This ‘Mother’ has everyone aflutter

No one ever coined the saying that life begins at 68. But given the extraordinary changes in the career of English actress Anne Reid this last year, she could be forgiven for seeing some truth in it.

Her earliest credits stretch to 1958, when she played bit parts in British TV series such as “The Adventures of Robin Hood.” She took some 15 years out of her career to take care of an ailing husband and an aging mother and to raise her son. But upon her return to work, she remained busy on stage, in TV and the occasional film in solid if unspectacular supporting parts.

That was until last year, when she finally landed her first lead -- in the title role of “The Mother,” a controversial, taboo-busting story, and overnight it made Reid a household name in Britain. She plays May, a newly widowed grandmother who embarks on a passionate affair, depicted on screen in sexually explicit terms, with a man in his 30s who is also sleeping with May’s daughter.

Directed by Roger Michell (“Notting Hill”) and written by Hanif Kureishi (“My Beautiful Laundrette”), the film, which opens Memorial Day weekend, became the subject of hundreds of column inches in the British media on the subject of older women’s sexuality -- a topic rarely discussed.

Reid has plenty to say on the subject. “Well, it’s not like your libido leaves you when you get older,” she insisted, pausing for maximum comic effect. “It would be a great relief if it did.

“I fancy young men all the time. It’s unfortunate; they don’t fancy me very often. But is it only me? It can’t be. I don’t see why (older women) should feel ashamed of that. It’s time we accepted it.”

Reid also feels older men are unfairly regarded differently. “Actors like Clint Eastwood and Robert Redford still do love scenes in films, and no one ever describes them as granddads. But with me, the media talked about this granny-type character having sex.”

She was named best actress by the London Film Critics for this performance and was nominated in the same category at the British Academy Awards (BAFTAs) and the European Film Awards. Finally, Reid had made a splash.

Perfectly ordinary

Reid seems an unlikely figure to enter such a controversy. She has strolled into the chic bar of a hotel in Bloomsbury, the district of central London where she has an apartment. Dressed for comfort in cardigan, sweater and slacks, she looks out of place among the young designer-clad clientele. A petite woman with graying blond hair, blue eyes and an amused gaze, Reid talks of her sudden emergence with a surprised air, but her self-deprecating wit is so dry that her humorous asides can go almost unnoticed. In short, she cuts an ordinary figure.

This was the very quality that made her ideal for the role, according to Kevin Loader, producer of “The Mother.” “May had to be someone you wouldn’t necessarily look twice at in the street,” he said. “When we first went to talk to financiers, we felt there was a list of bankable stars of that age, all of whom had played pretty racy roles earlier in their careers.”

Loader named no names, though one imagines Charlotte Rampling, Julie Christie and even Joan Collins were on that list. But he and Michell insisted on a lesser-known actress. Finally the BBC funded “The Mother” entirely and on their terms, at a modest $2.7 million budget.

“You need to come to May without any sexual assumptions at all,” Loader noted. “Casting a former sex symbol to play this part negates the point of the story.”

Indeed. The sex scenes between Reid and costar Daniel Craig (“Lara Croft: Tomb Raider,” “Sylvia”) are not designed to titillate; instead, these are characters brought together by affection, friendship and, in May’s case, loneliness. But the nonsensational nature of these scenes did not prevent Reid from feeling trepidation about them.

“I was very nervous beforehand,” she recalled. “The night before we shot those scenes, I went back to the flat where I was staying and sat and cried. I drank a bottle and a half of champagne and thought: ‘What are you thinking of?’ I took my clothes off, looked at myself in the mirror and thought, ‘You’re insane, woman, you can’t do this.’ ”

Finally she called her 32-year-old son, Mark, who is a film editor: “I was weeping on the phone. But he said, ‘Mom, it’s a wonderful part, and if you’re inhibited, the scenes aren’t going to work. You’ve got to go for it.’ So I did. On set next day, I made jokes, rather nervous gags. Daniel was very serious. He was lovely to work with, and so attractive, so it wasn’t exactly difficult. I had to keep reminding myself of our age difference, because there were days when I almost forgot it. And Roger is a terrific actors’ director. He encouraged me every day.”

Stop the stereotyping

Reid concedes the subject matter of “The Mother” makes it groundbreaking: “I suppose it is, in terms of entertainment. You can’t make people change their minds, but I think they are beginning to see older women as interesting.

“In Hollywood there’s a great army of actresses about to come into their 60s. [She mentions Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn and Susan Sarandon.] And they’re now realizing, this is not old. It seems to me they’ll keep flying the flag and fighting the age stereotyping. They’re not going to turn into invisible gray-haired old ladies, are they?”

Her own career exemplifies that fact. Reid graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in the 1950s and gravitated swiftly to television. Much of this work was eminently forgettable (on two episodes of “The Benny Hill Show,” she was one of several young women doomed to be chased by the star), but in 1961 she landed a role on the British prime time soap opera “Coronation Street” (which is still running) and stayed in it nine years. Such is the power of “Coronation Street” in the U.K. that people today still remember Reid from it and approach her to chat. She rolled her eyes at this. “It was a nice job, and it got me a car and a few decent [vacations],” she said wearily. “But it’s a long time ago, another lifetime, really.”

During its run, she married Peter Eckersley, head of drama at Granada Television, which produced “Coronation Street.” In 1972 she put her career on hold when her son was born. Then her mother fell ill and came to live with her, and Eckersley succumbed to cancer, dying at age 45.

“It took me a couple of years to get my breath back, and then I started work again,” Reid recalled. “I was about 50, and those important years in an actress’ life from 35 to 50 were lost to me. But don’t make me out to be a martyr. I wouldn’t have done anything differently.”

On resuming, she found that as an actress in her 50s she worked regularly. But she had no illusions about her status: “I had a few lines in a film called “Love and Death on Long Island, and my name was spelled wrongly on the credits. That shows you how famous I was.”

A turning point came in 2002 when she was cast in Peter Gill’s play “The York Realist” at London’s Royal Court theatre, and the heavy hitters of the theater world showed up on opening night. “Everyone who was anyone was there,” Reed mused. “After that I went and sang [in auditions] for Trevor Nunn and Cameron Mackintosh, I was offered a part in [the West End run of] ‘My Fair Lady.’ I got in to see people, and I wouldn’t have made it through their doors the year before.” Finally, Reid turned down a part in the film “Calendar Girls” (which ironically also would have required her to disrobe) in favor of the title role in “The Mother.”

Now she is embarking on another challenge. The Chichester Festival is staging the British premiere of Cole Porter’s 1950 musical “Out of This World” and Reid is headlining, playing Juno, “empress of all the gods.”

“It’s a huge adventure, pretending I can sing and dance,” she said. “It’s so hard to remember both the dancing steps and the words you have to sing. I’ll tell you, ‘Richard III’ would be a doddle after this. I’m hoping to turn into a performer as well as an actress -- but it’s not really in my nature.”

Loader is intrigued that Reid has taken an abrupt step sideways into musical comedy. “It’s a brave move on her part,” he said. “I wonder if she’d have felt bold enough to do it before she had played in ‘The Mother.’ Still, he believes Reid’s career can open up further from this point: “All it needs is for writers to start thinking about actresses of Anne’s age.”

For Reid’s part, she would jump at a role in a superior American sitcom; she watches reruns of “Cheers” daily at 8.30 a.m. and reveres writer-producer-director James L. Brooks: “I’ve seen ‘As Good as It Gets’ and ‘Broadcast News’ more times than I can remember.” Disarmingly, she admits to another plan: “I think I’d like to get my chin done.”

And no, she isn’t in a relationship: “I live alone. I’m not very good at relationships. It’s unlikely to happen to me now, but you never know. I’m a complete optimist. After this year, I think anything’s possible.” She pondered this, then a thought struck her: “Do you know anybody?”