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She's No Damsel in Distress
By ELIZABETH WEITZMAN
"It's a bit
dull," Laura Fraser says about the demands of movie
promotion. "But at least I'm in a film that people
are asking about. That's kind of new for me."
Fraser allows that she would rather be almost anywhere
than in a Manhattan office, standing next to a potted
palm and talking about her new movie, "A
Knight's Tale."
No, she tells a photographer, she won't take her hands
out of her pockets. Yes, she says, she knows he'd like
her to look a little sexier.
"I'd feel too ridiculous," she protests.
Though she has just had her hair and makeup done, her
T-shirt, baggy pants and casual attitude make Fraser, 24,
seem far more like an NYU student than an actress about
to appear in a major motion picture.
Perhaps Fraser is simply much too sensible to play the
starlet. She plays the sensible one in director Brian
Helgeland's movie and leaves the glamour shots to others.
"A Knight's Tale," opening tomorrow, is a
rollicking Middle Ages romp, with Ledger as William, a
heroic commoner determined to joust with the blue bloods.
The movie is cheerfully contemporary in style, and among
the anachronisms is Kate, Fraser's character. Never meant
to be a romantic foil, Kate's presence is far more
matter-of-fact.
She's a blacksmith who makes the armor for William, she
hangs out with the guys and participates in all their
adventures, while the other women — including a
royal beauty named Jocelyn, who is William's love
interest — spend their time getting dressed or being
courted.
"She's a little pioneer," says Fraser.
"It's the first character I've played in a while
where she doesn't have any romantic entanglements. It's
just about her story and her job and she's very strong.
That is rare."
Of course, while Fraser happily notes that she's much
more like the independent Kate than the fair maiden
Jocelyn (Shannyn Sossamon), she wasn't entirely at ease
with the part.
"I'm really, really scared of horses," she
says. "Which is not ideal for a blacksmith."
They did get her a double for her heavy welding scenes,
but she was more than at home being the only woman down
in the mud.
"Shannyn got to wear the beautiful costumes, but I
quite enjoyed getting dirty! I didn't have to worry about
my makeup or getting my clothes ruined.
"It was a very male-dominated set, so I sometimes
got carried away and ended up arm-wrestling the boys in
between takes."
Fraser won the role of Kate during a week-long
auditioning trip to Los Angeles last year. Reared in
Glasgow — mom's a college lecturer, dad's a writer
— she was still in drama school in 1996 when she
made her feature debut in the critically acclaimed "Small
Faces," directed by Gillies MacKinnon.
She picked up more work in London, "then I did a
film called 'Titus,' which nobody saw
but was enough for an agent to take me on." She
played daughter Lavinia to Anthony Hopkins' Titus
Andronicus in the 1999 Julie Taymor movie adapted from
Shakespeare.
Until she found herself arm-wrestling hottie du jour
Ledger, Fraser's highest-profile role was probably as a
courtesan to Leonardo DiCaprio in 1998's "The
Man in the Iron Mask"
"It was nothing," she says frankly. Her dis
simplyrole was simply listed as "bedroom
beauty."
"All I did was snog him and then say something
ridiculous, like, 'I'd never known love until I'd known
the love of a king!' I was on set for a day."
Some fledgling actresses would probably be impressed by
leading men like Ledger and DiCaprio. Not Fraser.
"Sometimes actors just get a lot of hype around
them. Heath's pretty grounded about it, because I think
he knows it's not absolutely real. When people are going,
'You're amazing, you're brilliant,' you might very well
be, but when they're saying it, it's not actually about
you. It could be anyone, because they need a new bunch of
stars every year. It's just an illusion.
"What Heath has," she says, "I wouldn't
want. I wouldn't like to be unable to walk down the
street with anonymity. Although [fame] could be very
handy, in a lot of ways. You wouldn't have to fight so
hard to get parts.
"And," she adds, "it'd be great to have
lots of money." The photo shoot over, Fraser runs an
impatient hand through her hair, which had been carefully
styled. She pulls it back and carelessly clips it up with
a barrette, thoroughly finished playing starlet for the
time being.
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