Lucky Break : Interview With Olivia Williams


One to one with Olivia Williams (Ref: Lucky Break (2001), movie released late August in UK, and new movie Below (2002), no release date confirmed) star of Sixth Sense, the (1999) Rushmore (1998), Postman, the (1997) 'Friends', 'Emma', and 'Jason and the Argonauts'.

One episode of 'Friends' - and her post bag still bulges with appreciative mail. "What IS it about that series?" Questions Olivia Williams, settling herself into a comfortable hotel chair, declining Chablis and settling for a fizzy mineral water. "After all, I was only in it for a few minutes - playing Helen Baxendale's bridesmaid in the wedding episode - and I got to snog Joey. That's it, thank you. And the fans still write letters to me - but the bag full. It's amazing what loyalty they have. Do I watch it? Nah, never. I'm just too busy". Short pause. "I was a BIG fan until I was in it, and working on the show sort of punctured the balloon for me, it was a harrowing experience. 'Nuff said".

Some of the letters that she gets are, she admits, a bit on the interesting side when it comes to purple prose. "Why do weirdoes seem to fall in love with me so easily?" She questions. No, she's not going to go into the content of her mail, but she lets slip that there have been certain gentlemen who have been pretty persistent when it came to hanging around stage doors in the past.

"Not stalkers, no, nothing as heavy as that, thank God, but I can remember one rather strange man who was apparently a priest in Wales, somewhere, who used to come and see just about everything that I did - time and time again. He certainly gave the impression that he was a very keen fan - maybe it was my rosy cheeks that obsessed him? But I often wondered if his flock back home knew about his passion, and if they wondered where he was all the time. He certainly wasn't tending to them!"

"The funniest thing is that when I've had reviews of my work, all the best ones have been from things like The Church Times, The Catholic Herald and The Tablet. .. .. .. which is well bit odd, I reckon!"

She is indeed a busy lady. The Camden Town, London-based Olivia has just finished filming Peter Cattaneo's movie follow up to Full Monty, the (1997) a light-hearted prison caper called Lucky Break, in which she plays a remedial psychologist who falls in love with inmate James Nesbitt.

She's filmed opposite Bruce Willis in Sixth Sense, the (1999) Kevin Costner in Postman, the (1997) and Bill Murray in Rushmore (1998)]. She's done big scale US TV playing Hera, Queen of the Gods in the lavish Jason and the Argonauts, costume drama at home (as Jane Fairfax in Emma) and has been a member of both the RSC and The Royal National. And there's also a new movie on the way called Below (2002), in which she plays a British nurse, "rescued by a US submarine when the ship she'd on is torpedoed, mid-ocean, with all hands except her lost". A busy girl then? Olivia nods her head energetically.

She looks cool and unflustered, and she's not exactly a flashy dresser - purple short-sleeved top, black and white striped cotton trousers and a sensible pair of open sandals. Her brown hair is tied back, the make-up is minimal, and yet she's a stunning looking lady. So, a psychologist in prison who falls in love with one of the charges in her care? Stretching credibility a bit, isn't it? "That's what I thought, initially" she agrees. "But the cast and some of the crew all went up to Wandsworth at the invitation of the Governor, to do a bit of research. And I found out that one of his female staff had recently resigned her post after being in precisely the same predicament."

"The film is as accurate as it was possible to make it. Even the planned escape isn't at all far-fetched, because not so long ago a helicopter landed in one of the exercise yards, and took off with a few of the inmates on board. And once, when a television crew were filming there some of the prisoners tried to walk out wearing the crew's anoraks and carrying the equipment. So nothing is as far-fetched as real life itself. And Ronan Bennett, who wrote it, ought to know something about the subject, because he actually did do time himself, at one point. Now, he's a very gifted writer."

"It was strange being behind Wandsworth's walls for even those few hours, because TV is one of the few things that the prisoners do have, and they certainly recognised Jimmy (Nesbitt) from his TV appearances. There was quite an excitement - from a distance, because we were not allowed any physical contact."

"We saw the 'fluffy' side of it all, I guess, but what we did experience made me all the more determined to stay on the right side of the law in future. It was intensely claustrophobic, and I was definitely relived when the doors closed behind me, and I was on the outside again. You just feel SO grateful, because you can walk away, get in your car, drive off to where-ever - and the guys inside can't. I was in for just about four hours - and in that time I never saw the sky. It makes you think of how oppressive and depressing being inside can be."

"The Governor and his staff were very honest and open about the bad things, though - so we did get a pretty well-rounded picture. Both my parents are lawyers, so I did know a bit about the legal side, and in one of my leaner moments in my career I used to help out as a solicitor's clerk for a legal firm, and that meant going down to do preliminary interviews in cells underneath various magistrate's courts. That was my first taste of incarceration, albeit briefly. It wasn't very pleasant, but it was employment, so. .. .. .. ." She wrinkles up her nose at the memory. "Oh, and I'd also once been inside Wandsworth to watch the prisoners do their version of West Side Story, when an actress friend of mine was asked to play the main female role. So I knew a bit about prison - and what I know I don't like very much!".

Her character, Annabel, first meets Nesbitt - who plays a bungling bank robber - at an anger management course. "I was genuinely surprised how accurate and forbidding the set was" she recalls. "It felt as if you were jammed into a pretty small space. I've got a bit of trouble, personally, in defining the film, because all sorts of elements run though it. So many strands."

There's the love story between Annabel and Jimmy, there's the drama of a planned escape, there's the poignancy of Timothy Spall's story (which really makes me cry, even to think about it) and there are genuinely funny moments too. I think that's why audiences will really love it - it keeps them guessing, and the story moving along. It stands on its own merits. I hope audiences will judge it well. "

She is, she admits "A fully paid up member of the Porridge fan Club - when it was first on television my dad made it a strict rule that no-one answered the phone or the door during that precious half-hour. And I love it still. Ronnie Barker and Richard Beckinsale were superb, and Peter's film is something of a homage to them, in a way. "

Olivia, 30, is certainly pragmatic about her chosen career. "I used to be a big fantasist about the stage" she admits, "and I'd believe everything that was going on. Then, when I was still very young, I was invited to go and meet some of the actors backstage - and I noticed that a beautiful bunch of roses that was handed to one character in Uncle Vanya was lying on a props table, and it the flowers were plastic and paper, not real at all, and rather bent and dusty. The illusions vanished immediately. "

She trained at the famed Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, and graduated 1991. She says: "I've learned pretty quickly that television and film are very different. In film, it's a pretty leisurely pace and they throw pots of money at you and you do your stuff and just walk away. It's a luxurious medium."

"Television is a far more frantic pace, and the shit hits the fan fairly frequently. Mind you, not every film is a comfortable, cosseted experience - Below (2002) was a nightmare to do because it involved me getting very very wet indeed - for several days on end. The story is that my character, Claire Paige, is the only survivor of a torpedoed hospital ship, and she's picked up by a US submarine. A submarine which just happens to be haunted. .. .. .it's a brilliant mix of genres, I think. In the normal 'haunting' stories, you can get away from the house or whatever it is, but in a sub. .. .. .. ? There's no escape."

"The movie took fourteen weeks to make, and I was in the company of some pretty gorgeous American actors - including Bruce Greenwood, who played JFK in Thirteen Days (2000), and the lovely Matt Davies. So it's not star-driven, just a damned fine yarn. I agreed to do it because, for once, the Americans don't present a totally rosy portrait of themselves - it's very dark and nasty."

"The discomfort? Well, we shot several scenes in the vast 007 open water tank at Pinewood, which is the largest in the world. I had to get wet through, and I thought that I'd look pretty stupid if I wore a wet suit underneath my costume, so I declined that offer. I'd have looked like the Michelin Woman. The result is, that when you see me in the movie looking tired, soaked, pissed off, a bit angry and rather frightened, it isn't acting. I was all of those things. It was bloody hard - the scene was a storm in the North Sea, and I was constantly deluged with chlorinated water. VERY cold and VERY wet. "

Any consolations at all? "They paid me very well indeed" she admits. So, would she ever consider making the big move to Los Angeles? "No, I do like North London, that's where my friends are - Primrose Hill, that sort of area. But, when it's cold and dark and grey over here in February, that's the time to be working in La-La Land, and smugly thinking of all your mates back in the UK! Being there then doesn't suck!".

Olivia observes: "You can't really control your career as an actor - some scripts are truly bad, some are just OK, and one or two are brilliant. So many have the woman there purely to provide the love interest, and they're pretty shallow. But there are the rare ones which have an arc, and a bit of a story, thank God. Below is one of those, so is Lucky Break, and so was Rushmore (1998). I like roles where I stand out a bit from the rest of the plot, and where I can get to be in just about everything - but then, who wouldn't!".

One of her Lucky Break (2001) co-stars is the legendary Hollywood actor Christopher Plummer, who, she says. "Is an incredible bloke - you only see a millionth of his talents. He's a charmer and an endless source of anecdotes. " Plummer is famous for his role in the blockbuster musical The Sound of Music, and in the movie, the prisoners use the device of a theatre production of a musical to create a diversion for their breakout. Has she ever been tempted to tackle a musical on stage herself? "Never" says Olivia robustly. "I tend to avoid the medium, generally, even if I have mates involved. I saw The tale of Two Cities as a musical once, and it was a toe-curling experience. Mind you, having said that, I adore Mama Mia, and I could sit through Guys and Dolls on film or stage at any time. No, Elaine Paige is under no threats from me. .. .. ."

Author : FeatsPress