“I never doubted that I would be an actor,” she explains. “I had a very single-minded desire from a young age. When I was studying in San Francisco I joined a repertory company, which I feel so fortunate about because I’m not sure there are many real rep companies left in this country. I wanted to be a classical actress, on stage, and I never really thought about acting in movies as a little girl. I was around 30 when I got my first film.”
With three Oscar nominations now to her credit, as well as marriage to one of Hollywood’s most powerful men, she quickly made up for lost time. After that debut in The Great Outdoors, a rather pallid Dan Aykroyd comedy, her sinister Marquise de Merteuil in Milos Forman’s Valmont caught the eye of Stephen Frears, who had auditioned Bening for his own version of that story, the star-studded Dangerous Liaisons. In 1990 Frears cast Bening alongside John Cusack and Anjelica Huston in his adaptation of Jim Thompson’s noir The Grifters. The role, as a gritty young hustler who used her body as a professional tool, required the naturally modest Bening to shed her clothes, and while it was the nude scenes that attracted the publicity, it was her blistering performance that earned Hollywood’s respect. Her first Oscar nomination, as Best Supporting Actress, cemented her position as an intelligent actress with vast potential.
“I remember when we were filming those nude scenes, they were so terribly protective of me,” she smiles. “The first assistant director was this huge guy and he was always blocking things off so that no one could see, although the irony, of course, was that millions of people would see it. I have a certain modesty about me and that wasn’t something I’d done before — I’d never done it on stage. After the first two takes someone would run up with a robe, but after a while it was like, ‘What’s the point?’ Actually, the nudity was very liberating — everybody should give it a try.”
With her clothes back on, Bening soon widened her range, displaying a natural intuition when searching for good writing. She played nurturing wives in Guilty By Suspicion and Regarding Henry before taking a more sensual part opposite Warren Beatty in 1991’s Bugsy. It was while making that film that Bening shocked Hollywood by winning the heart of its biggest playboy. “I don’t recall who made the first move,” she smiles. “I think it was pretty mutual. It’s funny, because I didn’t have a strong feeling about Warren beforehand. I was in my early twenties when I saw Reds and I loved that film, but I didn’t have a strong feeling about him. I thought he was handsome and was a great film-maker, but that was as far as it went.”
The two were married in 1992 and now have four children, Kathlyn (born in 1992), Benjamin (1994), Isabel (1997) and Ella Corinne (2000). “People always talked about me ‘taming’ Warren, and after 15 years I can chuckle about it, but I think that the very idea sounds horrible. I don’t think I’d ever want to do that to a man and I don’t consider myself having done that. We had children pretty quickly — I’ve always wanted kids.”
Since becoming a mother, Bening has worked less frequently, devoting her time to her family and husband, the two sharing a keen interest in politics. Putting her family first meant a number of professional sacrifices, such as relinquishing the coveted role of Catwoman in Batman Returns because of her first pregnancy and declining Barry Levinson’s Disclosure because of her second. Still, she has continued to identify fine writing and has turned in a string of startling performances, two of her most recent, American Beauty (1999) and Being Julia (2004), garnering her Oscar nominations for Best Actress. Both times she lost out to Hilary Swank.
“I thought Hilary was a worthy winner on both occasions,” says Bening modestly. “You have to retain a sense of humour in this job and I just hope I can keep on working with the same level of enthusiasm, even as I get older. And as you get older the life experience required for the roles means you get really interesting choices, and I’ve always tended to take parts that draw me into areas where I’m uncertain and I’m scared, where I’m on shaky ground.”
Nowhere is this more apparent than in her latest movie, an adaptation of Augusten Burroughs’s bestselling memoir Running With Scissors, directed by the Nip/Tuck creator Ryan Murphy. Bening plays Burroughs’s mother, Deirdre, whose severe manic depression slips into a fervid psychosis. For a woman who said recently that her biggest fear was losing her mind, this was indeed a bold move.
“Playing a role like this can be a real trap because it can be too much fun to play,” she explains. “Clearly this is a woman who is entertaining, especially at the beginning before she becomes ill. She’s a very seductive, colourful and dramatic personality, but when you look at that illness in real life there’s nothing funny about it. I felt tremendous responsibility — it’s so destructive to the person who’s ill and those around them.”
Deirdre Burroughs’s illness des- troyed her family. She and her husband divorced and she gave up her 13-year-old son, Augusten, for adoption by her own disturbed psychiatrist, permitting her boy to be raised in the pungent squalor of a crumbling Victorian house where there was neither schooling nor rules. When the memoir was first published in 2002, this newspaper termed it “Adrian Mole scripted by Hieronymous Bosch”. Given that it is the subtlety of Burroughs’s phraseology that mines such poignant wit from his peculiar plight, Running With Scissors is a book that is difficult to render on film.
“The film has a similar tone but a different sensibility from the book,” continues Bening. “My sense is that the director wanted to find more sympathy for Deirdre and he was interested in dramatising what happened to this woman and what was behind what she did, and that was my job. And once you see this picture you realise that you had an incredibly normal childhood, relatively speaking.”
Bening herself was raised in Kansas, the youngest of four siblings. Her father was a life insurance salesman who became a manager, and her mother a housewife. “My mother was very productive for a spell,” she laughs. “She had four of us in five years. I think I was a bit of a surprise there: my brother and I were born in the same year and we’re not even twins.”
When she was 7, Bening’s family moved to San Diego, California, and it was there that she faced up to her childhood shyness and embraced drama, revelling in each production that her school put on.
“I’ve learnt a lot in my career and continue to learn,” she says. “I heard someone say recently that acting is not about putting a mask on, it’s about taking a mask off, and that’s very true. Great film acting lets something be exposed. When I saw Running With Scissors, I felt very exposed.”
As she talks, a fidgety publicist enters the room and taps his watch, signaling the end of our meeting. Hands are shaken and thank yous exchanged. “Oh, don’t forget your water,” beams Bening, switching effortlessly from great actress to great homemaker. “After all, it’s been through a lot today.”
Running With Scissors opens on February 2THE GRIFTERS (1990, right)
THE BEST OF BENING
THE GRIFTERS (1990)
An exhilarating performance based on Gloria Grahame’s in Fritz Lang’s seminal film noir The Big Heat.
THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT (1995)
A fine comedic turn as a lobbyist pursued by Michael Douglas’s American President.
RICHARD III (1995)
Her Queen Elizabeth is one of many staggering performances in Sir Ian McKellen’s thrilling Shakespeare adaptation.
AMERICAN BEAUTY (1999)
Her highest-profile role yet, playing Kevin Spacey’s unhappy wife and murderer in Sam Mendes’s masterpiece.
BEING JULIA (2004)
A truly subtle and nuanced performance as a stage diva caught up in a romance with a young social climber.
