When Eric Stoltz waltzes into Roy Thomson Hall Sunday night for the world premiere of Grace Of My Heart, look for Bridget Fonda on his arm. And look for smiles aplenty. Stoltz's career is as hot as his relationship with Jane's niece.
His face is all over the Toronto International Film Festival this year. The 34-year-old U.S. actor, is starring in three movies programmed over the next 10 days: Allison Ander's Grace Of My Heart is a gala, as is John Herzfeld's 2 Days In The Valley; Arthur Penn's telefilm Inside is set as a Special Presentation.
"Will work for food!" Stoltz jokes about his relentless pursuit of roles. Since he made his 1982 debut in Fast Times At Ridgemont High, Stoltz has appeared in about 30 movies, some slime (The Fly II) and some sublime (Grace Of My Heart is expected to be a film fest hit).
"Honestly," he reflects in a recent interview, "about 94% of the scripts I get sent for films or telefilms have absolutely no social importance and deal with no known issue that is vital to the survival of the country or ourselves. I think music is much more politically vital these days than film. There are exceptions, of course."
Yet he doesn't spend much time looking for them. "It's not a driving force or a major factor in my life. But, when I find something (with value) I'm relieved and I want to get involved with it."
That applies to all his film fest entries, says Stoltz. Grace is a musically charged movie about the lives of songwriters who started out in the famous Brill House in New York in 1958. 2 Days In The Valley is a drama about lives intersecting, sometimes violently, in the San Fernando Valley of greater Los Angeles. Inside is a drama about the torture of prisoners in South Africa and what happens to victims and victimizers after Nelson Mandela takes over.
Stoltz says it's rare for him to get access to really choice roles in big important movies. For example, he campaigned to land a starring role in Costa-Gavras' Mad City, a treatise on media manipulation. "Then he cast John Travolta and Dustin Hoffman," says Stoltz. "The really great political scripts usually go to the big names -- the big guys -- and I'm a little guy!
"So I choose to work anyway. I don't mind entertainment. It's a relief when I find something that means more, but I'm not going to stop working. I have house payments and I like to eat. So I'll continue to work. But if I find something that says more than just, 'Escape from your life for 90 minutes,' then I'll jump for it."
With Grace Of My Heart, Stoltz delighted in the breezy, larger-than-life atmosphere on set and on screen. The movie employs comedy and camp to offset the grace notes of the story. "We hid the pearls in the cheese," Stoltz giggles.
But there is the matter of 'the hair.' The bewigged Stoltz plays a pretentious '50s beatnik who marries the heroine played by Illeana Douglas. His hair is moppish.
"That hair," Stoltz says, almost spitting out the words, "was some of the stupidest hair ever seen on film. I blame my director for that, although she says it was me. The character I play was so obnoxious and rude and chauvinistic, we wanted to find something a little comical about his looks so you might not find him so threatening. So this hair was the choice.
"At the moment, I kind of regret it!"
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