the shadow of your shadow

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Helen McCrory as Mama Jeanne in the Oscar nominated Hugo. 

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Helen McCrory says her dream as an actress has come true, after she got to work with Martin Scorsese on his latest movie, “Hugo.” The film, which has just been released in the U.K. and will open across Europe over the next couple of weeks, tells the story of a young orphan, Hugo Cabret, and his adventures as he tries to unravel a mystery.
“The mystery is something that has to do with cinema, which is why Scorsese wanted to be involved in it all, because he’s a cinephile,” says the award-winning actress who trained at London’s Drama Centre. “It was a great privilege [to work with Scorsese]. I got to improvise with him. It doesn’t get better than that.”
The 43-year-old actress, whose past roles have included the character Narcissa Malfoy in several Harry Potter movies, also recently got a call from director Sam Mendes asking her to take part in “Skyfall,” the next James Bond film. She said yes right away. “I told Sam I am going to do it even if my line is ‘Your table for two is ready.’”

How does your weekend start?
There is never a habitual regime, but there is delight in the household because my children, Manon (5) and Gulliver (4), understand that there’s no school. This means that their horrible mother allows them to watch television because they are not allowed during the week. The first thing they want to do is glue themselves in front of the TV. We also have cinema night and we all make our own popcorn and we make pizza. It’s a real treat. They both love seafood like octopus and calamari. We all sit down and watch a film or something.
Do you ever go out just with your husband?
Yes. [Actor] Damian [Lewis] and I go out a lot. I like the theater a lot. I like anything if it’s live… from Country and Western [to] Chinese opera. The last piece of theater I went to see was “Anna Christie” at the Donmar Warehouse with Jude [Law], Ruth [Wilson] and David Hayman. They are friends of ours. After the theater, we would then go to a restaurant.
Do you have a favorite restaurant?
I really love the Salt Yard. It’s got very good tapas and a great wine list. If you don’t have much time, you can just get some cheese, ham and a bottle of red wine. Or, if you want to go there earlier, you can have a big, long meal.
Will you sometimes cook at home on a Friday night?
A lot of the time we would actually just cook. The kids are in bed and I will come downstairs and cook. We have a record player in the kitchen and we always find a new vinyl. We would put it on and listen to new records. And to actually listen to a whole album is great. I got the [reggae band] Burning Spear and we listened to that. We had a glass of wine and Damian made some fish cakes. We sit and chat and just hang out.
What’s your Saturday routine like?
We usually go out to the Heath [in Hampstead]. We live quite near there. We are outdoorsy and we would often go out with other gangs of children. In the area we live, there’s a large show of children who run from one house to another house to another house. That’s lovely because it means all the children play together, and all the adults get to sit around and have coffees and read the papers or go to the park. We can all sit and chat, and they can all run riot.
Do you have some time for yourself?
The only time I ever spend alone is when I am working or when my husband is away filming. I put the kids to bed and have an hour and a half in the evening for myself. I listen to Radio 4 all the time. I didn’t go to university, so that’s my further education.
What would you do more of if you had time?
It’s nice to sit down and read the whole of whatever magazine I am reading with a cup of coffee. Then you are like: Wow! I actually read the whole magazine. But to be honest, my husband and my children are my best friends. I am just aware that these are the golden years. There’s a time in your life when you are incredibly happy and then are times that are shit. And the shit will come again, because that’s life. I am aware that this is a good time. So I am celebrating that. I am the happiest I have ever been.

“So often when you meet child actors they’re weird, they’re freaks. No, I mean it, they’re really odd people. Because they have a very weird life that as an adult you can just about get your head around. And you still much meet really weird manics on these red carpets- I’ve certainly worked with them. For a child to go through that and not end up very strange is really exceptional, and [Asa Butterfield]’s managed it. He’s a very bright boy which comes across on screen but has served him well in life.”

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It is nine-all on the outdoor table-tennis table in Regent’s Park, London, a score arrived at somewhat chaotically due to the fallen autumn debris on the playing surface. The match began with Helen McCrory protesting a lack of interest in the score, but things have become more intense as the winning 11-point mark approaches, and the 43-year-old actor (soon to appear as a Parisian grande dame in Martin Scorsese’s Hugo) has put on glasses. She’s stubbed out her cigarillo. As a shot missiles by she says, “Lucky bounce! The ball hit a twig!”

Ten-nine … understandably she’s stopped paying our interview such careful attention. Earlier, a question about Hugo elicited a brilliant digression about life on a “family-like” Scorsese film set, always waiting for a henchman to approach the Italian-American director and say something like “Marty, it’s been done.” Now we contest a rally while haltingly discussing her husband Damian Lewis’s new hit US TV drama,Homeland; and just as McCrory is describing flying out for the show’s premiere, she pings a flier over the net. Ten-ten. A nail biter.

Regent’s Park is a favourite hang-out, she says. The daughter of a diplomat, McCrory’s early years were itinerant but she’s always been a Londoner, more or less – a student at Drama Centre London, then one of Sam Mendes’s favourites when he was a director at the Donmar, later an Olivier award-nominee for her role in 2005’s As You Like It at the Wyndham’s Theatre. She met Lewis when they were in a play at the Almeida in Islington, north London; the pair now have two children.

Islington factored again when McCrory appeared as notorious ex-resident Cherie Blair in The Queen. Last year she reprised the role inThe Special Relationship. “More difficult the second time. By then Tony was out of power and Cherie was on Radio 4 all the time. Everyone knew what she sounded like. The first time she was mostly silent, a bird in a cage.”

It was a more profound film role, anyway, than her very first – as “Second Whore” in 1994’s Interview with the Vampire. (“I know what you’re thinking: who beat me to First?”) The years since have brought more substantial work, and by 2009 McCrory was of sure enough standing to earn a berth in Harry Potter’s mob-cast, appearing in the final instalments. Next? Mendes has called her up for his new James Bond film. She’s under orders not to blab, but “I’m not Bond. It’s nice: I’m not Bond in Bond and I’m not Hugo in Hugo. I’ve got a four- and five-year-old and I’m not away for months, making melodramatic decisions about whether to be a mother or an actress.”

No melodrama, either, as the final point plays out on the table. “Mullahed by a journo,” says McCrory, shaking her head. “And on another lucky bounce.”