ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, November 1, 1996 TAG: 9611010060
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: EILEEN GLANTON ASSOCIATED PRESS
Hear the name Claire Danes and you might think of the angst-ridden but wise-beyond-her-years teen from the short-lived television series ``My So-Called Life.''
That's about to change.
The 17-year-old actress is taking a major leap into the big time with the role of Juliet in Baz Luhrmann's sizzlingly updated ``William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet,'' which opens today at Salem Valley 8 and Valley View 6.
She also anchors the film ``To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday,'' a melodrama about a man grieving over the death of his wife. Danes plays daughter Rachel, a wise teen at the emotional center of the dysfunctional family.
``I'm starting to feel like my wings are spreading,'' Danes said. ``I feel like an idiot for saying that, but it's true. I look back a year ago, and I'm like, `God, I was such a baby.' But I know it'll be like that in another year, too.''
Juliet is her deepest and darkest role so far and is expected to give her a long shot at an Oscar and solid footing on Hollywood's A list.
To play Juliet, Danes said she tapped into her heart.
``When I started `Romeo and Juliet,' I was just starting to break up with my boyfriend, and I would cry periodically during rehearsals,'' she said about ending her relationship with musician Andrew Dorff, brother of actor Stephen Dorff. ``It's just so hard to be talking about love when you're supposed to be falling out of it.''
But while her speech is still laced with ``like'' and ``you know'' and she still wears a uniform to school - Le Lycee de Francais in Los Angeles - Danes definitely is not the girl next door.
Danes grew up in a loft in New York's arty Soho district. At 10, she decided she wanted to act, and her artist parents enrolled her in the prestigious Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute.
She was 14 when she won the role of Angela in ``My So-Called Life.'' Critics and a loyal core of viewers adored it, but the show lasted only one season although it was later rebroadcast on MTV. Small but sweet roles in ``Little Women'' and ``Home for the Holidays'' followed, giving Danes a reputation as a major talent with a maturity beyond her years.
That maturity serves her well in ``To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday.'' As Rachel, Danes plays a sad but enlightened teen-ager, far more solid than the muddled adults around her.
In fact, Danes was particularly drawn to Rachel's normalcy.
``She's actually the most normal person I've played, ever,'' Danes said. ``Basically, she's just a teen-ager living in 1996, she goes to the mall and goes to see movies, and she's just starting to see boys.''
That could also describe Danes herself.
She loves going to the movies. (``Fargo'' and ``Trainspotting'' are her current favorite films.) She also likes to draw and sketch, although she frets that her skills may not be as good as they once were. And like most of us, she likes to read but laments about her lack of time to crack a book.
Of course, she made time for Shakespeare's ``Romeo and Juliet,'' deconstructing the play with a tutor while the rest of her English class read Richard Wright's ``Native Son.''
Danes scored the part on a recommendation from Jodie Foster and an emphatic nod from leading man Leonardo DiCaprio, who was cast first.
Months after production, Danes said she looks back on the film and DiCaprio with a mix of admiration and shock.
``It was so surreal, the whole experience,'' she said. ``For four months, we were in Mexico City, which is really kind of a magical place, very passionate and vibrant. There are so many colors surrounding you when you're there.''
There's also a fair amount of bacteria, and virtually the whole cast and crew spent time nursing Montezuma's revenge. The illness, the isolation and the intensity of the work seemed to fuel some fires, Danes said.
``I was really the only girl there,'' she said. ``And by the end, when we were shooting the gang stuff, there were all these boys in this Wild West kind of place and it got a little out of control.''
Invariably, DiCaprio led the pack. He came to ``Romeo and Juliet'' widely acclaimed, but with a bad-boy reputation. Many wondered whether he and Danes would click.
They do. Their scenes together are wonderful in the brash film.
``I think we understand each other,'' Danes said. ``I mean, we're two different chemicals, and when you put us together in the same container, things start happening. Good and bad things.''
However, off-screen romance wasn't one of those things. But with theater's most romantic role on her resume and her first love under her belt, what does Danes, who can quicken the hearts of men a decade older, have to say about love?
``Oh,'' she breathes. ``God did good when he created boys.''
LENGTH: Medium: 91 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Claire Danes, 17 and once the star of "My So-Calledby CNBLife," has a shot at an Oscar for her new movie role as Juliet.
color