Kate Beckinsale opens up about Lady Susan, her role in "Love & Friendship," an 18th Century character who behaves very much like a 21st Century woman; DC Comics reboots its universe of familiar characters with "Rebirth"; the González siblings prepare to perform together for the first time in 20 years.
'Love & Friendship': Kate Beckinsale says 18th Century was 'unbearably horrible for women'
The British actress Kate Beckinsale is no stranger to the novels of Jane Austen. She starred in the 1996 television movie “Emma,” based on the Austen book of the same name.
But even diehard Austen fans might be unfamiliar with “Lady Susan,” an obscure novella that is the source material for Beckinsale’s new movie, “Love & Friendship.” The film is adapted by the writer-director Whit Stillman, who directed Beckinsale in “The Last Days of Disco” almost 20 years ago. Like that film, this one also co-stars Chloe Sevigny.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOVkkfctD0k
In the movie, Beckinsale plays Lady Susan Vernon, a widowed woman scheming to find herself a new mate — and some money— as she peddles off her daughter to a blithering fool. The story may be set in the 18th Century, but Lady Susan behaves very much like a 21st Century woman — albeit, one strapped into a corset.
Beckinsale stopped by The Frame recently to talk about the role, working with Whit Stillman, and why she's finally getting roles she truly loves.
Interview Highlights:
What's the story behind "Lady Susan," the book that "Love & Friendship" was based on?
She apparently wrote it when she was around 20. It definitely feels a lot more extreme in terms of a central character and her behavior than some of the better known works. It was put in a drawer and she forgot about it. Then, I think about 40 or 50 years after she died, her nephew published it and he gave it the title, "Lady Susan." I think Whit Stillman, the director, felt he didn't have to be super loyal to the title because it was not chosen by Jane Austen. He lifted a title from another unpublished novella.
I think it's fair to call Lady Susan ballsy. Are there other adjectives that come to mind?
I like to think of her like a broad in the sense of Barbara Stanwyck or Bette Davis. She's at the height of all her powers. What I like about her, and what's redeeming, is that she's pioneering the bucking of the system and the social situation that women were in at that period of time.
She is a sexual suffragette.
Absolutely right. Given that the social norm was that for a woman — who generally was denied further education and career opportunities to be financially independent — the [concern] was really, Who she's going to marry? Who's going to keep her from the poorhouse? Lady Susan's gone through one husband and he's died, so now she's in a situation where she has to find another one. What's different about her is that, though she could find some old rich man fairly easily, she's not prepared for that to be her only sexual partner. Her sexual freedom, her financial freedom — she's going for all of those, which most women didn't.
When you read books like "Emma" and "Sense and Sensibility," do you see little hints of Lady Susan? Do you think Jane Austen was in some way scared of what Lady Susan's character represented, given that she seemed like a 21st Century heroine living in the 18th Century?
I think the point is that Jane Austen was writing during a period of profound social change. I like the fact that she talked about Emma as being an unlikable character. But I don't find her an unlikable character, certainly from the perspective of our period of time. Austen wasn't shy of a well-rounded character with flaws and faults. As a woman from that period of time herself, Jane Austen, who's clearly a genius and who's very bright and smart and obviously dealing herself with some frustration about the constraints that are put on her — I've always seen Lady Susan as being her furor against that and then thinking, Oh, that's a bit much. Maybe we shouldn't publish it.
Whit Stillman is precise about words and how he wants those words spoken, and yet he's also in some ways a painter who is constantly improvising and changing the colors in a scene. What is it like as an actor to have a director who writes very dialogue-heavy screenplays and yet, I suspect, on some days might want to do something different than you had originally planned?
I think that's something I had forgotten, actually, because my character in "The Last Days of Disco" was fairly verbose and then obviously this one was 20 times more. I was pestering Whit, before we started shooting, for final shooting drafts because we only had 27 days to shoot the movie. I wanted to make sure I had learned everything before I turned up. He was extremely coy about that and, what I had forgotten, was that he likes to be very in the moment and will — often the night before — decide he wants a scene to be completely changed around. I would sit in the makeup trailer dreading seeing him come in and think, Oh no, what's he going to change?
The thing is he has such supreme confidence in your ability to reshuffle your brain, and actually spit the dialogue out, that you just do it. For example, there's a character in the movie played by Tom Bennett, who's very funny and responsible for the broadest comedy in the movie. The part on the page was funny, but very minor and not very well drawn. Then, once the actor showed up, he was so brilliant with this complete performance that Whit got very inspired and even wrote a few extra scenes for him.
How do you find the key to a character like this? Whit gives you a story and you know Jane Austen and her world. What are the keys for you to play this character in a period film?
The thing about Whit is that he doesn't like rehearsal very much at all, so you don't have any of that. He likes to cast things very precisely so that he knows what to expect, what your particular rhythms and cadences are. For me, I do a lot of academic type work on the script or the novella. I went to Oxford. That's how I know [the way] to work on things is doing a little thesis and root myself on it. I spend a lot of time just reading around the period and what the situation was like for a woman from that period of time. The costumes do really help actually because they're incredibly restrictive, and it's interesting just knowing that no one is able to get themselves dressed independently.
They needed to be laced into their corset right?
Yeah! So every morning when I'm getting ready to go to work I've got a woman coming in carrying all of these things and putting my corset on me. There's not really much comfortable alone time.
After playing this character, do you appreciate more what modern women have? Or does it make you wish that maybe things were better then? How does it change your perspective of how modern people live?
I think it seems so unbearably horrible for women in that period. Just to know that Jane Austen couldn't publish under her own name is horrible. That's an outrageous thought now. The only thing I do miss is — since this is an epistolary novella — the anticipation of letter writing and the fullness of letter writing. That's been lost. Everything now is more immediate. Texting is fun and funny, but there's something about waiting desperately for a letter. I think it's a shame we've lost that.
When you're thinking about a movie that you want to make, how does your criteria evolve? And are the things that are important to you harder and harder to find?
It's one of those things where sometimes a well-drawn character and a wonderful director comes around and sometimes it doesn't. I don't think that that has been restrictive to the latter part of my career. There were huge times in my early career where there just wasn't anything that interesting. Now it's probably become better for younger actress than it was when I started out. I remember thinking, Oh God, I can't wait till I'm in my mid-30s because that's when all the actresses get to do something good. But, like I said, this is probably one of my favorite parts that I've ever had and this is the oldest I've ever been. It's not really translating into, Oh no, I'm a terrible dried-up old tortoise and nobody wants me. I'm sure it's coming, but it hasn't happened yet.
At a certain point, do you go out and seek material to develop on your own? Is it important that you find projects either as a screenwriter or as a producer?
I didn't think about it too much when I had a very small child. I found the juggle of that and being an actor enough. I've always been a huge reader, so in terms of that stuff, the sheer volume that I'm able to read seems like a waste if I'm not also casting my mind around for an interesting project. So in the last couple of years, yes, I have been more looking at that. I'm in the middle of doing a screenplay with another writer at the moment. And that's nice because as an actor you are very much a cog in the machine. It's a director's medium, obviously, and it's quite nice to be involved from a grassroots level in terms of a character in a story and the look of something.
A trio of sibling singers reunite after 20 years to keep a family tradition alive
Most kids grow up playing on swing sets and see-saws, but not the González children. Back in the 1970s, Gabriel, Martha and Claudia González spent their childhood singing at the historic Million Dollar Theater in downtown Los Angeles.
Fast forward to 2016: all three have become accomplished musicians — each fronting their own band. They all live in Los Angeles, but their commitments have kept them from performing together as a trio for nearly 20 years. But they will on May 28.
During a recent rehearsal at Martha's home, there's a fourth voice in the mix. Sandino González-Flores is 11-years-old and already learning the family trade. And he makes it sound easy. Then again, his mom is Martha González and his dad is Quetzal Flores. You might know them better as leaders of the band Quetzal — the powerhouse East L.A. group that won a Grammy a few years ago for rocking the Latino music world. The gold statue sits on the piano behind Sandino.
“I’m very proud of him," Martha says. "But I’m also very critical. So I encourage him at that moment and later on I give him his notes!”
Sandino also gets notes from his Aunt Claudia and Uncle Gabriel. But that’s how it’s always been in the González family.
“I don’t want him to be mediocre just because he’s a kid," Martha says. "That’s not the world we came from. My dad would never encourage us [by saying], ‘Good job! For a kid.’ As a matter of fact, he was more critical and he was very hard on us.”
The González siblings remember their parents playing classics such as "La misma canción" by Mexican legend Vicente Fernández. Their dad expected them to learn the lyrics perfectly.
"It was intense," recalls Claudia, who is known as Cava — also the name of her band. "We were obligated to sing for the family reunions. He made me and Martha sing certain songs. And he would choreograph or Martha would choreograph, and we would have to sing and perform for the family.”
The kids quickly got used to their dad’s high standards. Soon, they were getting paid to work as musicians, even though they were still in elementary school in Boyle Heights. The gigs helped their humble immigrant family make ends meet. Claudia says it all seemed pretty normal.
“I thought that everyone could sing!," she says. "I didn’t know that some people don’t hear notes. I never knew that. I was like, Wow! It still baffles me. I’m like, ‘Really, you don’t hear yourself singing in a different key?’” [laughs]
The siblings have no formal music training. but Gabriel — the eldest — recalls constantly being surrounded by gifted musicians who taught him how to perform.
"I remember being on stage with Los Broncos de Reynosa when they started," he says. "Some of [the others] were Los Bukis, Los Yonics, Los Indios, Los Humildes, La Sonora Santanera. They would use bands like that at the Million Dollar Theater.”
And Gabriel would pass those skills on to his little sisters.
“My dad would put us in check," Martha says. "But Gabriel did the opposite. He’d be like, ‘Come on! You can do it! And I’d be like, 'Yeah! I can do it!' [laughs) So that was great. Sometimes it was like he believed in me more than I believed in myself.”
Come May 28, the siblings are determined to tell their side of the story. While their dad controlled their career as kids, now they’re choosing what to sing for this special reunion, including, of course, the first song they all learned together: “La misma canción.”
As Gabriel rehearsed, Martha was in the kitchen making lunch. But the draw of their childhood favorite was too strong, so out she came to join her brother.
Their reunion concert is called “Caminos y Canciones” — "roads and songs." They hope to turn the evening into a musical theater touring show one day. But for now, it’s simply a love-letter to family and — as Martha says — perhaps even a late Mother’s Day present.
“Oh my god, my mom is so excited," she says. "We don’t talk much about him, but my dad passed and I feel it’s like a festive funeral in a lot of ways. His spirit will be there and maybe it will be laid to rest finally.”
"Caminos y Canciones of the González Family" will be performed May 28 at 7 pm at the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center.