ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, January 25, 1997 TAG: 9701280030
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: HOLLYWOOD
SOURCE: SUSAN KING LOS ANGELES TIMES
Cable's USA Network forgoes its usual thriller movie fare this week to present a new adaptation of Carson McCullers' beloved 1946 novel, ``The Member of the Wedding,'' starring Oscar-winning Anna Paquin and Emmy-winning Alfre Woodard.
Set in the South in 1944, the poignant ``Member of the Wedding'' chronicles the trials and tribulations of the feisty, tomboyish 12-year-old Frankie Addams (Paquin) and her relationship with the family cook, Berenice Sadie Brown (Woodard).
With her father frequently away on business trips, the motherless Frankie turns to Berenice for guidance. Her 6-year-old cousin, John Henry (Corey Dunn), is her only friend. This long hot summer, Frankie's life changes forever as the family prepares for the wedding of her older brother, Jarvis.
``Member of the Wedding'' was originally adapted for the Broadway stage in 1950 and starred Julie Harris and Ethel Waters, who both repeated their roles for the 1952 film version. In 1982, NBC presented a live TV version of the play starring Dana Hill and Pearl Bailey.
David W. Rintels, who produced the 1982 presentation, is also the executive producer and writer of the USA version, which is based on the book.
``I really wanted to go back to the book instead of doing the play version,'' Rintels says. ``The book has some really strong dramatic, wonderful things.''
Paquin hadn't heard of McCullers' novel when she read Rintels' script. Though she subsequently read the book so she could ``understand the character a bit better,'' Paquin acknowledges that she ``didn't know there was a [previous] movie until we almost started shooting. I just haven't watched it, for no particularly reason. I haven't really gotten around to it. I might sometime - maybe.''
Paquin says she loved the character of Frankie. ``She doesn't really care what other people think,'' says the 14-year-old New Zealand native, who won the best supporting actress Oscar for 1993's ``The Piano.'' ``She's really different than the other characters I've played.''
Still, Paquin adds, ``I don't identify with her. I haven't had any of the experiences she has had, but I definitely know where she's coming from with the way she is feeling about her brother going off and getting married. For someone her age, that's quite hard to have somebody that you really, really like going away.''
Woodard remembers that painful, awkward time in her life. ``I think it's a very typical transition that you make when you are too big to be a child and you are absolutely a sprout as far as being a woman,'' she says.
``When I was going through that, there were still those wonderful sort of nether years from 12 to 18 where you could still be a fish out of water,'' she says. ``I wouldn't be that junior high school age again - and I was popular! But we don't even allow our girls today to have that space. They are trying to be Madonna at 8, running around in lace. They want to be women quicker.''
Woodard's Berenice is far younger and more vibrant than Waters or Bailey. ``In the book,'' Rintels says, ``she's described by Frankie as not-quite 40.''
Woodard says older actresses were previously cast because of racial stereotypes. ``It was because of people's ideas of what they wanted to project when it was done originally,'' she explains. ``They made her a big old granny kind of thing because they were playing into stereotypes.''
Berenice, Woodard says, has a special relationship with Frankie, ``because she sees Frankie as a person rather than a child. McCullers had that experience and that's why all of this is all very personal to McCullers, because she was around somebody who was open to her and didn't treat her like a child and treated her as a friend.''
Though ``Member of the Wedding'' is set more than 50 years ago, Paquin found the story timeless. ``It doesn't really matter when it was set,'' she says. ``That kind of thing could happen to any 12-year-old girl who is sort of in that situation. It just happens to be set in the 1940s.''
Paquin mastered her Southern accent with the help of a dialect coach. ``It was really easy because I have actually used a different accent [for every movie she's been in], except `Fly Away Home.' I enjoy learning accents. It's sort of fun if you are in the area where they speak your accent; you can go try it out and see how it sounds. People quite often will fall for it.''
It also didn't phase her that she had to cut her long hair. ``I don't usually cut my hair, but it was something I needed for the part,'' Paquin says, ``like learning an accent and putting wardrobe on, you know.''
Woodard says it was a joy working with Paquin. ``Anna is an actor who already is everything she's going to be,'' she explains. ``She's one of our great actors and is only going to be more of that when she matures as a woman. We hung out together on the set all the time. We had to be shushed and calmed down when we got hysterical laughing and telling secrets and making jokes. I had a ball with Anna.''
Woodard hopes that young girls find inspiration and hope in the movie, ``to let them know [this period] is natural and just ride it out,'' she says. ``Because if they ride it out, it just makes them that much more complex and glorious and wonderful.''
``The Member of the Wedding'' airs Wednesday at 8:59 p.m. on USA.
LENGTH: Medium: 99 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. Anna Paquin stars as tomboyish Frankie Addams inby CNB``The Member of the Wedding,'' airing Wednesday at 8:59 p.m. on the
USA Network. 2. Emmy winner Alfre Woodard stars as family cook
Berenice Sadie Brown, to whom Frankie turns for guidance. color.