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 In "Little Children," director Todd Field's second feature (he garnered Oscar nominations with his debut "In The Bedroom", the leads Kate Winslet (Sarah) and Patrick Wilson (Brad) grapple with loneliness and loss of identity as they wrestle with being parents and unfulfilled adults. Into the mix enters a third story realm occupied by Larry (a disgraced cop played by Noah Emmerich) and Ronnie (a convicted sex offender played by Jackie Earle Haley); they both intersect with Sarah and Brad as the film arrives at both a disturbing and open-ended conclusion.
Through "Little Children," both Winslet and Wilson have had the opportunity to play around with their conventional images associated with them as hot sexy young actors. Both have tackled roles in other films that defy the stereotypes--Wilson was a suspected rapist in "Hard Candy" [read our film review...] and Winslet has been a religious accolyte in Jane Campion's "Holy Smoke" and a vicious murderer in Peter Jackson's "Heavenly Creatures." As a result, the film has achieved considerable support--even in being selected as one of the 28 features to make it into the 44th Annual New York Film Festival--held at Lincoln Center.
So though, they have stood expectations on their head--especially Winslet, who has collected four Oscar noms as a result--this film has really stirred early Oscar buzz for both of them.
www.littlechildrenmovie.com
Winslet and Wilson at Toronto Film Festival
Winslet and Wilson in "Little Children"
Q: Though you are one of the most beautiful women in the film world, you have now played a woman considered less attractive in comparison to Jennifer Connelly. What does it feel like to be considered comparatively plain?
Kate Winslet: First of all, I absolutely loved the experience. More than anything else, I wanted her to look like someone you'd bump into in the street. You see, I was never a big fan of contemporary movies because they always make actresses and actors look too perfect. Who would believe that they ever really look like that?
So as far as the presentation of my character goes, it was a great opportunity to put my beliefs into action. We did have many conversations about the hair, though. Todd kept demanding, "Big. Big!" But I just loved it. It really felt great to play someone who couldn't care less about her appearance.
Q: Who do you know that defies the stereotypes?
Patrick Wilson: My wife.
KW: His wife is stunning.
Q: How was it playing the non-typical male role and defying the male stereotypes?
PW: I enjoy doing all those things. I love tackling stereotypes and taking on such roles that enable you to pull the chair out, so to speak. I love the fact that you're in position to discover and explore the other side. In this particular scenario, he was both quarterback and prom king in high school. We get the idea, though, that while he embraces and relishes in his titles, he often feels that these are the only things he has to show for himself.
High school was the one time in his life that he felt self-assured, and for this reason, he continues to play football. The most revealing scenes take place in the end zone of a football field, where he feels most alive. You'll find several stereotypes here, but for a guy who has been emasculated over the years, he's trying to get back what he has lost.
Everyone wants to be someone important, even if it means digging up and reliving the past. We tend to revel in our finest moments. But does he really want to be prom king again? Probably not, but having a sense of identity is something that has eluded him since his glory years in high school. Of course, he's a father and he loves his boy dearly, but I think he feels that he hasn't made anything of himself.
Q: This movie takes on modern suburbia.
PW: Well, most everyone can relate, and modern-day suburbia is no exception. I grew up in Florida and most kids had no clue what to do with their lives. It's not any different today. There is a lot of pressure to choose the right majors and enter the right fields, and it can be very confusing and overwhelming for a kid.
I mean, how many people genuinely love what they're doing? How many of us can say that our plans from five or 10 years ago have worked out smoothly? Very few. Even the most successful of actors don't always play the roles that they want. You can see how it can apply to any profession or field of interest today.
KW: I knew when I was five that I wanted to act. It was a childhood dream of mine and it ran in my family, so I took it for granted that I would be doing it somewhere down the line. I never really thought about doing movies, and it never even crossed my mind that I would one day be some famous movie star. All I knew was that I loved being onstage. At the time, going for auditions and other particulars were far from my mind.
So yes, I was very lucky. As Patrick said, most people don't know what they really want to do. My brother is 26 years old and he's currently in Thailand trying to figure it all out. He still has no idea what he wants to do and that's absolutely fine. Sarah, on the other hand, is a woman whose fate is predetermined when she suddenly becomes a mother. She immediately feels burdened by her three year old, and she refuses to have her identity shaped by someone that was not in her original plans.
When you first meet Sarah in the beginning, she is struggling to take care of herself, let alone her child. She miserably denies the fact that she is now a mother, someone responsible for the upbringing of another. She wants to hang onto a part of herself that she has lost, but she fears that she no longer recognizes who that person is. That precious core of her identity is lost somewhere within her, and though she wants to uncover it, she is also terrified of finding it. Her ambivalence manifests itself in the conflict between her love for her child and her desire to be unburdened.
As the story unfolds, Sarah begins to figure herself out, piece by piece. She gets a chance at a new life as she has an affair with another man. She experiences and feels things that she never even knew about or thought possible. But as the story reaches its conclusion, Sarah realizes what she has to do in order to be truly happy and content with her life. She has a big enough heart to acknowledge that her happiness will be in proportion to her commitment to her child. She vows to be a proper parent, and at last she is ready to be one. But she really needed to go through all of that to come to this conclusion.
Q: It couldn't have happened without him.
KW: Absolutely. It could not have happened without him. Who knows what she might have done had he not been a part of her life. She probably would have packed up one day and ran off somewhere with the child. God knows where, and it's likely that she would have moved into a new community only to find herself in a similar situation.
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