Rosemary Harris (above) and her daughter, Jennifer Ehle, portray the same character in the movie, Sunshine
For actress Rosemary Harris, "Take Your Daughter to Work Day" never seems to end.
On Sunday, she and her daughter, Jennifer Ehle, faced off at the Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall; both were nominated for Best Actress in a Play, and Ehle won.
Rosemary Harris (above) and her daughter, Jennifer Ehle, portray the same
character in the movie, Sunshine
Tomorrow, they switch from the live stage to the movie screen, co-starring in the film, Sunshine. And just to make this mother-daughter act even tougher to follow, Ehle plays the same part as her mom � only as a younger woman.
Oddly enough, it's not the first time the two have played the same person.
"We did it a few years ago in London, in a miniseries for the BBC," says Harris, 69. "It was adapted from a book called The Chamomile Lane, about a group of young people at the outbreak of World War II, in which Jennifer had been cast. At the end, the survivors meet at a funeral some 50 years later.
"To my surprise, the director asked if I would mind playing Jennifer's role 40 years later, after she's had a little stroke. It was a challenge, but I did it. That show has been on the BBC several times, and played in Canada and Australia, but it's never made it here."
Jennifer Ehle won a Tony for her work in the revival of Tom Stoppard's
The Real Thing.
Their new outing, Sunshine, is the story of a Hungarian-Jewish family over seven decades. Ehle, who's 30, plays the part of Valerie as a young woman � a headstrong and determined lady who marries into the family in the 1930s. By the end of World War II, her husband and son (both played by Ralph Fiennes) have died, and Ehle morphs into her mother. That's where Harris takes over, playing the older Valerie, who's now the family matriarch. She's left to cope with life in a rapidly changing world, and to live with the only one of the family left, her grandson � also played by Fiennes.
Although the movie is about a Hungarian family and was filmed in Budapest, most of the leads are British. Ehle, however, is the exception. The daughter of novelist John Ehle, she's an American from North Carolina.
Ehle in Sunshine
Despite her stars and stripes, Ehle has lived in England, and attended London's Central School of Speech and Drama before working there in theater, TV and films. She had appeared in several movies and TV shows before her Tony-winning role in Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing came along. Until that star turn, she was probably best known here for her work in the BBC version of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice on the A&E cable network.
"I like working in England," says Ehle, who's tall and articulate, with strawberry-blond hair. "I like the idea that you can live in one city and do stage work and still do film and TV without leaving home. It's also very low-key, less pressure. And I like the self-deprecating way of the English. Also, I think there are better roles for females in Britain � you're less likely than here to end up as 'the girlfriend.'"
For Ehle, in fact, one of the perks of being an actor "is being able to go off and live in another country for a length of time, as I did [on Sunshine]. I enjoyed working with the Hungarian crew, though I think I learned maybe five words of Hungarian by the time I left there. It's a very strange, difficult language."
Although Sunshine took five months to shoot, Ehle deems it time well spent.
"This film really had me involved," she says, "and I enjoyed exploring the background of these people. Istvan Szabo, the director, is an incredible storyteller. Everything he does is focused on the story, and I like that, too."
Harris also loved the project.
"I knew it was a wonderful script," she says. "I had read it when Jennifer was offered it, so when they came and offered it to me, I had no hesitation at all accepting it. It was great to work with Jennifer, of course, and if she hadn't done it, I don't know if they would have wanted me. But it all worked out."
Mom raved about the location, too.
"It was lovely to work in Budapest," she says. "[Jennifer] had filmed there from June to September, and I picked up the baton from September to November. Our time didn't even overlap, except for the one night we spent in the same hotel when I arrived. We had time [together] later, when she had to come back for some additional filming. But my sisters came over from England to visit me, my husband came to visit me and I was never really lonely while I was there."
Mother and daughter 25 years ago
What's next? Harris' show � Noel Coward's Waiting in the Wings � recently closed, and she says she's just looking forward to going home to North Carolina. And what will she do there?
"I have no idea," Harris answers. "Clean out the attic, or something stimulating like that. Go home to my garden, seeing how much damage it's suffered from weeks of neglect. I suspect I'll be back [in New York] again also, because Jennifer will be here until her show closes."
Ehle, whose run in The Real Thing ends in August, also has no definite plans.
"I haven't really thought about that yet," she says. "I hope when the right thing comes along, I'll do it, but that hasn't surfaced yet. I think I just want to go home to London for a bit when this is over."
Wherever they go, they won't be without their friend Tony. Ehle, of course, has her first � but Harris has one, too. She snared Broadway's highest honor in 1966 � three years before Ehle was born � for starring in The Lion in Winter with Robert Preston. She's also won four Drama Desk Awards, an Emmy, a Golden Globe and an Obie, to name a few.
After winning her Tony on Sunday night, Ehle talked about the competition with her mother for the Best Actress honor. "We were getting dressed together to come [to the Awards ceremony], but we didn't really think either of us was going to win," she said. "I never thought of it as a competition, and neither did she. So we decided we were just going to enjoy ourselves while we're here."
It sounds as though they enjoyed themselves in Sunshine, too � even though they filmed their roles at different times.
"We didn't act together [in the movie]," Ehle says, "but we did make a person together."