Star turn has Emily Barclay hankering for more gritty roles

By FRANCES GRANT

Emily Barclay searches for a word to describe what impressed her about Toronto. "I like that it's really eclectic," she says of the Canadian city which boasts one of the world's major film festivals.

Barclay was at the Toronto Film Festival promoting In My Father's Den, in which she stars as Celia, a thoughtful 16-year-old who, like Barclay, is also rather articulate.

The 19-year-old Aucklander received the rising star treatment and comparisons to Keisha Castle-Hughes and Anna Paquin when the film opened the Sydney Film Festival and premiered in New Zealand at the Auckland International Film Festival.

In Toronto, where the film won the Fipresci prize (given by a jury to an emerging film-maker), Barclay fronted for the post-screening Q&A sessions which, she says, were scary. Seems like she handled them like an old pro, however.

Questions asked were "similar to the things people ask when I'm being interviewed: 'How did you prepare for the part, How did you and Brad [director Brad McGann] work together' ... "

And, she's learned to expect the weird ones. "There's always someone trying to catch you out - 'So it was filmed in Otago, why were there Wellington police cars there?' "

Barclay turns out to be a keen question-time participant herself. She asked New York director Todd Solondz a couple of questions, after the Toronto screening of his Palindromes (another movie with a teenage girl as the central character). "I asked him how he went about constructing his characters and whether he tends to base them on real people. And about directing younger children and how to go about addressing difficult subject matter with them."

She's a keen student of film, doing film studies for two semesters at university before taking a break to promote In My Father's Den. "And I watch a lot of films; I've always done that."

The Remuera girl acquired a taste for acting in school plays, studied drama at the Aspiring Young Actors School where teacher Jan Saussey was an inspiration. "She taught me to be aware of the character, that it was important not to act but to be."

Barclay hired an agent at 13 and did some work on US made-for-TV movies before auditioning for the role in In My Father's Den.

It's not hard to guess what inspired that second question to Solondz. In the film, Barclay plays Celia, a bright, inquisitive and slightly flirtatious 16-year-old who strikes up a friendship with Paul (British actor Matthew Macfadyen), a troubled war journalist who has returned to his small home town for his father's funeral.

Celia is a promising writer who is longing to get out into the wider world. When she goes missing, the exact nature of her relationship with Paul comes under scrutiny, leading to a web of disturbing secrets from the past.

"From the beginning I had a very clear idea of who she was - wow, I know that person. She was in my head from that first moment that I read [the character description]," Barclay says.

What most attracted her to the part is that this was a teenage girl far from the usual movie stereotype. "Celia is a three-dimensional, interesting, intelligent, thoughtful 16-year-old. Teen girls are not often portrayed like that, so it's important that this film stepped away from that caricature.

"She is someone who is far more real and complex. So in that respect I think a lot of people can relate to her. She's a deep thinker and free-spirited."

So accomplished is Barclay's performance, it's easy to imagine the young actor must simply be playing herself. "Celia is quite different from me. But she's different in a way that I can relate to."

Like Celia, Barclay sees the value in friendships with older people. "Most of my friends are older. I like interesting people who have done things with their lives."

Barclay is keen to stress that In My Father's Den takes a serious approach to its disturbing subject matter. While the movie was being filmed, there was a frightening parallel in reality with the disappearance and search for Featherston schoolgirl Coral Burrows.

"It really hit home, the reality of what we were doing, the fact that it does happen," she says. "I thought a lot about it. And I think we tried our hardest not to exploit the subject matter in any way. I hope someone who has been through this situation can look at it and go, 'Yeah, that's what it's like'."

It sounds like Barclay won't be getting back to university and her peers in a hurry. She's off to Roxburgh, the Central Otago town where the film was shot, for a special screening, The Pusan Film Festival in Korea is on the agenda and two weeks in Australia to promote the movie. And then there's the future ...

The Castle-Hughes/Paquin comparisons are flattering, she says, but how far her star will shine depends on how the movie goes overseas and in America. The next aim is to do another "movie I feel passionate about". That would probably mean one which, like In My Father's Den, doesn't shy away from difficult material. "I think it's important for society to acknowledge and look into the dark side. If you don't examine the darkness, then you're never able to move on or evolve in any way."