A star both astronomical and otherwise
Claire Danes plays a living piece of the cosmos in 'Stardust'
Claire Danes is eating apricots.
This is not a song title, though it could be. Danes, once the cult queen of teen angst as star of TV's "My So-Called Life," has inspired many a pop/punk tune, from "My So Called Strife (Nice Guys Finish Last)" to The Lesser Birds of Paradise classic, "Claire Danes, If You Ever Get a Nose Job, I Swear to Jesus I'll Hang Myself."
But in this case Danes really is eating apricots, which she has cut neatly in halves and laid out on room-service china, where they look prearranged to match the circular orange pattern of her fashionably retro jacket. The jacket in turn complements the 28-year-old actress' spun-gold hair and regal cheek bones. As she nibbles her fruit in a Boston hotel suite, Danes seems even more of a heavenly being than usual, which is appropriate because in her latest movie she plays a star -- not the Hollywood kind but an actual self-illuminating celestial body.
The film, opening Friday, is called "Stardust." It's adapted from comic-book creator and author Neil Gaiman's novel of the same name, and it's the fantastical story of a cosmic ball of gas that turns into a woman when it crash-lands in the magical, British-accented kingdom of Stormhold, home to witches, unicorns, murderous princes, and the transformative power of true love.
"There's no easy answer," Danes says when asked for her cocktail-party-friendly description of the movie. "It's about a star who falls to Earth and then lots of absurd characters chase her for various reasons."
Danes has covered an impressive amount of creative ground in more than a dozen years of making feature-length films, from contemporizing Shakespeare opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in "Romeo + Juliet" to perfecting art-house offbeat in "Igby Goes Down" to blasting her way through "Terminator 3." Still, on paper this latest role could be an even tougher sell than her turn as Steve Martin's sexual plaything in "Shopgirl."
"Stardust" wants to be "The Princess Bride" meets "The Lord of the Rings" by way of "It Happened One Night." The screenplay by Jane Goldman and the film's director, Matthew Vaughn ("Layer Cake") is faithful in spirit to Gaiman's charming fairy tale, but it narrows the story's focus while broadening its visual universe in a barrage of special effects. There is also one very odd, much talked about embellishment that involves Robert De Niro as captain of a flying pirate ship of lightning collectors, but you have to see that expanded cameo to believe it.
On film, the protagonist is Tristan (Charlie Cox), who thinks he can win the heart of his standoffish beloved (Sienna Miller) if he retrieves the fallen star for her. This quest sends Tristan over the forbidden border of his sleepy olde village to discover adventure and real passion in the company of a glowing female named Yvaine (Danes), an easy target for assorted evildoers, the nastiest of whom is played by Michelle Pfeiffer. Though Yvaine is hobbled and pretty cranky at first -- plummeting from outer space into a crater will do that to a girl -- the spark between her and Tristan is so plain that it's no wonder Vaughn suggested his costars watch several classic road comedies, including "Midnight Run" with De Niro and soul mate Charles Grodin, for lessons in affectionate bickering.
"It was like casting a buddy movie in the sense that it's all about their relationship and believing in it and the chemistry between the two actors," the director explains in a phone interview. "So when we cast Charlie Cox to play Tristan, we cast him with a caveat. . . . I told him, 'I might not be able to find a single girl that clicks off you, or I might find a girl who's perfect for Yvaine and you don't click off her, so I have to get rid of you.' That was always the plan, so poor Charlie had to read with quite a few girls."
In the end, Vaughn says Danes's audition with Cox was the most spot-on; maybe not surprising, since she's known for clicking with costars almost as much as she's known for her quivering chin. She dated Matt Damon after "The Rainmaker" and Billy Crudup (who left a pregnant Mary-Louise Parker for her) in the wake of "Stage Beauty." She made an appearance in "The Rage in Placid Lake" because it starred her then-boyfriend, Aussie rocker Ben Lee. And recently she's being seen in the company of Hugh Dancy, her castmate in the highbrow summer tearjerker "Evening." (That last relationship is still "going good," she confirms.)
Danes has sometimes been portrayed in interviews as the spotlight-craving product of a lonely, anxious childhood. She scrunches her perfect face while saying that's overstated, but confirms she did know early on -- possibly from the first day of dance lessons at 4 -- that she wanted to be an entertainer.
"I think I just always liked performing," she says. "It's really that basic; I like being a ham."
She still lives in her native New York City, where she went to a performing arts junior high school, got an agent, and rollerbladed to auditions. At 13 she moved briefly to Los Angeles when "My So-Called Life" got picked up and ran for 19 much-praised episodes. ("The people who were watching were committed, but they were not numerous," she's quick to point out. "I think it just had a very robust afterlife.") Her mother, an artist, and her father, a photographer and computer consultant, continue to live in LA; she also has an older brother, a litigation attorney in New York.
Danes could not have foreseen that her first major movie role, as Beth in "Little Women," would one day lead to playing the supernatural heroine in an interstellar love story. But in some ways her date with "Stardust" has been a decade in the making. In 1997, she wrote the introduction to Gaiman's comic book "Death: The Time of Your Life." And in 1999, she voiced a main character in his English-language adaptation of "Princess Mononoke."
So there are those who would call this latest collaboration fate. Not Danes. She's not even sure she believes in the concept, especially where it comes to relationships and the "meant to be together" message behind most fairy tales.
"I think you're very lucky to find somebody who you are compatible with, basically," she says after some consideration. "But it's great to see [romantic destiny] in the movies."
Or on the stage, which is where Danes is headed next. Her Broadway debut comes in September when she starts appearing in previews of George Bernard Shaw's "Pygmalion."
She's excited, but admits to being scared, too. Though it's easy for her to shrug off industry suggestions that she's the Meryl Streep of her generation ("They call everybody the Meryl Streep of their generation," she scoffs), conquering Broadway undoubtedly concerns her more than box office returns for either "Stardust" or "The Flock," an upcoming thriller with Richard Gere.
Aside from pure artistic pride, there is the element of a live audience to consider.
"It's great when they're engaged. It's hard when they fall asleep, which they do on occasion," Danes says with a nervous smile, thinking back on a theatrical dance performance that wasn't nearly as well received as her high-stepping Gap commercial with Patrick Wilson.
In film work, it's easier to pretend that viewers are never disenchanted. Yes, there are times when people do fall asleep on a star. But in the big-screen fairy tale, they're always part of the cast.
Janice Page can be reached at jpage@globe.com. For more on movies, go to boston.com/ae/ movies/blog. 