Rachael Stirling Online

Casino Royale

Posted by Bonnie at 10.24am

Well… as Ana suggested, the new James Bond film was in fact the film I was talking about, so well done, Ana! This is all I was told about the role:

"NOW — she's up for the next Bond movie — let's ALL get involved and get her this job!"

I have no reason to doubt the identity of the person who sent me the message (in fact, I have every reason to believe it, having researched it a fair bit)! I have contacted him and am hoping for a response sooner or later. Unfortunately he didn't specify the role she was going for so we'll have to use our imaginations on that one, but I see a few of you have come up with some suggestions already!

Oh, and also, there has been a confirmed UK release date for The Truth: January 27th, 2006!

14 Comments

Secrets

Posted by Bonnie at 1.34pm

I should probably point out that the possibility of a role in Wonder Woman was not the potentially exciting news I mentioned a few updates back! I haven't heard anything about that, other than the rumours circulating here, and I'm not sure how I feel about it. It does seem like an odd role for Rachael!

Although the potentially exciting news is somewhere along the same lines and involves a part Rachael is apparently "trying for" in an upcoming film. I received a message from someone I am 99% sure is her US manager, you see, and he informed me that she is currently trying for a part in an upcoming film. He also thanked me for the site and said how valuable it is for Rachael to have a resource like this, which was a nice thing to read.

The trouble is, I'm not sure if I'm supposed to mention this potential new role yet or not… or even if it's legitimate. Like I said, I'm pretty sure the guy who emailed me is her real US manager but I have no idea whether the part has already been taken by someone else. I checked the IMDb listing for the film and only two of the characters have been officially listed at this stage, so it's entirely possible.

I know… let's play a game. The first person to guess the film gets a prize! (Erm, okay, maybe you don't get a prize, but you get to feel proud of yourself for being so clever.) Let's all cross our fingers and hope she gets the part, anyway!

PS — Thank you to those of you who have sent lovely emails to me over the past few days. I will hopefully get around to replying to you all shortly.

10 Comments

The Truth

Posted by Bonnie at 12.00am

Stranding eight characters in an isolated country house, this film combines a murder mystery parody with a dry satire of politically correct self-help culture. The result is an extremely odd concoction — sinister and hilariously pointed.

Donna (McGovern) is a Californian who runs Adventures In Truth weeks in Serenity Lodge on a moor somewhere in Britain. The wheelchair-bound Candy (Cassidy) doesn't want to be there, and within minutes is fed up with the other students: womanising Felix (Lord), pompous Martha (Stirling), creepy Blossom (Telford), self-help addict Spud (Theobald) and needy Scott (Beck). And then there's Donna's Bosnian assistant (Mornar), who's taking the course but still has to cook and clean. After some confessional therapy, one of them turns up dead. Is it a crime or a cry for help?

The laceratingly funny script is played dead straight. Virtually every scene is loaded with jabs at self-indulgence, blind faith and everyday falseness. Most astutely, the script digs into those cathartic confessions we often feel help us get on with life, when they're actually just lies we tell ourselves. As these people band together and gang up on anyone who disagrees, the film makes some razor-sharp observations on human nature.

But it's so bone dry that it's hard to engage with. The outrageous exchanges ("I was a dot.com millionaire and they can't take that away from me." "But, they did.") are played with straight faces. This keeps us outside, but lets the actors create authentic people out of absurdly stock characters. And since it's not played for laughs, it feels almost like a fly-on-the-wall doc. Think The Office spiced up with murder and menace. Cassidy is especially good in the central role; we follow the week through her repulsed, fascinated, terrified eyes.

Director-cowriter Milton shoots and edits with skill, although he struggles to maintain the balance between the satire, the whodunit and an increasingly Hitchcockian thriller. The cycles of cruelty and humiliation are fairly gruesome, and the "share your truth" mumbo jumbo becomes a bit grating as the film drags on far too long. But it's gripping and hilariously unhinged if you're in the right mood.

No Comments

Lots of updates

Posted by Bonnie at 4.10pm

I have just spent the best part of the afternoon updating the site. There is a bit of news, some new photos, and also several articles that have been added today. I'll explain exactly what they are in a minute.

First of all, though, I'd like to expand on my post from yesterday. I was very sleepy when I wrote it and didn't really feel like going into any sort of detail, but I'm a bit more alert today. Basically, we travelled down to Bristol on Friday and everything kept going wrong. Just little things, for the most part, but when you put them all together, it adds up to quite a lot of bad stuff. The worst thing, by far, was the fact that Rachael was "indisposed" (I'm still not sure exactly how to interpret that) and we didn't get to see her in Tamburlaine.

We arrived at the theatre about half an hour before the play was due to start, and took a few photos of the outside. We then went in to buy a programme and look at the cast photos which were lining the walls. It was then that we were given the little slip stating that Rachael would not be appearing in that performance. I almost started to cry, then went outside and actually did cry. Claire went to the desk and asked if Rachael would be in the evening performance, and at first the receptionist said she would be, but then another receptionist came along and said that she would be away for the whole day; just for that one day. There are no performances on Sundays and our train back to Hull was on Monday (midday) so there was no chance of seeing her. The receptionist thought we were friends of Rachael and then later said that she might be popping in later if we wanted to speak to her, so I'm not sure they really understood! In any case, they said she had been "called away" which worried me a bit, and I wondered whether her mum was ill.

We couldn't face seeing the play after that, so I decided I wanted to leave our tickets outside the theatre, stuck inside the poster board. We wrote "free tickets" on the piece of card holding them, and hoped that someone else would find them and be able to use them. Later that day, back at the hotel room, we got a call from the theatre to tell us that they'd found our tickets. They asked, very kindly, if we'd like to change to another date, but we said we wouldn't be able to attend on any other day. Still, it was a nice gesture.

So our weekend away was, on the whole, pretty pointless. We spent a lot of money and a lot of time, but nothing seemed to go right. I would've been disappointed had it been a London performance, but the fact that Bristol is awkward for us to get to and not the sort of place we'd usually visit, it seems a lot more upsetting. Oh well.

Anyway. Updates!

I have added three new articles to the site. One is a review of Tamburlaine from The Independent; one is an interview with Rachael from The Independent on Sunday; and the other is an article Rachael wrote for Elle magazine back in 2002. I would like to thank Thel and Maria for providing me with the latter — it's great.

Several photos have also been added to the site. First of all, there are some larger versions of the photos from fantastic shoot a few months ago. Again, thank you so much to Thel for sending these to Maria, and to Maria for scanning them and sending them to me. They really are lovely. I have uploaded them into the gallery (replacing the old, smaller images with the new ones). The other new photos I've added are from the Tamburlaine programme we bought on Saturday. There is a large version of the main promotional image of Greg Hicks with Rachael (although it is flipped) and three other rehearsal photos.

Finally, there is news of a new television series, in which Rachael will have a small part. She will be appearing in the first installment of the BBC series Hotel Babylon, starring Tamzin Outhwaite and Max Beesley. All I know about her role is that she will play the manager of an unruly rock band! The series is about the lives of the staff and guests at a five-star London hotel, and it will probably air some time in 2006. I have added a small amount of information about it to the site.

I think that's all for now. Again, thank you to Thel for the images and article, and to Maria for scanning them. It is much appreciated.

3 Comments

Tamburlaine

Posted by Bonnie at 12.00am

Antony Sher swung upside down on a rope in a memorable revival in the early Nineties for the RSC. Now Greg Hicks takes on the role of the Scythian shepherd who becomes "the scourge of God" and an all-conquering warrior/maniac. The play is part of the Barbican's "Young Genius" season (it moves to London after its Bristol run) because Christopher Marlowe wrote it in his early twenties, though how young that was considered in Elizabethan times is a moot point.

It's an evening of mighty verse, glittering imagery and compulsive violence. The two-part play (the sequel is shoehorned into a single three-hour show) sees Tamburlaine hack his way through ancient Persia, Turkey and Egypt.

The evening's trump card is Hicks, exuding Olympian disdain, a sardonic touch and a Bond villain's obsession with global domination. As the atrocities pile up like a pyramid of skulls, Tamburlaine's barbarity has a certain razzle-dazzle about it. Whether using a captive king as a foot stool or having civilians drowned en masse, no one can accuse him of a lack of style.

There's not a lot of fun for his captives. King Bajazeth (the superb Jeffery Kissoon) beats his own brains out rather than suffer the indignities of his cage. And Tamburlaine is quite prepared to kill one of his own sons — "an effeminate brat" — with the same contempt he reserves for his foes.

Zenocrate (played by a dignified Rachael Stirling) provides a note of romance and some rare diplomacy. The grieving Tamburlaine, at her wasting death scene, conjures up an echo of his own eventual demise.

Tamburlaine calls, as he dies, for a world map to see how much territory "the great Tartaric thief" has pinched. King Lear wanted to give all his away. Tamburlaine, mortally ill, has still got places to go.

The mixed-race cast and ethnic string music seem appropriate considering the global nature of the military project. The staging isn't inspirational; but with the bombast and savagery intact, it makes the point that war crimes and the cult of personality are nothing new.

It is above all a rare treat to be exposed to Marlowe, Shakespeare's equal, in full flight. Hicks, with his vinegary voice and sinuous presence, certainly leaves the play's soaring poetry and bloodthirsty blasphemies ringing in the ears.

No Comments