Christopher Plummer emulated Barrymore’s boozing ways, but got out just in time

TORONTO – Christopher Plummer has received rhapsodic praise for his portrayal of tragic acting legend John Barrymore, both onstage and in a new cinematic adaptation.

The pinpoint performance earned Plummer a Tony Award in 1997 and producers of the film version — opening in select Canadian theatres Wednesday — are angling for Oscar recognition.

But for Plummer, stepping into the shoes of the faded, fallen star in the final months of his abruptly halted life couldn’t have been more comfortable. After all, Barrymore — whose penchant for booze undermined his reputation as one of the world’s finest Shakespearean actors — long served as a role model for the 82-year-old Canadian-born thespian.

“I have great affection for the old guy,” Plummer said, his voice booming down the line from a hotel in New York.

“He was so funny, he had such a marvellous sense of humour, and self-deprecating humour too. He knew his failings, and he mocked them … and he made them a sort of kind of signature for himself, unfortunately.

“I think I felt inside me what he feels,” he added. “I tried to sort of emulate his life for a while, until I got a little bit scared of the result.”

Barrymore was born in 1882 into a family of famed actors, including his parents — noted stage actors Maurice and Georgie Drew Barrymore.

The famously handsome American established his career with tour-de-force stage performances in the late 1910s and early ’20s, lavished with particularly effusive acclaim for his turn in “Richard III” and “Hamlet,” before launching a more uneven film career that would include starring roles in more than 60 films, including “Grand Hotel,” “Dinner at Eight” and “Don Juan.”

“Barrymore” is a two-person play penned by William Luce that depicts the actor in wilted form in 1942, rehearsing a revival of his Broadway smash as “Richard III” a month before his death. As depicted in Luce’s play, Barrymore is only fitfully interested in actually preparing for the play, preferring instead to guide his suffering offstage “prompter” through a barely coherent drunken ramble through his life, career and a downfall he regards with rueful honesty.

Plummer performed the play at Stratford in 1996 and followed with the Broadway run a year later, which would earn him his second Tony. He revived the role for grateful Toronto audiences in 2011, the only actor in a two-hour production. The film adaptation hitting theatres this week was shot over seven days at Toronto’s Elgin Theatre, and directed by Montreal’s Erik Canuel (“Bon Cop, Bad Cop”).

Plummer traces his interest in Barrymore to Gene Fowler’s famous 1944 biography, “Good Night, Sweet Prince.” He read the book as a 14-year-old who didn’t yet realize his future lay in acting, and found himself mesmerized by the complex figure at its core.

“I thought, my God, what an extraordinary character this is,” recalled Plummer, who won an Oscar this year for his performance as a late-blooming gay man in “Beginners.”

“He’s handsome, he’s got all the girls, he’s got all the booze he wants, he’s living it up. And he’s also — at that time — he was a great actor.

“I thought … if that’s the kind of profession that you can get away with all that stuff, that’s for me. So he really was the first actor figure that kind of induced me to going into the business.”

And Plummer’s adulation of the acting icon led him on a curiously parallel path. He made his Broadway debut in 1954 with the unceremonious flop “The Starcross Story,” which closed after one performance, but found great success as the decade wore on — particularly with his Tony-nominated role in the 1958 hit “J.B.”

Like Barrymore, Plummer then transitioned to Hollywood and took roles both unforgettable (Capt. Von Trapp in the 1965 classic “The Sound of Music”) and otherwise (Lord Foppington in the 1969 comedy “Lock Up Your Daughters,” as one example).

Also like Barrymore, Plummer succumbed to the romantic notion of the hard-partying Hollywood actor, to the point where two marriages washed away before Plummer turned 40. It’s easy to understand, then, how Plummer so precisely nails the signposts — trembling hands, slurred speech, volatile moodswings — of Barrymore’s alcoholism.

“I’ve had a lifetime of research,” Plummer said with a soft chuckle.

But in 1970, Plummer married English actress Elaine Taylor, whom he credits with ensuring his path diverged from his ill-fated idol.

“When I got into my third marriage, my wife straightened me out,” he said, chortling in his wry, twinkling way. “So I was no longer John Barrymore and I came to live — so far — a lot longer than he has, and have played actually more roles, classic roles, than he ever did.

“It’s a shame because he could have gone on to be an extraordinary, great actor. To cut off like that was a shame.”

Plummer’s fondness for the actor is perhaps even more evident in his film performance than the stage production.

Some critics have taken issue with the play’s script, which sometimes leans heavily on eyeroll-inducing quips. But while Plummer handles the ribald comedy with enthusiastic aplomb, he wanted the cinematic version of “Barrymore” to feature greater depth and more pathos.

While Plummer still spends the vast majority of the film’s running time onstage, drunkenly ranting and bickering with the prompter played by John Plumpis, brief shots of Barrymore alone backstage studying himself in the mirror with disgust or guiding the viewer through childhood memories add a sombre subtext that was important to Plummer.

“Strangely enough, the film has made it more emotional than the stage play,” he said. “I was quite surprised looking at some of the scenes. I thought my God, I didn’t know that was quite that emotional…. The camera can reveal all sorts of feelings you didn’t know were being shown.”

Of course, both Plummer and Canuel acknowledge the challenge that lies ahead in drawing an audience to witness those small moments. A theatrical adaptation that features one actor alone onscreen for most of a nearly 90-minute runtime isn’t exactly an easy sell in the midst of summer blockbuster season, when most viewers are after an experience higher in cinematic calories.

“I know it’s not a movie for the average public,” Canuel said. “(But) I’m very proud of the film, and I’m so amazingly proud of Chris.”

Added Plummer: “It’s not an easy thing to sell … (but) there is a market for shows like this.”

That may be particularly true following Plummer’s turn at the Academy Awards, when his tender, funny speech emerged as a highlight for many viewers captivated by his adroit charm. Canuel admits he was “dancing like crazy” in his living room watching Plummer accept his award, only afterwards realizing the acclaim could help “Barrymore” as well.

Canuel believes Plummer’s performance in “Barrymore” is also Oscar-worthy. In a documentary about the making of the film, acting luminaries Julie Andrews and Helen Mirren also offer convincing testimony to Plummer’s inimitable power as an actor.

Plummer gracefully swats away such talk, saying of the Oscar speculation: “We don’t really go on talking about all that.” Similarly, he’s baffled by all the fawning over his achievements as they relate to his age.

“(Age) hasn’t affected me at all, thank God — not at all,” he said. “I don’t feel any different than I did 20 years ago. I still do the same exercises, I still play tennis. I do nothing that’s sort of come to a halt, not yet, anyway.

“And I think the reason is if you keep going and in a profession that you love, it helps you keep young. If you stop or even try to cut down, you’re admitting defeat already. You’ve got to continue at the same pace.”

Or, in Plummer’s case, an even more rapid pace. He’s currently shooting Stephen Frears’ drama “Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight,” portraying U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice John Marshall Harlan in the film about the legal battle that followed Ali’s 1967 arrest for draft evasion. Afterward, he’ll head back to the Stratford Shakespeare Festival for the one-man production, “A Word or Two,” an autobiographical riff on the literature that has inspired him.

He acknowledges that he’s had more offers than usual rolling in since his Oscars bow. And as he enjoys the late-career renaissance that Barrymore never had, Plummer is determined to continue searching for roles that offer something new, that push and surprise him.

“I just always want to be in something different — as different as possible each time,” he said. “I like to search into roles that offer other qualities, qualities I’ve not always shown on the screen.

“I’m terribly lucky — this is one of the busiest periods I’ve ever been in,” he added. “There’s not much time for rest. But it’s extremely good for the memory, you know.”

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“Barrymore” opens in select Cineplex theatres Wednesday.