Basking In the Glow of Attention

“Oh, yes, thank you. Thank you. All hell has broken loose here. Yes, it’s been 32 years. No, I haven’t thought about a frock yet.”

It’s 7 a.m. and Lynn Redgrave is talking into two telephones--a press interview and a personal call, congratulating her and soliciting her reaction to a nomination as best supporting actress for “Gods and Monsters,” in which she plays a slightly wacky Hungarian maid to a has-been Hollywood director. It’s the 55-year-old actress’ second Oscar nomination, the first being a best actress nod for “Georgy Girl” way back in 1967.

It’s been a long wait. In between there were many career ups and downs, three children, bankruptcy and a long spell during which the phone never rang. “So this one’s particularly sweet,” says her husband and manager, John Clark, who is still tooling around in his white terry-cloth bathrobe.

Television camera crews start to arrive at her rustic Topanga Canyon compound: “Entertainment Tonight,” “Access Hollywood,” the E! channel (with a bottle of special E! champagne) and British television--backed up like cars in rush hour on the Ventura Freeway on this chilly, rainy morning in Southern California. In between, there are calls from People, USA Today and the like.

Redgrave has been up and dressed since 4:50 a.m., operating on little sleep, having spent the previous evening at the premiere of the new Kevin Costner film, “Message in a Bottle.” “I didn’t get in until after midnight,” she says. Clark monitors the phones as his wife rushes upstairs to put on makeup.

“Darling, come here fast,” Clark intones. “Sam Rubin is ready to talk to you live.”

Redgrave rushes down the steps, and while she’s waiting for the connection to go through (“I can hear him, but he can’t hear me,” she says), she pinpoints her reaction to the reading of the nominations, shortly after 5:30 a.m. “Mine was the last name read,” she says. “I was having tea. John and Annabel [her 17-year-old daughter] were sitting next to me. I turned away, and then I heard my name. I just took another sip of tea and tried to regain my composure.”

Redgrave did her first phone interview, with CNN, within minutes. Her first congratulatory call came from fellow nominee James Coburn, who received his first supporting nomination for “Affliction”--and with whom she had co-starred in 1970 in “Last of the Mobile Hot-Shots.” She then dialed England and left a message for her “Gods” co-star Ian McKellen (who was nominated for best actor) as he was preparing for a new production of “The Tempest.” She also left a message for Geoffrey Rush at his hotel in Los Angeles. Her Oscar-winning “Shine” co-star was also nominated this year in the supporting category for “Shakespeare in Love.” “The hotel said he wasn’t receiving calls until 9:30 a.m.” She rolls her eyes and laughs. “I bet.”

Finally, the connection with Rubin is established. “I’m happy for Ian and Bill [Condon, the “Gods and Monsters” writer-director],” she tells the KTLA-TV entertainment reporter. “Bill got a writing nomination, and I wanted him to get director and picture, too. But we can’t be greedy.”

Thirty-two years ago, there were no live feeds from the academy. Redgrave was in New York rehearsing with Geraldine Page and a pre-”Phantom” Michael Crawford for Peter Shaffer’s Broadway play “Black Comedy.” “I think I read about it in the New York Times, which means it was the next day,” she says of her first Oscar nomination.

Memories of Oscar night, however, are quite vivid. Redgrave attended the 1967 Oscar ceremonies at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium with her mother, actress Rachel Kempson, and sister Vanessa, who was also nominated that year for “Morgan!” (Elizabeth Taylor, the sole American nominee, won for “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”)

“I remember we were sitting in a limo watching the arrivals on a little TV. It was so thrilling. I didn’t realize then how fleeting and how rare this all was.”

The phone rings again and Clark is off getting dressed. “Hello?” she says, picking up the telephone. “Yes, you have actually reached Lynn Redgrave. Thank you, thank you. How kind.”

As the “E.T.” crew sets up, she grabs the phone again. This time it’s her son--”Ben, the airline pilot,” she crows proudly. “Thank you, darling. I’ll phone you from New York tomorrow. I love you.”

One TV interview follows another, and Redgrave manages to give them each individualized sound bites. You wonder how long she can spin different versions of the same story since she’s headed off to New York for more interviews and then to England, where “Gods and Monsters” debuts in late March.

To the inevitable questions about what she’s going to wear, she replies, “I don’t know yet. I only know that I want it to be comfortable, because the whole day starts at 2 in the afternoon and I want to relish every moment. I don’t want to remember that my shoes hurt or my dress was uncomfortable. It could be another 32 years.”

Without “Shine” there would have been no “Gods and Monsters,” she admits. And without “Shakespeare for My Father,” she probably would not have been cast in either film. There was a period after her failed and financially ruinous lawsuit against Universal on the series “House Calls” in the early ‘80s (the studio refused to allow her to bring her infant daughter to the set for breast feeding) when Redgrave disappeared. For six years, there were no scripts, she says. She had been forgotten. So she decided to write a one-woman show for herself: “Shakespeare for My Father,” a purely pragmatic idea, which became a surprise Broadway hit. “Shine” director Scott Hicks caught it on tour in Houston and offered her “Shine.” Condon saw it three times and had to have her for “Gods and Monsters.”

Redgrave is back and doesn’t even pretend to be nonchalant about once again having a place at the Hollywood table. She has two films in the can and starts another in March with James Earl Jones, a drama called “The Annihilation of Fish.” A few days ago, she was leafing through an Oscar trivia book, glancing at the names of nominated performers and winners, some of whom now inhabit the “whatever happened to?” hall of fame.

“I realize now how lucky I am to still be working after 37 years as an actress,” she says, and goes off to do yet another TV interview.

By late morning, the phones still haven’t stopped ringing. She’s again juggling two calls. “Thank you. How sweet of you to call. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”