IMDb file: Julia Ormond likes playing characters with issues

“I’m always more interested in playing characters with flaws,” Julia Ormond says. “I always look for great writing, because without great writing, you really are stuck. A great story is something you recognize when you see it, and it either resonates with you or it doesn’t.”

The British actress, 53, has a history of great stories about women with a lot of issues, but she’s always tried to keep each character and project distinct and unique.

“For a long time, I felt like there were themes in the characters I was given that I had to resist — I always seemed to cry and die,” she notes. “And then for a while, particularly in American films, I was playing a woman who was between more than one man, which I really had to fight against in terms of being typecast.”

Ormond’s latest project is a four-part remake of “Howards End” for Starz, which was directed by Hettie Macdonald and adapted by Kenneth Lonergan (“Manchester by the Sea.”). She plays Mrs. Wilcox, a matriarch caught in the tradition of the times.

Next, Ormond is shooting a comedy, which is a purposeful effort to veer in a new direction. “I look for something that shakes off any preconceived ideas,” she says. “You’re almost looking for the thing that would not be expected for you.”

Here Ormond discusses some of her most memorable work, including “Legends of the Fall” and “Mad Men.”

“Howards End,” Mrs. Wilcox (2017)

“What I loved about ‘Howards End’ was this dynamic [E.M.] Forster has in his novels of human connection being something that is present in every era. In particular, in this story, Margaret and Mrs. Wilcox really are quite strange friends. They have different political views, but they have this human connection that I believe is a big part of what the story’s about. And it’s quite challenging to play somebody who doesn’t believe in votes for women and who is just going along with her husband’s viewpoint.”

“Mad Men,” Marie Calvet (2012-2015)

“‘Mad Men’ was one of my favorite shows, so it was like being a kid at Disneyland going to work every day. It was a huge compliment to be cast in it, and I can honestly say that Marie was one of the most interesting characters I’ve ever gotten to play — and one of the most fun. You have this fear of ‘Oh, my God, what’s going to happen to me when I get relegated to mother roles?’ And now I was playing a grandmother. But she was one of the most exciting characters I’ve been asked to play.”

“My Week With Marilyn,” Vivien Leigh (2011)

“She was in her 40s rather than her 20s, so that gave me a little bit of license. I think you have to do your research. I learned that there was a difference with Vivien in terms of her public, acting voice and her personal, private voice. There were different levels of how she projected herself. My regret in the storytelling of that is that it was never revealed that it was actually Vivien who suggested that Marilyn should play her. I don’t think it was covered in the script — that it was her idea.”

“Temple Grandin,” Eustacia (2010)

“I loved playing it, and I still have a relationship with Eustacia Cutler, who is Temple’s mom. I connected with her after the filming. What I remember about that role was leaning into the tough decisions she had to make as a mother. Claire [Danes] was so exceptional in the way she delivered this performance. I remember on a daily basis this courageous journey she went on. There was this living grace of hope for your relationship with your child. There’s this extraordinary moment when your child is able to acknowledge that you as a parent were giving them tough love or doing the right thing by them even though it felt like it sucked at the time.”

“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” Caroline (2008)

“What I loved about that [was that director David] Fincher got to show me the entire movie, start to finish, without my bit. He cut the whole thing together into an edit and showed it to me so that we had a sense of ‘This is what we come out of when we come into the Caroline bit.’ I had this very intense time of just filming the hospital stuff with Cate [Blanchett]. She was so powerful that people, after the film came out, asked who played the elderly woman.”

“Sabrina,” Sabrina Fairchild (1995)

“Coming from England, we have a different sense of rigor around remakes, and I think it’s because of our relationship to theater. There’s nothing wrong or taboo about remaking a classic. I came from that perspective when this job offer came along with Sydney Pollack and Harrison Ford. I was really eager to do something that was more of a romantic comedy than a tragedy. It was only after, in America, when I got to New York to film, that people were like, ‘Oh, you’re doing a remake of “Sabrina.”’ You realized the extent to which it was going to be challenging for people. It was a lot of pressure, but I learned so much from working with Sydney. Even knowing the level of pressure, I would probably do it all over again.”

“First Knight,” Guinevere (1995)

“I had a lot of fun with Sean [Connery], who has the arrested development of a 6-year-old, and is very, very funny. I loved working with him. I’m a sucker for any film that has horse riding in it. And my paternal family is from Wales, and of all the locations [director] Jerry Zucker looked at for the film, he selected a valley in Wales I’d visited growing up. It felt like there were some strange connections in it for me.”

“Legends of the Fall,” Susannah Fincannon (1994)

“What I remember about that was this extraordinary setting and having a blast with a very fun, very warm cast. I have three brothers, so there was something very familiar about these three guys. And we all got on really well. I was living in London at the time and got flown out to Canada to this Native American reserve that was this beautiful countryside. We each had our own horse in the barn, so every time there was downtime from filming, they would let me go ride. They would give us a walkie-talkie and tell us when we were in the shot. It was the most extraordinary time.”

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