Boxoffice-July.1997

"
Sneak Preview
ON HER "HORIZON"
Kathleen Quinlan heads into action
with Paramount's ''Event Horizon "
by Bridget Byrne
Kathleen Quinlan (center) with co-stars Jason Isaacs andJoety Richardson
in a scene from Paramount's August release, "Event Horizon.
I
took this because there are not
many roles where women are
really active," says actress
Kathleen Quinlan, explaining
why she'll be seen charging about
in a spacesuit in "Event Horizon,"
an outer-space adventure that
Paramount opens this August.
Recently, Quinlan has been in
two films in which the do-or-die
stuffwaslefttoaman. Earlier this
summer, she was the wife who
went missing in "Breakdown," a
highway horror movie headUned
by Kurt Russell. And she was
Oscar nominated as best supporting
actress for her turn as Marilyn
Lovell, the wife who had to keep
her feet on the ground, literally as
well as figuratively, when her astronaut
husband Jim, played by
Tom Hanks, soared off into destiny
in the drama "Apollo 1 3."
Qiuckling, Quinlan acknowledges
that the choice to portray a
medical technician on a space exploration
team could well have
been a .subconscious reaction to
her previous groundings. And,
furthermore, she never set out in
life to be a sit-it-out. Quinlan, now
turned 40, excelled at gymnastics
and diving a.s a teen. But in those
days, before the influx of endorsement
dollars for lop athletes,
she couldn't "figure out how you
made a living doing that."
There was a gym for the actors
at the Pinewood Studios in England,
where "Event Horizon"
was filmed. "We used it not because
of wanting to look good, but
because of the need to be in good
shape to wear the heavy spacesuits.
They are spectacular to look
at but very hot. Putting one on was
like going from chilly London
winter weather to the Bahamas in
just minutes," Quinlan says.
A search-and-rescue-mission
movie, which also stars Laurence
Fishbume, Sam Neill and Joely
Richardson, "Event Horizon"
is set in the confines of a huge
and ghostly spacecraft that
has mysteriously reappeared
after being lost for years.
Quinlan plays Peters, a single
mother with a child back on
earth; she's one of the space
team struggling to cop)e in a
ghastly atmosphere haunted
by many things, including,
says director Paul Anderson
("Mortal Kombat"), "the demons
they bring with them."
Quinlan says that Ander-
.son took the time to provide rehearsal
interaction and clear storyboarded
images of how the
finished scenes would look—essential
aids for the cast, who often
found themselves emoting in a
lonely void that would later he
linked to special effects or the
work ofother actors. "A lot of time
I was acting to nobcxly," says
Quinlun, who rarely worked on
the same days as did Fishbume,
even though most of her scenes
are actually with him.
Ahhough Quinlan admits to
never having had a deep-rooted
interest in space, she feels that
working on this sci-fi film and the
reality-based "Apollo I?" has
given her "moic
ofa universal per
spective." She
says, "It's just too
egotistical to think
that we are the
only lifeform in
the universe,"
though the actress
doesn't buy into
any of the perceived
images of
aliens, which she
believes are bom
out of the sort of fear and prejudice
usually directed by humans
toward anything unknown.
uinlan,
who grew up in
|Mill Valley, Calif., came to
professional acting by
when she was picked out
ofa "cattle call" at her high school.
Billed as Kathy Quinlan, she was
given the role of Peg, who appears
at the sockhop in George Lucas'
1973 nostalgia piece, "American
Graffiti." In 1977, her performance
as a teenager being treated
for schizophrenia in "I Never
FVomised You a Rose Garden"
seemed to mark her out for major
stardom. But since then Quinlan
has favored lower-key films dom-
^^Putting [on the
spacesuit] was
like goingfrom
chilly London
winter weather
to the Bahamas. "
inated by character work, such as
I983's "Independence Day" and
I988's "Clara's Heart."
In conversation, Quinlan comes
across as .someone who thinks
thnxigh her answers to questions;
she's not glib or polished, just
straightforwiird. On this day, she's
biick home in Mulibu with her actor
husband, Bruce Abbott and their
six-year-old son, Tyler, after a New
York trip to promote "Breakdown."
That film, she says, had
even an industry
audience "yelling
and carrying on, peitiaps because
it taps into some unconscious
fear we can all identify with."
Quinlan says she's happy now
with her career, but she admits
there were times
when she
questioned
her choice.
"When not much
is happening and
there seems to be
nothing you can
do to change that,
you do wonder
But it just kept
coming up that T
am an actor, like
it or not.' I stuck
with it and took
what was offered." Those offerings
have also included "Hanky
Panky," 'Twilight Zone—The
Movie" and "The Doors."
She says she is still a little surprised
that she got the role in
"Apollo 1 3," which reminded everyone
of her talents. The film's
director was, of course, Ron Howard,
also an "American Graffiti"
alumnus, which undoubtedly
helped. But she feels that "some
of the newer folks in the industry"
too often cast for personality
rather than character "I'm not really
sure they are familiar with the
term 'acting.' They don't understand
what it means to play a character
rather than just be a personality,"
Quinlan muses.
Whatever the future holds,
she says, "my dream job has
already happened." Earlier
this year, she starred in the
MGM release "Zeus and Roxanne,"
a family comedy atx>ut
a dog and dolphin that would
be suitable for her son to see.
During filming, she got to
swim, and swim, and .swim, in
the open ocean with the dolphins.
It was her idea of bliss
because, this one-time divci
and gymnast avers, "I am re
ally a sea creature. Jusl
mammal that lost its fins."
"Event Horizon. " Slarhiiy
Laurence Fishbume, Kathleci
Quinlan, Sam Neill and Joeh
Richardson. Directed hy Pan
Anderson. Written hy Philip l-js
ner Produced by Lawrena
Gordon, Uoyd Levin and Jcr
emy Bolt. A Paramount relea.se
Sci-fi. Opens August L