Leonor Watling (left) and Marcia Gay Harden appear in a scene from “If I Were You.” Courtesy Photo
Marcia Gay Harden stars in “If I Were You.” Courtesy Photo
‘If I Were You'
Country: Canada
Length: One hour, 55 minutes
Director: Joan Carr-Wiggin
Cast: Marcia Gay Harden, Leonor Watling, Aidan Quinn, Joseph Kell, Gary Piquer, Valerie Mahaffey
Screening: 7:30 p.m. today at Camelot Theatres and 4:30 p.m. Saturday at Regal Palm Springs
Information: (800) 898-7256 or www.psfilmfest.org
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King Lear ranks with Hamlet as the quintessential role for an actor.
But Oscar-winner Marcia Gay Harden proves a woman can tackle that Shakespearean challenge with a singular performance in the Canadian indie film “If I Were You,” making its world premiere tonight at Camelot Theatres.
Harden actually only plays Lear as part of a story within a story by writer-director Joan Carr-Wiggin. She didn't set out to become the first woman to play King Lear.
“I thought it had a lot of comic potential,” said Harden, who is expected to attend the 7:30 p.m. screening with Carr-Wiggin and co-star Aidan Quinn.
“King Lear I was actually quite nervous about — not playing King Lear, but the film takes a different twist and tone in that moment (where her Lear qualities are seen) and I felt we had been in a comedy.”
“If I Were You” is about a woman who sees her husband having a romantic dinner with a pretty young actress, Lucy, played by Spanish actress Leonor Watling. Harden, as Madelyn, follows Lucy out of the restaurant to a liquor store, where she watches her order a rope. She follows Lucy to her apartment and then prevents her from hanging herself, which prompts Madelyn to befriend her husband's lover without revealing her true identity.
The film takes its name from a deal Lucy and Madelyn make in which each woman must follow the other's advice. That allows Madelyn to surreptitiously advise her rival on how not to pursue a relationship with her husband.
“The theme of the movie is that people switch places,” said Harden, whose breakthrough performance was in the 1990 Coen brothers film “Miller's Crossing.”
“Do we always do what's best for us when we're only looking from our own perspective? She's looking for something different but she's not seeing the reality of what's in front of her. Through this young girl, beautifully played by Leonor, she's able to break out of this betrayal that's there in the marriage and find something in herself.”
The film takes a dramatic twist when Madelyn accompanies her new friend to the tryouts for a very amateur production of “King Lear.” Madelyn awkwardly takes a cell phone call from her husband during the auditions and, when her rage at her husband's betrayal grows animated, the play's director decides she'd be perfect as Lear.
Harden said she was directed not to portray Madelyn as a bad actress, so she had to figure out a way for her amateur actress character to come off as a skilled King Lear stylist in a way that seemed honest.
She drew from her training at the Tisch School of the Arts graduate program at New York University to solve the problem.
“I believe in school, I believe in training, I believe in craft,” Harden said. “I don't know that it's necessary for a film actor to be successful, but I think for a film actor to transform into other characters, I do think it's necessary. There's nothing more irritating than a stupid actor unless the film itself is encouraging that.”
Harden talks about finding a “personal truth” and combining that with “a world view.” She says that's what her Tisch acting instructors, Zelda Fichandler and Ron Van Lieu, taught about acting.
She says those lessons served her in film, where she won a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for “Pollock”; theater, where she won a Tony for her starring role in “God of Carnage”; and TV, where she received Emmy nominations for her roles in episodes of “Hallmark Hall of Fame” and “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.”
But Harden doesn't pretend that every acting job requires method acting to connect with an audience. “Sometimes you're selling toothpaste,” she said, “and there's not a lot of connection with the pearly whites.”
