Branagh's new leading lady

From: The Guardian, 2000-03-26
Date added: 2007-01-05

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In the exuberant Thirties-style musical, McElhone is one of the stand-out members of the ensemble cast. Tall and graceful, she deftly switches between the blank verse and singing standards such as 'They Can't Take That Away From Me'.

As Rosaline, she's a knowing flirt with flaming eyes, enjoying her verbal warfare with Branagh's Berowne - although most of the original dialogue was removed to make way for a host of familiar show tunes.

The film is a delightful throwback to an era when the Gershwin brothers, rather than the Gallaghers, shaped popular music, and a scene just wasn't complete without someone bursting into song and leaping into the air. McElhone is perfectly cast as the most glamorous figure in this elegant, colour co-ordinated world.

She is best known for playing Jim Carrey's lost love in the hugely successful The Truman Show. In contrast to the rigorous casting process young actresses usually face, director Peter Weir cast her after an informal audition in his hotel room. 'His assistant taped us both playing a scene and he called my agent the next day to say I'd got it.' It wasn't a career-making role. Apart from a few flashback scenes, McElhone spent most of her screen time watching and reacting to Truman's so-called life, but it worked wonders for her profile. She followed up her first major box-office success in Ronin, a monosyllabic action thriller co-starring Robert De Niro, Jean Reno, Sean Bean and Stellan Skarsgård. Her character, the mysterious contact for a band of hired guns, was one of the guys.

'The role was written for a woman, but it's funny because director John Frankenheimer said it could have been written for a man,' she said. 'She wasn't there to be a seductress, or ingratiating or just rescue some guy.'

The 28-year-old studied at the London Academy of Music and Drama and attentive Ab Fab fans may recall her screen debut guesting as Art Gallery Assistant in an episode called 'Death'. Her real break came after James Ivory spotted her performing open-air theatre in Regent's Park. A few months later, barely one year out of drama school, she was acting opposite Anthony Hopkins in Surviving Picasso, one of the forgotten links in the Merchant-Ivory heritage production line.

The IRA thriller The Devil's Own proved another mixed blessing. Despite starring with Harrison Ford and Brad Pitt, the film was an expensive flop. Ironically, her screen chemistry with Pitt, who plays her love interest, is negligible - Branagh is a better match. Pitt even attacked the film prior to release for its political naivety.

McElhone is a smart player, consistently winning roles alongside A-list leading men without yet making a Catherine Zeta Jones leap to OK! magazine stardom. She's expecting a baby in April, prompting a screen hiatus, but she'll return. For Ken's sake, let's hope so.

Source: The Guardian

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