About The Production
Pierce Brosnan, who has portrayed Agent 007 in the last four films of the wildly successful James Bond franchise, stars as celebrated New York divorce attorney Daniel Rafferty, a media darling who finds time to practice law in between writing legal books and appearing on the talk show circuit. Brosnan describes his character as a man who has been in the game a long time but who has lost interest in what he does. Rafferty only continues arguing cases because “he’s very good
at it,” says the actor. “And then, out of the blue, one day he goes into divorce court and he meets this other great attorney, Audrey Woods.” Like Daniel, Audrey is at the top of her game. “She lives for work,” says four-time Oscar nominee Julianne Moore (The Hours, Far from Heaven, Boogie Nights), who plays Audrey. “She doesn’t have much of a social life, and when she meets
Daniel, he poses a real challenge to her.”
Director Peter Howitt (Sliding Doors) agrees, noting, “It’s a clash of opposites. They come from different schools of thought. Audrey Woods follows the rules and doesn’t lose a case because she’s so good. Daniel Rafferty comes along, and he is this forgetful, slightly Columbo-like slacker. But with him, what you see is not what you get.”
“Daniel is very laid back,” comments producer David T. Friendly. “The first time you see him he’s asleep in the courtroom. Pierce can very convincingly play that kind of laconic presence, which nevertheless hides a cunning and acute intelligence.’
Both attorneys find themselves on opposite sides of a contentious divorce between a rock star (Michael Sheen) and his fiery fashion designer wife (Parker Posey). The bone of contention between the two is an Irish castle to which each thinks it rightfully belongs, which leads Audrey and Daniel to travel to Ireland to take depositions on behalf of their respective clients.
“Ireland has a reputation and reason for being a wonderful, very beautiful and romantic country,” comments Julianne Moore. “I think there’s an element of romanticism that Audrey and Daniel absorb while they’re there.”
“They get sucked into a big Irish festival,” explains Peter Howitt, “when their resistance to each other is down, and their stuffy New York mentality, especially Audrey’s, has been stripped away. They are brought to God’s own earth, if you like, and none of the nonsense from the city stands for very much with the salty Irish folks.”
Without the armor of their jobs to come between them, Audrey and Daniel are swept up in the moment. “They start to connect to each other and react to each other as human beings, not lawyer to lawyer,” says Howitt.
After a night of romance and drinking, Audrey and Daniel wake to find themselves married. “It’s a dance between the two of them,” says Pierce Brosnan. “And it started from the first glance. Daniel’s not going to let Audrey go until he wins her. These two people deal with miserable lives for a living, couples whose lives have fallen asunder, who have fallen out of love. And now they find themselves
falling in love, knowing all the pitfalls of love and marriage. Yet, he’s willing to fight for her.”
The experience “is quite good for the soul of their characters and the soul of their relationship,” comments Howitt. “Because when they get back to New York, they have bonded through this experience in Ireland.”
Rounding out the cast of Laws of Attraction is a diverse group of actors, led by Frances Fisher (Titanic), Parker Posey (Best in Show) and Michael Sheen (Underworld).
Parker Posey plays fashion designer Serena, who is pitted against her soon-to-be ex-husband Thorne Jamison (Michael Sheen) – lead singer of rock band Thorne Jamison and The Needles. “Serena is either going to divorce Thorne or murder him,” says Posey. “But it’s this passion that provides the emotional catalyst for the story. Everything about them is over-the-top – the way they dress, where
they live, the way they love each other. And because they are so unrepressed they are a kind of example to Daniel and Audrey, which allows them to come together.”
Playing mega-star Thorne, Michael Sheen admits, came naturally to the actor. “I think everyone, including myself, was a bit shocked at how easy it was to get into the part of a rock god,” he muses. “It’s terrific fun. The characters of Thorne and Serena are so over-the-top to begin with that we have enormous fun articulating their relationship.”
Frances Fisher plays Sara Miller, Audrey’s mother. “I think Sara is every woman’s fantasy,” Fisher describes. “She loves life, she’s rich; and she enjoys herself and makes no apologies for it.” Sara is, according to Fisher, the polar opposite of her daughter. “As with many parent-child relationships, whatever the parent does, the child does the opposite,” she explains. “Because
Sara is so adventurous, Audrey has gone the opposite way. But she has wisdom. There is an intuitive understanding of relationships which Audrey can learn from, so Sara ends up having a really pivotal role in the story.’
The challenge in Laws of Attraction, says director Peter Howitt, is finding out how Audrey and Daniel, two very different people, might find some kind of common ground. “Audrey is a very reticent character and Daniel, although he seems at first to be just a typical gigolo, has genuinely seen something in her that he hasn’t seen in anyone else,” the director says. “But she can’t believe that anyone
would see that in her and also doesn’t believe that he is sincere, so she has to look beyond the surface. That his devil-may-care attitude hides a more profound moral and psychological foundation, which over a period of time she comes to understand.”
Producer David T. Friendly explains that these two characters suffer from what he calls “the ‘tailor with short pants syndrome’ – people who deconstruct relationships for a living but aren’t so good at keeping their own together,” Friendly explains. “In many ways, it’s a throwback to the more character-driven films of the 1940’s – no special effects, no stunts, just
two great actors sparring off each other with great dialogue. What I loved about the films of Billy Wilder and Hepburn and Tracy, in particular, was their intelligence and pace. This script has some great banter that has a terrific rhythm to it.”
Friendly took the project to Pierce Brosnan and his producing partner Beau St. Clair’s Irish DreamTime production company. Brosnan, who had been wanting to make a romantic comedy following the success of The Thomas Crown Affair, responded immediately to the concept.
St. Clair feels Laws of Attraction harkens back to the Cary Grant tradition – a film not designed to specifically appeal to 14-24 year-olds. “There’s a huge demand from the over-25 audience for adult, intelligent movie fare,” she comments. “Today’s audiences just aren’t getting those kind of entertaining, smart, grown-up films.”
Internationally recognized for his highly successful incarnation of James Bond, Brosnan was an ideal partner to bring this film to life. “Pierce is a classically trained actor – there’s a lot more to him than Bond,” comments Friendly.
Beau St. Clair sees the role less as a departure than a revisiting of Brosnan’s earlier acting successes. “If you remember ‘Remington Steele’ and Pierce’s work in films like Mrs. Doubtfire, you’ll know that he has tremendous comic ability,” she says. “I think he’s completely at home in the shoes of Daniel Rafferty.’
For Brosnan, as executive producer and star, getting the right actress for the part of Audrey Woods was crucial to the success of the project. “We needed an actress who could communicate depth and possessed more than meets the eye – otherwise why would she be so beguiling to Daniel?” says Brosnan. “I really to wanted to work with the best actress we could find, and truly we got the best in Julianne Moore.”
“Most modern romantic comedy is told from the point of view of the woman,” says producer David T. Friendly. “It was critical that we had an actress who not only had intelligence and charisma but who could carry the comedy as well as the emotion.’
“I’ve done a wide range of work,” says Julianne Moore, “but never anything like this. It’s very sweet and funny and I really wanted to do it because the script is really great. That’s the main reason I do anything. And of course the opportunity to work with Pierce was an added bonus.”
Best known for her acclaimed work as a dramatic actress in films like Far from Heaven and The Hours, Moore found a nice change of pace in Audrey Woods. “With a film like this you’re going to encounter some broad character traits,” she explains, “but your job as an actor is to find the human qualities behind the broadness; to give Audrey a real human dimension. Audrey is not unlike many working women
today. It’s difficult, as any of us who have families know, to keep all those things going and not be consumed by any one of them.”
“Early on in the shoot I noticed Julianne doing things that I didn’t expect,” director Peter Howitt raves. “Every day on the set, she got me more interested in Audrey.”
Producer Beau St. Clair underlines the importance of reality to a genre many may consider ephemeral in tone and intent. “The truth is that in a romantic comedy it’s not enough to be just romantic or just funny – you need both,” she says. “You need actors who can be funny but also believable.”
Reflecting on the appeal of the film, Peter Howitt describes Laws of Attraction as “a great falling in love story, based on two people becoming vulnerable and opening up to the other and changing.”
“You have to fight for some things in your life,” concludes Pierce Brosnan. “And love is one of the most important things to fight for.”
The three month shoot on Laws of Attraction began in Ireland, where the company filmed entirely in Dublin and Wicklow Counties. Humewood House, a private residence in Kiltegan, County Wicklow, served as the castle which is at the center of the divorce case between Serena and Thorne. The Ardmore Film Studios in Wicklow were also utilized for interior shots.
The production then moved to New York City, where locations included Chinatown, Soho and the New York State Supreme Count Building. It was while filming in New York on August 14th, 2003 that the shoot was caught up in the massive power blackout that affected much of the East coast. But without missing a beat, the crew switched to backup power generators and managed to complete the day’s filming.
PIERCE BROSNAN is best known for his performances as James Bond in GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World is Not Enough and Die Another Day, Pierce Brosnan’s career has taken him far from the town of Navan in Ireland where he was born and spent his childhood. Moving to London at the age of 11 he attended Drama school from the age of 16 before moving onto stage productions
such as Zefferelli’s Fulimena and Wait Until Dark at The York.
The US television miniseries “Manions of America” brought Brosnan to the attention of American audiences and led to international recognition with his performance in the title role in “Remington Steele.”
While reinvigorating the Bond franchise – resulting in a combined box-office of more than one billion dollars – Brosnan also formed his own production company, with fellow producer Beau St. Clair, called Irish DreamTime. Since its inception. the company has produced The Nephew, The Thomas Crown Affair and, more recently, Evelyn. Laws of Attraction is its fourth film. Brosnan has also appeared in a wide variety of
roles ranging from Mrs. Doubtfire, Mars Attacks! and Dante’s Peak, as well as Richard Attenborough’s Grey Owl and John Boorman’s The Tailor of Panama.
JULIANNE MOORE, an actress of exceptional range, has delivered outstanding work in both major studio hits and acclaimed independent features. She became the ninth person in Academy history to receive two Oscar nominations in the same year (Best Actress for Far From Heaven and Best Supporting Actress for The Hours), bringing a career total of four Academy Award nominations.
Moore's other notable films include Neil Jordan's The End of the Affair and Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights. Her performances earned her Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for each film. She also received a BAFTA Award nomination for The End of the Affair; an additional Golden Globe Award nomination for her work in Oliver Parker's An Ideal Husband, and awards for Boogie Nights
from the National Society of Film Critics, Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and Florida Film Critics Circle as Best Supporting Actress.
Moore received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Robert Altman's Short Cuts, and later reunited with the director for Cookie’s Fortune (for which she was honored by the Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association as Best Supporting Actress). She has also starred in such blockbusters as Ridley Scott's Hannibal and Steven Spielberg's The Lost World: Jurassic Park; in the independent films The Myth of Fingerprints
and World Traveler, both of which were written and directed by her husband, Bart Freundlich; and, again for Paul Thomas Anderson, in Magnolia (for which she was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award).
For her performance in Todd Haynes' Safe, she received an Independent Spirit Award. Her four screen performances from 1999 (in Cookie’s Fortune, An Ideal Husband, Magnolia, and Scott Elliott's A Map of the World) brought her the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress that year.
Moore's many other screen credits include Lasse Hallstrom's The Shipping News; Joel and Ethan Coen's The Big Lebowski; Merchant Ivory's Surviving Picasso; Chris Columbus' Nine Months; Louis Malle's Vanya On 42nd Street (for which she earned the Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress); Jeremiah Chechik's Benny & Joon; and Curtis Hanson's The Hand that Rocks the Cradle.
After earning her B. F. A. from Boston University for the Performing Arts, Moore starred in a number of off-Broadway productions, including Caryl Churchill's “Serious Money” and “Ice Cream/Hot Fudge” at the Public Theater. In Minneapolis, she appeared in the Guthrie Theater's “Hamlet”; and participated in workshop productions of Strindberg's “The Father” (with Al Pacino) and Wendy
Wasserstein's “An American Daughter” (with Meryl Streep).
Moore was recently honored with the Independent Feature Project (IFP) Gotham Awards' annual Actor Award, which recognizes a New York-based actor who has made significant artistic contributions to the city's film community.
PARKER POSEY recently received an Independent Spirit Award nomination as Leading Actress for her work in Rebecca Miller’s Personal Velocity, as well as a Golden Globe nomination for her work opposite Shirley MacLaine in the CBS film Hell on Heels: The Battle of Mary Kay. Other films from her vast repertoire include Thom Fitzgerald’s The Event, Christopher Guest’s
Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, and his most recent film, A Mighty Wind. She has also appeared in The Sweetest Thing, The Anniversary Party, Wes Craven’s Scream 3, Nora Ephron’s You’ve Got Mail, Suburbia and Dazed and Confused (both for Richard Linklater), Clockwatchers, The Daytrippers, and three films for Hal Hartley (Amateur, Flirt and Henry Fool). For her performance in The House of Yes, she received a Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.
On stage, Posey starred in the Los Angeles premiere of John Patrick Shanley’s “Four Dogs and a Bone,” directed by Lawrence Kasdan, and starred on Broadway opposite Matthew Broderick in Elaine May’s “Taller than a Dwarf.” Off-Broadway, she recently starred opposite Robert Sean Leonard in Lanford Wilson’s “Fifth of July,” for which she has received a Lucille Lortell nomination
for Best Actress.
Posey will next be seen co-starring opposite Wesley Snipes, Jessica Biel and Ryan Reynolds in Blade: Trinity, the third film in the Blade trilogy.
A highly regarded young British actor, MICHAEL SHEEN’s popularity and critical acclaim in the theatre is quickly translating to the big screen.
Classically trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, where he won the SWET/Laurence Olivier Bursary Award, Sheen made his stage debut in the West End production of “When She Danced” for director Robert Ackerman. Soon after, under the direction of Declan Donellan, Sheen was nominated for the Ian Charleson Award for his performance in “Don’t Fool With Love.”
Sheen complemented his theatrical career with roles in such films as Oliver Parker’s Othello; Gilbert’s Wilde with Jude Law; and Stephen Frears’s Mary Reilly, starring Julia Roberts and John Malkovich. His most notable theatrical success, playing Mozart in Sir Peter Hall’s “Amadeus,” brought him from the West End to Broadway, as well as a nomination for the Outer Critics Circle Award.
Hot off the success of “Amadeus,” Sheen earned his first major role in an American studio film, Shekhar Kapur’s The Four Feathers, starring opposite Heath Ledger and Wes Bentley for Miramax/Paramount. Following that, he landed the lead role in Miramax’s upcoming film, Heartlands, for director Damien O’Donnell. Last year he starred in Underworld opposite Kate Beckinsale, and appeared in Stephen
Fry’s Bright Young Things and Richard Donner’s Timeline.
Most recently, he has received critical acclaim for his tour-de-force performance last Spring as Caligula at London’s Donmar Warehouse Theatre. In addition to being nominated for the prestigious Olivier Award, he has won both the Evening Standard Award and the Critics Circle Award for Best Actor.
Sheen spends his time between Los Angeles and London.
FRANCES FISHER was born in Milford-On-Sea, England, the daughter of an international construction supervisor. Her family lived all over the world (Columbia, Canada, France, Brazil, Turkey, Italy and the U.S.) before she finished her schooling in Texas. Attracted to the theatre, she eventually moved to New York City and studied with Stella Adler and Lee Strasberg. Fisher was one
of the last three actors chosen by Strasberg to be a member of the Actors' Studio before he passed on. Fisher spent years playing leading roles in over thirty productions, regional, Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway. Her favourite productions include: “Fool For Love,” “Desire Under the Elms,” “Cat On a Hot Tin Roof” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” During this time she also had long-running roles in the television soaps “The
Edge of Night” and “The Guiding Light.”
Fisher is perhaps best known for her starring role (as Ruth DeWitt Bukater) in the Oscar-winning mega blockbuster Titanic (for which Fisher received a Screen Actors Guild nomination for Best Ensemble Cast).
Fisher's additional feature film credits include The Stars Fell on Henrietta; Female Perversions; Clint Eastwood’s True Crime, and his Oscar-winning Unforgiven; Paul Schrader's Patty Hearst; and Henry Jaglom's Babyfever and Can She Bake A Cherry Pie.
Fisher recently won a DramaLogue Award for her work in Caryl Churchill's “Three More Sleepless Nights” and is currently working with Joan Tewkesbury on an expanded version of “Jammed,” her one-woman show which Fisher debuted to critical acclaim at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1997.
Fisher’s recent screen credits include the ABC telefeature “Audrey Hepburn” (as Audrey's mother, co-starring with Jennifer Love-Hewitt); Tom Rice's “The Rising Place” and Vadim Perelman’s House of Sand and Fog.
She is currently filming the HBO/Killer Films production, Mrs. Harris, opposite Annette Bening.
PETER HOWITT made his writing and directing debut with the box-office hit Sliding Doors, starring Gwyneth Paltrow. Sliding Doors was the fourth most successful British film in history. Howitt won a European Film Award for Best Screenplay and an Empire Award for Best British Director.
He subsequently directed Anti Trust, starring Tim Robbins, Ryan Phillipe and Rachael Leigh Cook, and scored another international box office success with Johnny English, a spoof of the Bond format, starring Rowan Atkinson.
Prior to that he was a well-known actor in Britain, where his film work included appearances in the powerful Irish dramas In the Name of the Father, starring Daniel Day Lewis and Emma Thompson, and Some Mother’s Son, with Helen Mirren.
His theatre credits include The Caretaker with Donald Pleasence and Party Time, both written and directed by Harold Pinter. |
