By William
FergusonIt would as
far too cynical to tell an actress only two years into her
career that she was born too late. But Moira Kelly is as
close to Maureen O'Hara as the 1990's is going to get- a
nice Irish-Catholic girl who, yes, will do a nude orgy scene
with midgets in a David Lynch film, but won't like it a
bit. And not without consulting a priest first, Really.
"Nudity...I have to say I
will never do it again, Kelly says with unstudied
earnestness. "I hope I hit that next level really fast so I
can make the choices and decide what is right and decent for
me to do."
What has so far been right
and decent are memorable roles in forgettable movies.
(Remember her keening frailty as a teenage murderess in
Love, Lies, and Murder? No?) But now Kelly has a chance
to be seen- fully dressed and with gray hair - in Charlie,
director Richard Attenborough's take on Charles Chaplin. As
Oona Chaplin, Kelly leaves the realm of startled-fawn
adolescence to play a character who ages nearly three
decades onscreen.
"Oona was hard," she says, "I
had to age her to forty-six and that's not really physical
aging, it's more of an internal maturity."
The buzz on Charlie all but
insists Kelly will finally shake the Michael Caine syndrome
(good performance, lousy film). But that should have
happened with Billy Bathgate (she played Dustin
Hoffman's girlfriend, remember?) and the Twin Peaks movie.
If Kelly is cynical about anything, it's imminent stardom.
"First of all-I only believe
what I see. If, perchance, it's true, and people are really
flung back by it, I just hope by then I'm strong enough to
handle what comes next."
She may sound stuffy
(perchance?) and unreasonably moral for a
twenty-four-year-old actress. But that's Moira Kelly's
charm - her, dare we say, inner maturity.