Majestic hand of fate

by Louis B. Hobson
Calgary Sun

HOLLYWOOD — Laurie Holden is convinced destiny had a hand in her being cast in The Majestic.

This bittersweet drama is the story of Peter Appleton a hack Hollywood screenwriter who is mistaken for Luke Trimble a small town war hero.

Because Appleton is suffering selective amnesia, even he isn’t certain he’s not Luke.

Holden plays Adele Stanton, Luke’s girlfriend who just received her law degree.

The first time Adele meets Peter she takes him to a cliff where she and Luke had professed their love a decade earlier.

She tries to jar Peter’s memory recalling how they had come to these cliffs after seeing the movie The Life of Emile Zola which had inspired her to become a lawyer.

“That scene was a real kismet thing for me, very cosmic,” says Holden.

“My grandmother, Gloria Holden, played Emile Zola’s wife in The Life of Emile Zola.

"We had the poster from that (1931) movie frame in our home.”

Holden’s mother was an actress who gave up her career when she married.

After her husband died, she married Michael Anderson, the director of such films as The Dam Busters, Around the World in 80 Days, Logan’s Run and Shoes of the Fisherman.

“I was actually born in Los Angeles but, after my father’s death, my mom chose to raise me in Toronto.

“After my mom married Michael, we travelled all over the world with him to be on his film sets.

"We were in such exotic locales like Malta, England and France. I was such a lucky child.

“Michael never directed my mom but he did direct me in The Martian Chronicles with Rock Hudson.

“I was six years old at the time. I can still remember Rock Hudson. He was so very sweet, so very quiet and so very tall and handsome.”

Holden insists it was not her intention to become an actor though she dabble in theatre, film and TV during her summer vacations.

As a teenager, she won a Toronto John Casablancas Look of the Year modelling contest and modelled for her senior years at school.

She gave up her modelling career to attend McGill University in Montreal to pursue a degree in Economics.

“This is where kismet comes in again. I decided to transfer to UCLA to complete my economics degree, took some theatre arts courses and within months switched my major.”

Chalk a third one up for kismet when it came time for Darabont to cast The Majestic.

“Though Frank had auditioned dozens of established actresses for the role of Jim’s love interest, he decided to go with a fresh face that audiences hadn’t seen that much of in feature films.

“He decided the role of Adele would be his wild card, like Michael Clarke Duncan was for him in The Green Mile so he notified his casting agents to look for relative unknowns.”

At that time, Holden was starring in a workshop production of The Only Game in Town. Her director was Larry Moss who is Carrey’s acting coach.

“Larry told the casting agents to come to one of our performances and from there I got to read for Frank and Jim.

“It was a really gruelling process. Frank made the actresses who auditioned read every scene the character was in.

"I told Jim that being half Canadian we were kindred spirits. He said he felt a connection the moment we read.”

Holden says she was quite surprised working with Carrey.

“I’d seen all his zany comedies so I was expecting him to be a lot more slap happy than he turned out to be.

"He took this film and this role in The Majestic very seriously.

“He was so protective of me and we spent a great deal of time talking about our characters. It was like preparing for a play rather than a film.”

Holden is probably best known to TV viewers as Marita Covarubbias, the calculating UN spy would kept informing on David Duchovny’s Muldar on The X-Files.

“I was in 11 episodes. I killed The Cigarette Smoking Man so X-Files fans really know who I am. They can be real fanatics.

"I met several who know far more about those episodes than I will ever remember.

“They tell me why my character did or said certain things.”

Holden is proud of her dual citizenship which allowed her the opportunity to star in several Canadian TV series and films.

She was nominated for a Gemini Award for an episode of Due South.

“I feel a real connection to Canada.

"I have family in friends in Toronto so I get up there as often as possible and count myself fortunate each time I get a TV project or film that shoots in Canada and especially Toronto.”