As his new film, the brilliant Love Is Strange, hits the cinemas, we catch up with British film veteran Alfred Molina
If there's one word on everyone's lips this week, it's love; the annual build up to Valentine's Day making the subject almost impossible to avoid. It's at about this time each year – the eve before the big day – that even the most romantic of souls begin to find themselves over-saturated, resorting to the goriest horror film that they can find on Netflix as an antidote to all the chocolate-box sentimentalism.
Just in the nick of time comes Love Is Strange, the new film from acclaimed writer and director Ira Sachs – a beautifully unique, and completely cheese-free, meditation on the nature of love. The protagonists of this love story are Ben and George, a gay couple from New York – played by a perfectly cast John Lithgow and Alfred Molina – who have finally tied the knot after a 39-year relationship. But what marks the start of something wonderful also heralds the loss of their stunning apartment, and a period of enforced separation as they look for somewhere new. What unfolds is a contemplative, at times heartbreaking, investigation into love's later years that is refreshingly normal (and thereby unusual) in the subjects it tackles. To coincide with the film's release, we catch up with British film veteren Molina to discuss all things love, from his portrayal of Diego Rivera alongside Salma Hayek's Frida Kahlo to faking love onscreen.
On his favourite onscreen relationship roles...
"Playing Diego Rivera to Salma Hayek's Frida was a very satisfying gig in so many ways, because Salma had spent so much time and invested so much hard work into getting this movie off the ground. She was incredibly loyal to what she wanted for the film, despite a lot of resilience. The people that she was going to to raise money to make the film were looking for bigger names, but she said, 'No, these are the people I want, these are the people I believe are going to tell the story.' So it was very satisfying and kind of fantastic – I just dived in and immersed myself in it, and it was one of my favourite roles. Another one is The Perez Family, with Marisa Tomei and Anjelica Huston, where I was dealing with a relationship with two women. I’ve had some lovely relationships on screen, and for a character actor that’s quite unusual – I’ve managed to squeeze a few lovers and a few husbands in amongst them."
"It's something universal because we all fall in love in the same way"
On the uniqueness of Love Is Strange...
"Usually you see these stories of young people finding themselves or finding each other, determining their place in the world, struggling with some crisis or other which is unique to them, but this is totally the other end of the spectrum, it's a couple dealing with something that could happen to anyone."
On the meaning of "love is strange"...
"When the movie opened in the States, a lot of journalists were asking Ira the significance of the title – was he trying to convey a point of view, or was he being ironic? And, like all smart directors, he never fully answered the question; he basically said, 'It’s up to you whatever you want it to mean.' But I always took it to mean strange in the old fashioned sense – something mystical and kind of inexplicable. I think it might be Twelfth Night, or one of Shakespeare’s plays, where someone describes love as being 'most strange, most wonderous strange' and that’s what I kind of took it as: not something odd or weird or something to worry about, but something magical like the way things are when you fall in love. Nothing makes sense but then everything makes sense. And it's something universal because we all fall in love in the same way."
On faking love on screen...
"The thing is, it’s acting; what we do is the absolute genus of artificiality, the absolute peak of artifice. So really, how you feel personally about the person you’re working with is almost irrelevant. If you're doing a love scene or an intense emotional scene with another actor, and you actually get along, it makes the job easier and more fun. But if you find yourself completely antipathetic to them, you still get the job done – it just makes it a bit more work. And John and I were very fortunate because we're old friends and we looked forward to going to work: we had a lot of laughs, we got on well, and I think that bled onto the screen.
On his favourite love story...
"I can't pin down one favourite, but I can tell you that I love stories that have a bittersweet element, love stories that don’t always work out as well as they could have done. The ones where there’s a certain amount of loss or failure or some sort of struggle are always the most satisfying, and the ones that emotionally hit you. I’m never to attracted to stories where everything goes very well, because I don’t think that’s very accurate or indeed, terribly interesting."
On the most romantic gesture he's ever made...
"The most romantic action I’ve ever taken? Well if I told you, I’d never be able to do it again, so I’m going to keep that one to myself if you don’t mind!"
