The Smokin' Pen at Wolf 359 - Alexandra Vandernoot, Part 2
Paul Edmonds
She’s never lied to get a role, although she doesn’t see what lies she’d
have to tell short of claiming to be able to fly a plane. She prefers Paris
to Bruxelles, feeling that the latter is quite small and bourgeois. Her
father was a classical conductor and her mother a dancer and they didn't
discourage her from becoming an actress. She said she wouldn't discourage
her son either, but would warn him that it is a hard profession and that he
would have to like it a lot. Alexandra’s husband is a TV director and she
told us he has nothing in common with Duncan MacLeod, (who seemed to come of
better in the comparison). Although she is Belgian herself, she has
forgotten most of the Flemish she once knew.
She said that a role she would like to play would be of a real historical
character, an explorer, (whose name eluded me, I’m afraid) or perhaps Marie
Antoinette. When she has a new role, she finds the character through the
clothes. She’ll discuss the part with the director, then picture the look
and find a wardrobe. She says she has a large collection of old shoes which
she uses to help her find the character's walk. The hopped earrings Tessa
wore through the first season were waiting for her in Vancouver, but she
didn't keep them.
Asked what she would have done if she hadn’t been an actress, she said that
she couldn’t imagine herself with another career or anything else giving her
so much pleasure. It was what she really wanted to do when she was 18.
On working with Adrian, she said that Highlander had been the first time for
each of them that they were in lead roles. She had wished Adrian good luck
before the first scene shot, which was the break-in scene. She said Adrian
hadn’t changed and it was like seeing an old friend every time she came
back. Mountain Men was great fun to shoot, although as they were based in
the city, she hadn’t liked getting up at 4 in the morning. Marc Singer had
made a great villain and was fine with her. She said she would have liked
more episodes like that. Asked if she would like be Adrian’s leading lady
if he was playing 007, she said she felt she was too old to be a Bond girl,
but why not? She told us that Adrian admires Sean Connery, who is one of
his role models and that she had got off to a good start with Adrian when
she told him he looks like the young Connery.
She says when there is downtime on the set, she gets bored and reads
magazines or phones her friends. She cannot concentrate on other things
when she’s in that situation.
Asked about her most difficult scene, she said she couldn’t remember any, as
the script, the lines and the character were all good. She said if you were
confident in all that, then nothing was difficult. So people reminded her
of some scenes.
In Band Of Brothers, the confrontation between Tessa and Grayson takes place
around a glass cabinet in the antiques store. She said that it was the
French director’s idea and was not how she would have done it. It had
seemed odd at the time, but she said it worked when you saw the finished
scene. That’s where a director pulls out a performance from the actors.
Reminded of the scene on the barge where Cahill attacks her in Avenging
Angel, she said that the difficult things were forgotten as soon as she’d
done them, and she only remembered the good things now. Told that Adrian
said the love scenes were hard, she cried “He said that?” and said it was a
good thing he’d gone!
Asked if she would have liked to play a female Immortal, she said she would
have enjoyed the period costume and different levels of character and she
felt that she’d missed out on that with Tessa. Asked about swords, she says
she hates sport and that she was supposed to have a fight with Joan Jett on
the beach before Duncan arrived in Free Fall, but they were running late and
the scene was never filmed. She agreed that it was something that we had
never seen if Duncan ever taught Tessa any self-defence techniques. She had
never thought of it and assumed that Duncan trusted Tessa enough to get
herself out of trouble.
Of her return appearances in Counterfeit and Not To Be, she said that she
was approached by Davis/Panzer before the script was written, with a
synopsis, then when she agreed, the script was written. She said that the
stories had to develop, as after a few years they needed to find new ideas
and new dimensions. A lot of development came from Adrian and directors
like Dennis Berry. She said that, in the beginning, everything was approved
by an office full of writers and producers, but things take on a life of
their own. Her driver in Vancouver, a woman called Elaine, had been upset
to see her leave and had suggested the idea of an evil twin to Alexandra.
Later, she was driving the producer and floated the idea to him, which grew
into Lisa Milon. She said that the writers were always looking for great
ideas. Of Lisa Milon, she said she had to break away from Tessa and Lisa
became everything that she hadn’t been allowed to be with Tessa.
Of her work in the film “Sabotage”, she said that all of her scenes were
with David Suchet and she had only had a few scenes with Stephen Fry. David
Suchet has a great range and she described him as a nice, gentle man. She
had known of Suchet as a theatre actor and was very impressed with him as a
film actor. Her first acting job had been in a play by a French writer,
staged in Bruxelles, about King Arthur and Percival, which had lasted for
four months.
She said that filming The Darkness had been odd. Filming got to midnight on
the Friday and she was leaving for Paris in the morning and the had to
finish, as the last scene to be shot was the death scene. Of her screen
husband in Not To Be, she felt it never occurred to him that Tessa would be
unfaithful, as he wouldn’t have had a clue.
At this point, Peter Hudson joined Alexandra and made a point to thank her
for the welcome she had given him in Vancouver during the filming of The
Watchers. Yes, she said, we couldn’t get rid of him! Asked if they would
like to work together, Peter said “yes”, at which Alexandra rounded on him
and pointed out that he had staged a play and made a film and he hadn’t
hired her! In his defence, he pointed out that she does a lot of work
outside France.
She said that, as actors, conventions were hard as there was a danger that
they would disappoint the fans after the preconceptions of what they saw on
screen. Peter said it was nice to meet the fans one-to-one. Alexandra said
that you never knew who saw the show and letters could take four to five
months to reach her. Alexandra said that, at Anaheim, she had been asked
for a code name at check-in, but had refused, as her husband and friends
wouldn’t be able to contact her. Despite this, no one had bothered her.
She regretted being escorted through the service corridors, as she never got
to see the hotel where the con was staged or to meet the fans and talk.
Asked about the Cruises, she said she had never been invited, but she gets
seasick.
Asked if she felt love scenes with all the different girls was hard for
Adrian, she said that there had been quite some tension on the set of Not To
Be, as the crew didn't know her and one of the make-up girls had asked her
if she was comfortable. She had to tell the girl she’d had more love scenes
with Adrian than most!
She had been surprised by the security at Anaheim and felt that Wolf 359 was
a much warmer atmosphere. She said she was in awe of actors like DeNiro and
Al Pacino and said she had once bumped, literally, into Robert DeNiro in a
Paris night-club, but that he had vanished before she could tell her
friends.
Asked what they feel for Highlander now, Peter Hudson said he had great
affection for the show and that he had met people he continued to see.
Alexandra said that, for her, Highlander brought nice memories of good times
and fun.
And that is all we wrote......
Paul Edmonds
http://www.pedmonds.force9.co.uk/highlander.html
"Wide angle watcher on life's ancient tales"
Shomeret
atmosphere among the cast,crew and staff of HL: TS, but a driver being able to
suggest an idea for the series to a producer and have it taken seriously is
amazing! Velia, can you confirm this?
Shomeret
Velia Tanner and Friends
>suggest an idea for the series to a producer and have it taken seriously is
>amazing! Velia, can you confirm this?
Well, I do know of more than one episode idea that was suggested by an actor --
including the Day Player who played Tessa's killer suggesting the "Leader of
the Pack" scenario. In general, the HL Producers were more open to suggestions
-- from anyone! -- than many I have known.
It was my impression that the Counterfeit idea originated with David
Abramowitz; I'd never heard this story about the driver before. But that
doesn't preclude the possibility of it being true; or maybe it was just one of
those coincidences. Can't say for sure.
V.