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'45 Years': Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay reflect on their past
The film “45 Years” focuses on a married couple and how a husband’s relationship from the past is revealed just days before their 45th anniversary.
The film is told through the eyes of the wife, Kate, played by Charlotte Rampling, and how she deals with the news of her husband’s previous love. Her husband, Geoff, is played by another British acting veteran, Tom Courtenay.
Director Andrew Haigh adapted the film from the short story, “In Another Country,” which originally told the story from the husband’s point of view.
The Frame's John Horn spoke with Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay about what attracted them to the film, if they tend to look back at their past mistakes and loves, and what it's like to get a role with such depth so late in their acting careers.
INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS:
The film doesn't have much dialogue in it. That must be challenging but liberating at the same time?
Rampling: I think it's the best thing you could do to an actor. We don't often get that kind of chance. Anyway, I love it because it's about really making sense of your inner world and bringing it out. [Audiences] are following a feeling because you are following a feeling. They're following a memory because you are following a memory. They're actually on your track.
There's a beautiful and awkward sex scene that unfolds in the film. It really describes a lot about the couple's relationship. What conversations did you have about doing that scene?
Courtenay: I really don't think we had any conversations about it. I just got down to my underpants and was quite prepared to remove them. And everybody laughed and it was fine.
Rampling: 'Cause he wondered around in his underpants during the rehearsals, after the scene. He was just quite happy wondering around in these awful pair of underpants. And Tom said to me that he hadn't done this very often on screen.
Courtenay: No, never.
Rampling: [laughs]
This is your first sex scene in a movie?
Courtenay: Yeah, I think so. And probably my last. I was much more worried about the scene where we had to dance together. This gave Charlotte a lot of pleasure to see my worry and fear about having to dance.
Because you're not as good of a dancer as she is?
Courtenay: No, I'm not!
Rampling: He even had a very attractive woman come to give him dance lessons [laughs.]
The Hollywood version of this film would be called "20 Years" so they could cast actors in their early 40s. How does it feel to be cast in something with this much substance where you get to play a character close to your age, where they don't have to cheat the age to satisfy whoever it is they're trying to satisfy.
Rampling: This is sort of exciting really, although working in Europe is not quite the same thing as it is working in America. We're not so scared of ladies growing older in Europe. We actually quite like them.
That's a huge issue in the U.S. where actors, especially women, are consigned to basically grandmother roles. They don't get leading parts anymore.
Rampling: Well, they do! What about Meryl Streep, Susan Sarandon, Lily Tomlin...
But those are the exceptions to the rule...
Rampling: Well, I mean there's not a lot of us. So maybe I'm an exception to the rule in Europe [laughs.] C'mon, we gotta accept the fact that when you get older you don't get so many roles, that's all. Why are we all complaining all the time?
This film focuses a lot on looking back at one's life and past loves. As actors, after making a film like this, do you start looking back at your own lives differently?
Courtenay: My wife says I — most of the time — sit there looking backwards [laughs.] That's what [my character] does in the film, so it was made for me.
Rampling: Well, it just depends on who you are. I don't think it's a healthy thing to do. Leave the past behind!
Courtenay: I'm sure it's very good advice, but I can't follow it. "No regrets" — that's no life. I regret everything, but it's just my negative nature. I read in the paper the other day that being negative could be a very positive thing.
"45 Years" is out in limited release on December 23.