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Once upon a time, there was a film critic named Rod Lurie.
Rod Lurie was pretty good at handicapping the Oscars, if you care about that sort of thing, and he did.
He used to bet actors that they would win; if he was correct, they were to thank him during their acceptance speech. That's why, a few years back, both Mel Gibson and Martin Landau thanked their families and their co-workers and their grade-school teachers and, of course, God and Rod Lurie when they got up to accept their Academy Awards.
One day, Rod Lurie decided to stop being a film critic and start being a filmmaker. He wrote a political drama about a female vice-presidential candidate who has to face down charges of sexual misconduct.
He wrote the script specifically with actress Joan Allen in mind for the lead role. "I knew," he says, "if I got her, the movie will be a success. Because she won't do a bad script and she'd never screw it up."
Lurie called his movie, The Contender. It was a very, very good script.
The studios loved The Contender. They wanted Rod Lurie to give up Joan Allen and let some Big Movie Star such as Michelle Pfeiffer or Julia Roberts or Demi Moore play the politician.
Rod Lurie said, "No thank you." Rod Lurie got Joan Allen, he got Jeff Bridges (to portray the U.S.President) and he got Gary Oldman to play a political adversary. Then he got Christian Slater, Sam Elliott, William Petersen, Philip Baker Hall and Saul Rubinek. See that? Nobody flashy. Nobody who goes to work with bodyguards.
Just a whole pack of superb actors.
Rod Lurie got The Contender made. It opens in theatres this Friday. If Rod Lurie intends to bet on the Academy Awards for this year, he may well be betting on himself.
And they all lived happily ever after.
Joan Allen, a woman constitutionally incapable of giving a bad performance, is a contender herself. Twice nominated for Academy Awards (for Best Supporting Actress in both The Crucible and Nixon), the straight-up Allen admits that winning an Oscar is not really a career goal of hers. Sure, it would be nice to get that recognition from one's peers.
"And I think my mother would be thrilled," she says. She's not being funny.
Still, The Contender -- with or without golden statuettes attached -- is obviously dear to her heart. In Toronto last month for filmfest showings of both The Contender and When The Sky Falls ("I didn't even know that one was being shown here!") Allen talks about how tough it is to find good scripts.
"It gets harder and harder," she says, "and I feel fortunate that Rod (Lurie) chose to write this for me. And stand by me. If it had been a studio film ..."
Indeed. If it had been a studio film, Allen wouldn't have been cast. There's a pecking order in Hollywood that has nothing to do with talent and everything to do with commerce. On the subject of "stars" who get $20 million per role, Allen says, with typical kindness and modesty, "If you can bring in the multi-millions, if you can attract people globally, you deserve that money." Her only objection, she says quietly, is that when one actor gets $20 million, "Everyone else can go scratch for scale. I get frustrated that there's less and less of a middle class in acting."
Still, Allen hastens to add, she's not complaining. "I have a sister who is an executive assistant, and another sister who manages a Subway sandwich shop, and a brother who's a maintenance guy in a building."
So, when John Travolta asked her during the filming of Face/Off if she was being well paid, Allen could say at once, "Yeah! For me."
The long, lean Joan Allen is one of those actors people don't recognize from one role to the next. She got her start in the theatre. (Actually, she got her start when she failed to make the cheerleader squad in high school: "So I thought, 'Why not try out for a play?' And as soon as I did, I loved it.")
An Illinois native, she attended Eastern Illinois University and, in 1978, joined fellow grad John Malkovich in Chicago to be part of the Steppenwolf theatre company.
Allen moved to New York in the early '80s, quickly making her mark on the stage. She won a Tony Award for her work in Burn This (also with Malkovich) and a Tony nomination for The Heidi Chronicles. Then she chose to hit her mark and make movies.
Her first movie role -- a small part -- was in Compromising Positions, and she appeared in Searching For Bobby Fischer, In Country, Ethan Frome, Mad Love, Peggy Sue Got Married and Tucker: The Man And His Dream. Then there came Nixon and The Crucible and Face/Off, The Ice Storm and Pleasantville.
Allen lives in New York City, where her relative anonymity on the celebrity front suits her just fine. "As it is, I wash my face, I put on sweatpants and I walk my daughter to school. I'm on the bus. I'm on the subway."
Living that Hollywood thing wouldn't suit her.
"I'd feel like every time I go out I'd have to look like this," says she, indicating her "dressed-up" look for this interview.
So which designer is responsible for her outfit today? Allen glances down at her chic skirt and twin-set.
"I don't know," she says, brightly.