From Femme Fatale to Femme Idea Part One

By: Paul Zimmerman
Date: Sunday, December 30, 2001

In The Majestic, Frank Darabont's new fable-like drama set in 1951, Jim Carrey plays a blacklisted screenwriter who, while suffering from amnesia, wakes up in a small idyllic town. Mistaken for local legend Luke, the All-American boy who disappeared during World War 2, he gets a chance to begin live anew. Recalling Frank Capra films like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Preston Sturges' All Hail the Conquering Hero, Carrey's Luke character is quickly embraced by the town, most notably Adele, the beautiful girl he left behind. A perfect blend of rosy cheeks, full lips, blonde hair and toothsome smile, Adele is played by Laurie Holden, who with The Majestic makes her first big screen appearance.

Fans of The X-Files will remember Holden as the conniving UN spy Marita Covarrubias, a nasty piece of femme fatale business who in her most memorable episode pushed a wheelchair bound Cigarette Man down a flight of stairs. A veteran of 11 episodes between 1993 and 1997, Holden comes from a long line of thespians.

Her father

was Lawrence Holden a struggling actor who died of cancer in 1997, her mother Adrienne Ellis, who retired when Laurie was born. "And my grandmother was Gloria Holden," Holden explains while promoting The Majestic. "And the funny thing about that is during the movie I'm talking about The Life of Emile Zola and how that made [my character Adele] want to be a lawyer. And my grandmother played Zola's wife."

Often referencing Zen like qualities in her life and how the stars conspire to alter our lives, Holden insists her coming to The Majestic was "really kind of a Kismet thing when I read the script. I just thought, 'Wow, all the elements are coming together. Very cosmic.'"

Not that the casting came without a struggle. Holden, neatly tucking a long blonde lock behind her ear, explains that "in Hollywood they usually go for 'those five girls.' So you go into every audition thinking that you probably don't have a shot. It's just the nature of the beast really. But I really responded to the material and I had real strong connection with Adele."

The fateful opportunity came when Holden was "workshopping" the play The Only Game In Town. Director Darabont's vice president of development spotted the actor and on the spot said, "I think you're perfect for this role in Frank Darabont's new movie and I'd like to set up a meeting."

An exuberant but guarded Holden, who craves the limelight because "I just love to be on stage every second of my life if I can," met with him and "began auditioning with all the other girls."

"It was

a seven-month audition process," says the 28-year-old Holden, whose birthday is December 17^th. "From the initial meeting to the actual audition and then the screen test with Jim Carrey and then that lovely birthday Christmas New Years waiting to find out if I got it. That month where you have no idea where they're going to go. And then that amazing call from Frank in January telling me that I got the role."

So how did Holden beat out the major players? She has a theory. "I think that Frank wanted to go with a fresh face. For Adele to be someone that you hadn't really seen before. And that was his vision, just like with Michael Clarke Duncan in The Green Mile. He calls it his wild card. And I think in this movie I was his wild card. That new face."

And to get that privileged spot she only had to prove she could go toe to toe with Carrey. Several times. In fact, Darabont had the duo read "Every scene in the movie," Holden says loudly. "I had to prove myself, oh, believe me, it was an ordeal."

But even though it was her first big screen adventure, meeting the legendary Carrey was a peaceful affair. "I think just because I saw all the comedies I maybe expected him to be more slaphappy than he was. He was extremely serious. Very open to the process. And it was a very vulnerable place we both had to be in in terms of having our hearts so open. And he was very courageous and brave and willing to go on that journey and I really admired him. I still do." Holden grows more serious, adding, "He wasn't fooling around. He took this film, this role, what we were doing, the work, extremely seriously. And he's wonderful in the film."

In preparing

to play Adele, an assertive woman of the 1950s who has just completed law school, Holden says she "watched a lot of old movies so I got a sense of the time. I watched all the movies from 1925 up until 1951 so that I could get a sense of who Adele's heroes were. What she grew up watching." The actors she most responded to? "Jean Arthur. Carole Lombard. Bettie Davis. Katherine Hepburn definitely. I had a mad crush on Frederic March and Clark Gable."

It's been suggested Holden's mischievous twinkle in the eye and smoldering good looks recall a young Kathleen Turner. (I personally think she looks like the unlikely offspring of Turner and Amy Smart.) At the Turner suggestion Holden smiles cruelly and offers, "I'd like to do something like Body Heat actually. Me-ow." When talk turns to comparing her with Jessica Lange, an admitted role model, she simply shrugs, "Hey, I don't mind that. She's a goddess."

Be sure to check back soon for part two of CINESCAPE's Laurie Holden profile.