ACCLAIMED Australian director Benedict Andrews talks to the BBC about his current play, his debut film and the “brave” actors in both. As Alfred Hitchcock proved in “Psycho,” the humble bathroom shower can be used to generate spine-tingling tension and blood-curdling horror. Yet it also has a metaphorical resonance — a place where sins can be purged, scars can be healed and mistakes of the past can be symbolically expunged. On the basis of two of his current artistic projects, the Australian director would appear to be of much the same mind. In his West End production of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” the character of Brick — played by Jack O’Connell — is introduced slumped in a shower, his right foot encased in a plaster cast. O’Connell’s co-star Sienna Miller is also called upon to bare all during a staging of Tennessee Williams’ classic that is certainly no place for the prim or the prudish. In Andrews’ first film “Una,” meanwhile, the title character — played by Rooney Mara — is also seen under the shower, determinedly scrubbing away the painful memory of a loveless sexual encounter. Both works, needless to say, require the actors in question to abandon all modesty in scenes that leave little or nothing to the audience’s imagination. Yet just as apparent in both endeavors is an emotional rawness that is, in its own way, no less exposing. “It’s a truly special, unguarded, very brave performance,” says Andrews of Mara’s work in “Una.” “I admire Rooney because her performances are always extremely raw and very honest.” (SD-Agencies) |