Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 19, 1993 TAG: 9303190238
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEANNE WOLF NEW YORK TIMES SYNDICATE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
LA FEMME BRIDGET
In the opening scenes of "Point of No Return," the usually graceful and attractive Bridget Fonda is hardly recognizable.Playing a filthy drug addict with snarled hair and a foul mouth, the actress exposes the most primal side of herself.
That flexibility is what put her ahead of the competition for the leading role in this remake of the 1990 French hit "La Femme Nikita."
Director John Badham ("War Games," "Stakeout," "Bird on a Wire") says that some of Hollywood's most famous faces, which he diplomatically chooses not to name, were lusting after the part.
"I chose Bridget because of her vulnerability. I wanted someone who could be tough on the outside but had an inside vulnerability."
It's not the first time Fonda has walked away with a part that was hotly contested.
She beat out the A-list competition to star as call-girl Mandy Rice-Davies in "Scandal," the 1989 film chronicling Britain's notorious John Profumo sex scandal. That performance earned her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress as well as some impressive reviews.
Fonda, 28, is the daughter of actor/director Peter Fonda and the niece of actress Jane Fonda. Her grandfather is the legendary Henry Fonda.
Despite the fact that acting seems ingrained in her genes, Bridget didn't connect with the profession until she appeared in a high school play - and found she enjoyed being on stage.
After graduating from high school she enrolled in New York University's theater program and, with commendable restraint, ignored agents who were anxious to cash in on her famous surname.
Fonda refused to audition for any film roles until she had paid her dues in a series of New York stage productions.
In 1988 she made her film debut in a segment of "Aria," a collection of short films inspired by operatic arias.
Since then the young actress has been honing her skills in a diverse range of roles, including the provocative Southern gal on the make in "Doc Hollywood" (1991) and the young New York professional trying to cope with a roommate from hell in "Single White Female" (1992).
Now Fonda is tackling the part that brought sensuous French actress Anne Parillaud worldwide attention in "La Femme Nikita."
In "Point of No Return," which opens in Roanoke today, Fonda plays Maggie, a strung-out street punk who kills a cop and faces execution.
Agents from a mysterious covert organization specializing in high-tech assassinations save her from death row. Their goal is to turn Maggie, a desperate, animal-like street killer, into a cool and focused killing machine.
Gabriel Bryne and Anne Bancroft co-star as the operatives with the job of transforming Maggie from scruffy misfit to calculated killer. Dermot Mulroney plays a young photographer with whom Maggie falls in love.
Q: This role is so physical. You had to turn yourself into a fighting machine - learning how to shoot a gun, learning how to fight. Was it fun?
A: It was exhilarating. I worked really hard with my stunt double and she taught me how to fight.
It was something that was totally new to me. . . . I sort of dove in and got really into it and it was freeing. It was really liberating. I found my character through doing that.
Q: You have to experience such anger to play Maggie. She is so alienated at the start.
A: It was one of the hardest things, to really feel the rage. It's something we never allow ourselves to feel. It's not social, so we sit on it. It's not civilized. It's not accepted.
Q: As Alison, in "Single White Female," you also had to display some of that rage. You had to kill your psychotic roommate to save yourself.
A: Oh yeah, just at the very end. But that was about what happens when someone is pushed. This person is starting from that point. This is someone who has been pushed until that's all they're about.
It's something I had to get in touch with very strongly, a certain amount of defiance and rage - all of these things that are not the most pleasant things to be around.
And if you're a people-pleaser like I am, getting in touch with that and feeling that it was OK was really great.
Q: When you look in the mirror and see yourself with the unkempt hair and broken teeth (Maggie's appearance in the beginning of the film), does that help you experience what the character is all about?
A: Yes, it helps. It was harder when I was all glammed out, later in the film, to retain that early Maggie feeling when she was sort of a monster.
When we're dressed up we have our manners. We have this little code. You become civilized and you sort of have to display it properly, in your posture and everything.
So once I was tamed it was harder to keep that other thing going inside - that sense of alienation.
Q: How much did you identify with what was happening to Maggie?
A: The funny thing is that I feel a lot of what she went through. She was given this new sort of way to express herself, this new way to be. And once you do that, you naturally change on the inside.
Q: It's part of what we learn as women in a sense. You catch on that looks will get you some attention, that looks will get you things that you want.
You have to know that one of the reasons you get parts is they like the way you look.
A: I never really thought about that because, for years, I was never really accepted for my looks. It was hard for me to get that kind of part - the "Single White Female" kind of part, the pretty, nice girl.
I was always sort of the other girl . . . the one who did a lot to herself to make herself attractive. Which was good because that's something to hide behind.
Q: Did you learn more that way?
A: Oh yes. I was lucky because it was something more to play rather than just, "Well, she's the natural beauty." And that's such a bore to me.
I would rather have somebody who has a difficult time with her appearance or has some feeling about it rather than just is pretty and that's enough.
Q: The next film of yours to come out will be "Bodies, Rest and Motion," which you did with your boyfriend Eric Stoltz.
Does that make it easier or is there more pressure, to work with somebody you're close to?
A: To me it made it easier. It was different, but it made it easier in that I got to spend more time with him. We got to share the thing that we both love, together, which was really nice.
Q: Your dad, Peter Fonda, has a little part in "Bodies, Rest and Motion."
A: Yes. It was great. Everybody loves him so much. He kind of breezes on and thrills everybody because he's such a magical guy.
Q: Acting hasn't always been easy on him. What lesson was that for you - knowing that maybe he didn't get everything he wanted in this crazy profession?
A: I just feel like you never get everything you want. When you do, it's fleeting. And [I've learned] to appreciate it and not to take it for granted. . . . Always keep in mind that it's something precious.
Jeanne Wolf is a Los Angeles-based free-lance writer.