Annette Bening improvised a climactic American Beauty detail
Celebrating the American Beauty's 25th anniversary, Annette Bening says she “just loved playing” Carolyn Burnham
1999 was a great year for film; classics celebrating their 25th anniversary this year include 10 Things I Hate About You, The Matrix, Eyes Wide Shut, The Sixth Sense, Fight Club, American Pie, and Sam Mendes’ Best Picture winner, American Beauty. Though something of a shadow has been cast over the movie in the wake of accusations that the Oscar-winning star Kevin Spacey did indeed prey on younger men, it doesn’t diminish the artistry or the cultural impact of the movie. As for Annette Bening, she “just loved playing” Carolyn Burnham, even if “she was a little psychotic.”
“I guess my favorite memory would be one of the little moments after [Spacey’s character, Lester] died,” she recalls in a new interview with Entertainment Tonight, citing the moment Carolyn embraces Lester’s clothing. “Very rarely do they have time to say, ‘OK, you know, improvise, do what you want,’ but I do remember that moment and I remember thinking I needed that,” Bening shares. “That I needed that moment for her to, you know, be missing her husband. That was important even though there’s all that brutalness about her. That she also really, at heart, she loved him.”