Fourth-time Oscar nominee Annette Bening is definitely all right

by Martin Knelman
Toronto Star
February 15, 2011

Actress Annette Bening at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts award ceremony in London last Sunday. LUKE MACGREGOR/REUTERS

'It's a great song, and I'm very grateful Joni allowed us to use it," says the familiar-looking woman in the patterned floral dress, simple black cardigan sweater and no-nonsense glasses.

Annette Bening is talking about Joni Mitchell's song "All I Want," which Nic - the tough, controlling physician she plays in The Kids Are All Right - sings, a cappella, during an unforgettable dinner-party scene.

Both the character and the actress let go of inhibitions to reveal something real and surprising.

Bening has said that she is more guarded in her public life than when the camera is rolling. And now, on a late January night just after receiving an extended onstage tribute at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, she finds herself in the spotlight without cameras rolling, mingling with some of her most privileged fans at a VIP supper.

The scene: the posh residence of the board chair of the Santa Barbara festival in the exclusive, star-studded enclave of Montecito, adjacent to Santa Barbara.

The time: late, after the Bening tribute.

At 52, Bening, recently won her second Golden Globe Award, and is now in the thick of the race with her fourth Oscar nomination - as best actress for her beautifully nuanced performance in Kids. Previous nominations were for The Grifters (1990), American Beauty (1999) and Being Julia (2004).

Holding court at the party just a few feet away is a man who deserves an off-screen award for best performance in a supporting role: Warren Beatty, formerly famous womanizer but now the model husband and father of her four children. At 72, the man known for Bonnie and Clyde, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Shampoo and Reds remains a Hollywood legend, despite the fact that he has not made a movie in more than 15 years. They have been together since 1992, when they co-starred in Bugsy.

For the sake of being around for her family, Bening limits the number of movies she makes, and keeps her acting skills sharp by doing theatre roles for limited runs near their home in Beverly Hills. Yet while most women her age have trouble landing good parts, Bening is at the peak of her career, and might well be considered the most accomplished American actress now working in Hollywood.

On stage for the tribute at Santa Barbara's Arlington Theatre, Bening made some strikingly insightful comments about how she does it.

This girl from Topeka, Kan., who grew up in San Francisco and studied acting at college, did a long apprenticeship in the theatre before breaking into movies at age 30. One of the most important things she learned along the way is the importance of wearing the right shoes. "Details on the outside affect how you feel on the inside," she explained.

When she started making movies, it was a big adjustment, because the process is very different from stage acting. "Really great movie directors usually don't say a lot. They expect you to bring something with you. With directors like Mike Nichols and Harrison Ford, I was naive enough to think they couldn't feel nervous the way I did. But that anxiety never goes away. You always have to cope with those demons."

In movies, she says, nothing matters except what happens when the camera is rolling.

"There are so many practical matters that have to be taken care of before they are ready to shoot the scene," says Bening, "and you as an actor have to keep your performance ready, like a pot simmering on the stove."

What she hopes for is a moment of surprise, something intuitive from the gut, that by definition can't be planned for.

Getting a follow-up interview after the big night in Santa Barbara I knew would be tricky, but a week later my phone rang and a familiar voice said: "It's Annette Bening. Is this a good time to talk?"

She was in a limo on the way to JFK airport on a gloomy, slushy day after making a quick visit to New York to appear on Charlie Rose, the intellectual talk-show prince's PBS program.

I asked her to tell me more about the Joni Mitchell song she warbles in the movie. Was she apprehensive about singing on screen?

"Well, it didn'thave to be fantastic, because I was playing a doctor, not a singer," she replied. "But I had to figure out how to make it work. I used to practise in my car, singing along with Joni. It certainly helps that it's a song I knew and loved. The whole scene is made special because of the song."

The song fits into the narrative, because her teenage daughter in the movie, played by Mia Wasikowska, is named Joni, after the Canadian folk icon whose career took off almost half a century ago in Yorkville coffee houses.

Slipping away from the table, Nic finds evidence that her same-sex partner, Jules (Julianne Moore), has been having an affair with their sperm donor and dinner host (Mark Ruffalo).

Such a definitive Bening illumination does not happen entirely by chance. She stays away from playing idealized women, preferring to portray someone who is flawed and stumbling through an unexpected crisis. And the movies she is drawn to are the quirky ones that are increasingly hard to finance.

I couldn't end the conversation without asking that trivial question, "What are you going to wear to the Oscars?"

"I don't know yet," she sighs. "People send sketches, and I just try to pick something that feels right for me."

Whatever the outfit, you can bet that on Feb. 27 at the Kodak Theatre, Annette Bening won't look like a mannequin. Being Annette, she will be wearing something that makes her feel like a human being who is comfortable in her own skin. And how she feels will start with her shoes.