Annette Bening: «I like to bring out the grit»

Tand you find it in front of you like always impeccable, a touch austere too, Annette Bening: perfect cut dark pinstripe trouser suit, very short ash blonde hair, a shade of lipstick on the small and decisive mouth, eyeglasses worn with pride and style. The wrinkles around her eyes make her, if anything, even more interesting. Authentic is an adjective he often uses during our conversation: it is his way of portraying the characters he plays, his idea of ​​presenting himself and living.

The actress challenges the dogmatic Hollywood rule of glamor and eternal youth. At 65 she is not at all afraid of appearing natural. It is therefore no surprise that the star of American Beauty, Bugsy And The boys are fine I strongly desired to play Diana Nyad, the American swimmer who swam from Cuba to Florida at the age of 64, 177 kilometers in approximately 53 hours without the aid of an anti-shark protection cage, from Havana to Key West.

How Annette Bening became Diana Nyad

To turn Nyad-Over the Ocean – currently available on Netflix, based on the athlete’s memoir Find a Way and directed by the couple Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi (winners of an Oscar with the documentary Free Solo on rock climber Alex Honnold) – Bening underwent a a tour de force of eight hours a day, immersing himself for thirty-seven days in a giant tank in the Dominican Republicafter training for a whole year.

Why on earth would a super actress with four Oscar nominations, two Tony nominations and a handful of Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild statuettes under her belt, did you want to face such a grueling physical test? «You see, Diana Nyad had attempted to make this crossing when she was in her early twenties and had failed; at sixty she decided to try again – it was her fifth attempt – and to everyone it seemed pure madness. “She will be tough, very tough physically, but today I have the head to do it” she repeated to his trainer, ex-girlfriend and lifelong friend, Bonnie Stoll (in the film she is played by Jodie Foster). This is the part of the story that attracted me most: I also wanted to bring out the same grit, the same determination.”

Nyad, a film different from the others

Bening now recognizes that she was, in fact, a bit naïve when, a year before filming, she found herself in the water with her trainer, the Olympic champion Rada Owen, and felt lost: «What trouble have I gotten myself into, I repeated to myself. But it was clear, I like to work hard, and like Diana, with commitment I want to exorcise my demons, face my insecurities. After all, it’s part of the job, and I’m passionate about it.”

In a thirty-five year career – and with a repertoire of around forty films – Annette Bening has played the most diverse characters: from the charming con artist to Risky habits (1990) to the annoyed and eager real estate agent in American Beauty (1999), moving effortlessly from comedies like Postcards from hell (1990) to classic dramas such as The Seagull (2018). Much, wherever he appears, his is a charismatic, domineering, ultimately dominant presence.

The actress seems to prefer so-called difficult, intelligent and problematic women with complicated personalities. This is why he loves theatre: on stage, in contact with the audience, can delve into the depths of the characters, work on them, add or remove, calibrate the emotions. «The stage gives me freedom, to express myself I have a rich vocabulary, full of nuances. I’m also fascinated by the physicality, the corporeality of acting, the breathing and the movements that must be synchronized like those of an athlete.”

The film debut in 1989

Theater has been in her blood, ever since in middle school a teacher took her to the Old Globe Theater in San Diego to see The two gentlemen of Verona And The merchant of Venice. It was an unforgettable and unforgettable experience: Annette decided that she wanted to be part of that world, to feel those emotions, to transmit them, to communicate them. «The language, the energy, the tension, I couldn’t free myself from that spell».

The theater then becomes his life: Follows the theater program at San Diego High School, then college, then studies drama at the University of San Francisco. In 1986 she moved to New York where she was offered a part in Tina Howe’s play Coastal Disturbances. Only after seven years did she try the cinema route. In 1989 Milos Forman offered her the role of the Marquise de Merteuil in Valmont, and success comes quickly. When, two years later, I met her for Bugsythe biopic about gangster Bugsy Sieger, directed by Barry Levinson and starring Warren Beatty, Annette was 33 years old. She was beautiful, seductive, radiant, she pierced the screen and in the role of Hollywood starlet Virginia Hill she seduced everyone. He had also made Hollywood’s most die-hard bachelor-playboy capitulate. Beatty, who was twenty years older and counted Jacqueline Kennedy and Madonna among his countless conquests, transformed with her into a faithful companion and a proud father.

«Annette makes films, acts in the theater and I stay at home with the children, happy» the actor told me in an interview several years ago. Today, after thirty-one years of marriage and four adult children, the two continue to be one of the most prestigious couples in Hollywood. I then interviewed Annette several times: always kind, friendly, engaged in every discussion but reserved and jealous of her privacy. Any question about children, family, friends is always taboo. She inevitably slips. But time passes and situations, such as civil cases, evolve.

Now Bening is also an activist: wants to contribute to making the world better, wants it to become a more compassionate and empathetic, more livable and pleasant planet. Together with colleague Tom Hanks and Bob Iger (the CEO of Walt Disney, ed.) in September 2021 received the Pilar Award for the fundraising campaign (484 million dollars) for the new Academy museum designed by Renzo Piano. Last June he accepted the position of president ofEntertainment Community Fund, the charity that supports entertainment workers, and the following month, when the writers’ and actors’ strike began, Bening immediately left the set in Australia, where she was filming the series Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty, and returned to Los Angeles to protest on the front lines: it was necessary quickly raise funds to help those who had lost their jobs. She alone raised more than $7 million.

At the same time, he continues to fight vigorously for the rights of LGBTQIA+ people in the campaign in favor of transsexuals: his eldest son Stephen Ira, 31, is a transsexual writer. “You don’t want to make this mother angry, do you?” she exclaimed in a polemical vein some time ago during a demonstration organized by LGBTQIA+ students. «For most of my career I have been a rather reserved person, but in recent years I have changed my attitude. I felt the responsibility to openly denounce transphobia which here is widespread in every form of local and federal government. It is dangerous, indecent and shameful.”

Satisfaction in what he does

At this point Annette also opened up on the personal front, as an actress, mother, daughter and citizen of the world. This is how she concluded our meeting on Zoom: «I feel a great love for my profession, in every sense: working with someone like Jodie Foster, learning, growing, travelling, feeling the pressure and weight of what I’m doing; Well, I really appreciate all this. If I look back and see what I’ve done, well, I’ve worked hard, I’ve probably done a lot. Today, for this reason, I feel free.”

Then he pauses. «My father passed away recently, he was 97, my mother is 94, they were married for 73. He has lost his lifelong companion and yet he has a peace and serenity within him that I admire. What I want above all today is to achieve that type of inner freedom. I want to appreciate every moment of whatever I do and experience, and conquer that fullness, find full satisfaction in what I have and do, in that very moment. I find the idea of ​​gaining peace and serenity in my profession, and in every relationship that involves me, truly compelling.”

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