Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 26, 1994 TAG: 9402260177
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACKIE HYMAN ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium
Down has played the heroine, Madeline, in all three offerings.
"So here we all are nine years later, various divorces and human tragedies have taken place, and we're supposed to be the same age - ha, ha, ha, ha, ha," she said, without a trace of hilarity.
Among the changes since 1985 are her marriage to cinematographer Don Fauntleroy, whom she met when he served as assistant cameraman on "North and South." Fauntleroy serves as director of photography on "John Jakes' Heaven and Hell."
Among the "various divorces" are hers from film director William Friedkin and Fauntleroy's from his then-wife.
"We were both, unfortunately, married to other people and had children with other people, but had married the wrong people," Down said. "They had also married the wrong people, obviously."
"Heaven and Hell" continues the tale of two tormented families after the Civil War.
The cast includes James Read, Philip Casnoff, Terri Garber, Kyle Chandler, Jonathan Frakes, Genie Francis, Robert Wagner and Cathy Lee Crosby. Peter O'Toole, Billy Dee Williams and Rip Torn make special appearances.
Madeline loses her husband and all but the bare land on which her home stood, and has to fight off numerous enemies.
"There was a lot of crying in the script," Down recalled. "I decided to get rid of all of that, even though I know that screaming and crying is a very easy way to get recognition.
"My mother used to say, `Oh, she's such a good actress, look at her cry.' I would say, `Mummy, the crying and the shouting and the outrageousness is the easiest thing to do. It's the restrained thing that's hard to do."'
What Down recalls most about filming "Heaven and Hell" was the heat in San Antonio, intensified by wearing heavy period costumes.
Between takes, she made use of a hand-held fan.
"There is hardly a photograph of me taken on the set, they're all useless . . . because I have the fan in front of me all the time, which just literally evaporated the sweat," she said. "You couldn't pat down the sweat, that was an impossibility, you had to evaporate it.
"When they said `action,' you'd hand the fan off to someone and do the scene and then by the end of the scene I would be dripping."
Down, 39, also is developing a pilot for NBC of a one-hour action-adventure series that would enable her to work near her Malibu home.
Staying close to her 11-year-old son Jack became a priority after her bitter custody battle with Friedkin, she said.
"Nobody likes being left, but I wasn't prepared for the anger that followed," Down admitted. "At the time that it was all going on, I was a basket case really."
Jack now divides his time between his parents' homes, both in Southern California. Fauntleroy has two teen-age daughters who also go back and forth between parents.
Down said the custody battle "made me realize what my priorities were. Did I want to work all the time? Did I want to go off and do `Winds of War' for a year, seeing my kid every whatever, or not?"
As a result, she has turned down a long list of projects over the years.
"You can't get back the time with a child - you just can't," she said. "You have to make that decision, are you going to be with your child? Are you going to be very rich and have a child you don't really know, or are you going to be OK and have a child you know the best on the planet? When the teen years come, you'd better know your kid."
Down, who first drew international attention in the British television series "Upstairs, Downstairs," has starred in the films "The Pink Panther Strikes Again," "Hanover Street" and "Sphinx."
As for things she'd like to do in the future, she said, "Grow old gracefully. Not be obsessed with wrinkles."
"I think I'm going to have to go to England to do it," said the London-born actress. "I'm going to wear sensible shoes and long skirts and take tea with the vicar. I can see myself sliding into that role quite easily.
"For the moment, I'll put the makeup on and go out there and pretend to be glamorous, and all those lies."
by CNB