"I'm Successful and Sexy..."
written by Lucy Broadbent
`I`m successful and sexy, but I`m still looking for love - Mention Jeremy
Northam and women swoon over the dashing actor who`s made his name starring
in period dramas - from Mr Knightley in Jane Austen`s Emma to An Ideal
Husband and Gosford Park. Now in Possession, this sultry singleton tells
Cosmo why he likes cheeky women.` Interview by Lucy Broadbent.
Q. You`ve played opposite some of the world`s most desirable actresses -
such as Kate Winslet, Sandra Bullock, Uma Thurman and Cate Blanchett - have
you ever dated any of them in real life?
A. No, not really. I don`t know why. I suppose they`ve all been busy! A lot
of actors go out with each other because there`s this strand of thought that
they are the only people who can understand one another`s drive and pattern
of life, but I don`t hold with that. I think two actors in the same space
would be a bit scary.
Q. Do you have any favourites?
A. Sharon Stone is very funny and very smart. But Cate Blanchett has this
intelligence most actors have to really try to achieve. She`s also very
married!
Q. You have a reputation as being a sex symbol but, at 40, you`ve never
settled down. Are you a confirmed bachelor?
A. I don`t know about being a sex symbol [laughs]. But I think I`d like to
settle down and have a family. The trouble is I`m away filming so much of the
time. I`ve spent only two and a half weeks at home since January. Some actors
manage to nurture a career and have a family, but in this industry, the work
is not always to be relied on. I`m still in the position where I worry about
when the next job is going to come in. I think I`m a bit too insecure to turn
my back on work for a while, and that`s what i`d want to do. If i had a
family - and I`d love to have children - I`d want to concentrate
wholeheartedly on that. I suppose I do feel a bit of a clock ticking. Maybe
I`m getting broody.
Q. So do you ever go out on dates?
A. Yes [sighs] but when I`ve tried to have relationships with people in
recent years, I find myself going at this ridiculous rate because my free
time is limited. I fel I can`t just mosey along for a bit. My foot is too far
down on the accelerator peddle and some people find that a terrible turn off.
Q. You lived with someone for nine years. How did that relationship end?
A. Horribly, we really didn`t see much of each other in the end. We still
remain friends, which I`m extremely grateful for, and that`s her doing. But
we started talking about marriage and I think, having lived together for so
long, we realised we couldn`t make that final commitment. Looking back, it
would have been hard to continue knowing how much I`ve been away acting in so
many films since then. But i`m sad that I didn`t handle that time better. I`m
sad that I probably treated someone with whom I was very close, not very
well.
Q. Are you difficult to live with?
A. I probably am. I`ve had seven or eight years of living on my own now.
Q. What attributes do you look for in a potential date?
A. A good sense of humour and a certian kind of boldness; mischief,
cheekiness, naughtiness. I`m attracted to people who have good looks. but how
I would define those would be very hard to say.
Q. Do you believe in love at first sight?
A. I suppose I do, heart skipping and all that - but really I believe in
kindness. The older I get, the more I think that`s a very important facet to
love.
Q. Your new film Possession (based on the AS Byatt novel) includes romance.
Is that why you were attracted to the role?
A. Primarily I anted to do it because I was excited at the prospect of
working of working with Neil LaBute (who directed Nurse Betty). It`s quite a
grown up film in a modern setting, but with flshbacks to a past romance in
the mid-19th century. It shows that we haven`t really changed that much. All
the fears this couple had then, we still have now.
Q. The film also stars Gwyneth Paltrow with whom you starred in Emma in 1996.
What was it like working with her again and has she changed?
A. We didn`t work together too much because we existed in different centuries
in the film. But it was lovely seeing her again. So much has happened to her
since we last met. She`s had such a rip-roaring career. She seemed much
calmer and fulfilled, more balanced, I think. But she was pretty young when I
worked with her before.
Q. Do you enjoy working with so many big-name female stars?
A. I think I`ve been very intimidated by them at times [laughs]. I made my
first film at 32, so it`s strange working with people when your only
knowledge of them is what you`ve seen on screen. Then you realise they`re
only flesh and blood like the rest of us.
Q. Would you like to break out of doing period dramas?
A. I think doing so many is to do with the way I speak and people tend to
hire you on the basis of what they`ve seen before. Either way, I`ve got
calluses around my neck from wearing so many wing collars! The truth is, I`m
just happy to carry on working. And I`m also working on two projects at the
moment that don`t require wing collars. I`m finishing filming a full-length
feature of The Singing Detective in Canada, and then I go on to a TV
biography about Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin - it requires an American accent
and an element of impersonation, which is scary.
Q. Your big break in Hollywood was the role of Mr Knightley in Emma. Why is
it you`re better known in the US than in the UK, where you`ve worked in
theatre and with the Royal Shakespeare Company?
A. I don`t know really, but I`m extremely grateful for the chance to work in
another country. I`ve had fantastic opportunties in the US - different from
the ones in the UK. Although I`ve done alot of period movies, I`ve been
given the chance to play a few American characters, such as in The Net and
Happy, Texas.
Q. Do you think the American audience loves your Britishness?
A. I don`t know what people`s perceptions of me are. Some people are
disappointed when they discover I`m not Mr Knightley. But, in the US, they
don`t always expect a British accent, because I`ve done several films with an
American accent.
Q. Could you ever live in Hollywood, given that you do so much work there?
A. I`m happy to work there, but I`m not sure that I could live in LA
permanently. The entertainment industry is so concentrated there and as a
result I lack perspective when I`m in Hollywood. I begin to forget that there
is a world beyond movies.
Q. Do women throw themselves at you when they recognise you in the streets?
A. Yes, I`m covered in bruises all the time [laughs]. No people don`t hurl
themselves at me. Occasionally people recognise me and that`s nice. They`re
usually very polite and they sometimes ask for autographs.
Q. Tell us about your upbringing?
A. I was born in Cambridge, the youngest of four children. My parents were
teachers. There was not a great deal of cash, but we all had a good
education, played musical instruments and had a graden to play in.
Q. Your mother died eight years ago of cancer. How did that effect you?
A. It was inevitably very difficult, particularly for my dad. She`d been ill
for four years and that was a tough time. It was especially weird because I
was doing a play in London when she died and I found myself dealing with my
grief in a very public arena. I felt very exposed. I`m sure her death changed
me, but I wouldn`t know how. I think one of the effects it had it reminded me
what a fantastic thing love is.
Q. Do you see much of your family now?
A. Not as often as I`d like. I played `nurse` to my dad last summer because
he had a hip replacement. We try to get together at Christmas, but my
siblings all have families of their own. I have nine neices and nephews, so
it`s hard finding a space we can all fit into.
Q. When you are at home, where is it?
A. I have a house in north London, but my retreat and escape from everything
is a 300-year old house in Norfolk. It`s lovely, all the fields are green and
they`ve got a fruit farm up the road selling strawberries, and you get fresh
fish in teh local town. I love to cook and just enjoy time there.
Q. What do you do in your spare time?
A. I`ve got a little old motor, which I keep in Norfolk. It`s a little Austin
Healy frog-eyed car. I`m not mechanically minded, but I give it apolish now
and again.
Q. Did you always ant to be an actor?
A. My dad taught English and drama and I can remember feeling the impetus to
see plays when I was young. We moved to Bristol when I was 10, and I started
doing school plays and found myself increasingly living for that. Acting
became more and more central to my imagination. I love the bit when the
curtain goes up or when someone shouts `Action!`. I don`t know what else I
would do, if I didn`t do this.
Q. Did you think you`d be so successful?
A. Not in a million years. When I started my training, at the Bristol Old
Vic, they offered no illusions about how tricky this business is. I had no
expectations about working. I`m just happy to be doing what I`m doing. I`m
still surprised when I get a job.
Q. Where do you see yourself in 10 years time?
A. Oh God, I can`t possibly think. I`m faced with a blank screen. Get back to
me in 10 years time and I`ll tell you.
