| Actress's life took dramatic turn in college
Author: Nancy Mills Thirteen years ago, Alice Krige made a decision that radically changed her life. The daughter of a South African doctor and a clinical psychologist, she had spent four years at Rhodes University studying psychology. Almost as a lark she took a drama course, and suddenly she realized that she didn't want to be a psychologist anymore. She wanted to be an actress. A lot of young people make such decisions. But in Krige's case, her career change became the impetus to leave South Africa forever. "I felt I needed a lot of outside input from many sources to grow," she says. "The challenges were greater in Europe and America." Today, Krige has established herself as a leading lady of note. In her latest movie, "See You in the Morning," she plays a widow with two children who marries a divorced psychiatrist (Jeff Bridges). "I was very moved by the script," Krige said over a cup of tea and a toasted English muffin in Los Angeles. "It's about trying to cope with things that you do in your life that don't work out for you. My character, Beth, is bowed to the earth with guilt. She feels she can never be a good enough mother, a good enough wife. What happens is she gets into a relationship with a man who helps turn that around. But it's so difficult to change. You think you've changed, and suddenly you're back there doing the same old thing. It's that process of taking two steps forward and one back, then maybe a few steps sideways and a few more steps forward." "I find that enormously moving -- how people help each other. Jeff's character is immensely loving toward her. He gentles her into pursuing her own work and helps her look at her fears. And she in turn helps him. For me, it captures what families do to each other. Beth sets impossible standards for her children. As she begins to see clearly what she's doing and its consequences and she tries to change, you know the burden will be on her children." Krige is attracted to serious projects. Partly it's because of her upbringing. Besides her father and mother, her two brothers are doctors. "My family helps people on a daily basis," she says. "My mother tells me that I make people feel better. But," she worries, "acting doesn't carry the weight that the work my family does." So Krige, 34, says things like, "I'm not desperately interested in being in big films or earning a lot of money. I hope I never get to the point where I don't have to worry about money anymore. I want to make films that illuminate people, that take them somewhere." Up until now, her only box-office hit has been "Chariots of Fire," a role she got just as she was completing her studies at England's Central School of Speech and Drama. Since then, she has appeared in "Ghost Story," "King David," "Barfly" and "Haunted Summer," plus such television productions as "Wallenberg," "Second Serve," "Ellis Island" and "Dream West." People tend to recognize the high-cheek-boned actress but don't quite know her name. "I won't do silly things," she says, "and I don't get sent characters that are funny or lighthearted." She plays "the straight guy" in her next film, a not-yet-titled black comedy with Diane Ladd, Robert Loggia, Brian Kerwin and David Warner. The project closest to her heart right now, however, is a low-budget English feature she is trying to produce with her husband, director Paul Schoolman. Set in Dartmoor Prison, it grew out of acting workshops the couple organized for inmates, many of whom will be in the film. Krige describes it as "a piece about the ethics of dictatorship. When do you cease to become a dictator and become a criminal? There's a very small part I could play, but that's not the point. It's a project I care about enormously, and I'm doing whatever I can to facilitate its being made." Perhaps it will help soothe the ache she feels about having left her homeland. "South Africa is an immensely confusing and painful place," she says softly. "It is very difficult to live in a society that obliges you to conduct your relationships to other human beings in a certain way. But my family and I were very close, so it was very difficult for me to leave." She has chosen not to go back except for an occasional family visit. "It's very difficult to live in a society structured that way and not compromise in what you believe is right," she says. "However, part of me feels -- and I know my father feels -- that if you're white and liberal and educated, you should be there helping make changes." Krige credits her mother with giving her the courage to follow where her career led. "My mother was a social worker when she married my father," she says. "They went into a desolate part of South Africa and started a practice. She ran the family and the financial side. Then when I was 13, she went back to university with my father's love and encouragement and got several degrees. She's a very accomplished, compassionate therapist who has made a difference in a lot of people's lives. To have a vital mother who pursued her work with such a passion is probably why it seemed quite natural for me to go off and pursue acting in England. It just seemed the way to be." May 2, 1989 Copyright (c) 1989, The Daily Breeze |