Sophia Loren adds, echoing the entire casts’ sentiments: “Daniel is one of the best: scary, intimidating, hypnotic, beautiful, magnetic… unforgettable!”
Surrounding Day-Lewis—and alternately seducing and unsettling his character—in NINE is a knock-out ensemble of sexy, strong, glamorous women, each with her own vital role to play in helping Guido find his way through his creative maelstrom.
The roster begins with Oscar® winner, Marion Cotillard—who stirred audiences with her lifelike performance as Edith Piaf in LA VIE EN ROSE—takes on the role of Luisa, Guido’s long-devoted and long-suffering wife. Luisa was once his leading lady, and is still the woman Guido can’t live without, but now she has taken a back seat to the many other temptations in his life. She is acutely aware there will always be a price to pay for loving a creative artist like Guido, as she confesses in her number, “My Husband Makes Movies” and the new, heart-wrenching number “Take It All”—but his behavior brings her to the brink of a momentous decision.
In preparing for the role, Cotillard thought a lot about her character’s motivations and her life before Guido. “Luisa was an actress when she met Guido. I think she dedicated her life to him, because their love was stronger—at that time—than her ambitions as an actress. Now she feels she has given everything to this man,” she explains.
Continues Cotillard, “In the time they have been together, Luisa has accepted many things about Guido. He is a director. He loves women. He needs women. He takes love and energy from these women. He needs Luisa, but he doesn’t fully realize that she must have something in return. Luisa gives everything to Guido, but she has reached a crossroad where she has to decide.”
Guido’s irresistibly lusty yet delicately needy mistress, Carla, played by Penélope Cruz, who won the 2008 Academy Award® for Best Supporting Actress for another incendiary role inVICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA.
Cruz was instantly attracted to Carla’s colorful role in Guido’s life, as the woman who intends to battle for him, no matter the cost. “Carla has hope, conflict and pain in her relationship with Guido,” Cruzobserves.“When she is around him she feels alive, because he makes her feel special, but it’s a real roller coaster with him and he also causes Carla a lot of grief. Their relationship has been going on for some years and I think she simply can’t let go. She sees only what she wants to see in Guido. She feels ready to fight for him to the end.”
Cruz threw herself heart and soul into NINE, and says she was constantly inspired to go further by her director and fellow cast members. “This film has been an incredible experience and most of that is because of Rob Marshall,” she says. “He has a brilliant talent and generosity. He sees everything, yet he manages to be honest with everyone. He only wants to bring the best out of everybody. We had all of these women working together, and he made each of us all feel special, every minute of the day.”
She relished the chance to sing and dance, especially in the provocative number “Call From the Vatican.” “We rehearsed for weeks and weeks, which I loved, and then when we shot the number, I was so sad, because I knew I would never get to do it again,” she confesses.
Another woman who has long been in a slippery, symbiotic relationship with Guido is his inspiration and muse, the international film star Claudia Jenssen. They have built their stellar careers with each other, but now, as Guido grows desperate for inspiration, Claudia does the unthinkable: she turns down the lead role in his film.
Starring as Claudia is Oscar® winner Nicole Kidman, whose diversity of roles has spanned from Virginia Woolf in THE HOURS to a an overwrought modern New Englander in MARGOT AT THE WEDDING. She also starred in another innovative film that helped to kick-start the modern era of the re-imagined Hollywood musical: MOULIN ROUGE. In NINE, Kidman gets to sing the most recognizable song “Unusual Way,” recently recorded by Barbara Streisand.
Kidman recalls being instantly energized by the themes at the core of NINE. “It’s the study of a man who’s having a breakdown and looking for resurrection—and all the women in his life. It’s about artistic and human nature, about the crimes and lies Guido has committed, and his search for his lost authenticity and decency,” she says.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
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