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Sunday, Nov 22, 2009
Like what?
My character wasn't involved in the family business, so I wasn't dealing with all the gore and the bodies and all that. But just the moments that I did come up against it, I'd have to try to make it normal. And it does become normal, because you see it every day, just like the characters do. There was this one funny moment, I think it was last year, where blood started coming up out of the sink where I had just put my cereal bowl. That was pretty horrifying -- but also really funny and kind of a good memory now that I look back at it.
Was it ever hard to play a character that was younger than you?
The biggest difference between Claire and myself is the age, not that there's such a huge age discrepancy. I'm 27 and Claire is about five years younger than I am. It was the perfect age gap between the character and myself, because it was close enough that I could really remember what it was like to be her age.
Do you see yourself in Claire at all, or are you two very different?
I can relate to Claire's relationship with her artwork. Since I work in a creative field I've had similar struggles about whether I can do this, or should do this, and if I will be able to do this -- all of that is resonant to anyone working in a creative field.
What about her angst and her sarcasm? Claire always has the wittiest comebacks.
It's so convenient when Alan Ball pens your quips! People always say, "Claire is so me." It's funny how people like to think of themselves as clever -- as do I. I wish I could be as funny as Claire.
I think a lot of Claire's edge comes from growing up in the environment that she did, with the family she did. She was sort of an afterthought. Her brothers were practically adults when she was born. She was fairly neglected because the business was more important than parenting the last child; she developed an interesting perspective on life because of that.
To me, one of the most interesting relationships on the show is between Claire and her mother, Ruth. They do this dance, one that I think is very specific to mothers and daughters. They do battle with one another -- this season, Ruth is furious at Claire for dropping out of school -- but then they always come back together, slowly and deliberately. They need each other, but they don't want to admit it.
For me too, it's been my favorite ongoing thread, that mother-daughter dynamic, because I think it's very real. What makes it so real -- and this is a testament to the writing -- is that they're both flawed and the progress they make in their relationship stalls. They don't continue to heal or move forward. They make a little progress and then revert backwards. Claire acts like she's 12 but wants to be treated like an adult. Claire is flawed and yet struggling to be noble and do the right thing -- she wants to figure out what her life is about.
I always looked forward to doing scenes with Frances [Conroy] -- who is one of the greatest actresses to ever live -- in the kitchen. The kitchen was sort of a touchstone: We would always go back there. No matter what tangents our characters would go off on and/or what wild experiences Claire would have with this boyfriend or that boyfriend or whatever, we'd come back to the kitchen and it would sort of be like, oh, OK, this is who I am, this is where we started.
You got married when you were 23. What it's been like to be settled in your 20s at a time when most people your age, Claire included, are experimenting with their identities and hopping from one relationship to the next?
Well, it's been my experience, so I can't really compare it fairly. I just met the right person, and I really can't imagine my life being any different or any better.
