January 22, 2009
Saffron Burrows has admitted she was planning to leave America – until Obama’s ascent changed her mind.
The glamorous English actress lives in the US and spoke highly of the new President at the Sundance Film Festival, where she is promoting her latest film Shrink. At the premiere, she said: "I was on the verge of leaving and then Obama turned up. "So everything looks like, you know, America’s a hopeful place all over again." She said there was "more work" in the States than in the UK, laughing: "It’s a bigger country!"
In the new flick Saffron plays a once-famous actress who is a client of a top Hollywood psychiatrist, played by Kevin Spacey. She said of the film: "I think more than anything it’s probably just about human beings and about how we pick ourselves up and start all over again when life goes wrong." Comparing herself to her character, she added: "She’s a little sadder about her predicament at that moment in the film than I am right now, thank God. So she’s a bit of a melancholic actress… Her life’s not going that well."
January 14, 2009
The early days of award season 2009 may be more restrained, but there was no shortage of events this past week in anticipation of the Golden Globes. “I don’t come to Los Angeles very often, so it’s been great fun. Just parties and parties and parties,” said Kristin Scott Thomas at BAFTA/LA’s annual tea party at the Beverly Hills Hotel on Saturday.
Brits including Kenneth Branagh and Saffron Burrows warmed up with a cuppa alongside Americans like Leonardo DiCaprio and Josh Brolin.
“I had a girlfriend who was English for a couple years so I’m used to it,” said Brolin.
But Clint Eastwood was having none of it. “These British people — it’s all smoke. They don’t really do tea. They just do Champagne, so I’ll do Champagne,” said the “Gran Torino” director and star with a flute in hand.
Meanwhile, “Slumdog Millionaire” star Freida Pinto recalled her own party foul earlier in the week. “I had just stuffed my face, and Angelina Jolie came up to me and said, ‘Your film is fantastic,’ and I’m like [with a mouthful of food], ‘Mmm mmm mmm,’” she said.
