Here's a fairly new interview from Empire UK magazine:
Claire Danes on her two new films
After being absent from screens since last year's Stage Beauty (unless you count that The Rage In Placid Lake cameo, which we don't), Claire Danes is back with two films within a month, with the double whammy of The Family Stone and Shopgirl. We talked to the lady herself about obscene publicity, working with Steve Martin and why she enjoys supporting roles.
So what are you working on at the moment?
I've been doing a month of publicity for Shopgirl; it's been obscene. In some ways it's harder than making the film. Which one are we talking about? Shop Girl, I think (laughs). It can be challenging. I'm not naturally gifted at publicity. Some people are clever at carefully crafting a persona. I'm sorry though, I don't mean to solicit your sympathy.there are rewards.
Shopgirl's out here on January 20th. It's a slightly more realistic rom-com than we usually see, isn't it?
It's not a very black and white film, in its treatment of love and relationships. It is very ambiguous, and you know, the relationship she has with Ray Porter (Steve Martin) is painful at times, and frustrating, and disappointing, but they did manage to share real intimacy and love, and it didn't result in their remaining forever committed and planning a family together, but that's okay, it's still valid, it's reason enough for them to have made the attempt.
What attracts you to a script?
Um.. Well, I like to play people who undergo a change at some time. That's the ideal. Who begin at one stage and are confronted with a problem or conflicts that they have to work through, and in so doing they evolve into a more mature person. So that's fun. Cause then there's work to be done, you know? But sometimes it's not possible and sometimes I play a supporting role, and then I'm in the service of other actors who are making those changes. But if I love a story I'm happy to support it in a more modest way.
What else have you got coming up?
Now I'm doing The Flock that Andrew Lau is directing. I start that in two weeks in Albuquerque. No, I don't get any time off!
And you're also in The Family Stone, out this week. Can you tell us about that?
That is about a woman (played by Sarah Jessica Parker) who's engaged to a man played by Dermot Mulroney. Well, they're going out, and it seems like they'll probably get married, and he brings her home for Christmas. And the matriarch (Diane Keaton) is very sick with cancer, but the family rejects Sarah Jessica Parker's character rather meanly but with some deserve. And then she panics and she calls me, I play her sister, and I exacerabate the problem because I fall in love with the fianc? and he falls in love with me; she falls in love with the fianc?'s brother; he falls in love with her - it's a mess. Hi-jinx and hilarity ensue. It's like a farce.
Are you doing theatre in between films?
I did that for two weeks in the summer. So I do vary, I do 'theatre theatre',;I do off-Broadway, and off-off-off-off Broadway! I've never done a conventional play or anything. I wouldn't mind; I'd like to! Two years ago I started again, and this year, poof, there I was. Well not just 'poof'; I worked on it really diligently and it was exhausting, but it was exciting.
Is it important to vary stuff?
It's important for me. There was quite a bit of time when I wasn't working, and I just went bonkers. I need to be creatively active in some way. The dancing felt great.
Could you see yourself setting up your own production company, so you can develop your own roles?
I guess so. I should be better at that than I am. I don't have a particular role in mind but.
Is it hard to find good roles for women, even these days? Are you ever tempted to write your own?
Yes. There are quite a few out this season actually, but you know, there still aren't many. Very few roles, typically. Writing.I'm not going to write a script necessarily, but I do like to write a lot. I took a fiction writing class in school about a year ago. I love to draw. I like all kinds of things of a creative description