|
Crewson's haunting role
Shades of O.J. in new thriller
By TYLER McLEOD -- Calgary Sun
Of the many stage actors who claim to have seen the ghost of Ambrose Small, Wendy Crewson is not one.
"I'd always heard the Grand Theatre in London was haunted," says Crewson, "but I was unfamiliar with the story until I read
the Michael Ondaatje book, In the Skin of the Lion."
However, it is another book, Fred McClement's The Strange Case of Ambrose Small, which forms the basis of Sleeping Dogs Lie.
The new TV movie airs Sunday.
"It was a big mystery at the time in Toronto," Hamilton native Crewson says.
"It was the O.J. case of its day."
In 1919, Small sold his chain of playhouses (O.J. meets Livent?) for a more than a million dollars.
He handed the cheque over to his wife and soon vanished without a trace.
Sleeping Dogs Lie turns the historical tale into a pulp crime potboiler, complete with a femme fatale -- Mrs. Theresa Small.
"Certainly in the way we're doing it (she's a femme fatale). I don't think she was in real life," Crewson says of her character.
"It was a real witch-hunt. Toronto wanted this woman hanged.
"There was no proof she had done anything, but she was Catholic and they were looking for something."
With an entire city turning on the (maybe) widow and still no clues to explain the vanishing, Theresa turns to a green detective,
Cole Wilson, played by Joel Keller.
"The nice thing about Theresa was she always had 10 secrets," says Crewson, the star of such movies as Air Force One and The
Santa Clause.
"It certainly was fun to play. Especially with the young Joel Keller at your side!"
While filming, Crewson says the handsome young star of The Hanging Garden became a part of her family -- a family that was
on set a great deal due to her husband Michael Murphy having a prominent role in Sleeping Dogs Lie.
"He's become our teenage son," Crewson laughs.
"I look forward to watching his career grow. I give him all this sagely advice but he doesn't need it because he's got all
that confidence."
Crewson also has a few kind words for a co-star in an upcoming feature with Julian Sands and Ellen Barkin.
"I did a movie called Mercy with Peta Wilson," Crewson says. "Peta was so much fun -- we're sort of lovers in the film. All
of my male friends are insanely jealous I got to make out with Peta."
Crewson shot her scenes with the Nikita star this summer in Toronto.
Recently, she has made three more movies in Canada -- Better Than Chocolate in Vancouver, A Question of Privilege in Edmonton
and Summer's End in Ontario cottage country.
Odd for the actress who now lives in San Francisco, isn't it?
"Talk to any Canadian actress down there and they'll tell you they leave so they can get asked to come home again," Crewson
replies. "You get work up here because you have a profile in the United States."
Or in the Czech Republic where she did Escape Velocity. The sci-fi action flick is her most Hollywood-style blockbuster since
Air Force One, in which Harrison Ford played a U.S. president in hot water with terrorists -- not the First Lady.
"Harrison never would have done that," Crewson laughs. "Especially with the way my First Lady ran her marriage."
Crewson and Murphy take marriage to air
Thursday, January 21, 1999
By DOUG FOLEY -- Hamilton Spectator
Wendy Crewson and Michael Murphy made a good husband and wife acting team, but throw in their two kids and
you really have a family affair.
That was the situation last summer on the Toronto set of the new TV movie, Sleeping Dogs Lie, as children Maggie and Jack
joined the cast for walk-on parts as orphans.
But do the youngsters have futures in the business? Not if mom can help it.
"I'm trying to tell them that there are so many wonderful things to do with their lives other than show business," says Crewson,
laughing over the phone from Toronto.
"Jack would be just as happy right now to be a fisherman but it will be harder to convince Maggie."
Judging by the careers of their parents, one might wonder why they would want to be discouraged.
After all, Crewson and Murphy have both enjoyed great success.
The Hamilton-born Crewson, who moved to Shelburne when very young, had her biggest part to date as Harrison Ford's first lady
in Air Force One and has been working steadily in films and TV since the early '80s.
Murphy started out in the early '60s and appeared in films ranging from M*A*S*H and McCabe & Mrs. Miller to Nashville, Manhattan,
The Year Of Living Dangerously, Salvador, Batman Returns and Private Parts.
The couple live in Berkeley, outside San Francisco, and in separate phone interviews -- she in Toronto and he in California
-- both are warm, friendly, quick to laugh and make jokes.
"I dragged him up here to make the movie but he was not kicking and screaming," says Crewson.
In fact, Murphy says, "I wouldn't mind living in Canada. I could go up there and just be a yuppie. I could live in Toronto
and do the Toronto-New York axis."
In Sleeping Dogs Lie, Crewson plays Theresa Small, the wife of Toronto entrepreneur Ambrose Small, who disappeared in 1919
after she deposited $1 million into a bank account.
Murphy plays Edgar Tratt, head of a detective agency involved in the case.
Both were high on the movie for its story and style.
"There was a lot of discussion as to whether people would get it but I say just put it out there and leave them alone," said
Murphy.
Crewson said he loved the idea of a sensational story set in 1919 and dealing with an unsolved mystery, repressed sexuality,
the Catholic church and wealth.
"It's like the O. J. story of its time," she said.
"I don't get these parts in the States. It's always a thrill to come home and get these fabulous female roles.
"I make movies in the States that help me get better parts here to exercise my acting muscles. Then I go back and play the
quiet wife in American movies."
Crewson said she did quite a bit of reading on the Ambrose Small case but had to discard the facts because the script took
liberties with history.
A good example of that is in her portrayal of the dour-looking, unattractive Mrs. Small.
"When we first made up Theresa the hair and makeup was very plain and matronly," said Crewson.
"But then we thought, 'Let's take artistic licence' and we amped it up a bit."
Crewson and Murphy are old friends of Sleeping Dogs director Stefan Scaini, who offered the role to Murphy after Crewson had
been cast.
"I read it and said, 'Sure.' I thought it was an interesting kind of story," Murphy said. "It wasn't so much my being in town
although I suppose I would have been there with Wendy anyway."
And while both are happily ensconced in California, it's obvious they have soft spots for this area.
Crewson's mother lives in Guelph and her brother is still in Hamilton working at McMaster University.
"Everyone is nicer up there," added Murphy when asked about comparing work in the U.S. and Canada.
"Everyone likes to do these Canadian movies. Canadian films have always been held in high regard."
Crewson and Murphy met when she appeared on his short-lived TV series Hard Copy.
They have been married 10 years and enjoy working together.
"Wendy is real easy to work with," said Murphy.
"One of the reasons our marriage has survived is that we don't feel competitive.
"In some relationships, if one is working, it drives the other crazy. Air Force One has made Wendy bankable."
Murphy says he gets a lot of scripts but is very picky as to what he will accept.
One film he did take was an independent tentatively called The Island in which he plays President John F. Kennedy to Sally
Kirkland's Marilyn Monroe.
The story has them stranded on an island since the early '60s and into their senior years.
"It's very funny. Kennedy and Monroe have become the battling Bickersons. They haven't slept together in 20 years. A young
kid arrives and she makes a play for him sparking jealously and revitalizing Kennedy.
"We are trying to get it distributed but in this day and age everything has to be child-oriented."
Murphy says he goes back to the old-style Hollywood where the director was king. Now, the business has changed.
"When Spielberg made $300 million with Jaws someone walked on the set and said, 'The fun is over. Wall Street wants in,' and
that's the way it's been ever since."
|
