Claire Danes Q&A

The 'Romeo & Juliet' star discusses dancing, living in LA and crying in her new film, 'Shopgirl'.

Jan 18 2006

A slender and sleek adaptation of Steve Martin's 2000 novella, 'Shopgirl' wins much of its grace and pathos from a typically luminous performance by Claire Danes in the title role. Now 26 and resident in New York, the actress plays Mirabelle, a pensive aspiring artist who pays her rent by staffing the rarely visited glove counter at Saks Fifth Avenue in Los Angeles and attracts the attention of two diametrically opposed suitors: Jeremy (Jason Schwartzman), an immature stencil-maker, and Ray (Martin, who also wrote the script), a wealthy, middle-aged executive wary of emotional commitment.

You recently performed a very well-received solo dance piece in New York ('Christina Olson: American Model'). Do you want to continue to pursue dancing alongside acting?

I'd like to. Dancing was something that fell away from my life for years and years, and then I started to feel a hunger for it again. I performed that piece at PS [Performance Space] 122, where I first danced when I was six years old, so it was very meaningful to me, nostalgic and symbolic.

Speaking of nostalgia, do many people still approach you about 'My So-Called Life' a decade on?

All the time. I'm mostly appreciative of it, because the show clearly made a huge impression on people, and I think television creates an intimacy with the audience that you don't get with movies. But I've done so much work since then, and some of that work has meant just as much to me.

The May-December romance is often a theme in film romances. What made its treatment in 'Shopgirl' stand out for you?

I read the book when it came out and was moved by it, and I've admired Steve Martin for a long time. I think our film is less about the May-December thing and more about people figuring out their own emotions. They're all lonely, and they all try to come through it in their own ways.

Do you think LA is uniquely lonely?

It can be, but I lived there from age 14 to 18 and I never felt particularly alienated by it. Obviously it's a city full of people alone in their cars, and there's no public, communal space. But there are many LAs, and we used the lonely version because it served the story.

You have an amazing gift for crying on camera, especially in 'Shopgirl'.

I hear this a lot, that I give good cry. I think part of the reason is that I have these really elastic, rubbery features [pulling at her cheeks] – my dad has them too – and emotions register really clearly on my face. I just get sad and it happens; it's part of the job. Laughing is harder, actually. I'll have to laugh for a scene, and it comes out sounding so ridiculous and fake that I end up laughing for real. Problem solved.

'Shopgirl' opens on Friday.

• 
•