Rising to the occasion
Perabo returns to acting in ‘Angel Has Fallen’
Piper Perabo (“Coyote Ugly,” “Looper”) took a break from acting — but now she’s back, co-starring opposite Gerard Butler in Friday’s “Angel Has Fallen.”
“I feel like I’m home when I’m acting,” Perabo, 42, said. “Great storytelling is something always close to my heart. Politics is what I’m really passionate about.
“I took a year off to do voter registration, fundraising.”
“Angel” is the third installment in the “Fallen” series, preceded by “Olympus Has Fallen” (2013), in which terrorists nearly destroyed the White House and failed to
assassinate the president, and “London Has Fallen” (2016), in which terrorists failed to murder the president and world leaders gathered for a state funeral.
In “Angel,” Butler’s presidential Secret Service agent Mike Banning’s code-name, a conspiracy is set in motion to make the heroic agent the fall guy in yet another try at killing the president (Morgan Freeman).
As Leah Banning, Perabo is a supportive wife and mother with an infant. “I had loved the other two and I like that aspect of the story — how his job affects his life at home.”
In a movie that’s nearly nonstop action, Leah and her child are threatened by kidnapping killers who invade their home.
“That was one of her most intense scenes but the twins that play our daughter were so afraid of the men cast as the assassins that they were screaming bloody murder,” Perabo revealed with a laugh.
“They did all the heavy lifting — I had it easy in that scene. But there’s a scene after where I find out that Mike’s been arrested and the house has been ransacked, the press and police are stationed outside. There I was inside. That was stressful, because of the isolation.”
When you play a mother, how do you work with the babies’ real mother? Was she there on the set?
“Always. She sort of gave me the secret of the twins, which was Honey Nut Cheerios. It’s amazing what they will do for a Cheerio. I kept them in my pocket and would hand them out after each take.”
Now back working, Perabo stars opposite Idris Elba in the Netflix comedy “Turn Up Charlie.”
“We shot that in London. Idris is a hard worker but also he has this charming, vivacious energy. He’s just fun to be around.
“I just kept looking at him because it took me awhile to get over how handsome he is.”