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MY LUST HAS BEEN SATISFIED AT LAST.. BY
SCOTLAND
Casanova
star Laura is heading for home
By Paul English
SHE turned her back on her
hometown in search of acting fame, setting up a new life
in London, New York and rural Ireland.
But now sultry Glaswegian actress Laura Fraser has
satisfied her wanderlust - and wants to come home.
The 29 year old, who melted the heart of Casanova
as the unattainable Henriette in the recent BBC
three-parter, reckons she's finally found what she's
looking for.
And it's right here.
Last year saw her leave New York for Ireland to renovate
a dilapidated cottage into a cosy love nest in the remote
outskirts of Cork with her actor husband Karl Geary.
But despite the idyllic lifestyle, Laura - who stars as a
sexually charged cop in BBC2 drama Conviction tonight -
is back in her native city searching for a place she can
finally call home.
'I can't believe I've had to move to so many places
before realising that I want to be back here,' said the
actress, nursing a cappuccino in the sun outside
Glasgow's Oran Mor.
'I think I've wanted to be in Glasgow for ages, but maybe
didn't know it. It's stupid. I love the place, and I
realise that now.
'You move to somewhere like New York and it's bigger but
more or less just the same as any big city, only without
all your friends and family.
'But we have been living in Ireland for the past year,
and when I was visiting home recently I thought 'I want
to live here again'.'
Laura left the city at the end of the Nineties and headed
for the bright lights of London after her career was
given a jump start by Peter Mullan, who cast her in the
short film Good Day For The Bad Guys.
Having controversially turned her back on a place at the
city's Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, she
went on to win a raunchy role opposite Leonardo Di Caprio
in The Man in the Iron Mask as well as
starring opposite Heath Ledger in A Knight's Tale
and Tom Cruise in Vanilla Sky.
Her time in the capital has been well documented with
florid reports of her hedonistic lifestyle, sharing a
flat with ex-Brookside star Anna Friel, leading to her
being dubbed a wild childThese days Laura won't discuss
the excesses of her early 20s, saying: 'It bores me to
oblivion. It was just about trying to find your place in
the world, and just going crazy. There are so many
different reasons.'
Indeed, she's rumoured to have given up alcohol
completely, but won't confirm it.
'I don't even want to go there,' she said. 'I don't even
want to talk about that stuff.'
Despite rubbing shoulders on screen with a host of
A-listers, Laura fell for relative unknown Dubliner Karl
Geary on the set of 2003 flick Coney Island Baby.
The couple wed that year and set up home in Manhattan,
before Karl took his bride back to the Emerald Isle .
A life immersed in rugged countryside and awesome natural
beauty might sound ideal to many, but soon Laura felt
isolated.
'I like it there, but it's impractical,' she said. 'I
like to have my family and friends close by, and when
Karl goes away for work I don't want to be stuck there on
my own, half an hour from anywhere.
'Cork's the big smoke and even then it's two hours away.'
Karl, currently in New York to promote his new film Satellite,
seems destined to join his wife in Glasgow.
Laura said: 'I think I've found a place, I've been
looking around the west end. I'd have liked him tobe here
with me, but that's just the way it is in this business.
It sucks, him being away.
'I miss him, but it makes you appreciate each other
more.'
That said, when you're stuck in a field in the middle of
Ireland it can be a test of your spontaneity as the pair
discovered.
Laura said: 'We had no stimulation, we were there in the
countryside, and had nothing to say to each other.
'At times it was like: 'What did you think about the
sheep today...?' But the challenging environment gave the
city girl a closer appreciation of the changing seasons.
She said: 'Every day you can see spring a little bit
more.You can be really in touch with the seasons, and you
can see the moon travelling across the sky. I love itTHE
duo have several films in the offing - and with that
comes the sort of financial security many can only dream
about - so the pair intend to keep their rustic
bolt-hole.
'It's more or less finished, we've worked on it
constantly over the last year, and it's been a bit of a
moneypit,' said Laura.
'But it would be nice to keep it as a holiday home.We've
lived there a lot, but I think if I stayed there any
longer I would end up becoming a vegetarian.
'We have lambs in the field in front of the house, and
when I look at them now ... I just can't even think about
it.
'The idea of eating those little things is just
ridiculous.'
Despite her successful track record, Laura is confident
that a return to her hometown won't make her a big fish
in a small pond.
She said: 'Glasgow is full of actors.
Besides, I will have to reacquaint myself with the place
now. It's changed a bit since I have been away. Laura's a
fan of the city's trendy Buff Club, and has heard good
things about Vegas at the Renfrew Ferry.
But as well as frequenting watering holes, Laura and Karl
- - who owns a bar as well as a nursery in New York - are
considering opening a bar in the city.
'We'll get the flat sorted out first though. Karl's great
on the business side of things. He's such a cool guy,'
Laura said.
In Conviction, Laura plays Lucy Romanis,
a police officer who gets romantically involved with an
informer.
She admits to being 'uncomfortable' filming intimate
scenes, but squirms even more when she has to watch her
husband in a clinch with someone else.
'It's hideous,' she said. 'In Satellite
he has four sex scenes with this cute French girl. I
refused to watch it. Then I felt really ungenerous, so I
have now agreed to see a video of it.
'But I know I'll spend time beating myself up when he's
not around by watching it and convincing myself that he
enjoyed it.'
Karl has also written a film script which both of them
are set to act in.
Laura said: 'It's about a guy in a funeral parlour who
has been institutionalised. There's a love story in
there, too.'
Before that, she'll appear on the big screen alongside
Donald Sutherland and Ralph Fiennes in Land of
The Blind, where she'll play Fiennes' pregnant
wife.
'It was a great part, I loved it,' she said. 'It's a
brilliant mish mash of politically surreal ideas.'
After that she's scheduled to star as a lesbian in Dear
Frankie director Andrea Gibb's latest project, Nina's
Heavenly Delights.
'I play a character who falls in love with a girl she
runs an Indian restaurant with,' said Laura, who snogged
Helen Baxendale in 1997's army drama The
Investigator.
'It's all about revealing secrets to your family. It's a
beautiful script and the love scenes will be really
subtle, not explicit.
'I don't have a problem snogging another girl. It's
easier than snogging guys.They smell better for one
thing.'
Better still, she gets to work from home. 'New Yorkers
always get to see films shot in the place they come
from,' she said.
'It's lovely to see a film shot where you live. So I'm
really looking forward to filming in Glasgow again.'
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