Actresses bond over controversial roles

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This article was published 07/10/2010 (5840 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When she was a kid, Nichola Burley wasn’t particularly interested in acting. She wanted to become a dancer like her mom.

The 24-year-old actress from Leeds got to conjoin the two professions in the role of Carly, a savvy move-bustin’ dancer in Streetdance 3D (now playing at Polo Park Silver City).

In the movie, her character blends her street-dance crew with some students at a posh London ballet school run by the elegant Helena (Charlotte Rampling).

The movie may not have presented Burley with any kind of culture shock. Burley is herself a former ballet student, and she’s the first to admit the film’s friction between classic and non-classic dancers is entirely contrived.

On the other hand, Burley does allow she experienced some inter-generational enlightenment from Rampling, a 64-year-old actress who last did a nude scene in the 2003 film Swimming Pool.

“I had never even heard of Charlotte beforehand,” Burley says.

“They said, ‘Charlotte would like to meet you before we start filming. She’d like to get to know what you’re like.’

“So we went out to dinner,” Burley says.

The two actresses found some common ground. Last year, Burley appeared in the controversial horror thriller Donkey Punch, a battle of the sexes on a yacht that’s initiated when one of Burley’s female chums becomes the fatal victim of the titular sex crime.

For her part, Rampling has acted in her share of controversial films, most notably the kinky 1974 drama The Night Porter, in which she played a masochistic concentration camp survivor who re-engages in a relationship with a German army officer working incognito at a hotel.

“She’s not bothered or afraid to speak about the controversial things she’s done,” Burley says.

“And she gave me advice and help on those kinds of things and I was eager to see how she dealt with it all.

“She did admit she was scared about doing all those kinds of things, but it was something she wanted to do at the same time. I think that it was liberating for her to do that. She’s a beautiful woman and she’s very in control of what she does.

“She was telling me, if you never want to do anything like that, then don’t do it,” Burley says.

Burely took the advice to heart.

“It’s our job as actors to become someone else, but more than anything, we’re real people and everyone has limitations. I think she kind of confirmed that it’s fine to feel that and you should never be afraid to speak out when you are uncomfortable with something.

“And then again, if it works for you, then go for it.”

randall.king@freepress.mb.ca