Date: October 8, 2002
Written by: Claudia Puig
Source: Noelle's Michelle Pfeiffer Page
Alison Lohman showed up for her White Oleander audition sporting a look few other actresses would dare
"I had a shaved head at the time," she says. "I truly didn't think I'd get the part because of my bald head."
It was no fashion statement. Lohman, 23, had just played a leukemia patient in Dragonfly. (Her part in that movie,
like her locks, was cut.)
Despite her baldness, she got the part in Oleander, beating out 400 other actresses. (For the movie, which
opens Friday, she sports a bevy of hairstyles because her character is a teen chameleon who often changes
her appearance.)
"The single most important thing I was looking for in casting her was stillness," director Peter Kosminsky says. "She
needed to have a sense of 'still waters run deep' for that character. It was that sense of layers, the
quality of an observer as well as consummate acting," that clinched the deal.
Lohman's co-stars are far more experienced actresses -- Michelle Pfeiffer, Robin Wright Penn and Renee Zellweger. "A
number of people have said that despite these really memorable performances, Alison really stands out," Kosminsky says.
Lohman, a native of Palm Desert, Calif., began acting in local theater at 10 and has made a TV movie and a few
little-seen films. Oleander, which is based on the best seller by Janet Fitch, is her biggest role. Her first
paid performance was as a telepathic girl in the low-budget Kraa! the Sea Monster. "I wore a blue spandex outfit
and a gold belt," she says. "It was goofy and off-the-wall, but I love doing things like that."
Lohman was eager to learn from actresses she had long admired. A self-described 'shy person,' she received some
valuable advice from the also reserved Pfeiffer, who plays her mother in this story of a young woman
who bounces among foster homes after Mom is imprisoned.
"One of the reasons I've hesitated to be an actor is you have to do talk shows and interviews," Lohman says. "I'm really
a private person and not into telling everything about me. Michelle told me to think of (doing publicity) as
the work and acting as the fun part."
She'll have more such work to contend with soon after she finishes filming Matchstick Men, in which
she plays Nicolas Cage's temperamental daughter.
Her challenge in White Oleander was to portray a teenager believably. She ages from 14 to 19 over the course
of the movie.
"She's so young and so impressionable," Lohman says of her character "There's an innocence and a vulnerability
that you almost can't really manufacture. It's like a look in the eye that a young girl has that a 23-year-old doesn't."
|
|
Delirious
Out now in the US
Playing K'Harma Leeds
Director: Tom DiCillo
Photos | Trailer | More
Official Site | Buy DVD
Things We Lost In The..
Out October 19th 2007
Playing Kelly
Director: Susanne Bier
Photos | Trailer |
More
Official Site | Buy DVD
Beowulf
Out November 29 2007
Playing Ursula
Dir: Robert Zemeckis
Photos | Trailer |
More
Official Site | Buy DVD
Also Coming Soon
Under The Blue Sky (2008)
Game (2009)
Copyright © 2006-2007
A-Lohman.com is a non-profit, non-official fansite with no contact with Ms. Lohman. Content may be downloaded for private and educational use only.
This site is made as an educational resource to provide information on Ms. Lohman's career. We have no financial gain from this fan site and no infringements are ever intended.
All images and text copyright to their owners. We are proudly hosted at Fan-Sites.org. Please add our site to your bookmarks. This fan site is owned and operated by April. STALKERAZZI
Users Online [ Stats ]
|
