The answer is the delightful Eileen Essell, an 81-year-old British stage veteran who returned to acting after a 40-year break when her husband, an Irish playwright, died six years ago. This Friday, Essell makes her American screen debut in “Duplex,” a dark comedy directed by Danny DeVito, the former star of television’s “Taxi” and producer of “Erin Brockovich” and “Pulp Fiction,” and written by Larry Doyle, a former New York and Esquire magazine scribe and the son of Irish immigrants.
In the film, Essell plays Mrs. Connelly, the seemingly sweet elderly lady who lives in a rent-controlled apartment above her new landlords, a successful young couple (Stiller and Barrymore) whose dream of owning a home is quickly shattered by a woman who turns out to be the worst tenant since Jennifer Jason Leigh’s character in “Single White Female.”
It’s not long before the young marrieds find themselves going to drastic lengths to rid their home of their unwanted lodger.
Walking into a suite at Manhattan’s Essex House Hotel for a roundtable interview with reporters Sunday morning, the actress joked, “You don’t have to fear,” implying she is much easier to deal with than her defiant alter-ego.
So, how does it feel to finally win a breakthrough role at her age? “This is wonderful. It is amazing, isn’t it?” she said. “And yet, it seems in a sort of way, the actual doing of it all, feels normal. But how many parts are there for old ladies? People don’t write them.”
Noting she wasn’t “discovered” until she was in her late 70s, Essell recalled how an agent told her several years ago he wanted to set up a meeting after seeing her in a play. “And I said, ‘Why do you want to see me?’ ” she remembered. “And he said: ‘Look, you’re very old. You have white hair and all your marbles. I think you’re marketable,’ which was frank, wasn’t it?”
Marketable indeed. In addition to appearing in the new BBC version of “The Canterbury Tales,” Essell also won a role in the upcoming Johnny Depp film “Neverland” and is set to become one of the year’s favorite villains when
“Duplex” opens Friday. Talking about the character of Mrs. Connelly, Essell said: “I have always been a character actor, so the old lady is someone I felt I could conjure up from the past, including old Irish ladies I’ve known. Plus, my husband was Irish.”
The actress, whose only son is also an actor, went on to say that she doesn’t consider Mrs. Connelly “evil,” explaining she prefers to think of her as “a survivor.”
“There are a lot of old ladies around who are survivors,” she added.
Asked if anyone discussed with her why her character’s ethnicity in “Duplex” was Irish, Essell exclaimed, “No! Nobody did. What do you think?” before offering the notion that “maybe it’s assumed that the Irish are eccentric, quirky, perhaps?”
Asked further if that had been her experience, Essell laughed: “Yes! Through my husband I knew what those old ladies were like. They asked me if I could do an Irish accent and I said, ‘I wouldn’t have been married to an Irishman for 40 years if I couldn’t.’ “
According to Doyle, “Duplex” is loosely based on a real-life incident in France where a greedy lawyer offered to pay a 90-year-old woman’s rent until
she died, so long as she left him her home in her will. That was in 1965 when the man was 47. Unfortunately for him, the woman lived to the ripe old age of 122, dying in 1997, one year after the lawyer.
Doyle also counts “Roadrunner” cartoons and the 1955 British comedy “The Ladykillers” among the inspirations for his script, as well as his own family and acquaintances.
“I don’t want to specifically identify the individuals from which I borrowed,” Doyle said. “Essentially, they were my friends, neighbors and family, but some will most certainly recognize themselves in the film.”
Doyle told reporters Sunday that although he wants audiences to laugh at how hard the couple tries to oust the troublesome Mrs. Connelly from their home, “People shouldn’t like [Barrymore and Stiller’s characters] at the end.”
He explained: “I wanted this to be a satire of younger people who feel they are owed success and a lifestyle and are impatient to wait for it.”
DeVito said he signed on to the project because after making films like “Death to Smoochy” and “Get Shorty,” he felt like trying his hand at something new.
“This was a romantic comedy where the lovers were in this dilemma,” he said, grinning. “Plus, this was just twisted enough for me.