By Tim Nasson
This year brought with it two Joan of Arc films. This past spring, ABC television delivered its rendition with the up-and-coming Leelee Sobieski in the starring role. Now, Columbia Pictures has ushered in a big-screen production of the 550-year-old true story of the martyred teen, The Messenger, The Story of Joan of Arc, starring Milla Jovovich.
“Do I think that God actually spoke to Joan?” asks the film’s director, Luc Besson, when I asked him the same question. “I think that Joan thought that God was speaking to her, and that her heart told her that she should be doing the things that she did. Her motives were certainly pure and not evil.”
As time tries to heal all wounds, the girl in boy’s clothing who goes on a mission to establish peace was canonized in 1920, 500 years after her burning at the stake.
“The most amazing thing about the making of the film,” says Milla Jovovich, who plays the role of Joan in a very butch fashion, “was not the actual shooting, but what transpired afterwards. Sure, putting on 50 lbs. of armor every day was hard. It was insane, but all in a day’s work. The most horrific thing was reading the comment cards after early screenings of the film. We got a few — and I am not saying only one — a few comment cards back that said that Joan should not burn at the end, that that ruined the film.” Clearly there is a need for a better public education in this country.
Jovovich, who grew up in Russia as the daughter of a doctor (her father) and lawyer (mother), came to the United States at age eight. She began acting at eight and modeling at eleven (she’s still the spokeswoman for L’Oreal), and as if that were not enough, began singing at 15. At the ripe old age of 24, the Russian triplethreat has even gone through a difficult romance with Joan of Arcs director, Besson.
The two met a couple of years ago when Jovovich starred opposite Bruce Willis in Besson’s The Fifth Element. “It was magic from the first moment we set eyes on each other,” says Jovovich, dressed in a black Prada suit and wine wool turtleneck. “However, at times, things change. We still have a huge creative, as in making movies, connection to each other, and we work so well together. As two acrobats would, we trust each other implicitly.” Other than that, neither Besson or Jovovich had much to say about the romance that has fallen by the wayside.
Dunaway speaks
Taking a break from work on getting the stage version of “Master Class” to the big screen, Faye Dunaway, who owns the rights to the film version, took the role as Yolande D’Aragon in Joan of Arc, the shrewd mother-in-law of Charles the Dauphin, played by John Malkovich.
“Excuse my tardiness,” shouts Dunaway upon entering the interview suite. “As you know, I am always late.” She arrived with her own coffee mug, not one from The Four Seasons in Beverly Hills, and began sipping immediately, so as to wake herself up.
“I just got back from Madrid, where I did some promo work for Ted Turner for CNN,” she explains.
While Dunaway may not have had top billing in her most recent films (The Thomas Crown Affair), she has played characters who are very integral to the story. In Joan, it almost looks as if she had to shave her head. But alas, “No, I did not shave my head,” she says with a smile, wearing a Gap suit and T-shirt. “I wore a skull cap.”
The actress who became an icon after her work in Bonnie and Clyde, (and who admits to stealing a few blouses from that set) grew up a less-than-privileged girl in Florida and Texas, and quickly made a name for herself while attending the University of Florida, where she earned a Fulbright scholarship in theater. After continuing her studies at the Boston University of Fine Arts, Dunaway joined the Lincoln Center Repertory Company. While she was nominated for an Academy Award in both Bonnie and Clyde and Network. However Dunaway may best be known for her role as Hollywood starlet Joan Crawford in Mommie Dearest.
Excited about having worked with Malkovich, who is regarded as one of stage and screen’s best actors, Dunaway was quick to point out that she was dying to see his other new film. “I can’t wait to see Inside John Malkovich,” she says of Being John Malkovich.
Dunaway is also very excited about bringing “Master Class” to the screen. “I have been working hard on it for two years,” she says. “I hope that we can start filming by Fall 2000.”
Was working with Faye nuts? I asked Besson, having heard from many that Dunaway was difficult to work with.
“Everyone was nuts on the set of Joan,” chuckles Besson, not willing to put his foot in his mouth.
Faye Dunaway and Milla Jovovich Interview by Tim Nasson for Joan of Arc
