MORE THINGS IN HEAVEN AND EARTH… For some people, the world is what they can see, hear, smell, taste and touch. Others believe in an unseen world beyond the traditional five senses.
One of them is Scottish actor Angus Macfadyen. On ABC’s Monday-night supernatural drama “Miracles,” he plays Alva Keel, an enigmatic Englishman who runs a group investigating possibly miraculous occurrences with an eye toward a coming apocalypse of some sort.
“It’s very frightening (to only believe in what you can see),” Macfadyen says. “And the opposite of that is very frightening.”
Macfadyen doesn’t believe “Miracles” is confronting the deeper questions. “It’s not going full bore. There’s been a backing-off of that. It’s fear of alienating people. There’s only so much that’s going to happen on TV. If you want to do that, I guess you’d have to do it in theater or film.”
“He has a long, interesting background,” says executive producer David Greenwalt of the Keel character. “He’s the wealthy scion of a publishing family, went to Cambridge, probably would have wound up in MI5 or running the publishing empire, but strange things happened to him.
“He chose a different path for his life, one in which he will be continually laughed at and possibly never marry or have a family. There’s quite a bit of sacrifice involved in the work he does.”
Despite Keel’s sacrifice, he may not be the one to wind up with the answers. “Miracles” focuses on the character of Paul Callan (Skeet Ulrich), a former seminarian that is the focus of mystical occurrences. In the pilot, after learning of a vision Paul had, Keel recruits him into his group.
Angus Macfadyen was the last actor to audition for the role of Orson Welles in ‘Cradle Will Rock’, Tim Robbins’s quasi-comedy about the Depression, censorship and a drama troupe. “After Tim had seen everyone in town, my agent said, ‘Now’s your chance,'” Macfadyen remembers. So he laid his best Welles down on a cassette and sent it off to Robbins in New York, thinking, “‘Aha, at last’ In a weird, arrogant, insane way, I knew it was mine.” Robbins was less sure. “It turns out he had designs on the role himself,” Macfadyen chuckles. “So for 10 days, he’d listen to his tape, then to mine, to his, to mine.” The Scottish-born actor prevailed and can also be seen playing Anthony Hopkins son in ‘Titus’, an update of one of those grisly Shakespeare revenge tales, grandly told by Broadway ‘Lion King’ director Julie Taymor.
Mayfadyen, who played Robert the Bruce in ‘Braveheart’, Peter Lawford in HBO’s ‘The Rat Pack’ and Brendan Fraser’s antagonist in ‘Still Breathing’, grew up all over the world – from Switzerland to the South Pacific, thanks to his father’s job as a doctor for the World Health Organization. His acting bent was apparent even as a wee bairn in Kenya. “I’m told I spent a few years running around with no clothes, thinking I was Tarzan,” he says over tea and poached eggs at the Four Seasons. Now he’s thinking he’ll be a director and hopes to sell his new screenplay about Jung and Freud. “It’s a musical called ‘Hamlet Gets Therapy’,” he says. “It’s also got Picasso, Einstein, Sarah Bernhardt, Buffalo Bill and Geronimo. They’re on a boat and sitting at the captain table.” All aboard.
“Angus Right for Triangle” from The West Online
Los Angeles-based Scots actor Angus Macfadyen has just signed to star in ‘When We Were Modern’, the cinematic saga of the Heide love triangle of John and Sunday Reed and Sir Sidney Nolan.
Macfadyen, best known for his role as Robert the Bruce in ‘Braveheart’, has most recently played the key love interest in the box office hit ‘Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood’, also starring Sandra Bullock, Ashley Judd, Ellen Burstin and James Gardner.
Macfadyen’s ‘Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood’ hit the third spot in the US box office last week, having earned $64.8 million in just 12 days.
In ‘When We Were Modern’, Macfadyen will play John Reed.
The film, directed by Paris-born and Melbourne-raised Philippe Mora, will also feature Rachel Ward as Sunday Reed, Susie Porter as Joy Hester and Marcus Graham as Sidney Nolan. Mora’s brother, Tiriel Mora (‘The Castle’) will play writer Max Harris.
During the 1940s Heide (the nickname for the Reed’s home in Heidelberg) became a hotbed of creativity.
‘When We Were Modern’ explores the somewhat bizarre and tumultuous world of the birth of modernism in Australian art in the 1940s.
Heide became a focal point for Nolan, Joy Hester, Arthur Boyd, Albert Tucker, John Perceval, and Philippe’s parents, Georges and Mirka Mora.
‘When We Were Modern’ begins production in Melbourne in November.
Fan club: You were born in Scotland and raised in France, what are your impressions of growing up in France?
Angus: “Le chat est dans la maison.”
Fan club: What age in your life did you want to become an actor?
Angus: “As I child I worked as a clown in the circus. Laughter was my substance abuse.”
Fan club: Was there a certain actor that inspired you?
Angus: “Gerard Depardieu.”
Fan club: You have been in a lot of theatrical plays, which one is your favorite and what part did you play?
Angus: “Topaze by Marcel Pagnol; It’s about the corruption of innocence.”
Fan club: “You won the Questors Award for your play ‘1905’. Could you give us an idea what the play is about?
Angus: “A sequel to Chekhov’s ‘Uncle Vanya’ set in the first Russian revolution.”
Fan club: “All the fans want to know where did you learn to ride a horse so well?
Angus: “In the circus.”
Fan club:What type of parts do you enjoy the most in movies?
Angus: “Characters who ask themselves: ‘Is there something worth dying for?'”
Fan club:Do you research the parts in a movie before accepting them or follow your instincts?
Angus: “Follow your instincts and try not to bump into the furniture.”
Fan club:Who are some of your favorite actors?
Angus: “Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Gerard Depardieu, Spencer Tracy,Harvey Keitel, Marlon Brando, Peter Sellers, Jack Nicholson, Jack Thompson, Tom Towles, Jack Lemmon, Jessica Lange, Monty Cliff, Ian Bannen, Luke Mullaney, Luke DeLacey, Geoffery Rush and David O’Hara.”
Fan club:What do you enjoy doing when you have time off from work?
Angus: “Getting another job, painting, loving friends, and trying very hard to understand my enemies. Not arguing with God.”
Fan club: Were you surprised when you found out about the fan club?
Angus: “Flattered.”
Fan club: Could you tell us what your impressions were when you were chosen to play the part of King Edward II in ‘Braveheart’?
Angus: “A desire to end it all.”
Fan club: What was it like making the movie ‘Braveheart’?
Angus: “I was terrified. Always am.”
Fan club: Which scene in ‘Braveheart’ was your favorite?
Angus: “When young William drops a single tear at the graveside of his father. My hair stands on end every time.”
Fan club: What is something that you would most want your fans to know about you?
Angus: “The only demons in this world are in our own hearts, where all our battles much be fought.’ Gandhi.”
Fan club: All parents like to talk about their children’s accomplishments. What do your parents think about your work, now that things are really happening for you?
Angus: “They wish for me what all stable parents wish: An understanding of those inner conflicts which leaves us an ability to live at peace in a world quite mad.”
Fan club: Now that the movie ‘Braveheart’ was your launch pad into Hollywood, will you be staying there or going back to London to further your career?
Angus: “Stay in Los Angeles. The weather here suits the clothes I like to wear.”
Fan club: Is there anything you would like to say to your fans?
Angus: ‘The glory of God is to seek out. The glory of kings is to conceal.’ (I’m not sure of the exact words. Re: The Bible.)”
Fan club: Angus, on behalf of the fan club and the officers, we wish you the very best in your wonderful acting career and look forward to seeing you in your new movies. We thank you so much for this interview and will always support you in all that you do.
Angus: “Thank you, Bonnie, Kristine, and Karen. (The shortbread was, in short, delicious) X Angus Macfadyen”
“DIRECTING TIPS FROM MEL GIBSON?”
“Fear is the enemy of all people, especially actors,” says Macfadyen. “Mel’s good at making a set relaxed by telling jokes and being crazy. He’s an actor, he understands the horror.”
