When Terence Stamp handed away on August 17, he left behind a legacy of unimaginable performances, starting from his breakthrough function because the title character in “Billy Budd” and assignments for European auteurs like Pier Paolo Pasolini (“Teorema”) and Federico Fellini (“Toby Dammit”) to his comeback function as Normal Zod within the “Superman” motion pictures. But pretty much as good as all these movies and lots of of his others are, there’s one Terence Stamp film that gave him the half he was born to play: director Steven Soderbergh‘s “The Limey.”
Working with a razor-sharp script by his “Kafka” and “Haywire” collaborator Lem Dobbs, Soderbergh made “The Limey” a tailored showcase for Stamp’s distinctive mix of wry humor, brooding depth, and icy charisma. Stamp performs Wilson, a British ex-con who travels to Los Angeles to avenge the homicide of his daughter, whom he suspects was killed by getting old music mogul Peter Fonda or somebody in his orbit.
It’s a personality that riffs on each earlier Stamp performances (most notably his work in Ken Loach’s “Poor Cow,” which is built-in into “The Limey” as flashback footage) and his private biography as a Nineteen Sixties icon, since Soderbergh and Dobbs use their revenge story as a vessel into which they will pour each thought they’ve ever had concerning the period and its unfulfilled guarantees. Wilson is without doubt one of the richest characters in Stamp’s oeuvre: regretful and resigned, hilarious and mournful, and deeply offended but with flashes of tenderness.
The fervor with which Stamp assaults the function was evident proper from the primary desk learn, in response to his co-star Lesley Ann Warren. “I did a read-through with Terence and Steven Soderbergh, and I used to be completely terrified,” Warren advised an viewers on the American Cinematheque. “He’s very imposing in actual life. He was a really formidable man.”
The Cinematheque screened “The Limey” final week as a part of its “Starring Terence Stamp” sequence, which runs via September 25 and options key Stamp works like “The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert” and William Wyler’s “The Collector.” Warren, who performs Elaine, a struggling actress who helps Wilson in his quest (she was his daughter’s performing instructor), participated in a post-screening Q&A to pay tribute to Stamp and speak about her expertise on the film.
“I had by no means met him, however I used to be such a fan of his from the time of ‘Billy Budd’ on,” Warren mentioned, including that the truth that she was intimidated by the actor fed her efficiency. “I used to be nervous, however it really helped with the character as a result of she’s so unsure and suspicious and uncertain.” Certainly, one of many film’s many pleasures is the facility of Warren’s quiet, understated portrayal of a lonely girl whose goals haven’t labored out — a far cry from Warren’s extra energetic and comedian performances in motion pictures like “Clue” and “Victor/Victoria.”
It’s a sort Warren acknowledged from her years in Hollywood. “ I do know a few of these folks and see what they undergo,” she mentioned. “Women and men who simply hold attempting and attempting, they usually get a little bit one thing, and it retains them hooked. They work a number of different jobs, and it’s all nice, however there’s a type of continual heartbreak since you by no means actually completed what you had come out right here for or dreamt about doing.”
Understanding the character implicitly, Warren dressed the way in which she thought Elaine would gown for her first assembly with Soderbergh, and tried to be as low-key as doable. When she obtained the half, Soderbergh not solely had the costume designer mannequin Elaine’s wardrobe on what Warren wore to her audition, however was stunned to seek out that Warren was fully in contrast to her melancholy character. “I used to be laughing about one thing with the hairdresser someday, and Steven came to visit and mentioned, ‘You’re probably not a depressed individual, are you?’ I mentioned, ‘No, I used to be simply attempting to get employed.’”
Based on Warren, Soderbergh nearly by no means talked to her about her character or her efficiency — however that doesn’t imply he wasn’t directing. On the day of her most emotional scene, Soderbergh bugged Warren incessantly by telling her an extended, dangerous joke proper earlier than she went on digital camera. “After we have been accomplished, I mentioned, ‘Why did you do this?’ He mentioned, “As a result of I do know you, and should you begin crying, you gained’t cease.’ And I assumed, that’s actually true about me, how extremely perceptive. So he directs on this very indirect approach, by no means really speaking concerning the scene or what ought to occur. He will get you there with out you even understanding what he’s doing. Sensible.”
Warren discovered Soderbergh’s indirect approach of directing good for an indirect script — and a film that grew to become much more indirect within the modifying, as Soderbergh reshuffled the linear narrative to be out of order and extra evocative of previous reminiscences than a present-day story being advised with immediacy. “He modified the complete film and made it right into a type of dream reminiscence movie,” Warren mentioned, noting that that meant taking pictures the identical dialogue scene in numerous places after which slicing them collectively, in order that they’d really feel extra like reminiscences the place one isn’t fairly certain of the place sure issues have been mentioned or heard.
“I had by no means accomplished that,” Warren mentioned, noting that the totally different locales helped deliver added dimension to the scene each time she and Stamp performed it. “The atmosphere affected each of us. We walked and talked by the ocean otherwise, versus once we have been within the house. There was an intimacy within the house that wasn’t there outdoors. It was as if it was an entire new scene.”
Though Soderbergh’s drastic restructuring left some key scenes on the slicing room flooring — together with a love scene between Warren and Stamp that she says was the primary time she was lastly in a position to calm down a little bit — Warren was thrilled by the ultimate consequence when she first noticed the film put collectively. “It was an entire different film than I had anticipated, however I actually liked it.”
Warren sat via the film once more on the Cinematheque, and mentioned that even after seeing it a number of occasions, she by no means will get bored with Stamp’s efficiency — or of one other actor who not too long ago left us, Nicky Katt. “I miss Nicky Katt a lot,” she mentioned, including that each one of his comedian dialogue as an inappropriate hit man was improvised. “He was so nice, and Steven liked him.”
As for Stamp, “He’s so highly effective and attention-grabbing and sophisticated that I’m simply as enthralled as I used to be at first. I by no means tire of the efficiency. And I’m simply struck by how new the film nonetheless feels.”
“Starring Terence Stamp” runs via September 25 on the American Cinematheque.