Tuesday, November 5, 1996
FILM:
Hard-working actress learns lessons from personae she plays By
Emily Forster
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
It seems like an actor has to be dysfunctional in order to make
it big. With people like Hugh Grant and Robert Downey Jr. getting
entangled in humiliating escapades and substance abuse clinics
sheltering some of Hollywood’s most distinguished talents, it seems
like the film industry is churning out one emotionally damaged
celebrity after another.
But actress Sheryl Lee, who has tackled several dark,
challenging roles in her young career, sees this embarrassing
behavior as a result of the acting process, not the glitzy
industry.
"Every acting teacher teaches you how to develop a character and
bring a character in, but no school teaches you how to let it go,"
explains Lee. "I think that’s why you’ve seen so many actors go
through a lot of emotional stuff. It’s not an easy thing to go and
be another person sixteen hours a day, six days a week, every week,
for three months. It affects you."
Best known for her role as the psychologically tortured Laura
Palmer in off-beat director David Lynch’s dark TV series "Twin
Peaks," Lee often finds herself shaking off a persona from her
latest project. Currently starring as a German actress opposite
Nick Nolte in the heavy drama "Mother Night," Lee has her own
homespun recipe for sneaking away from the characters that follow
her after filming ends.
"I find the best way for me to let go of a character is, right
when I finish, to go to Colorado (my home state) or to go somewhere
I’ve never been," says Lee. "For me, I’m always kind of raw and
vulnerable when I come off a film and I need to go somewhere that I
can let go and think about something completely different."
Although Lee seeks escape when she finishes a film, she is
immersed in her projects from beginning to end. The exhaustive
research and dialectal training Lee pursues when she takes on a
project are proof that she is one of the most industrious actresses
in the business. Her portrayal of a German actress braving the
harsh conditions of World War II in "Mother Night" shows the
comprehensive studies Lee completes before she even gets on
set.
"I interviewed probably 25 different German women and studied
everything I could about the history of that time," recalls Lee.
"For me it was much more helpful to interview because not only is
it just what they’re saying, but it’s how they’re saying it. It’s
watching the moods that come over them, it’s kind of getting a
sense of their essence and what they’ve been through."
Research like this is unusual for film actors, but considering
that Lee was originally a stage actress, her research is not a
surprise. Lee never planned to do acting outside of the
theater.
"I started out just wanting to do theater," says Lee. "That’s
all I wanted to do, but then when I was 21 is when I met David
Lynch and got into the whole ‘Twin Peaks’ thing. Since then I’ve
kind of gotten away from it (the theater). The last play that I did
was Oscar Wilde’s ‘Salome.’ I did that in New York with Pacino
about five years ago. It was amazing."
Lee misses the theater, possibly because the roles she gets in
films are all so similar. Hollywood has typecast Lee as the dark,
mysterious leading lady. Filmmakers seek Lee out for roles in films
that are brooding and offbeat because they cannot envision her
acting in films of another genre.
"These roles (in dark films) come to me a lot because of the
work that I have done," says Lee. "If somebody sees you do
something then they go, ‘Oh, you can do that.’ But I turn down a
lot of them because it wears on me playing such dark roles. I’m
certainly looking for a comedy, at any time. Please, send me a
comedy! But nobody thinks I’m funny. I’m trying to figure that one
out."
Lee has experience with comedy from her extensive theater
background, but she knows that it does not matter what she has done
on stage. Actors only get credit for what they do on screen.
"That’s the hard thing about Hollywood, is that if you’ve never
done it, if they’ve never seen you do it, they don’t think you can
do it," says Lee. "You have to prove first that you can do it
before they’ll let you do it. But how do you prove you can do it
unless you’re doing it? It’s a whole Catch-22."
Lee has other problems with the roles she takes. To her, one of
the most disturbing aspect of the characters in her films is that
they have more of a love life than Lee has.
"I had a fascinating realization recently where I realized that
I haven’t been in a relationship for seven years but I continue to
do love stories," says Lee. "Sometimes being single sucks. You want
to have somebody to share your life with but it’s not like a car
that you can go out and buy. So I do all those things that a normal
healthy single adult does.
"But then I consciously make a decision to go do a love story,
to go open my heart in that way. It’s not that I fall in love with
my costars, because I don’t. But I open my heart up to feel love on
screen every day and then every night go to an empty hotel room and
ultimately to L.A., to an empty house."
Lee loves being an actress in spite of the trouble it gives her.
Aside from dealing with post-film project depression, the
typecasting trap and an empty love life, Lee finds great
satisfaction in the quality of her performances and the lessons she
gains from the unusual characters she always plays.
"My favorite aspect of acting is what I get to learn from the
characters," says Lee. "I learn from every one of them. Even if
it’s painful, even with Laura. That was a painful character, but
that character forced me to look at my own shadow side and embrace
it, which in this country you’re not allow to do.
"I think our country is very much about pushing it under the
rug, not talking about it. But what happens then is it gets more
power and then it rears its ugly head and fights back. But to be
able to look at it and embrace it, it’s just all part of the
balance of life. You wouldn’t have the shadow if you didn’t have
the light. They’re both there."
Learning these types of lessons from characters like Laura
Palmer is what keeps Lee going. And of course having a good sense
of humor helps too.
"It is painful to play characters like that, to live inside that
skin for three months or however long it is. It does become
depressing and I do get very melancholy at times, but you’ve got to
be able to laugh at it a little bit. That’s what gets you
through."
Fineline Features
Sheryl Lee with Nick Nolte in Keith Gordon’s "Mother Night."