Richardson takes cue from Churchills’ love letters
NEW YORK — For Miranda Richardson, “Churchill” peels away the tidy domestic facade of Britain’s famous wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill and his wife, Clementine.
When German planes bombed London and environs during the 1940-41 Nazi Blitz, 40,000 civilians were killed and a million London houses destroyed. Churchill sustained, encouraged and rallied British resistance.
Clemmie was seen as domestic handmaiden to the Great Man. “She was a powerhouse,” Richardson, 59, commented during a one-on-one interview at the Carnegie Club.
“But because of that time and her particular thinking, she did not want to push herself forward. It was all Churchill, while she was working in the background, advising, comforting, talking to people. Really, really smart stuff during what a lonely time: wartime. The public didn’t see any of that.
“Clem spent an awful lot of time alone. Geographically they were often quite apart from the early days of their marriage.
“Fortunately, there are a series of letters between them, which are lovely, which I dipped into to get the emotional feel of different parts of their marriage, which was very loving, very dear.
“As much as people text now, they were sending letters. Three times a day! That’s what makes partnership, constantly being in touch.
“When he’s drinking, losing his temper and just being a big baby, which is what he was a lot of the time, she was being mother to him.
“He didn’t know his mother, so he idealized her. Clem was terrified of her own mother from when she saw her mother in bed with somebody (who wasn’t her father). It was all too much for a little girl. So they found each other, these two traumatized people.”
Richardson (“And Then There Were None”) is up next with September’s Boston-set “Stronger.”
“We did it all over Boston. I’m the mother of Jeff Bauman, played by Jake Gyllenhaal, a victim of the Boston Marathon bomber, who lost both his legs.
“He was rescued by Carlos (Arredondo), who’s a character in the movie, this extraordinary guy who had been through his own personal traumas with one of his sons dying in action and the other one committing suicide.
“He devotes his life now to any victims of bombings, a wonderful guy and also incredibly intense.”