The Globe and Mail, Canada
Jan 11 2008
Khanjian really wants to do comedy
The actress known mainly for her work in Atom Egoyan’s sober films
tackles another weighty subject in Palace of the End
BRAD WHEELER
>From Friday’s Globe and Mail
January 11, 2008 at 3:32 AM EST
Film and theatre actress Arsinée Khanjian is married to Atom Egoyan,
an acclaimed director who has cast her in every feature film he has
ever made, stretching back to 1984’s Next of Kin. And although the
alliance has resulted in her winning Gemini and Genie Awards, there’s
the perception that the multilingual Khanjian (of Armenian descent,
born and raised in Lebanon, before moving to Montreal as a
17-year-old) is fit only for the type of sober roles we often see her
in – not only in her husband’s films, but others as well.
But it isn’t true, she will have you know. "People like to find
categories," she says over the phone, "and somehow and sometimes I’ve
been imprisoned in that perception."
As for the idea that she is just her husband’s muse, Khanjian rejects
that typecasting too. "I don’t think our collaboration has been
necessarily about that, or just about that."
So, even as she prepared for her role as an insurgent in Judith
Thompson’s Iraqi war drama Palace of the End, the 50-year-old actress
expressed her desire to break out of her serious-character mould.
Speaking during a break in rehearsals for the play, Khanjian was in a
relaxed, contemplative mood as she mused on everything from
cellphones – observational comedy! – to her longing for
lightheartedness, to her secret talents. She wants to open up? Let’s
see what she’s got.
Here you are, in the dead of winter, playing a character inspired by
Nehrjas al-Saffarh, who was tortured by Saddam Hussein’s secret
police in the 1970s and later died when her home was bombed during
Desert Storm. How are you holding up?
Wonderful. It’s a dream cast and company, and we’re having a lot of
fun, actually. We laugh a lot, given the material. It’s a good way of
balancing out the actual play. It’s very serious, but it does have
the humour that is required in these times. The pain has to be
balanced out with a certain wisdom, which is a sense of humour we
have about our fate as human beings.
The play is a trio of monologues. Is there much creative interaction
with the other two actors, offstage?
It’s true, there isn’t the traditional dialogue situation, where we
can have fun because we’re feeding off each other in that sense. It’s
still theatre – you spend a lot of time with your colleagues. It does
feed the energy and the dynamic of the play, even if it’s a
monologue. It’s not as separated as you would think.
This is your first time working with director David Storch, right?
Yes, it is, and it’s wonderful to have a director who’s also an
actor. So, that’s a particular experience.
Oh, my. Is that a slam at your husband?
Not at all! [Laughs]. Not at all. It’s just the variety. It’s my
privilege to be working with different temperaments, with different
ways.
Does the relationship change much, when you’re working with a
director who’s not your husband?
I’m one of those actors committing myself in the hands of the
director. I trust that I do have the experience to explore the darker
areas myself, but I also love being surprised by what they want to
find in me.
It’s like having a drawer full of things: You know it’s your things,
and you’re familiar with them. But if someone else opens it and
starts saying "Oh, so you have this as well, and this…," the
colours suddenly become brighter.
And your husband is okay
with other men going through your drawers?
[Laughs]. Well, it depends on what drawers we’re talking about here.
By the way, what’s with your husband always wearing black?
You’re quite right, he does like black. I think it works on him, with
his colour and his hair colour. Once in a while, I push him to wear
more something more colourful.
Navy blue is nice.
He does have navy blue, but the problem with navy is that it comes
out as black in pictures.
Cellphones: Curse or blessing?
They are ugly things, I think. It’s the closest thing that would give
a normal person the [appearance of having] dementia. I still haven’t
acclimatized to see people talk, and I wonder, "My god, what’s
wrong?" Then I realize they’re on their cellphones. On the other
hand, I think people have become more of public performers. They’re
doing this kind of dialogue, and you have to imagine the other side
of the conversation.
They’re actors, in a sense.
People are so incredible about their private space, but when they’re
on their cellphones, they have no sense of privacy. The people around
them know what’s going on their emotions, in their lives and their
feelings. I feel it’s funny, but sometimes I get very annoyed by it
as well.
What’s the importance of Palace of the End?
The beauty of the play, its writing. There’s the perception that it’s
Judith’s first political work. But working on it, and getting more
acquainted with it, I’m realizing that it’s not that different from
the characters that she has introduced to us over the years. If they
don’t come from small-town Ontario, they do come from small private
places, and they come from around the world. The subject is Iraq, as
a war situation, but the play speaks to our notion of power, our
notion of compassion – our notion of engagement.
Are we are disengaged?
These are very troubling times. Somehow, maybe because of the amount
of information that exists and the technical help to transport this
knowledge from one continent to another, we still do not know what
real engagement means. What Judith does is create a proximity of
these worlds, to talk about the human soul and the effect of each
tragedy as a sense of responsibility on the other. It makes it a very
intimate piece.
Has any good come out of the U.S. invasion of Iraq?
I never believed in the invasion. I don’t believe that a liberation
of people should or could come from the outside. I think if there
were a time, if it was a sincere effort of bringing a change to a
society and to help them recover from this oppressive regime, it
should have been done in the sixties and seventies when Saddam
Hussein was starting to build his empire. I don’t think Saddam being
there or not is making any difference to the people in Iraq today.
You have a pretty heavy movie coming out, The Lark Farm, about the
Armenian genocide, and you’re also co-directing a documentary, Stone
Time Touch, about your return to Armenia. Maybe a comedy is in order?
If you put it in a bold, underlined sort of quotation: My dream is to
be in an absolute comedy! If someone has that sort of imagination to
ask me to do a part like that, it would be one of the most desired
things as a performer I could do.
Canadian Stage’s Palace of the End runs Jan. 17 to Feb. 23, with
previews beginning Monday.