When actress Elsa Lepoivre was offered the chance to voice Julianne Moore in Almodóvar’s new film The Room Next Door, the 516th member of the Comédie-Française did not have to think for long. “Whenever I see her name in the credits, I rush to see the film,” said the actress, one of the leading female members of the troupe, who occasionally records French voiceovers for her English-speaking colleagues.
In the autumn, over several days in the studio, Lepoivre “immersed herself in Moore’s acting, her silences”: “Sometimes she doesn’t say anything, but you can guess all the emotions running through her.” It was “this unique way of interpreting characters,” he said, that inspired Pedro Almodóvar to give her one of the lead roles in his first English-language feature film. The idea of abandoning Spanish has been a topic of conversation since the 1980s when the filmmaker’s name first appeared on the international scene. It has even become something of a persistent myth.
Famous for his romantic and expressive heroines, the Madrid-born director has seen many leading English-speaking actresses projected into his cinematic world. There are even more who have dreamed of it, including Madonna, who reportedly went to great lengths to become an Almodóvar “chica,” the term used in Spain to refer to his cherished actresses: These include Penélope Cruz, Carmen Maura, Victoria Abril, Rossy de Palma and Marisa Paredes, who died on December 17.
A very exclusive club
The Room Next Door, adapted from the novel What Are You Going Through by American novelist Sigrid Nunez, won the Golden Lion at the last Venice Film Festival. In it, Britain’s Tilda Swinton and America’s Moore become Almodóvar chicas in their own right. Swinton plays a war reporter diagnosed with an incurable cancer who decides to end her life with the help of a longtime friend, played by Moore. Set in a house in upstate New York, the film follows the inevitable countdown. On screen, the two actresses, chosen after decades of speculation, feel like an obvious choice.
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