Julia Ormond Interview, Kit Kittredge

In the first feature film based on the hugely popular American Girl book series, Abigail Breslin stars as a resourceful young girl whose bravery, compassion and determination help her solve a mystery that saves her family’s home during the Great Depression. Ormond plays her mother. The film’s all-star ensemble cast also includes Joan Cusack, Glenne Headly, Jane Krakowski, Chris O’Donnell, Wallace Shawn, Stanley Tucci, Max Thieriot, and Willow Smith.

Julia Ormond had several solid years of stage work to her credit, as well as the starring role in the made-for-cable Catherine the Great biography “Young Catherine” (1991) when, at 27, she co-starred in the expansive HBO bio-pic “Stalin (1992). Most of the publicity guns were aimed at Robert Duvall’s portrayal of the Soviet dictator, but at least one observer singled out Ormond’s performance as the long-suffering Mrs. Stalin as one of the highlights of the picture. That observer was director Edward Zwick, who later cast Ormond as the heroine in his big budget theatrical feature “Legends of the Fall.”

Ormond was recently seen in David Lynch’s “Inland Empire” and just completed work on David Fincher’s “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” opposite Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt.

Julia Ormond is a fabulous person and we really appreciated her time. Here’s what she had to: tell us:

Q: I'M SURE EVERYONE IS ASKING YOU THIS QUESTION, BUT BEING OVER THE POND, DID YOU KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THE GREAT DEPRESSION OF AMERICA? 

JULIA ORMOND: No, I really had to learn about it. My sense of the Depression was really from hearing my own grandfather's stories and what he had gone through and hearing my parents' stories and how people dealt with the war. Both of my parents were born during World War II. It's a similar kind of tone. It was really great to dive in there and learn about how horrid it had been. I learned about dust storms and one thing after another. In terms of perspective, I used it to see how far advanced people have come socially. Also, I think there is a relevance to this story today, not as extreme, but what a lot of people are facing. You lose your home or lose your job, it's a very personal thing for people to deal with, and be challenged by. I hope that we've done something that reverberates with people who are facing that.

Q: HAD YOU EVER HEARD OF THESE AMERICAN GIRL DOLLS?

JULIA ORMOND: I hadn't and I was the only person in the cast who had no clue. It's like number one.

Q: HOW OLD ARE YOUR CHILDREN?

JULIA ORMOND: I only have one and she is nearly four. She is young for it, but I really just related to the film and the story. I hope that it's a story that even though it's titled as “American Girl,” boys will come and see it. It's really a family film.

Q: WELL MAX [THIERIOT] MIGHT DO THAT AND MAKE THAT HAPPEN. IT'S AN INCREDIBLE CAST.

JULIA ORMOND: It was such a fun cast.

Q: YOU’RE VERY SELECTIVE ABOUT THE ROLES YOU TAKE?

JULIA ORMOND: I think that people really felt like they were getting behind a sort of old fashioned story that had reverberations today and that was really nice. A lot of us have kids and a lot of us related to the fact that it didn't patronize children. It didn't underestimate them or talk down to them. It didn't presume that they couldn't handle something emotional or dark. Even if it's fairy tales, I mean how many Disney movies, or the ones that really take off, don't start with a parent dying? Part of storytelling is to take you through a horrible thing that can happen to you and teach you how to survive it, that this is how you get out of it. It's the essence of how you navigate, overcome, and transcend adversity that’s a part of what makes us feel good. I think that's a really important part of storytelling. I don't think that there are that many kids' movies out there, family movies out there, that try and go there. I hope this will be as entertaining without being escapist. It's not all that you're just going to laugh, it has a great quality of warmth. There are times when I look at it and it kind of reminds me of “101 Dalmatians” because Chris [O'Donnell] and I play the straight characters and then you've got the villains who are very comedic and very big and large. Then you have a puppy! It's a Depression-era version of “101 Dalmatians.”

Q: YOUR CHARACTER IS VERY STRONG. WHO DID YOU BASE HER ON?

JULIA ORMOND: My mother, my grandmother, my stepmother, and my step grandmother were all a package of people that I drew on there. My own mother I think was very present with me playing this character. My parents split up when I was very young. I went to paying school but at a time when divorce was still somewhat stigmatized. There was that to navigate for all of us. My mother was a single woman and that was unusual for me in school. We had boarders, in England that means somebody sharing a room, and even then we went through that thing that Abigail dealt with. The 'I don't want this to be known at school, I don't like this, I'm uncomfortable with this. Why does it have to be us?' We still keep in touch with people who were boarders. They come through there and you grab another dimension and it was a fun dimension to our household. Learning that actually I think was a great lesson for me. What happens to you depends on what you make of it.

Q: HOW OLD WERE YOU DURING THAT TIME?

JULIA ORMOND: I was probably 12 through 16. She was sort of younger.

Q: THAT LAST SCENE WHERE CHRIS O’DONNELL COMES BACK WAS INCREDIBLE. HOW DID YOU GET TO THAT EMOTIONAL STATE?

JULIA ORMOND: One of the things is they say never work with children and never work with animals. Abigail Breslin sure keeps you on the ball because she is just there. She's right there, and she's little. I was saying to Patricia [Rozema] just saying that I'm a little sad. She said “No, you're bawling.” She said this and we hadn't really talked about the scene. I found the notion of a parent feeling like they are failing their kid very moving. All of us go through life, if we have kids, just wanting to do the best for our kids. I think that people have a very basic and fundamental need. I want a roof over my head, I want food on the table for my family, I want a job. So many people in life struggle with those things, so when a father or a mother feels like they aren't going to get there, then it's terrifying. It's terrifying for the kids too. I think there is so much of the movie that is played where she gets to the point where she doesn't know if she is coming back. She has run out of options. Her kids kind of save the day. You can't just open yourself up to that but I had about 10 minutes. Chris had it so well, Abigail the same.

Q: HOW HAS THIS MOVIE CHANGED YOU?

JULIA ORMOND: I am now aware of 'American Girl,' the dolls. I think when you play a role you step more solidly into that person's suit. You get to play just as kids would play. “You do this and I'll do that.” You get to steep yourself in it and go through the emotional journey of it and feel the things that they are feeling. It left me with a renewed respect for families around the world who struggle. I had a new understanding that this is a journey that all of us go through, that our parents at some point get knocked off the perfect pedestal and show themselves to be human, and flawed, and that when you reconnect or come back together, it's not so much that they are back on the pedestal, but they are still our heroes. That's important I think, because every child is a composite of both of its parents. Every child fancies themselves the essence of their parents. Not everybody had great parents, or perfect parents, but that I think is something that really can't be underestimated.

“Kit Kittredge: An American Girl” opens in theaters on June 20th.