Full Article Text
NYP TV WEEK
."REALLY BIG SHOW
If l1li
Small town helps teen
By MICHAEL GILTZ
HALLMARK Hall of Fame follows up
its critically acclaimed drama "The
J31ackwater Lightship" with an
other quiet gem.
"Plainsong" stars Aidan Quinn as Tom
Guthrie, a school teacher in Colorado
who is dealing with a clinically depressed
wife who leaves him to raise their two
young sons. Based on the bestselling
novel by Kent Haruf, the film, airing this
Sunday night on CBS, revolves around a
host of small-town inhabitants who are
brought together by a homeless pregnant
teenager.
Many of the characters lead lives of
quiet desperation. Tom, for one, keeps a
stable home for the boys while dealing
with an abusive student and -just as his
marriage dissolves -the unexpected at
tentions of no-nonsense fellow teacher
Maggie Jones, played the versatile Rachel
Griffiths, the mercurial Brenda of HBO's
"Six Feet Under."
"Tom's a wounded soul," says Quinn,
"he's a lonely, exasperated, good-hearted
schmuck who needs to learn to enjoy
himself and -as the stewardess says -
take the oxygen mask and put it on him
self first before he tries to take care of
anyone else."
Quinn was also interested in playing
Tom because of where he was from.
"Rural people are so unrepresented in the
media," says the 45-year-old actor. "It's
nice to 'get that kind of story out."
For 'America Ferrera, who plays Victo
ria Roubideaux, a pregnant teenager for
whom Maggie fmds a place to live after
r 1\ the girl's mother kicks her out, doing
"Plainsong" is a chance to prove her ac
claimed debut in 2002's "Real Women
Have Curves" wasn't a fluke.
That challenge came in the scene where
Victoria gives birth. "] wanted to make
that as real as possible and ] spent the
most time trying to make that authentic,"
says Ferrera, who turned 20 on April 18.
"] watched a lot of birthing videos, which
were painful to watch." The preparation
was sobering in more personal ways. "]
told my mom she never has to worry
about me getting pregnant," says Ferrera.
Having a family is the furthest thing
from Ferrera's mind these days. She's
pursuing a degree in international rela
tions at USC in Los Angeles and filming
an upcoming Warner Bros. project based
on the best-selling young adult novel
"The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants."
Both Quinn and Ferrera took time to
praise the chameleon-like Griffiths. Fer
rera found her ability to perform from in
stinct inspiring and Quinn admired her
ease with the camera.
"She has a facility of turning on when
the camera's on and sashaying with a
charisma that is hard to describe but is
instantaneous," says Q!.Iinn. "When you
have a lot of experience on television and
shoot six or seven pages a day, you get
very familiar with the language of the
camera. ] find some really good actors
that work in television series are very
good at combining the technical aspects
with the other stuff."
With "Plainsong," Quinn adds another
prestigious film to his impressive list of
TV credits. He first impressed audiences with his sensitive portrayal of a gay man
who is diagnosed with AIDS in the pio
neering 1985 TV movie "An Early Frost"
with Gena Rowlands and Ben Gazzara.
Last year, he played notorious traitor
Benedict Arnold in a TV biopic. On film,
Quinn's subtle acting style was seen to
great effect in 1994's "Legends of the Fall"
with Brad Pitt. Even after a 20-year ca
reer, Quinn insists he has lots to learn.
''You're always confronting things that
are scary and fmding the courage to make
a fool of yourself in front of a hundred
people. That's what ] do for a living," he
says. "And for someone that has a lot of
pride and a lot of dignity -or thinks that
they do -it's very hard to be a blubber
ing fool in front of a hundred working
class people. But that's my job."
Quinn, who spends much of his time in
upstate New York with his wife and two
daughters, has a sudden rush of high pro
file projects coming up, including HBO's
"Empire Falls" with Paul Newman and
Joanne Woodwar, and the feature film
"Cavedweller," director Lisa Choloden
ko's followup to "Laurel Canyon."
"Before 1 did 'Plainsong,' 1 hadn't done a
film in eight months," says Quinn. "Then
] did six in a year, so it's just crazy. 1 had
been doing theater, so ] wasn't just sitting
around. I'm not one of the top five of ac
tors in America who can pick and choose
from the creme de la creme of work. Not
to be cynical, but I'm somewhere on the
continuum of what Robert Mitchum said,
'I take the thing that's least embarrassing
that I'm offered.'"
Plainsong
Sunday, 9 p.m~ CBS
."REALLY BIG SHOW
If l1li
Small town helps teen
By MICHAEL GILTZ
HALLMARK Hall of Fame follows up
its critically acclaimed drama "The
J31ackwater Lightship" with an
other quiet gem.
"Plainsong" stars Aidan Quinn as Tom
Guthrie, a school teacher in Colorado
who is dealing with a clinically depressed
wife who leaves him to raise their two
young sons. Based on the bestselling
novel by Kent Haruf, the film, airing this
Sunday night on CBS, revolves around a
host of small-town inhabitants who are
brought together by a homeless pregnant
teenager.
Many of the characters lead lives of
quiet desperation. Tom, for one, keeps a
stable home for the boys while dealing
with an abusive student and -just as his
marriage dissolves -the unexpected at
tentions of no-nonsense fellow teacher
Maggie Jones, played the versatile Rachel
Griffiths, the mercurial Brenda of HBO's
"Six Feet Under."
"Tom's a wounded soul," says Quinn,
"he's a lonely, exasperated, good-hearted
schmuck who needs to learn to enjoy
himself and -as the stewardess says -
take the oxygen mask and put it on him
self first before he tries to take care of
anyone else."
Quinn was also interested in playing
Tom because of where he was from.
"Rural people are so unrepresented in the
media," says the 45-year-old actor. "It's
nice to 'get that kind of story out."
For 'America Ferrera, who plays Victo
ria Roubideaux, a pregnant teenager for
whom Maggie fmds a place to live after
r 1\ the girl's mother kicks her out, doing
"Plainsong" is a chance to prove her ac
claimed debut in 2002's "Real Women
Have Curves" wasn't a fluke.
That challenge came in the scene where
Victoria gives birth. "] wanted to make
that as real as possible and ] spent the
most time trying to make that authentic,"
says Ferrera, who turned 20 on April 18.
"] watched a lot of birthing videos, which
were painful to watch." The preparation
was sobering in more personal ways. "]
told my mom she never has to worry
about me getting pregnant," says Ferrera.
Having a family is the furthest thing
from Ferrera's mind these days. She's
pursuing a degree in international rela
tions at USC in Los Angeles and filming
an upcoming Warner Bros. project based
on the best-selling young adult novel
"The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants."
Both Quinn and Ferrera took time to
praise the chameleon-like Griffiths. Fer
rera found her ability to perform from in
stinct inspiring and Quinn admired her
ease with the camera.
"She has a facility of turning on when
the camera's on and sashaying with a
charisma that is hard to describe but is
instantaneous," says Q!.Iinn. "When you
have a lot of experience on television and
shoot six or seven pages a day, you get
very familiar with the language of the
camera. ] find some really good actors
that work in television series are very
good at combining the technical aspects
with the other stuff."
With "Plainsong," Quinn adds another
prestigious film to his impressive list of
TV credits. He first impressed audiences with his sensitive portrayal of a gay man
who is diagnosed with AIDS in the pio
neering 1985 TV movie "An Early Frost"
with Gena Rowlands and Ben Gazzara.
Last year, he played notorious traitor
Benedict Arnold in a TV biopic. On film,
Quinn's subtle acting style was seen to
great effect in 1994's "Legends of the Fall"
with Brad Pitt. Even after a 20-year ca
reer, Quinn insists he has lots to learn.
''You're always confronting things that
are scary and fmding the courage to make
a fool of yourself in front of a hundred
people. That's what ] do for a living," he
says. "And for someone that has a lot of
pride and a lot of dignity -or thinks that
they do -it's very hard to be a blubber
ing fool in front of a hundred working
class people. But that's my job."
Quinn, who spends much of his time in
upstate New York with his wife and two
daughters, has a sudden rush of high pro
file projects coming up, including HBO's
"Empire Falls" with Paul Newman and
Joanne Woodwar, and the feature film
"Cavedweller," director Lisa Choloden
ko's followup to "Laurel Canyon."
"Before 1 did 'Plainsong,' 1 hadn't done a
film in eight months," says Quinn. "Then
] did six in a year, so it's just crazy. 1 had
been doing theater, so ] wasn't just sitting
around. I'm not one of the top five of ac
tors in America who can pick and choose
from the creme de la creme of work. Not
to be cynical, but I'm somewhere on the
continuum of what Robert Mitchum said,
'I take the thing that's least embarrassing
that I'm offered.'"
Plainsong
Sunday, 9 p.m~ CBS