Saturday, July 11, 2009

Helen Slater Interview


Planet Origo is a website out of Norway which is a magazine and store for music and CDs. They just posted a fabulous interview with Helen Slater where she talked at length about her role of Supergirl and as Lara on Smallville.

It is a fabulous interview and well worth reading in its entirety!

Here is the link: ( http://news.planetorigo.com/article.php?poarticle_id=505&s=sfFCIKQXQNEBg2Cd& ). As usual, some blurbs stuck out and are worth commenting on.

To get the role, Slater had to compete against other young up-and-coming actresses, such as Demi Moore and Brooke Shields, but what director Jeannot Szwarc wanted was a person who was athletic but without big muscles, and who knew ballet and could be graceful. How did Slater meet those criteria?

Helen: I had attended performing arts classes in high scool, and we had to take [extra] dance classes. I never did sports per se, but I had done dance classes and that fitted Jeannot's idea of what he wanted in [a female lead].

Now I freely admit it has been a looooong time since I saw the movie, something I really need to rectify soon. But one thing that stuck was just how graceful Slater was in the role. This wasn't a brutish strong-arm of a Supergirl. This was elegance. And it clearly made a lasting impression. And I had no idea that Demi Moore and Brooke Shields were being considered for the role. For me, Slater was absolutely perfect.

PO: Adding to the sheer size of the movie and its ties to popular culture was the fact that some major names were to be seen on screen; Mia Farrow played Kara / Supergirl's mother, Faye Dunaway played the witch Selena, and Peter O'Toole was Zaltar, a Marlon Brando-esque character on Supergirl's home planet. How were those veteran actors to work with?

Helen: Oh, that was such a great experience for me, that whole spectrum. Peter I still think of as this incredible mentor. I don't know if you [know] this, but he would have me do Shakespeare for him, and kind of helped me get rid of some of my American habits, which I still do to this day. He said to me; 'I want you to imagine holding a daffodil between your thumb and your forefinger' while I was doing a speech from Romeo and Juliet, and very much gave me this incredible light into doing Shakespeare, which I hadn't started performing. I've had great teachers since Supergirl [too], about getting more insight into how to work with text.

Helen: And then with Faye, for me it was her professionalism... I was very aware of how an extraordinary beautiful woman she is. She was very mindful of the way she was lit, because there was that kind of self-protection on her part that I think was good. I think she was very helpful [to me].

I can only imagine what it must have been like to be a kid and have this incredible face time with these Hollywood legends. My guess is O'Toole took the part because he had bills to pay. But still, I can only imagine what Slater was feeling, starring in her first movie and doing scenes with Lawrence of Arabia!

It does sound like the cast took care of Slater and I think that is pretty cool.


Planet Origo: The aerial ballet scene looks particularly great in the film. Was it achieved with wires, and how was it to shoot?

Helen: That was such great fun and one of the highlights of the movie for me. It was done with wires back then, [the technique of achieving it] looks really archaic now. I don't know how they do it today, but when I did in the 80s they had a long-nose construction crane, and then they attached two piano wires to a track that went across a frame, and then two guys had a rope on a makeshift wheel, and when they pulled the wire I would go up, and two other guys had another wheel [and when they pulled their wire] I would go across the frame, so that's how they made me fly.

This is another scene that I can remember pretty vividly and also had that feeling of both grace and power. It is hard to believe that she could pull it off when it sounds like such a crude way of shooting.

But one thing for sure, Slater was absolutely perfect for the role. I mean look at the picture above. Just perfect!

Smallville, the long-running TV series about Superman's younger years. Helen Slater played Lara, Clark Kent / Superman's biological mother in two episodes.

Helen: They offered me that part and I had so much fun doing it, they are just wonderful peple over there. They tip their hat alot to the movies that were made, by bringing in actors or voices, so for people who love the Supergirl comics or Superman comic books, it was fun to be that surprise in that I was playing Superman's biological mother.

I never really commented on how Smallville cast Slater as Lara. For someone as continuity obsessed as me that was such a nice touch. It sounds like she had a fun time doing it too.



Planet Origo: Is there any particular incident or situation you remember more than anything else from your 25 year old involvement with the Super universe?

Helen: I was very moved when I met Laura Vandervoort, who plays Supergirl on Smallville, because she was my age when I played Supergirl, and that was a little bit of a shock. She might have been one or two years older, but I almost felt like seeing myself 25 years ago, and walking on the set I had that really odd feeling watching her. She was so poised and lovely, and I had a kind of... not eerie [feeling], but I was thinking 'wow, that was me 20-something years ago'.

I just thought that was a nice story.

Anyways, I have to go order the movie now. I have been remiss in not buying it sooner.

13 comments:

Diana_Fan said...

I thought that was a very sweet interview, and Helen Slater's positiveness and her nice personality really come through.

And I thought that the story about Laura was very touching.

Anonymous said...

It is funny but there is this strong resemblance between Laura and Helen now that you mention it. They both have this impossibly high cheekbones and pert little noses.
:D

John Feer

TalOs said...

Anj, my sincere thanks for locating this gem of an interview conducted with the ever pretty and multi talented Ms. Helen Slater! :D

For me personally the '84 Supergirl movie is still my "bible" of how I'd go abouts writing comics Supergirl (with some corrections to the movies plot holes that were either in need of further expanding on or to be gotten rid of entirely in order to make the movie make complete sense) which would definitely include the addition of Zaltar (only pronounced in the proper Kryptonian way as being 'Zal-Ta'), the Omegahedron (sp?), and the evil power hungering witch that is "Madame" Selena (only losing the camp and making her hell of lot more freighting come her personality) and her side kick Bianca (who'd loose some of the camp but not all) as being 3 others characters (what with the Omegahedron being an object instead) to make their transition from the movie to the comics medium.

The only regret I have with Ms. Slater on Smallville was that she wasn't chosen to play the part of being Kara's actual biological mom Alura instead of Lara for I'd love to have seen an 'Alura vs. Zor-El' smackdown with Alura and Kara wanting put a stop to their family members evil plan and coming to the aid of Kal-El rather then it being 'Lara vs. Zor-El'.

Saranga said...

Hmm. Maybe I should go buy that movie too. Oh wait, i'm too skint. Damn.
Anj I really think you should review the Supergirl episodes on Smallville!

Anonymous said...

I've often thought that if the Salkinds had cast Slater in a Supergirl syndicated TV show (as they did with Superboy) the damn thing would've run forever and a day.
It was the sort of characterization that would've gone over very well on television at the time.
Dunno if that would've altered Helen Slater's career trajectory but it would've been a big wake-up call to DC amidst all it's "No Cousin Supergil" COIE orthodoxy.

Nikki said...

I've yet to find an affordable 2 disc edition, new or used. I have the one disc

Gene said...

Glenn Folkvord and Rob Daniels of Planet Origo should be commended for this excellent interview. I believe this is the first time Helen Slater has described what it was like during filming since the movie came out.

Demi Moore was actually considered for the role of Lucy Lane, while the Salkinds debated amongst themselves about casting Brooke Shields as Supergirl. Years later Ilya Salkind stated in an interview that the movie would have done better with Shields as Supergirl instead of Slater. I disagree, it was the storyline that hindered the movie's success.
Still, this movie remains one of my favorites, despite its flaws.

Richard Donner worked for brief time in the Superman comics to popular acclaim, so I wish DC Comics would take look at what Slater could offer in a Supergirl mini-series. How cool would that be?

Anj said...

Hmm. Maybe I should go buy that movie too. Oh wait, i'm too skint. Damn.
Anj I really think you should review the Supergirl episodes on Smallville!


Thanks for the post.

I wasn't blogging when the Kara episodes aired on Smallville other than last year's Phantom Zone episode.

If I ever get around to buying the season 7 DVDs (which includes Kara) I will!

Anj said...

I've yet to find an affordable 2 disc edition, new or used. I have the one disc

Thanks for the post and you're right. A cursory look on Ebay confirms this.

I wonder if I should forego looking for the special edition and just buy the single disc version.

Anj said...

Glenn Folkvord and Rob Daniels of Planet Origo should be commended for this excellent interview. I believe this is the first time Helen Slater has described what it was like during filming since the movie came out.

I agree they should be commended. It was very good to hear Slater talk about the movie.

She was one of the people interviewed for the Supergirl documentart on the Smallville discs. It's available on Youtube.

Gene said...

I'd hold out for the two disk DVD Anj. The special features are worth it!

Anj said...

I'd hold out for the two disk DVD Anj. The special features are worth it!

Thanks for the tip!

Looks like it runs somewhere around $75 bucks so I'll have to start pinching pennies.

Anonymous said...

I have the European version of the Directors' Cut on DVD...

It's the spankin' new one with Helen as Supergirl in a heroic pose on the front cover. I think it costed almost $20 at a store in the mall... I think the name was FYI or something....

-ealperin