‘Guardian’s’ Gardener

It wasn’t her background in classical theater that equipped Jenny Seagrove to play the title role in William Friedkin’s new horror film, “The Guardian.” It wasn’t her experience with Shakespeare and Ibsen, her work in Laurence Olivier’s Chichester Festival Theatre.

According to Seagrove, what prepared her for the part--a nanny with the nasty habit of sacrificing babies to a tree inhabited by a malevolent spirit--was gardening.

“I have immense sympathy for trees,” says the actress with a not-altogether-joking earnestness in her voice. “I really believe that they have got feelings . . . I’ve actually put my arms around them and hugged them. But then I’m dotty about plants and animals. I just love them.”

The nudity required in her role--and there is a lot of it--was more difficult. “It was the first time I did nudity in a film,” she notes. “But I thought, ‘Well, it’s integral to the part. Get on and do it.’ Since other members of the cast had to do something nude at some point in time, we had a kind of camaraderie about it: ‘Hey, it’s your turn today, tee-hee.’ ”

Born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the daughter of an import-export dealer, Seagrove “moved around the Far East until I was 9 and was sent to an English boarding school.” After graduating, she went on to three years of study at Bristol’s distinguished Old Vic Theatre School, then two years of study work in the theater, before David Puttnam tapped her for the leading female role in his acclaimed 1983 film, “Local Hero.”

Working with director Friedkin was the key attraction in taking her “The Guardian” role, she says. But while she’s a fan of Friedkin’s, she’s not a lover of the horror genre as a whole.

“I’m too much of a coward to go to horror films. I get frightened easily and I have nightmares afterward. I hate to admit that, because I should really say, ‘Everybody must go see our film.’ But it’s true.”