Wednesday, June 4, 1997

She's still quite a Kidder.

Margot Kidder and Lorraine Bracco (GoodFellas, Basketball Diaries) unleash their sense of humor on and off the set of independent flick Silent Cradle, which is being filmed in Edmonton.

"I use it in life. It's an approach to life,'' says Kidder moments after ripping a nicotine patch off her arm and lighting a cigarette during a break in filming at the now-closed Charles Camsell hospital yesterday.

Kidder, who has landed several acting jobs after her highly publicized breakdown last year, was looking healthy with short locks and an easy smile.

Best known for her Lois Lane role in Superman in 1978, Kidder hones in on a Sun reporter standing on the sidelines of the set between shoots.

"Oops reporter, we have to be dignified ... boring,"

Moments later, Kidder has the cast and crew in stitches when she gives a long kiss to Edmonton actor Shaun Johnston (Jake and the Kid) on the set.

"I'm having a great time. Lorraine keeps me in stitches,'' says Kidder. The two women have become fast friends during filming, which began last week and wraps up June 15.

"We're very silly,'' says Bracco. "I think that's part of keeping everyone having a good time and working, 'cause it's really long and hard.''

In Silent Cradle, produced by Calgary-based Illusions Entertainment, Bracco plays a reporter who falls prey to a doctor who claims her baby is lost so he can give it to a childless couple wanting to adopt.

Kidder and Johnston play the two detectives who help Bracco in her search for the truth. The doctor is played by John Heard (Home Alone). Jason Gedrick (Murder One) heads the adoption agency.

"I believe that things like this happen and I always like that two women can solve a really good mystery,'' says Bracco, whose husband, Edward James Olmos (Stand and Deliver), has joined her in Edmonton while she works. "It's almost like a little honeymoon,'' Bracco says of her husband's presence. Near the end of the school year, the couple left their kids at home in New York.

Quick to earn another laugh from Kidder, Bracco confesses she studied for her role. "I went to the Daily Planet and I learned everything I could from Lois Lane,'' she says.

Actually she headed to a newspaper back home, the New York Daily News, to see the real action.

"I hung out there for a while and it was really great.''

Being a reporter is a tough but cool job, says Bracco. However it isn't to be confused with gossip columnists and supermarket tabloids, which sensationalize, she adds.

There's a large difference between reporters and gossip columnists, says Bracco, while Kidder turns away. "Do I feel the gossip columnists or (supermarket) tabloids are and can be disrespectful? Yes I do. Or invasive? Yes I do."

For Kidder, landing the role of a cop for the first time in her career has been a challenge.

"I have to keep reigning in my instincts to be a ham,'' says Kidder. "It's different. I've never played a facts-ma'am-and-only-the-facts kind of person before. And I carry a gun. I hate guns. They scare me.''

Born in Yellowknife, Kidder takes her two mixed-breed dogs - Zelda and Kendall - with her everywhere.

"I'm very, very conscious of having to stay healthy. I mean I have to,'' says Kidder, who hikes every day with her dogs. "They need it. It's sort of built-in discipline.''

While she skis regularly in Banff, this is her longest stay in Edmonton.

"It's wonderful. It's a much more hip, cosmopolitan city than I expected. People are very polite here and not intrusive.''

After her breakdown, Kidder left L.A. for Montana, where her daughter was born years ago.

"No, I'm not a city person,'' says Kidder, who adds that Yellowknife and Montana are her two homes. "I need to live with the rhythms of nature around me. It's a need I've come to recognize. I'll probably never live in a city again.''


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