She has two dozen film credits to her name, but Claire Danes’ role in the fantasy “Stardust” was unlike any previous part on her resume.
In the film, recently released on DVD, she plays a fallen star — and not in the figurative sense. She portrays an actual celestial being who is knocked from the heavens and crashes down in the magical land of Stormhold.
“It’s pretty fun. Yeah, I mean, the 6-year-old within is very pleased about it,” Danes said in during interviews last summer at the Four Seasons Hotel. “It just fulfilled all of my fantasies, my little-girl fantasies.”
The movie, based on the illustrated novel by Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess, centers on Tristan Thorne (Charlie Cox), a nerdy young Englishman living in the Victorian village of Wall. He promises the girl of his dreams, snobby village beauty Victoria (Sienna Miller), that he will cross into Stormhold and bring her back a fallen star. If he succeeds, she will marry him.
When Tristan reaches the star’s landing place, he doesn’t find the hunk of rock he expected. Instead, he finds Yvaine (Danes), a lovely young woman with a hurt leg and prickly attitude.
Tristan vows to help Yvaine return to her heavenly home if she will help fulfill his promise to Victoria. As Yvaine unwillingly travels with him, she is pursued by an ancient witch (Michelle Pfeiffer), a ruthless prince (Mark Strong) and other undesirable characters who want to seize the fallen star’s magical powers.
The movie comes with all sorts of fantasy trappings — from magic mirrors and enchanted jewels to flying ships and daring pirates — but Danes said at its heart, “Stardust” is a romantic comedy. Although they initially despise each other, Yvaine and Tristan find themselves falling in love on their journey.
“I think that’s a pretty classic scenario. It like, you know, harks back to those screwball comedies of the ‘30s. They’re always antagonizing each other before they realize that, oh, actually they’re just desperately in love,” she said with a grin. “It’s just very amusing ... it’s a great source of comedy.”
Dressed in a pleated peach and silver dress with her golden hair spilling over her shoulders, Danes, 28, radiated the poise of a mature actress. But her wide gray-green eyes and crooked smile are reminders of the teenager who charmed critics and audiences as awkward adolescent Angela Chase on the TV drama “My So-Called Life.”
She won a Golden Globe for her work on the show, which led to a diverse film career, including roles in Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation of “Romeo+Juliet,” the action sequel “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines” and the love-triangle drama “Shopgirl.”
The movie business can be “wacky,” but the native New Yorker said her passion for acting has sustained her through challenging times. Besides sometimes having her life splashed all over the tabloids, Danes said actors put in long, strange hours, and these days, the work often takes place in foreign countries, far away from family and friends.
She won a Golden Globe for her work on the show, which led to a diverse film career, including roles in Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation of “Romeo+Juliet,” the action sequel “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines” and the love-triangle drama “Shopgirl.”
The movie business can be “wacky,” but the native New Yorker said her passion for acting has sustained her through challenging times. Besides sometimes having her life splashed all over the tabloids, Danes said actors put in long, strange hours, and these days, the work often takes place in foreign countries, far away from family and friends.
“I do love acting, and that is what I always return to when I’m at the mercy of the erraticism of the business,” she said. “Being aware of people’s opinions of my work and myself can be disconcerting and undermining at times, but basically ... that never interferes with my enjoyment of acting, and so you know, I’m OK basically.”
Taking a two-year break from the business to study at Yale University also helped her define herself outside of the entertainment industry.
“I’ve learned that I can exist pretty comfortably without it. And that’s good,” she said.
Still, Danes said she has no plans to change careers, despite the stresses of the job.
“I get to exercise my imagination and my sense of empathy. And I get to meet really creative, talented people, passionate people, and I get to travel extensively. I get to see the world,” she said."
Part of what drew her to “Stardust” was the opportunity to play a part in Gaiman’s imaginative story. She voiced a character in the 1997 English version of the animated movie “Princess Mononoke,” for which the “Sandman” scribe wrote the screenplay. She also penned the foreword to Gaiman’s graphic novel “Death.”
Although Yvaine is in many ways a classic “damsel in distress” — and the role demanded the usual screaming — Danes said Gaiman gave the character strength.
“I thought she was written so beautifully, and she’s, you know, allowed to be really smart and self-possessed and daring,” she said. “She’s a force to be reckoned with. She knows her significance and her power, and she’s not embarrassed by it and she’s not ... apologetic about it, which I think a lot of women are. So I think she wasn’t a classic damsel in distress in that sense.
A fan of dark fairy tales like “Bluebeard,” Danes said she would love to round out her filmography by portraying a strong female baddie“I’d love to play a villain. Yeah, I mean, who wouldn’t? I’d love to get away with murder,” she said with a convincingly wicked laugh.
Pictures from the "Behinds The Scenes"and Official trailer Of Stardust.
