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If anything shows the growing power of the actor and director in contemporary Big Studio Hollywood, it is in the success of Paramount's (or Paramount Vantage to be precise) Revolutionary Road, brought to the screen by powerhouse trio Kate Winslet, husband Sam Mendes, and multiplex favourite Leonardo DiCaprio.

Not since the 1970s heyday, when actors and directors could drive entire film projects (epitomised in the success of United Artists, before it's crash at the beginning of the 80s), have star-director partnerships been so powerful, or influential, within the industry.

Kate Winslet and husband Sam Mendes, commercial and critical successes, and Heat favourites, show what happens when awards are matched with box office receipts, and how that influence can green-light (and shape) projects, epitomised in the development of Revolutionary Road.

"It was a remarkable opportunity for any actress, and one of the most challenging experiences of my life" according to Winslet, “because that's what you hope for; to come home with something new to think about, which itself creates skills to use in other roles."

Winslet originally read the script, and then moved it forward as a package with her agent. At this stage Mendes was more husband than director.

"I thought, let's find out about the rights," Winslet explains, "and make director and other actor suggestions. Then this remarkable thing happened. The phone rang at home and it was an actress named Cynthia O'Neal, an old friend of Sam's, and she said: 'Is it true you're interested in playing April Wheeler in Revolutionary Road?' I said, 'Yes, but how could you have known that?' She said 'My darling, I own the rights!'"

"Cynthia is the widow of actor Patrick O'Neal, who bought the rights to Revolutionary Road in a poker game. He felt so passionate about the story that he wrote a screenplay himself, and then bequeathed the rights to Cynthia."

Following this encouraging start Winslet passed the script to Titanic co-star DiCaprio, before approaching husband Mendes. "They needed to meet, so Sam and Leo had this great talk, and a
couple of months later we were on set. All the dreams I didn't dare to dream came together."

Revolutionary Road, on the surface, appears to be a return to previous themes for director Mendes. Like American Beauty the film is set in the (American) suburbs, and focuses on the lives of a couple unhappy with their lot in 1950s Connecticut, dreaming of leaving their old lives behind. However, in Revolutionary Road Mendes adopts more a direct approach to film-making than in American Beauty, and relies more heavily on the performances of lead and supporting actors.

"It's so interesting that our culture has chosen to revisit that period now," says Mendes, "because it seems both familiar and utterly strange. It's so great to look at, and it's hard not to fetishise that period, particularly as people dressed so well. "

Despite being set in a bygone age the film's themes are pitched to appeal to insecure audiences facing a full economic recession and questioning their own lives. “All these characters are longing for something," as Mendes puts it, "they just don't know what it is."

Mendes was originally reluctant to be drawn into such a complex project, but Winslet was insistent (and also on-hand to apply all the appropriate pressure). "I read the screenplay because Kate wanted to play the part," Mendes explains. "I read it four years ago, and immediately felt I shouldn't direct it, because like American Beauty it is set in the suburbs. It seems to me not to be about suburbia though, but more about a marriage and the community at the heart of it. It's really about men and women."

By this stage, with Winslet focussing on the part of April Wheeler, Mendes was thinking about the role of her husband in the film, Frank, and DiCaprio's portrayal of him.

"It was pretty obvious in a way. It was the combination of the two actors and the part. Leo's is an amazing performance. He pushed Frank further towards harshness, weakness and cruelty, and I think that was exciting for him. "In my mind, it's trying to be a sister film to Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? or Scenes from a Marriage. I felt I was making a movie about a marriage - it's a love story and a tragic love story. Leo and Kate have a chemistry that's so great. I didn't have to create a relationship. There was one already there."

As for the domestic challenges of living and working with the director making that on-screen relationship work, Winslet is philosophical.

"We weren't able to separate it. Sam really tried to in the beginning because quite rightly, I think he felt we had to protect our sanity, and he's very good at compartmentalising. He can multi-task like a crazy person on set, but when he goes home he switches off. "I've always thought I left my work at work, but I don't at all. Sam realised it would be unfair to stop me from doing that, and in the end it ended up being a really good thing."...more

words: Allen Therisa

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