Arsinee's diaries

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Actress Arsinee Khanjian, wife of film director Atom Egoyan.

 

Actress jumped at chance to portray author Anais Nin

By STEVE TILLEY -- Edmonton Sun

It doesn't take a fortune-teller or film industry expert to predict that Disney will never tackle an animated adaptation of Lady Chatterly's Lover or The Story of O.

 

It's about as likely as, say, famed diarist and erotica author Anais Nin showing up in a episode of Mentors, the produced-in-Edmonton children's series which airs on the Disney-aligned Family Channel.

 

Or maybe not. In a bold but carefully thought-out move, Mentors will see Arsinee Khanjian (Felicia's Journey) playing literary, cultural and sexual icon Nin in an upcoming instalment of the award-winning series. The shoot wraps in Edmonton today.

 

Gutsy move

 

Each episode of Mentors imagines a historical figure zapped forward into the present day to help teen protagonists Simon and Crystal (Stevie Mitchell and Samantha Kreutzfeld) deal with an issue or problem facing them in their everyday lives.

 

Everyone from Einstein to Genghis Khan has had their day in the sun, but bringing Anais Nin into the picture to help Crystal deal with her confusion over relationships with boys is a gutsy - albeit appropriate - move.

 

"It's an interesting option - Anais Nin as a model for a 14-year-old," said Khanjian in a chat with The Sun at her Edmonton hotel. "She turned out to be a very controversial person, for both women and society at large."

 

Before parents go on high alert, the script does not deal with sex, directly or indirectly, in any way. Written by Mentors co-creator Josh Miller, it explores Crystal's feelings in a way consistent with the show's family-friendly tone and mandate, and was vetted by Family Channel execs before filming began.

 

"(Wednesday) as we were shooting, there was this one phrase where I say, 'Women have not made the separation between love and sensuality,' " recalled Khanjian.

 

"As I was saying both the words in one breath, the director said to me it would be good if I separated 'love' and 'sensuality.' She said they spent very many days on choosing this word, sensuality.

 

"I thought, of course, the more overt, obvious choice would have been love and sexuality. But it's maybe a gentler way of approaching the whole effort of reaching out to teenagers today. It's a very complicated matter."

 

Having appeared in all of director husband Atom Egoyan's films, including his breakout feature Exotica and Oscar-nominee The Sweet Hereafter, Khanjian is no stranger to playing strong and complex female characters. She's also appeared in auteur Ken Finkelman's series More Tears and Foolish Hearts, and will be seen in Finkelman's Foreign Objects, debuting next week on CBC.

 

Khanjian said she read Nin's diaries during her own formative years as a young woman, though she never particularly cared for the erotica that Nin wrote primarily as a source of income.

 

"I think, for me, Anais Nin is a cultural figure more than a great literary figure," she said.

 

Worldly in the least pretentious sense of the word, Khanjian was born to Armenian parents living in Lebanon and grew up in Beirut before her family moved to Montreal when she was 17. She's travelled extensively, speaks several languages and worked as an administrator for the Ontario Arts Council before deciding to concentrate on her career on the stage and in TV and film.

 

But when Khanjian, Egoyan and the couple's seven-year-old son happened to stop to watch a back-to-school fashion show while vacationing in Santa Barbara recently, even she was somewhat taken aback.

 

"I remember - and I really mean it - for the first time in my life I recognized a feeling of shock," she said. "These kids were in these incredible miniskirts, long boots, very tight and very revealing clothes, incredible makeup ... and they were literally not more than 14 or 15."

 

Khanjian said that while she felt guilty over her own shocked reaction, she still had trouble reconciling the display of teen sexuality in the context of going to school.

 

"I felt incredibly bad at my own surprise at this, but I think a lot of it was suddenly a sort of generational issue," she said. "At 14, feelings of sexuality and sensuality are absolutely there, there is no question - and I certainly understood that very early on in my life. But the external manifestation of that was a very big surprise to me."

 

World isn't ready

 

That shock pales, however, in comparison to her reaction to the terrorist attacks on the United States.

 

"I left Lebanon at the beginning of the civil war in that country, and it was one of the scariest situations for all kinds of reasons," Khanjian said.

 

"But what happened last week ... I don't think the world is ready for this type of violence exercised on itself. I am completely confused at the nature of this attack, because this cannot ever put any political issue on the table, it cannot defend any religious zealousness, it cannot argue for disparities of social and economic classes in different parts of the world ... none of these issues can be addressed by such an act.

 

"This is something beyond the notion of fanaticism. It is the megalomania of individuals."

 

 

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Sunday, September 5, 1999

Our reel royalty

Atom and Arsinee rule Canadian filmdom

By BRUCE KIRKLAND

Toronto Sun

Elegant, intelligent and articulate, Atom and Arsinee are the royal couple of Canadian cinema.

 

He is Atom Egoyan, the veteran Toronto filmmaker whose difficult yet immaculate work has generated two Oscar nominations, numerous Genie Awards, a clutch of prizes in Cannes and international recognition.

 

She is Arsinee Khanjian, a late-blooming but now acclaimed actress who has not only co-starred in all of her husband's films over the past 15 years but has become his creative confidante, an in-house inspiration.

 

Together, when they walk the red carpet into the opening night gala at the Toronto International Film Festival on Thursday, they represent Canadian glamour at its finest.

 

The gala is the British-Canadian production Felicia's Journey, which Egoyan wrote and directed, adapting it for the screen from William Trevor's novel.

 

Khanjian, unleashing a delightful if bittersweet comic sensibility in an otherwise sombre film about a serial killer, a vulnerable girl and family dysfunction, co-stars with Englishman Bob Hoskins and Irish newcomer Elaine Cassidy, both of whom will be here for the event.

 

'Means a lot to me'

 

"I'm convinced that this will be a good opening night film," Egoyan says proudly. It is his second such honour: The Sweet Hereafter opened the 1997 Toronto filmfest. "I think the film represents a degree of craftsmanship that's been developed in this country," Egoyan enthuses, "because it is entirely crafted by Canadians. So it's representative of a maturity in our filmmaking.

 

"I also think it could be a film that would work with that audience (the corporate crowd at galas). My core audience will always be there. This is an opportunity to extend beyond that. Why not take advantage of that? And it will be an interesting place to test the film in front of a different kind of audience from that at Cannes.

 

"I just really support the festival. It means a lot to me in terms of my own education in movies. And my dream of making films was linked into the festival. So it would be inconceivable not to have the film in this festival.

 

"So, do you become coy and bury it? Or do you present it in the way that you think would best communicate what you think the achievement of the film is?"

 

As a co-production that sprang from an Irish novel, was financed by Mel Gibson's Icon Productions and co-produced by Australian Bruce Davey (Gibson's partner) and Toronto's Hungarian-born movie mogul Robert Lantos, Felicia's Journey perfectly represents Canada.

 

"It's a very, very tricky notion," Khanjian says of Canadian cultural identity. "What is it? What should it be?

 

"My sense of it is that, if there is anything pure about culture, and specifically Canadian culture, it is the diversity."

 

Khanjian, who started her career as an arts administrator, not an actress, says foreigners are often dismissive of Canadian films because our identity seems so fragmented.

 

"Fragmentation is very much what Canadian identity is about. That's the wealth, that's the treasure that we have in this culture. It is diverse. It is fragmented. But it is strong."

 

Both Egoyan and Khanjian perfectly represent Canada in another sense, too. Both were born elsewhere yet forged their careers against all odds in this country.

 

Both come from an Armenian heritage. Egoyan was born in Cairo, Egypt, and came with his family to Vancouver when he was three. Khanjian was born in Beirut, Lebanon, and came to Montreal with her family when she was 17.

 

They met when Egoyan persuaded Khanjian to audition for his film Next Of Kin 15 years ago.

 

"We met under the most extreme cliche for a filmmaker," Egoyan says chuckling. "But the relationship has lasted. She challenges and charms in equal measures. I always feel that my ideas are being challenged and put to the test. There is a charm in how she is able to pull that off. And she's fiercely defensive of my vision, of what I want to do with my life."

 

'Incredibly ambitious'

 

Now he is fiercely defensive of her vision, to flourish as an actress on the international stage. Khanjian just returned from shooting a film in Paris with German director Michael Haneke. She co-stars with Juliette Binoche.

 

After the Toronto filmfest, she goes back to Paris, where she will continue touring in a French-language version of Brian Friel's play Dancing At Lughnasa. After Paris, the play moves to Japan. Khanjian will be on the road for three months while Egoyan plays full-time daddy to their son Arshile in Toronto. Khanjian is also developing a film on the life of opera star Maria Callas. She is not 'merely' the loving wife of a famous filmmaker.

 

In her own words, both she and Egoyan "are incredibly ambitious people." But they are partners, not competitors in life. "Forget for a minute cinema and all that," says Khanjian. "What are our lives all about, if not about loving and sharing and being with someone else?"

 

 

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The EGOYAN/KHANJIAN File

 

THE NEW MOVIE: Felicia's Journey opens the Toronto filmfest Thursday and is set for a November release.

 

THE CREDITS: Atom Egoyan wrote and directed. Arsinee Khanjian co-stars as Gala, Hoskins' mother, a TV celebrity cook. She is seen in flashbacks and on videotape from the time of his childhood.

 

THE ROLE: "It's the first broadly comic role that she gets to have," says Egoyan. "Certainly it's a monstrous character in some ways, yet it's pulled off with such elan and people seem to so enjoy it."

 

HER INTERPRETATION: "Definitely, it is an absurd character. She is larger-than-life. But the challenge I see in all my characters is that I had to make this person truthful, to make her exist in her own right."

 

 

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From dentist's wife to movie star

Despite her place in Hollywood's firmament, the woman whose friends sometimes call her 'the rebel' is as likely as anyone to be star-struck

 

Rebecca Eckler

National Post

 

Arsinée Khanjian is an A-list movie star. At film festivals and opening nights of husband Atom Egoyan's flicks, she's the one who draws the photographers like bees to nectar. And when Ararat opens the festival this evening, you can bet it will be Khanjian who will be the focal point of the event. She is glamorous. She has great outfits. She's a modern It Girl.

 

So why on Earth did I think the Rebel House bar and restaurant would be a good place to interview her? True, it is close to the North Toronto home Khanjian shares with Egoyan and their nine-year-old son, Arshile. However, a restaurant with cowboy-themed upholstery on the couches and a menu featuring poutine, maple-baked beans and tavern-pickled eggs just doesn't seem to be Khanjian's style.

 

And now, here she is, with her mass of black curls, dressed in a silver skirt, orange sandals and carrying a matching handbag by Jean Paul Gaultier. I watch, mildly mortified, as those striking hazel eyes under Brooke Shields eyebrows scan the menu.

 

She chooses coffee.

 

To make it seem like there's a point for inviting her to such an obviously (well, obvious now) inappropriate spot, I attempt a joke.

 

"So, here we are at the Rebel House. Are you a rebel?"

 

"I am a rebel," she confirms, laughing. "Sometimes my friends say, 'Here comes the rebel.' "

 

Emboldened, I press this line of enquiry, asking her to describe the most rebellious things she's done.

 

"You mean, aside from getting a divorce?" she asks, laughing again before leaving the divorce aside and telling me about one evening in Cannes this year.

 

"I was partying. I hadn't slept in five days, but it seemed like the right thing to do. We were at a villa and there should have been shuttles taking us back to our hotel but for some reason they stopped. It was a 40-minute walk back to the hotel, and it was 5 a.m. I was wearing these really high Chanel shoes. It was just an incredible outfit.

 

"So I started walking back with some friends. I took off my shoes, slung them over my shoulder. My friend gave me his black socks. I walked back the entire way like that, in these men's black socks and this fantastic gown."

 

Interesting, but not as interesting as the true tale of rebellion that was her divorce, since it marked the beginning of the Khanjian we now know. It was 19 years ago, and she and Egoyan were both in Montreal. She was married to a Lebanese dentist and rehearsing The Mousetrap in Armenian. Egoyan was an aspiring filmmaker from Toronto, in Montreal to cast a part in his first movie, Next of Kin. She got the part, and more.

 

"I was 25, he was 23. We were rehearsing, and he was showing one of the actors how to kiss me on the cheek, and he would do it. I remember feeling, 'Whoa! Oh my God,' when he did. But also that my feelings were impossible.

 

"He knew I was married, and couldn't imagine anything more than this as a fantasy. Love and passion are two different things. We had incredible passion, and then we developed love."

 

It's tough, she says, when you're not sure if what you feel is real -- or really just acting. "For us, it all happened on set. When you're shooting, the moments are very intense, and emotions are vulnerable, and connections do happen. In our case, by the time we starting shooting, it was happening."

 

Her marriage, she says, wasn't all that happy, but divorce was a definite taboo in the home of her strict Armenian parents. "I wasn't just leaving a marriage. I was leaving my community. I went to visit a friend who I grew up with for a month in Los Angeles after the shooting wrapped up, and my friend was just about to get married and I was telling her I was considering separation. We didn't speak for a year after that. I think I scared her, because she couldn't understand why anyone would get separated."

 

So Khanjian left the dentist and moved to Toronto. "It was a big risk for me," she says. "But we've been together for 18 years. There's something to be said for that."

 

And, yes, she has run into her ex-husband at a wedding, and it's all good and fine. (Egoyan's cousin married one of her ex's cousins, which is why they all ended up at the same wedding.)

 

Khanjian, whose fingernails are bitten to the quick, but whose toenails are immaculately pedicured, doesn't wear a wedding band. "He never offered me one," she says. "I would if he had."

 

Egoyan's film, Ararat, which Khanjian stars in (enough already about her being in all his films, it's sweet and romantic), is a festival Gala, as his films so often are -- though she insists she doesn't know how many of his movies have been so honoured. ("There was Felicia's Journey, The Sweet Hereafter, Exotica ... I'll have to look it up," she says.)

 

And she contends it was a surprise for her and Egoyan -- even though it wasn't for the rest of us -- when Ararat was chosen to open the festival.

 

"It's one of the most exciting moments of the festival to get that call. We were like, 'Yeah!' but it was a hard one to celebrate because it is artistic, and we are talking about genocide."

 

Their son, Arshile, has a small speaking role in the film. "He wants to be an actor, or director, or scientist," says Khanjian. "But we're a little leery of putting him in films. I've seen kids on sets and sometimes it's horrible for them. It can be unnatural for them.

 

"But it was funny because he needed a few takes to get his line, and because Atom is a father and director he was getting a little uptight. We thought, 'OK, he has an actor as a mother and a director as a father, shouldn't he be able to get this on the first take?'

 

"He really wants to be in the films. I told him he was the best little helper in Exotica," she says (Khanjian was pregnant with him at the time). "But that only worked when he was five. Now he knows better."

 

Understandably, the film festival is a busy time in the Egoyan-Khanjian household -- though not because they get to see a lot of movies.

 

"We can't go to five or six films any more like we used to," she says. "We know now that going to parties is part of promoting the movie. I regret a bit that we don't get the chance to see the movies. But the parties are great for seeing people you don't get to see the rest of the year."

 

That said, she says the festival leaves her feeling "self-conscious."

 

Part of that is a result of her fame -- and the fact it is Khanjian and her amazing outfits that all the photographers want to shoot at the gala parties.

 

"The last couple years, I've been outfitted," she says. "These are dresses with $40,000 price tags. I certainly can't afford that for one night."

 

Partly, too, her self-consciousness derives from the fact that she is a shy woman, despite her fame. "I'm not a big party person. I love talking. That's why I like smaller parties. The minute you walk into a huge film-festival party you have to acclimatize yourself. Long conversations are impossible."

 

And, yes, she still has the capacity to be star-struck. "In Cannes, we got invited to a dinner with Hugh Grant. Atom asked me if I wanted to go because he knows I'm infatuated with him, that I love him."

 

But they didn't go. Why not? "I wouldn't know what to say to him," she says. "I'm a loser, aren't I?"

 

As we say our goodbyes outside the Rebel House, she says, "I'm really hungry. I might have to come back here. The hamburger looked so good on the menu. Atom and I love going for hamburgers. It's our favourite thing."

 

The bartender comes out. He has seen the Post photographer taking shots and asks if she will sign a photo. It's not clear if he knows exactly who she is. But he, like everyone else who meets her, know she's got that ineffable quality that spells star.

 

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