Getting schooled by Danes
CLAIRE Danes, hoarse from speaking to press pests about her Jim Parsons, Octavia Spencer, Priyanka Chopra film “A Kid Like Jake,” said:
“It’s about a Brooklyn therapist’s son, age 4, in the process of entering a city elementary school. A trauma. He gets into Dalton but causes difficulty. The kid doesn’t conform to gender norms.”
But Claire herself, whose grandpa was a dean at Yale, attended Dalton, right?
“Yes. But only a single semester. Not a bad student, I got in — can you believe — on my own merit. I’d been acting awhile, made my own money. I could afford private school. Born here, live here, I love the city. This school frustrates many mothers, but I have no friggin’ idea how to get other kids into Dalton.
“We filmed in Brooklyn and Manhattan with pedestrians, clamor and the usual impossible elements to control. People out enjoying themselves, rushing to go somewhere, this city has its own agenda.
“Even the married couple we play in this try desperately to have one special night but there’s tension and all goes terribly wrong.”
Speaking of terribly right, how’s Claire feel watching herself on-screen? “Not my favorite pastime. I see my shortcomings. But the good news is my husband’s doing a play in the fall, I’m pregnant now [with my second], I start filming ‘Homeland’ in January and I’m baby-sitting until then.”