Ms. Belle in WHEN A STRANGER CALLS |
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CAMILLA BELLE: Calls on Hollywood
Taking in $21.6 million in its opening weekend, WHEN A STRANGER CALLS was heralded as the #1 ranking film at the box office.
While WHEN A STRANGER CALLS, which is being classified as a horror | thriller flick, may not be Camilla Belle's first blockbuster it is the film in which she has her first, pivotal starring role.
With the tagline – whatever you do don't answer the phone, directed by Simon West, the film features Belle as Jill Johnson, a babysitter for a wealthy family who gets spooked by a series of threatening phone calls. Only later does she learn, the calls are coming from inside the house.
At twenty years of age, the young psychological thriller genre (the classification preferred by Belle and West) fits in with Belle's acting profile and dark looks- strong, yet vulnerable- attractive yet not plastic. And she is also obviously quite resilient. Without spoiling the plot, the film does include a great many fight-action scenes for which Belle did her own stunts.
In a recent interview (horror.com) Belle says that she was attracted to the role of Jill Johnson because, "There's really no script that a female character so young is able to play and to carry a film. There's really no roles like that around, it's very rare. So I wanted to take on that opportunity and see if I could pull it off."
Prior to the scary movie bit, Belle starred in THE CHUMSCRUBBER with an all-star cast inclusive of Glenn Close, Ralph Fiennes, Carrie Ann-Moss, Allison Janney and Rory Culkin. An indie favorite, from first glimpse the CHUMSCRUBBER and WHEN A STRANGER CALLS may seem like night and day: one is a satirical look at idyllic suburban life run amok with rampant drug use and the other is a remake of a traditional tale of high school student babysitter plagued by incessant, terrorizing phone calls –that of babysitter.
However, the common denominator of both films (outside of they both showcase Belle's talent) is that are both focused on high school age students and contain elements of darkness.
And in THE BALLAD OF JACK AND ROSE directed by Rebecca Miller (the late playwright-Arthur Miller's daughter) and starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Belle tenderly and rebelliously embodied the role of Rose Slavin, whose father, an anti-modernist believes in living on a once thriving commune without modern conveniences including schooling for his daughter.
A complex yet beautifully told tale of the bond between father and daughter, the film explores how this relationship is severely challenged when Jack Slavin brings his new girlfriend (Catherine Keener) and her two children to live with them.
A native of Los Angeles with a Brazilian heritage (her mother is form Brazil –her father the US), Belle was born in 1986. Quite remarkably she began her acting career at the age seven working first in television Trouble Shooters Trapped beneath the Earth (1993) and Deconstructing Sarah (1994) until graduating to feature films the likes of A LITTLE PRINCESS (1995), POISON IVY II (1996) and LOST WORLD: Jurassic Park (1997).
And still more evidence of Belle's practically growing up on the big screen, in 1998, she played a young Sandra Bullock (character Sandra Owens) in PRACTICAL MAGIC (1998) and, in 2001, the title young character, Lizzie Buscana, in BACK TO THE SECRET GARDEN.
Yet it is with her new crop of films: THE BALLAD OF JACK AND ROSE, THE CHUMSCRUBBER and WHEN A STRANGER CALLS, not to mention THE QUIET and Indie film starring Elisha Cuthbert and Edie Falco that made its premiered at last year's Toronto International Film Festival – that Belle really seems to becoming to the forefront and gaining notoriety in her own right.
Prominently featured on the cover of Teen Vogue's March 2006 issue, the photo session—inspired by Belle's favorite film, NATIONAL VELVET—adoringly captured Belle in haute couture on a ranch-like setting. More than just a fantasy; Belle was a former junior equestrian. Interestingly, the fetching cover shot of Belle is accompanied by the words, "A Star is Born."
And further evidence of her celestial qualities, Belle was nominated in both 2000 and 2001 for the Young Artist Award, and, in 2005, for Gotham Award's Breakthrough Award, an indication that her career is now perceived to have real staying power.
So for someone who has worked in the business for 13 years (more than half her life) one may wonder how she keeps it fresh and fun?
"The fun about being actor is that you get to work with so many different people and each director is so different form the other. That is what makes it so much fun and so fascinating, you get to learn so much from each person you work with," relayed Belle.
So with all the success coming her way, do you think if Bell's phone rings and its Martin Scorsese or Quentin Tarantino do you think she is going to answer it – or like life imitating art, do you think that ever since shooting WHEN A STRANGER CALLS she would now be too spooked to pick it up to find out who is on the other end?....
Camilla Belle on MatchFlick
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A Chicago-based freelance writer and film enthusiast, Nancy has an insatiable curiousity and knack for picking out talented, promising individuals.
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