Nolte offers insight on presidential role

Nolte offers insight on presidential role

Merchant-Ivory’s ‘Jefferson’ reveals more than history

By Philip Hong

Dressed in a trench coat and corduroy bell bottoms, Nick Nolte
looks as if he is reprising his role as the philosophical vagrant
from Down and Out in Beverly Hills.

Actually, Nolte is on hand at the Four Seasons Hotel with the
film’s cast to discuss his portrayal of quite a different
character. In the new Merchant-Ivory production, Jefferson in
Paris, Nolte plays the third president of the United States, Thomas
Jefferson.

For Nolte, the most interesting aspect of portraying the drafter
of the Declaration of Independence was, "The passion of Jefferson’s
idealism and the courage to stay with this ‘all men are created
equal’ idea in a world that for hundreds and hundreds of years has
been a monarchy."

Jefferson in Paris is a film that chronicles the years of
1784-1789 when Jefferson served as the American ambassador to
France. While he witnesses the brewing of a French Revolution in
the streets of Paris, Jefferson struggles in his own war of
engaging in a romantic relationship with one of his slaves, Sally
Hemmings, played excellently by Thandie Newton.

Discussing the controversy of the film alleging without solid
historical evidence that President Jefferson had any intimate
involvement with Sally Hemmings, Nolte retorts quite simply, "There
were 400,000 mulatto slaves in Virginia alone. That’s bigger than
the white population. What’s a mulatto? A combination between a
white and a black, so somebody was getting together …. Historians
like to think that after Jefferson’s wife died, his dick fell
off."

However, Nolte’s perspective on the matter runs deeper then the
issue of cross-racial relationships during slavery.

"That whole relationship is a metaphor to me," he says. "It’s
not about Sally Hemmings and Thomas Jefferson. It’s about the
relationship of ‘all men are created equal’ with the fact that
there is slavery."

English newcomer Newton’s performance ignites the film with a
brilliant display of color and establishes good position for future
roles and a long life in Hollywood. For Newton, working opposite a
seasoned actor like Nolte was a great experience.

"He’s someone who has been around in the business for a really
long time," she says. "I’m relatively new to the business and I
could’ve felt intimidated by him, but as it turned out it was a
very, very positive experience."

"Nick was the best actor I’ve ever worked with. He’s willing to
reveal his own insecurities and he’s willing to accept my advice
and (he) gave me the feeling that we were equals," enthuses
Newton.

Producer Ishmail Merchant further agrees with Newton’s
enthusiasm. "Nick is a magnetic man," Merchant says. "He has a
power and appeal. We’ve all seen him over the years; he’s a very
attractive, very provocative man."

Nolte’s immediate acting future includes Mulholland Falls, a
film noir about Los Angeles police in the ’50s, co-starring Chris
Penn, and Michael Madsen (both from Reservoir Dogs), and John
Malcovich. And a film-adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s Mother Night,
the story of an American who becomes a spokesman for the Nazi Party
while at the same time being an American spy.

Prior to Jefferson in Paris, Nolte starred in I Love Trouble,
with Julia Roberts, and Blue Chips, with Shaquille O’Neal. Within
the wide breath of work that Nolte is responsible for, it’s
impossible to declare a favorite.

"When you’re doing the film that you’re doing right now, you
think it’s the hot cake. You don’t have one that you say, ‘Ah, that
one I loved, and then I went and deliberately did a bunch of
turkey’s,’" says Nolte.