Chicago Sun Times Interview with Neve Campbell and Malcolm McDowell 12/25/03

Hollywood bellies up to the barre
December 23, 2003
By Bill Zwecker Sun-Times Columnist

    Malcolm McDowell bounded into a Four Seasons Hotel suite a few weeks ago with the athletic grace of a dancer. When asked if his physical grace had been inspired by playing the artistic director of the ballet company in ''The Company,'' the actor let out a loud guffaw.
    ''I may have learned how to walk like a dancer - I certainly watched some great ones the months we were here filming - but don't ask me to do any leaps for you!''
    McDowell's character in the totally Chicago-made film was inspired by the life and career of the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago's co-founder and artistic director, Gerald Arpino. For McDowell, it was a unique experience.
    ''He's a bit of a demigod, you know," McDowell said of Arpino. "It was a strange bit for an actor to be inspired by this character who's constantly looking over your shoulder. [Director Robert] Altman kept telling me, 'Don't copy him, but say the stuff that he says. Do the things he does.' ''Now that's a bit tricky, don't you know.''
    McDowell has portrayed a range of memorable film characters, ranging from Alex in Stanley Kubrick's ''A Clockwork Orange'' to H.G. Wells in ''Time After Time'' to the tyrannical Soran in ''Star Trek: Generations.'' Yet Alberto Antonelli in ''The Company'' (which opens Thursday) may have been one of his most daunting, from a personal point of view.
    ''It was bloody complicated since I really got to know Jerry [Arpino] and came to find him one of the most extraordinary people I've ever met. Because of that, I felt a responsibility to portray him and show what he does in a kind of wonderful light.
    ''The hard part was the character I played, Antonelli, is not such a good man, the way I play him. He's a fabulous ballet company director and totally dedicated to his dancers and his art, but he is a bit of self-absorbed sob...and that's not at all Jerry.''
    A key example of Arpino's generosity toward the filmmakers ''happened the very first day,'' McDowell said. ''Not only did he completely make everyone and everything available to us ... he insisted that I sit in his chair.''
    The white bentwood chair is practically another character in all the scenes McDowell plays in the Joffrey rehearsal rooms. He whips it around - nearly always sitting in it with the back facing out.
''In the real world, no one sits in Mr. Arpino's chair - and that's something we worked into 'The Company.' No one sits in Mr. Antonelli's chair...that was no accident,'' added the actor with a laugh.
According to McDowell, his bottom line in creating the character was ''merely to show [Arpino's] dignity and his love of the company - and the love and respect that flow back from his dancers.''
At that moment, McDowell's eyes lit up and he literally danced to his feet as co-star Neve Campbell slipped into the room. ''The Company'' is a total work of passion for the actress, who had spent many years developing the project.
    ''After all, you've got to remember I started as a dancer at age 6. Making a movie about what the world of dance is truly all about has been something I've wanted to do for a long, long time.''
Campbell, who first found fame in the long-running TV series ''Party of Five,'' co-wrote the script and produced ''The Company.''
    Yet, her major accomplishment - in her own eyes - was convincing Altman to direct her film.
McDowell jumps in. ''Absolutely. Only Bob could have made this film. I love the fact it's like a little piece of jazz - a riff here and a riff there. Or it's like a painter who chunked some paint over there and some over here, just to see what sticks.''
    Campbell completes the thought: ''It takes a very brave man. It takes a Robert Altman who can go into a film about a subject he knows little about and make a film that is totally non-linear.''
''That's what I love about it,'' McDowell interjects. ''It doesn't have the kind of story where there's a beginning, a middle and the end. This is very anti everything we've been brought up on in television and the movies.''
    ''But it is, I believe,'' Campbell said, ''the first film to accurately give audiences a sense of what it's really like to be part of a ballet company...to be part of the Joffrey, that is.''
    The reason the Joffrey was selected over other ballet companies was simple, Campbell explained. ''I didn't really want this to be that tired old story of the chorus girl who gets her big break and becomes the star.'' The actress used the New York City Ballet as an example of what she didn't want.
    ''In New York there's 90 in the corps and then there are the stars. It's all about status and that's just a reality. There are the prima donnas, the apprentices, the corps dancers and so forth. As Gerald Arpino says, 'At the Joffrey it's all stars and no stars.'
    ''No one is called 'principal' and no one is called a corps dancers. An experienced dancer can do a lot of the principal stuff and still will go back and dance in the corps at the Joffrey. Also, a first-year dancer, if they're amazing, can actually do a piece -- even in their first year with the company.''
    Besides the egalitarian approach to their craft, Campbell loved the way the Joffrey ''has such an eclectic repertoire. There's modern, there's some relatively classic ballet -- it's a true mix. That was very important to us as well.''
    Speaking of egalitarian, Campbell herself did pull the star thing while preparing for her role - both as actress and producer.
    Asked if the dancers were a bit skeptical of her truly becoming one of them, Campbell laughed. ''They saw how hard Barbara Turner (co-screenwriter) and I worked on this for four years. I think they understood our enthusiasm for making a film that was about dance and not some sort of soap opera kind of thing. I'm sure there was some apprehension at first, but I never felt it. And once we went into rehearsals, I didn't have a separate dressing room or anything like that. I was on the floor at 8 a.m. warming up my body, working with them. You can't do a dance piece convincingly if you're not connected to the other dancers. It's so totally a team effort in so many ways.''
    Both McDowell and Campbell mentioned how impressed they were and continue to be about dancers' intense and total dedication to their art form.
    ''Of all artists, as a group, they work the hardest for the least pay, the least financial rewards,'' said McDowell, shaking his head sadly.
    ''And for most, by the time they're in their mid-30s, it's all over,'' added Campbell. ''This is an art form that taxes your body in so many ways. Injuries aren't just a fact of life, they're often career-enders, if serious enough.''
    As the two actors chat, the hour grows close for the night's Chicago premiere of ''The Company,'' a special gala benefiting the Joffrey and attended, of course, by the entire company -- the film's essential co-stars.
    Picking up on the theme of woefully underpaid dancers, Campbell adds, ''I can tell you for a fact that right now, all those dancers are going through each other's closets -- just to come up with outfits for tonight's premiere.
    ''I can guarantee that,'' she adds on her way out of the room, making one think she's undoubtedly off to help her Joffrey friends as they dig through those closets.