CityLife

Interview: Vera Farmiga

Vera Farmiga with co-star George Clooney

VERA Farmiga plays confident businesswoman Alex in Up In The Air, who not only seduces commitment-phobe commuter Ryan Bingham (George Clooney), but plays him at his own game.

“It was challenging to play a woman who is very much like a man,” she admits. “Often at times when a woman behaves in this way, it can be misinterpreted. I appreciated that equal balance of power.”

She adds: “I also loved walking this tightrope of wanton unapologetic sexuality and femininity.

“I thought that was a challenge and a treat to tackle. It was difficult for me, and it was a fine line to tread, to have this softness and in the end, she takes control of her sexuality.

“I really liked the male perspective on the heartbreak.”

Farmiga met director Jason Reitman to discuss the role when she was in the throes of pregnancy, and thought she wouldn’t be suitable as a mum-to-be.

“I thought I had no chance because I was in the eleventh hour of my pregnancy and I was bigger than Jason and George combined,” she quipped.

“I like good old-fashioned romance, and the female roles in the Reitman films are always the smartest, wittiest and most intelligent female roles you get to read,” she said.

Mania

“I was hungry for a good old-fashioned romance where the woman can really go tete-a-tete with her male counterpart.”

She has only praise for her hunky co-star.

“He’s a dreamboat. He’ll make anybody weak at the knees – male or female,” she says.

“George was exactly the partner I needed because I have never felt as insecure as I did coming into this role. I had just given birth to my first child two weeks before my first costume fitting, I really needed an ally and he was simply wonderful.

“His sense of humour is sincerely the most attractive thing about him. It’s just jokes, nothing but laughter and giggles. He’s the consummate gentleman, extremely kind and loving.”

Being in such close proximity to the Hollywood pin-up allowed Farmiga to observe the mania that surrounds him.

“What was most amusing for me was to see the fanaticism that George attracts. That was overwhelming and so odd,” she reveals.

“No one ever knows who I am, they always think I’m a producer on a film. Watching George have to deal with that – he’ll open a door and close it, and get a standing ovation for that – or he’ll get one when he walks. He is so gallant and gracious.”