Ruth or dare: Why Hollywood is crazy for British actress Ruth Wilson
By JANE GORDON
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She likes to perform her own stunts and says she does her best work when she’s scared. Hold on to your cowboy hats as double Olivier Award-winning actress Ruth Wilson makes her Hollywood debut in The Lone Ranger with Johnny Depp
'It was ridiculous but flattering that people thought Johnny Depp and I were an item'
Ten minutes after I have been introduced to Ruth Wilson, during a conversation about theatre critics, I make the mistake of saying the word ‘eyebrow’. To anyone else that slip of the tongue (I meant to say ‘high-brow’) wouldn’t matter, but for the 31-year-old actress – who is mesmerising on television and has established an illustrious career in theatre – mentioning the word ‘eyebrow’ is almost as likely to make her want to scream as a casual reference to her upper lip. Because if you glance back at the reviews that Ruth has received for her work in theatre (she has won two Olivier Awards) it isn’t just her talent that overwhelms critics, it is her eyebrows and/or her upper lip.
These two features have become a source of almost erotic obsession to reviewers. Her eyebrows have been described as ‘eloquent’, ‘exquisite’ and – my favourite –‘Bacallian’ (not a misspelling of the worship of the god Bacchus, but a reference to the actress Lauren Bacall). Meanwhile, one critic wrote a review of a performance of Ruth’s that read like a love letter to her ‘pendulous’ top lip, another writer referred to it as a ‘jutting prow’ and an anonymous profile accused her of using her upper lip to ‘dangerously’ exploit her audience.
To cover my mistake I ask Ruth how she feels about the way in which her eyebrows and that lip seem to get more attention than her acting, and whether this is behind her abandoning British theatre in favour of Hollywood movies. (Ruth is the female lead in this summer’s big-budget Disney blockbuster The Lone Ranger.)
‘It’s something that happens to a lot of people in my profession,’ she says. ‘The critics have to try to identify an actor by picking out something about them that is different. In my case it is so repetitive that it does seem as if my eyebrows and my top lip have acquired a life of their own. It is getting a bit boring, but what can I do?’ she says, shrugging her shoulders.
I point out that Ruth probably doesn’t need to do anything, since the Oscar-winning director of The Lone Ranger, Gore Verbinski, has publicly predicted that she is ‘going to be a huge movie star’ because of her ability to ‘act circles round most people’ and the fact that ‘she’s really got it going in those eyes’. (Refreshingly no mention of brows or that upper lip.) Ruth looks at me in astonishment, apparently unaware of the statement the director made about her in the production notes for the film, which have been distributed to the press ahead of its release.
‘Are you sure? Did he say that? I didn’t know that and I can’t believe it. That’s fantastic. Oh, I love Gore, he is adorable,’ she says, sounding as thrilled as she is surprised.
Ruth stars alongside Johnny Depp, left, and Armie Hammer in the Lone Ranger
Part of Ruth’s charm is her modesty and the way that she plays down her past achievements. She doesn’t seem to be aware of the way in which her life will be transformed by playing the female lead in a movie that has been created by the team (producer Jerry Bruckheimer and ‘adorable’ Gore) responsible for the phenomenally successful Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. Gore, it’s rumoured, believes that she has even greater potential than his Pirates protégée Keira Knightley.
‘Film was one of the areas of my profession that had eluded me,’ she says. ‘I had been knocking on the doors of the film industry in the UK, auditioning for roles, but getting nowhere. I didn’t have any expectation when I did my audition for The Lone Ranger because I did it on video in London – which hardly ever works, even if you are already established in movies.
'But amazingly they called me and asked me to go to LA for a screen test. Because of my schedule I could only go that weekend, but thankfully that was OK with them and they flew me out on the Friday. It happened so fast that there wasn’t time to set up a proper screen test, so I just repeated my first audition, knowing that the two of them were sitting in an adjoining room watching me on a screen. Then I met them and they offered me the job. What was rather nice was the fact that, having had no luck here, it was America and this epic Hollywood production that finally opened the door to film for me,’ she says in her delightfully understated way.
Ruth describes herself as confident but also shy (which explains why, however hard I try to get her to open up about her private life, the only thing she will say is, ‘I am single’). She will, however, talk about her family – her three elder brothers, Toby, Sam and Matt; and her parents, father Nigel, a retired banker, and her mother Mary, who worked as a probation officer.
The family were surprised but supportive when, after completing a history degree at Nottingham University (during which she joined a drama group), Ruth made the decision to go to Lamda and become an actress. They are proud of her success, but her brothers, she says, have kept her grounded.
'I'm not bad with a lasso now. If there's a sequel, I want the whole cowboy thing'
Clearly her childhood – the family lived in Surrey – was happy, but she thinks that growing up in a male environment had a big impact on her development and explains the fact that she is the antithesis of a ‘girlie-girl’. She is passionate about sport (she has just taken up boxing), she loves putting herself ‘in scary situations’ (one of her most ‘brilliant’ memories occurred during the filming of the ITV remake of The Prisoner, when she decided to take her little rented hatchback on a private safari and drove right into a pride of lions), and she is ridiculously competitive – characteristics she links to her need to keep up with her brothers.
‘After having three boys my mother was amazed when I arrived, but her attitude was a bit, “I have no idea what to do with girls so I will just do what I did with her brothers”. So I was one of the boys in every way. What you looked like or what you wore was never important. I just wore my brothers’ hand-me-downs. I have this brilliant picture at home of me – aged about six on a beach with two of my brothers – in which I am wearing an old pair of yellow shorts and a Hawaiian shirt. I look like a little boy,’ she says.
Although Ruth seems to have hung on to that childhood lack of vanity, the days of wearing the hand-me-down clothes of her brothers are long over (although she retains a love of tailored masculine jackets). These days Ruth is a fashion-icon-in-waiting thanks, she says, to her mentor Anna Wintour. The British-born editor-in-chief of US Vogue called Ruth when her performance in the title role of Eugene O’Neill’s Anna Christie gained her an Olivier nomination for Best Actress in 2012 (she had won an Olivier for Best Supporting Actress in 2010 for her role as Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire alongside Rachel Weisz, whose performance as Blanche DuBois took the Best Actress award).
‘I had been photographed for US Vogue the previous year, and Anna called and said, “Look, Ruth, I would love to dress you for the Oliviers,” and of course I said, “I would love that!” And so I met her in New York and she had found me this beautiful dress by McQ (the diffusion line from Alexander McQueen). It’s funny, but I did a shoot for Vogue sometime later in this amazing outfit with my hair in a perfect bob, and I thought, “Oh my God, I look just like Anna!” She is lovely; a brilliant woman and a great supporter of British theatre,’ says Ruth.
Anna’s support that night gave Ruth a double victory, winning the fashion world’s vote for the best dress of the night as well as that coveted Best Actress Olivier. Ruth hasn’t thought about what she will wear for the UK premiere of The Lone Ranger but is hopeful of being able to call on Anna for advice.
The film (which I was lucky enough to see a preview of before I met Ruth) takes the classic American tale of The Lone Ranger and his faithful sidekick the Native American Tonto – originally a radio series in 1933 and subsequently a TV show that ran from 1949 to 1957 – and ‘turns it on its ear’.
In this version, Tonto – played by Johnny Depp wearing so much make-up that he is almost unrecognisable – is more the star than the sidekick and tells the story of how he managed to transform John Reid (played by Armie Hammer) from an earnest lawyer who refused to carry a gun into the Lone Ranger.
Ruth’s character Rebecca also undergoes a transformation during the film, starting out as the wife of John Reid’s older brother Dan (and doting mother to their son Danny), and becoming not only the love interest of the Lone Ranger but also a major part of the action.
Ruth starring in The Lone Ranger, left, and wearing a McQ dress - chosen by Anna Wintour - to pick up her
Best Actress Olivier Award in 2012, right
Best Actress Olivier Award in 2012, right
As Bruckheimer and Verbinski intended, the film ‘reinvents’ the Western in a way that may not win the approval of film critics but the movie-going public will love. Funny, exciting and so entertaining that it seems certain to spawn at least one sequel.
Ruth has a reputation for being fearless, telling me that the only things that scare her are ‘my job, because it’s only when I am scared that I do my best work’ and sharks (‘Seeing Jaws on TV as a child terrified me, so I blame Steven Spielberg for that phobia!’). One of the things she was relishing when she won her role in The Lone Ranger was the idea that an all-action Western would involve her performing dangerous stunts.
‘But when I saw the script I discovered that they had written Rebecca as this defenceless, vulnerable girl, and I just had to ask them to toughen her up a bit. I said, “Can’t she fight back, because in that situation I would?” I asked if she could be a bit bolder and have some fun, like jumping off a moving train. The writers were great. They said, “You’re right,” and let me hit back. I did all my own stunts – the only one I didn’t do was ride the horse backwards in the scene where I kiss the Lone Ranger,’ she says.
I ask if she really needed a double to kiss the outrageously good-looking Armie Hammer?
‘Armie is a gorgeous all-American man – although that’s not my type – but, of course, I didn’t need a double for the kiss. The close-up couldn’t have been done on horseback – we did the kiss in a box so that it could be superimposed into the action. Armie is great, and the best time I had with him was learning how to use a lasso. Armie is now brilliant with a lasso and I’m not bad, but sadly I didn’t get to use it in the movie. However, if there is a sequel I don’t just want to use lassos, I want guns, the whole cowboy thing – I look pretty good in a cowboy hat,’ she says with a grin.
'Anna Wintour said, "Ruth,
I would love to dress you
for the Oliviers," and of course
I said yes'
I would love to dress you
for the Oliviers," and of course
I said yes'
Ruth regrets that she didn’t have any significant scenes with Johnny Depp – an actor she hugely admires – and that she didn’t really get to know him. ‘We were shooting for eight months and I never saw Johnny without his full Tonto make-up. He turned up to meetings in his make-up and I understand he would go home at the end of a day’s shooting and sleep in it,’ she recalls.
No one was more surprised than Ruth – except perhaps Johnny – when they were linked romantically in the American press. ‘I had a call from a PR who said, “This is just to warn you that it’s coming out in the American celebrity magazine US Weekly that you and Johnny are an item.”
I laughed and said that was ridiculous – I have never even seen him without his make-up! But I have to admit that I was really flattered. I was like, “I am going to cut that story out and pin it up on my wall!”’
Ruth is aware that opening the door to film may mean that movies will dominate her career over the next few years, but she is adamant that she will remain based in the South London flat she has bought and that she ‘could never live in LA’.
Since she finished shooting The Lone Ranger Ruth has already completed two more films and is about to begin work on the adaptation of Irène Némirovsky’s novel Suite Française alongside Michelle Williams and Sam Riley. Ruth talks proudly of her role in the forthcoming Saving Mr Banks, and she is predictably modest about being the female lead in A Walk Among the Tombstones, a crime drama co-starring Liam Neeson.
‘I play a New York cop. Liam Neeson is a lovely man, really easy to work with. It’s great that they have billed me as the female lead, but it’s probably because I am the only female in it!’ she laughs.
Throughout our interview Ruth has talked fondly of the actors she has worked with, but usually adds the phrase ‘he’s not my type’. Her reaction to being linked to Johnny Depp suggests he might be her type, but she doesn’t comment on Jude Law – who she was rumoured to be romantically involved with when they were co-stars in Anna Christie – so who knows if he’s her type? By the end of our interview I am desperate to find out if she has a ‘dream man’ and if there are any actors who might qualify?
‘Michael Fassbender and Ryan Gosling are fit,’ she says. ‘And I rather like Guy Pearce. But my idols tend not to be actors – they are men like Thom Yorke from Radiohead or Damon Albarn,’ she says, pausing thoughtfully for a second and then adding with a slightly regretful sigh, ‘I love Damon Albarn. Actually, he is my dream man. But sadly he will never be my co-star.’
WILSON'S WOWS
Latest iPod download? David Bowie’s The Next Day.
Favourite iPad app? Halo.
Guilty pleasure? Late-night kebabs.
Little luxury? Yves Delorme bedlinen.
Secret ambition? To have an Italian vineyard.
Favourite restaurant? José on Bermondsey Street, South London.
Signature recipe? Nigella’s Lemon Garlic Mushroom Linguine.
Fashion icon? Katharine Hepburn.
Next sporting challenge? Sailing around the Greek islands.
Favourite film? Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
Dream designer? Alexander McQueen.
Favourite TV box-set? The Wire.
Ideal female lead role? Gertrude Stein.
The Lone Ranger will be in cinemas from 9 August. Watch the trailer below.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/you/article-2376096/While-Hollywood-crazy-British-actress-Ruth-Wilson--truth-Johnny-Depp-rumours.html#ixzz2aLsxckS4
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