-breaking Girls Town) Taylor’s arrival was loud and clear! Further lossoming as a versatile player in such alterna-classics as A Slipping Down Life (1999), Gaudi Afternoon (2001) and The Notorious Bettie Page (2006), Taylor‘s commitment to choosing visionary projects remains constant.
With a curious array of work that includes TV, mainstream film, writing and stage, Lili Taylor is reminiscent of flexible actors of yesteryear whose careers spoke to content, rather than surface glory. And with her magnetically unconventional looks, style and taste, she’s left an indelible, flavorful mark within the varied projects she’s taken on, fearlessly.
Thus, it comes as no surprise that Lili excitedly signed up on a bold film–centered on a stalled septuagenarian novelist–for the role of Ariel, his daughter yearning to have a baby, who’s at the crossroads of her child-bearing years and is tied to two troubled relationships with self-involved men; one being her father Leonard, and the other–her rekindled ex-love, Casey.
We sat down with the beaming, and very pregnant Lili Taylor, who is a master of bringing texture and life to whatever project she touches.
[IMG:R]Hollywood.com: Did you relate to your character Ariel in her quest to get pregnant and change her life?
Lili Taylor: I was 38 and I was close to her age; and I knew my body had to get goin’. I wasn’t where she was ‘at’ but I was circling around it in a similar way, so I had some identification and empathy for her. For women today, I feel like we’re in new territory.
HW: What did you take away from this film?
LT: I think the depth of the emotional content that Andrew [Wagner, the director] was striving for was just something I connected to. I was really inspired when making this movie. I was feeling ‘kind of down’ about making movies in New York and there [on Starting Out] was this fantastic collaborative experience. It was done in eighteen days, with not much money. Everyone who was there wanted to be there. Inventiveness! Making things work. I really needed to have that experience.
HW: Your relationship with Frank Langella was so dynamic on screen. Can you talk about how that connection unfolded with him as an actor?
LT: You know, Andrew knows these characters and the dynamics and everything has been explored. It was Andrew who created the scaffolding for me … I just had to come in; basically my job was to surrender and be open. He created the work for me to walk into and I knew it was safe and crossover and bare all.
[IMG:R]HW: Story-wise, given that Lauren Ambrose’s character Heather is an ambitious lit grad student interested in your father who’s thrice her age, can you discuss Ariel’s relationship with Heather?
LT: One thing that keeps coming to mind is that it’s, “No blame.” I felt like the character might have been struggling with that but she finally got to, “No blame.” No blame on Casey [her boyfriend]. No blame on Heather. No blame on father.
HW: What was the hook that made you want to do this film?
LT: It was Andrew. It was. I loved the script, but his enthusiasm on the phone when we talked–I was so touched by him, he was filled-up with something and not afraid to express it. I was just like, ‘I’m on board. I’m with you!’
HW: Given its setting, did you feel a kinship with this film being such ‘the New Yorker’?
LT: A little bit. I did feel a kinship and a revitalization. All of a sudden this feeling came–yeah, I love New York! [Sighs] But no one can shoot here. Independents come here, but not as many as in the ’90s–it’s still hard to shoot here and we [the film crew] were doing it really rough style. It can be still done here. The spirit is still here to greet you. I remember…we needed an extra, and they just pulled a guy off the street. The guy was jogging–but unfortunately he was sweating so much we had to kick him out! But, it’s just that spirit! A New York jogger is like, “Yeah, I’ll do it. I’ll run up the street for you.”
[IMG:L]HW: Collaborating on this film, you’ve remained true to your indie spirit, not necessarily buying into the “Hollywood machine.”
LT: I guess so. I just feel like integrity isn’t much of a currency still. I can’t help but feel the drive of the marketplace or the commerce. That’s what it feels to me sometimes. I may be going through a jaded period but it just feels like it’s tricky out there right now and I don’t understand it.
HW: This is a tricky movie to pull off given what’s a ‘hard sell’ these days. You’re fighting two things: a story about a writer who’s a seventy-plus-year-old man. Were you shocked by your director’s boldness to pull this off?
LT: I was. I was moved and pleased that he’s done it against all odds. It’s not ‘the thing’ of today; it’s quiet, it’s complicated, it’s subtle–there’s no big secret that’s revealed. [Passionately gesturing] It’s that hard stuff that isn’t so flashy that we go through. It’s so quiet. The pacing is slow. It’s hard. He [Andrew] stood by his guns throughout all of it.
[IMG:R]HW: Your role as Ariel is very pivotal in dealing with both of the two self-involved male leads–namely, your onscreen father and boyfriend. How did you relate to Leonard as a character?
LT: My dad wasn’t like that. But I related to having “stuff” to work through with my dad. I find that a beautiful struggle–especially when it’s at the end of someone’s life. It’s such a profound time and it can be such a gift if the two [people] can both show up to that moment, and maybe cross-over together, which I think they [Leonard and Ariel] did.
HW: What are your thoughts on the Writers Guild strike especially within the context of being in this film centering on a novelist?
LT: You know, it’s funny I usually like to know everything that’s going on and get all into it. But for some reason I haven’t with the Writers strike. I know roughly what it’s about. I want to know more. What has been interesting to me is just the overreaching situation that we’re just so in the unknown; we are just in new territory. It’s kind of like something’s not working. For me it’s [the industry has] been in flux since ’98, I feel like independent films have been going through stuff–we thought digital was going to work–and it didn’t. Is it with distribution that we need to do the revamping? Is it that we need less material? [Earnestly exasperated] I don’t know!
HW: But, you’re not running out and making your own movie just yet?
LT: Not yet, not yet. The movie I’m writing can be filmed in the backyard with two kids. I don’t think I consciously chose that, but I know I can get a backyard. [Laughs] And two kids … If we’re in a backyard I don’t need a lot of money.
[IMG:L]HW: Adrian Lester is so superb in the film; and your chemistry as a couple is immediate. Were you especially attracted to a storyline that involves you in an interracial relationship–without stereotypically focusing on that aspect of Ariel and Casey’s togetherness.
LT: I was. Look we can’t deny race is a part of it, but in this case it’s a black man and it’s about the man and then it’s about the race. Same thing with being a woman: Human being first, then woman, and in my case, white. Also he’s a black intellectual. Then we get to how race is affecting him. I thought that was fantastic!
HW: What was your first impression of Frank Langella?
LT: Well, it was in his house. Which is so perfect to meet him at his home it just felt right. I think he said right away, “Let’s leap empty-handed into the void, dear.”
[IMG:R]HW: That’s a way to start off a film!
LT: I know. And it felt so right. I really needed to meet Frank and see an artist who cares so much about the art–and not about all the other stuff. I just needed to be reminded of that. Maybe I was losing sight of it. He’s such a pure true artist and that’s what I am. I mean, I’m not a “true pure artist” but I’m an artist–and if I get caught up in other stuff that doesn’t have meaning then I’m in trouble.
HW: I went to the screening of a friend, who worked with you as a director–Jim McKay. There was such magic during that era when those films emerged. Do you miss anything about that time of filmmaking?
LT: Jim McKay is a perfect example everything I’m talking about right now. This film actually had a lot of that feeling that I had in the ’90s–which was caring about what you’re doing, as opposed to asking: “Where’s it going to go? What festival is it going to get into? Is it going to get nominations? Are we going to miss awards season? It didn’t gross [“x-dollars at the box office”]. All that stuff…
The vibrant, powerfully gesticulating Taylor shakes her head thoughtfully.
LT: There’s innocence about it [filmmaking]. I think with art it’s gotta come from that place first, and if any of that [recognition] stuff happens it happens, great. [Sighs] If it contaminates it [it’s not worth it]? … Jim is so good about protecting that artistic element…he’s one of the pure ones I think.
HW: So where are you with your screenplay?
LT: On the fourth or fifth draft. I don’t know what it’s [exactly] about, but probably getting courage together.
HW: Will it help revive the indie film world?
LT: [Smiles] I am going to try and make what I want to make–and hopefully it won’t break anyone’s bank account–and do it.
HW: Good for you!
