FEATURE
gabrielle anwar
life is too short not to laugh
| BY HELÉNE RAMACKERS FASHION COURTESY OF FABIANA FILIPPI
A
geless beauty, timeless style, dignified grace, unparalleled wit and astute intelligence are just not enough superlatives to describe the phenomenon that is Gabrielle Anwar. Upscale Living magazine spoke exclusively to her about her fashion sense, being her best self at 50, the challenges of raising three children and releasing a film that was shot 15 years ago. Gabrielle, you were born in Surrey, England. What are your fondest memories of your formative years? My parents were terribly bohemian and raised my brother and me in an artistic environment laced with atypical experiences. We helped my father build our house for example, literally laying bricks with cement and stomping the foundation dressed in nothing but our Wellington boots. My mother went back to college when I began preschool, she earned her teaching degree, specializing in Dyslexia which my brother suffered from. He and I were her willing guineapigs, covered in papier-mâché, or poster paint most days, delighting in the inevitable adventure. We had a book I would delve into periodically called, “101 Things To Do.” We were never bored, a sentiment I have continued with my own children, there’s no excuse for a human to ever be bored! You come from a talented family – mom is an actress and dad a film producer and editor. Was becoming an actress a natural progression for you? I became an actress by default. I had been removed from my high school due to a rather strong desire to rebel against the system. My mother home schooled me while I recovered from a nasty incident where my face was broken by a particularly unpleasant classmate. During this time, my mother who was a trained actress and ballet dancer taught me various dramatic pieces, song and dance. I excelled in these areas compared to the academic strictures I did not organically gravitate toward. I auditioned at Italia Conti, a vo-
cational performing arts school in London and was accepted. Two years later, when I was 15, I auditioned for a BBC drama and was so characteristically nervous that I sat on the table instead of the chair. I was immediately cast as an “awkward teen”. While away on location in England, I fell in love with the independence, the creative process, the lack of peers to torment me, and of course the cash with which to buy my first stereo system. The rest is history. How do you adapt to portraying your characters in a believable way – the sultry Donna in Scent of a Woman to the no-nonsense sexy Fiona in Burn Notice? I am drawn to women who are well written. Sadly, up until very recently most green lit screenplays/TV shows were written by men, so I automatically question the depth of the female roles. Objectivity is so overwhelmingly obvious on our screens, that I am repelled by most of what I read! One of the reasons I began writing material was to appease my frustration with the anachronistic content. Even though Scent of A Woman was filmed in 1992, it’s a classic that is an absolute essential part of a movie collection. What was it like starring opposite Al Pacino? Al was extremely kind to me. To this day when we see one another we have a tremendous appreciation for each other. He infused our single scene with improvisation and spontaneity which was both exciting and terrifying. Marty Breast was an exceptional director who, unlike most I have worked with, was motivated by the artistic evolution of film making, rather than an egoic descent into sadism! What film genre is your favorite to star in? It’s been a while since I’ve starred in a film. This is a very fickle business and often talent and bankability do not go hand in hand.
13 | UPSCALE LIVING MAGAZINE | JANUARY 2021