On Movies: Tom Courtenay on the magic of acting in '45 Years'

The pairing of Tom Courtenay and Charlotte Rampling in 45 Years, Andrew Haigh's pitch-perfect portrait of a long and seemingly solid marriage, is a first. The English actor, who rode the British New Wave to acclaim way back in the '60s, and Rampling, the icy beauty whose early iconic roles include The Damned and The Night Porter, had never worked together. Ever.

It could have been otherwise, Courtenay reports, if he had taken the role offered to him in what turned out to be one of those Swinging London essentials, 1967's Georgy Girl. The actor was first choice for the part Alan Bates ended up taking, as the boyfriend of the flatmate of Lynn Redgrave's title character. Said flatmate, a beautiful violinist, was played by, yes, Rampling.

"I was offered Georgy Girl. I didn't accept it," said Courtenay, who had taken the leads in The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner and Billy Liar a few years earlier. Those two films, directed by Tony Richardson and John Schlesinger, respectively, are landmarks - black-and-white gems about rebellious youth shaking up the status quo.

"It's very strange, you have this idea - and I had this idea before I met Tom and Charlotte, that they had to know each other, they had to be like best friends," said director Haigh, seated alongside Courtenay in a Toronto hotel room last fall. 45 Years, which opened Friday at the Ritz Five, had its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September.

"But when I found that they in fact weren't friends at all, it was kind of perfect," Haigh continued. "It was amazing to me that they had this wealth of cinematic history that could play into their characters, but at the same time you hadn't seen them together, so you hadn't a memory of them in another film, another relationship."

In 45 Years - which won Courtenay and Rampling the top acting prizes at the Berlin Film Festival last year - the quiet life of the retired couple, Geoff and Kate Mercer, is upended with the delivery of a letter from Switzerland. Long ago, before Geoff had even met Kate, he was trekking across Europe with a German girl. There was an accident in the Swiss Alps. That was the last he ever saw of her.

Now, in the week leading up to a big anniversary fete in honor of Geoff and Kate, news from afar threatens the comfortable bond between husband and wife.

A husband and wife, who, as played by Courtenay and Rampling, appear real in every way - their daily routines and rituals, the mugs they sip their tea from, the way they sit at a table, or watch TV, or go strolling with the dog. The actors must have gone off and rehearsed for weeks to get all the details right, no?

No.

"We had one day where we read our scenes through, and then Charlotte and I went off for a drink, and that was it," Courtenay said. "Someone was saying there was an American actor and actress - I don't know who they were - and they were going to play a couple in a film so they decided they'd live together for six weeks before. Charlotte and I just laughed at that.

"The good thing, for me, about rehearsing in a film is that you don't rehearse. You sit at a table, you get to know the people around you, and then the costume lady comes in and, 'Oh, what time do we start?' . . . It's not the same as being in a play, where you build it in those weeks [of rehearsal] and shove it on, desperate, and hope to find out what it's all about."

Courtenay has done more than his fair share of the latter over the years. Unlike Albert Finney, say, one of his contemporaries from the burgeoning British film scene of the '60s, Courtenay made a choice to pursue stage over screen, working with esteemed companies in Manchester and London.

There were film roles, too - Doctor Zhivago in 1965, The Dresser in '83 (with Finney), and others less notable. But the stage is where Courtenay found his calling.

"Perversely, I don't want to do that anymore," he said. "Don't ask me why. It seems very clear to me. . . . I think I denied myself [film work] on purpose. I think I overdid it. I should have done a couple of things more than I have - I'd have been richer, for one thing.

"So now I'm going the other way and just welcoming whatever - not whatever comes along. But a few things. But there won't be much as precious as this, I don't think."

This, 45 Years, is a film actor's dream. Adapted from a short story ("In Another Country," by David Constantine), it gives Courtenay and Rampling (nominated for a best actress Oscar) the opportunity to reach down into their souls. They emerge, fully inhabiting the lives of these other, fictional beings.

Is that something they talked about, Courtenay and Rampling and Haigh - how to make these imaginary lives real?

"Not really," the actor said. "Too much talking can just destroy something special - you can talk it to death, really. And you're dealing with a bit of magic, anyway. Because if there isn't a bit of magic, you might as well stay at home."

Documentary in the making. Rel Dowdell, the Philadelphia filmmaker behind Train Ride and Changing the Game, is shooting the nonfiction Where's Daddy in the area. The film examines the child-support system, and how court-imposed obligations affect men, women, children, and the black community as a whole. Dowdell directs. Former Eagles receiver Fred Barnett, hip-hop artist Freeway, and Bill Ellerbee, a former assistant basketball coach at Temple, are among those set to appear.

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