THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, December 2, 1995 TAG: 9512010032
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 107 lines
SHE'S A PISTOL-PACKING woman with a smokin' barrel.
And just to make sure you stay in line, she also can crack a bullwhip at speeds faster than sound.
Ellen Barkin, up until now a particularly mod screen woman, is playing Calamity Jane in the new Western ``Wild Bill.'' It's the first time she's done a period film.
``The best thing about the role?'' Barkin pondered as she sat in the Essex House Hotel, just off Central Park in New York City. ``The best thing was that I didn't have to wear a corset. Jane was a real rowdy and a drunk. She wore leather chaps and an old shirt.
``The women of that period, generally, were tortured with their clothes. I used to watch Christina Applegate (who plays an `upstairs girl' in the Western epic) get dressed. I'd sob for her. I asked, though, if I couldn't have a bra. They said `No' - that if Calamity Jane didn't wear a corset, she probably didn't wear a bra.''
Clad in skintight capri pants of simulated leopard skin for the interview, Ellen Barkin was clearly back into the 1990s.
``Getting into those clothes was half way to getting the character of Calamity Jane,'' she said. ``The worst thing was the dirt. We didn't require makeup to look dirty. They hauled in tons of dirt to cover the pavement, and I think most of it got on me.
``I had to go brunette for the part - a mousy color. Brunettes do not have more fun. What color is my hair now? That'll show you my preference.''
She is most decidedly now a blonde.
In ``Wild Bill,'' directed by action veteran Walter Hill, Wild Bill Hickock (Jeff Bridges) and Calamity Jane have an occasional love affair. He's an aging dandy who is addicted to opium and losing his sight, but she still loves him. In the film's rowdiest scene, she and Bridges make love atop a bar with ``The Battle Hymn of the Republic'' playing in the background.
``There's nothing sexy about doing a scene like that,'' she said, ``when 20 guys are standing around watching, with cameras.''
Ellen Barkin has held her own with such co-stars as Dennis Quaid (``The Big Easy''), Al Pacino (``Sea of Love''), Jack Nicholson (``Man Trouble''), Robert De Niro (``This Boy's Life'') and Gabriel Byrne, her currently estranged husband (``Siesta'' and ``Into the West'').
She has a reputation for being difficult on the set.
``Hollywood is a vanity business. Women are the primary target in a business run by men. Females, according to their thinking, are just concerned with their looks - and men are actors. It's amazing how long they're willing for me to sit in the beauty chair, but if I ask for a few minutes to prepare a line, they say I'm acting tough. Al Pacino asked for more time, and they say he's a great actor. I ask for time, and they say I'm a bitch.''
The ultra-slim and sleek Barkin was clearly eager to speak on the subject of Hollywood inequities.
``Making a movie,'' she said, ``is serious business. It costs a lot of money. You're responsible to a lot of people and it's important that I bring skill and craft to my job. But I'm not going home at night knowing I didn't do my best because some jerk didn't give me the time I needed. Of course, the longer I stay in the business, the more I learn not to fight the fights I can't win. I have to choose the right fights.''
Barkin is still legally married to Irish actor Gabriel Byrne, whom she met on the set of ``Siesta.'' They have been separated for several years, even though they show up together at things like the Academy Awards. The two live on the same block in Los Angeles.
``We remember why we fell in love in the first place and we're good friends now,'' she said. ``It's important that the children know that we like each other.''
They're the parents of 6-year-old Jack Daniel Byrne and 3-year-old Romy Marian Byrne.
``People often say I'm unconventional, but here I am, a grown woman with two children,'' Barkin said. ``That's pretty conventional. I try to make just one movie a year now so that I can stick to my real job - being a mother.
``Having children changes you completely. I care more about them than I do my career. From my choices of roles, it's obvious, anyway, that I never was most concerned with being a movie star. I don't often choose things that are likely to be big commercial hits.
``If the pace of my career was any slower, I'd be dead.''
To play Martha Jane Canarray, better known as Calamity Jane, she had 2 1/2 months of bullwhip training from the same trainer who taught Michelle Pfeiffer her Catwoman moves.
``I was a tomboy when I was a kid,'' Barkin said. ``I used to play cowboy with my brother. It took me a month, though, before I could even get a pop out of the whip. It cracks, you know, only when it breaks the sound barrier. Eventually, I got it. I was so good that the trainer showed off by having me snap a cigar out of his mouth.''
She took a look at past Calamity Jane portrayals - Jean Arthur in ``The Plainsman'' and Doris Day in ``Calamity Jane.'' She read books, including the supposed private letters of Calamity Jane.
``She preserved her own legend, but most of what I read, I think are lies. I loved her a great deal, but she wasn't that thrilling a character if you take the legend away. She was a bad drunk, and never had any money.''
As for the love scenes in ``Wild Bill,'' Barkin thinks they're all fiction. ``I doubt that she was the romantic type,'' the actress said. ``She probably had a crush on Bill, but she was much older. He died at age 37. She died sometime in her 50s, I believe. Her last wish, though, was that she be buried next to Wild Bill Hickock, and she was. I believe they were probably closer in death than they ever were in life. Of course, it's just a theory of mine.''
Somehow, in the Hollywood shootout, we'd bet on Ellen Barkin. It is likely that she will find, and keep, her own space. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by United Artists
Barkin is Calamity Jane and Jeff Bridges has the title role in "Wild
Bill."
by CNB