EXCLUSIVE: Catching up with the cast of 'Elegy' at the Gotham Awards

Backstage at last Tuesday's Gotham Independent Film Awards in New York, I had an opportunity to speak with four actors of such significance to American film that it amazed me they were in the same room, let alone had appeared in the same movie: Sir Ben Kingsley, Penelope Cruz, Dennis Hopper and Patricia Clarkson.

The remarkable quartet first got together in Vancouver from April through June 2007 under the oversight of Spanish director Isabel Coixet to shoot the film "Elegy" (trailer), the best adaptation of a Philip Roth novel ("The Dying Animal") in years. As you can hear in this video, they had a wonderful experience doing so.

They were together again to chat about "Elegy" for this interview, over a year later, because Kingsley had just presented Cruz with the Gotham Tribute Award, and Hopper and Clarkson had presented awards earlier in the evening. (Cruz and Clarkson were also celebrated for their work in "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," which shared the best ensemble performance award with "Synecdoche, New York.")

The film premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival this February, played at the Istanbul Film Festival in April, and then made its stateside debut at the Tribeca Film Festival later that same month before being phased in and out of release from August through November. It never played on more than 142 screens, and made only $3.57 million at the box-office.

Despite its commercial troubles, critics were virtually unanimous in celebrating its extraordinary performances (if also noting that the film overall is not the sum of its parts). Despite a 30-year age gap between them, Kingsley and Cruz are extraordinary together as an unlikely couple dealing with personal problems of very different natures. Hopper and Clarkson, meanwhile, burn up the screen during brief but memorable scenes spread throughout the film.

As far as awards go, distributor Samuel Goldwyn Films and PR firm 42 West have been making a valiant push for all four performances. The actor and supporting actress categories are probably too crowded with performances in more recent and higher-profile films for Kingsley or Clarkson to get in, but Cruz is a sleeper contender for best actress (she's already a lock for a supporting actress nod for "Vicky Cristina Barcelona") and Hopper is a long-shot possibility in the wide-open supporting actor field.

Comments

[Antonio]

Isabel Coixet is spanish, not french.

[Scott Feinberg]

Thanks, Antonio--that has been corrected.