“I learned a lot from Michael Keaton about taking chances”
[THE Q&A] ANDIE MACDOWELL has paid her dues as an onscreen American sweetheart, and is looking to cause some mischief
ROMANTIC COMEDIES MAY have been her bread and butter, but Andie Macdowell has never settled for being a mere love interest. Whether she was going toe-to-toe with Bill Murray in Groundhog Day or running circles around a bumbling Hugh Grant in Four Weddings And A Funeral, the actor spent her early career giving charismatic leading men a run for their money. And today, Macdowell is focused on a bolder type of role. As the straight-talking academic in Netflix’s Along For The Ride, or the difficult onscreen mother to her real-life daughter in Maid, she’s proving once again that she’s not afraid of a challenge.
You play a Mensa-level scholar in Along For The Ride.
What drew you to the role?
I like doing romantic comedies, and it’s been a while since I’ve done something sweet like that, even though my character is not sweet at all. Plus, I’ve worked with Dermot Mulroney before in [1994 Western]
Bad Girls, and hadn’t seen him in such a long time.
And you’re Paula, a nightmarish mother to your real-life daughter Margaret Qualley, in Maid. How did you approach the part? Paula is someone that you know. She’s one of those people that you love, despite the fact that she’s horrible, because she’s the life of the party. She’s irresistible. There’s a scene where Alex [Qualley] and I go into a bank, and Paula’s flirting with the clerk, and touching his knees. All the inappropriate behaviour that I got to do was so much fun.
What was it like to play that kind of character alongside Margaret?
The weird thing is, she knew
I could do it. That’s what’s really scary. I feel like everybody else has this vision of me that isn’t me. They watch Groundhog Day and go, “That’s the person in Groundhog Day.” When I did Sex, Lies, And Videotape, people thought I was that character. Wow,
I was not that character. But my daughter knew that I could do it because she knows I have all kinds of people inside of me.
Would you ever want to play a proper, full-on villain?
I’m working on something right now that’s not announced, that is a completely different character. I think that it’s probably helped [playing similar parts] in Maid and [survival horror] Ready Or Not.
Your early career saw you holding your own against your onscreen male counterparts. What was the key to doing that?
It’s like going to battle. I know that sounds crazy, but it’s a very specific sort of work. It’s timing. It’s how you say something, it’s movements. It’s a very special language, comedy. I remember [recently] doing one scene with Greg Davies [on Cuckoo], and he was like, “This isn’t working.” I remember diving in as deep as I could into whatever gifts I might have, and I did it, because I was gonna make the damn scene work.
Do you have a soft spot for one particular film that you’ve starred in? Multiplicity. It was great, and Michael Keaton is brilliant in it. It should have been equally as successful as Groundhog Day. The people who did see it, loved it. It was ahead of its time. They used brand-new technology, as Michael plays four characters.
Keaton has spoken very highly about your time together on that film. Do you still speak?
He interviewed me recently about Maid. I learned a lot from Michael about taking chances, and playing a character that’s bigger than life.
How do you feel about watching your own work at this stage in your career?
I do watch it, but not over and over again. I think when I know something is probably going to be shit, I don’t particularly look forward to watching that. But if I think something went well,
I don’t mind watching it. I’m pretty honest with myself. I know when something’s just shit.