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Claire Forlani Interview - Back on Track
Two years ago Claire Forlani was on the edge of stardom. She had won the female lead in Meet Joe Black opposite Brad Pitt, who was at the height of his sex-god period. Her face was on the cover of Vanity Fair, along with 10 other hot young actors, including Cate Blanchett, Natalie Portman, Tobey Maguire and Joaquin Phoenix. But then Meet Joe Black failed at the box office, and she took nearly two years off to attend her terminally ill mother. In the interim, such beautiful new faces as Angelina Jolie and Mena Suvari suddenly appeared and won roles Forlani might have gotten. Hollywood may have a short memory, but Forlani, who is as beautiful and slender as the young Audrey Hepburn, isn't about to let anyone forget her. She has two new films. Boys and Girls, a romantic comedy starring Freddie Prinze Jr., opened this weekend. And later this year comes the thriller Anti-Trust, with Tim Robbins and Ryan Phillippe. In the first, she plays a college student afraid of commitment. And in the second, she's the opposite -- a strong, mature woman. "I related to both characters," says Forlani, who looks younger and more vulnerable in person than she does onscreen. She is 27, but depending on how she's dressed, she can play anywhere from 20 to 40. To talk about Boys and Girls, she's appropriately girlish in white hiphuggers, red sandals and a long-sleeved red sweater by Katayone Adeli. "When I read the script, I laughed out loud more times than I had with any other script," Forlani says of the tale of two friends searching for romance, not realizing it's right in front of them. "And I fell in love with my character, Jennifer." "I very much remember my teens as being big highs and big lows. It was a hormonally up-and-down experience. I felt everything, and my character Jennifer feels everything. At that age, you don't have the experience to draw on yet. What does sex do to a relationship? You don't have those answers." Forlani has had a number of boyfriends, including John Cusack. She was briefly, and, she insists, inaccurately linked with Pitt during his breakup with Gwyneth Paltrow while they were filming Meet Joe Black. "That rumor is pretty much done, I think," she says with her fingers crossed. As for her film romance with the younger Prinze, 24, she adds with a deliciously dirty laugh, "I think Freddie is very sexy, absolutely. I just love men. (More laughter.) I loved getting to live this experience without letting the consequences affect my own life." "Commitment? It's a terrifying thing! Ay-ay-ay! But I truly believe in it. There's a higher form of happiness in commitment. I'm counting on it." As in the plot of Boys and Girls, Forlani is still looking. "Yes, I'm single," she says reluctantly, then adds with a gleeful giggle: "I encourage all men to try. Don't be afraid!" Forlani's high cheekbones and classy British accent could scare men off. And she herself acknowledges, "When I was younger, I think I intimidated people much more because I was far more insecure. The older I get, the more relaxed I am. Americans are far more relaxed." Forlani, who has an Italian father and English mother, grew up in Twickenham, a London suburb, determined to be an actress. At 11, she enrolled in London's Arts Educational School. "I begged and pleaded to go," she says. "I'm lucky I had parents willing to be open and believe that an 11-year-old might know what she wanted to do. Or maybe they thought I'd find out that's what I didn't want to do." She never changed her mind. "The imaginary world has always been the most fun place for me to be," Forlani says, "either in front of a movie screen or playing some fantasy game." "I never knew where this acting gene came from, but when my mother got sick this unbelievable side came out of her that I'd never seen before. She was truly theatrical. Before, she was very demure, and 'embarrassed' was one of her favorite words." "It was almost like time was running out, and she wanted to cut loose, and this actress appeared. I had my mouth hanging open for almost a year and a half as I watched my mother be absolutely hysterical, sing and be dramatic. She was tremendous, and then it all made sense. 'Who knew?' I said to her. 'I got it from you.'" After graduation, Forlani appeared on several episodes of the British TV show Press Gang. But her career didn't really start to prosper until she moved to Hollywood in 1993. "I'd come out to Los Angeles for a vacation to see a friend and just fell in love with it," she says. "Then two months later, my parents told me they were moving to California because of my father's business." After several years of auditioning, Forlani began getting small roles in such films as Mallrats and The Rock. Meet Joe Black director Martin Brest noticed her in Basquiat and insisted on hiring her. Few Americans realize Forlani is British because she always played Americans. "It's not a strategy," she says. "I don't know why that's happened. I'd be quite excited to play somebody British. I love accents." |
