| | 
|  |
| |  | | 
| | | (click for larger version) | |
December 16, 2008
ROSWELL – Moviegoers looking for a new flick on Christmas day can't go wrong checking out Brad Pitt's new film, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons," but local residents will have another reason. Roswell actress Edith Ivey will be appearing in it as well in the role of Mrs. Maples.
The $167 million Paramount blockbuster has already gotten a lot of Oscar buzz for stars Pitt and Cate Blanchett and director David Fincher. But Ivey, like 99 percent of all actors, is happy just to be working.
She is normally what they call in the trade a "character actor." Character actors aren't necessarily "names," but their abilities and craft often elevate the story as much as those of the stars.
"Benjamin Buttons," an F. Scott Fitzgerald story, is a strange tale about a child who is born old and grows progressively younger each year. Cate Blanchett is the love interest who comes back into his life periodically as they both grow closer in age, then achingly farther apart.
"As Mrs. Maples, I play Brad Pitt's first teacher. I teach him to play the piano, interest him in good books and, finally, I introduce him to death," Ivey said playfully.
Though she plays Pitt's teacher, none of her 10 scenes are with Pitt himself. Since the character is a childlike old man at that point in the film, she is working with a double, a man she described as a delightful little gentlemen.
"This is the first all-digital movie by Paramount. So what they did was have 10 different heads with makeup at various ages. I don't know how they do it, but when they get on film, you cannot tell it is a mask," Ivey said.
For Ivey, it was a three-week shoot with all but the last three days in New Orleans. Then it was off to L.A. to shoot her death scene.
So how does a working actress in Roswell get the call to be in a blockbuster movie?
"Well, first you need a good agent, and I have one. And I was lucky. I got the call to go to New Orleans [where much of the movie is shot], and for a month I heard nothing. Then I was asked to fly back out and meet the director. The next day they told me I was Mrs. Maples."
In these days of the Internet and location shooting, you don't need to live in Hollywood to stay in the movie business.
"It is interesting that actors in America today can live anywhere. But you do have to go to them to audition. So off I go. You have to keep stirring the pot, you see," she said.
So while she has been in television, stage and movies since she began her career in the 1950s, Ivey has never been busier than she has these last 10 years. She has been in 15 movies and eight Equity stage shows.
"I've been lucky. We character actors are all professionals, we can all do this. But right now I'm getting more work than my friends in Los Angeles. I wouldn't get a face lift. This is my work," she said, putting her fingers to her face.
Locally, she and three fellow actors have been appearing in a special "storyteller" version of Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," at churches in Roswell.
"It is the version Dickens would read when he went on tour. We have to keep the arts alive locally."
 View images.
|
