Acting his age

Decades after Christopher Plummer played his most famous role as the regal Capt. Von Trapp in The Sound of Music,he continues to evolve as an actor

Christopher Plummer relishes a good death scene. He has a haunting one in his latest film,The Last Station,in which he plays seminal Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy. Plummer perfectly captures the laboured breaths of a dying person,the falling in and out of consciousness,and even offers a little smile of peace as the writer of War and Peace bids adieu to the world.

They are all different, he says. I have died with my eyes open,which is more interesting than dying with your eyes shut. I cant remember how I died as Tolstoy,but I have done Cyrano de Bergerac on stage and I died with my eyes opened. I think thats marvelous,because in the theatre the lights hold to your open eyes and its marvelously frightening for a second. Cyrano dies happy because hes found love,so there is an ecstasy to his death.

But death is only the beginning these days for Plummer,whose career continues to evolve,decades after his most famous role as Capt. Von Trapp in the 1965 musical The Sound of Music.

Trim and still handsome just shy of his 80th birthday,Plummer is all old-school charm and puckish sense of humour. Hes in Los Angeles for premieres of The Last Station and The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus.

Plummer has never won a major film award. But that may change with The Last Station. The film has already earned five Spirit Award nominations,including a supporting actor nod for Plummer,fuelling the Oscar buzz surrounding his performance.

Plummer,whose well-received autobiography In Spite of Myself was published last year,seems surprised hes in demand these days. Besides his acting roles,Plummer also did voice-over in two animated films,Up and 9.

Hes also about to start a new film,Beginners,written and directed by Mike Mills,that is based on the filmmakers life. I play his father,who waits until hes about 79 to come out of the closet, says Plummer. Hes dying of cancer,but there is a lot of spirit and fun and humour because he dies happilyhes found someone that he loves, he says.

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Written and directed by Michael Hoffman,The Last Station explores the final year in the life of Tolstoy and his relationship with his wife of 48 years,Sofya Helen Mirren. Sofya finds herself locked in a ruthless battle with Chertkov Paul Giamatti,who is the defender of the writers legacy and believes the great man should sign over the copyrights to his books to the Russian people.

It just struck me it was such a remarkably good idea to cast somebody who was the same age as Tolstoy was at the time, says Hoffman. Chris is 79 and so full of life and full of energy. His sexuality is so alive,and he is spending his time on screen just doing what Tolstoy was doing,being an energetic man in the late years of his life.

Though Plummer knew Mirren,this marks the first time they have worked together. She has a great naughty sense of humour, he says.

In Parnassus,Plummer plays the title role: a magician who invites audiences to step through his magic mirror and enter a fantasy world of limitless imagination and sometimes nightmares. But Parnassus magic comes with a heavy price. Centuries earlier,he had made a deal with the devil Tom Waitshe would get immortality if he allowed the devil to take his daughter Lily Cole on her 16th birthday.

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The late Heath Ledger was playing the role of a mysterious,charming outsider who casts a spell over the daughter when the actor died last year. The role was completed by Ledgers good friends Johnny Depp,Jude Law and Colin Farrell.

After he finishes Beginners,Plummer plans to return to the stage as Prospero in Shakespeares The Tempest.

I will do it at the Stratford festival in Ontario Canada,and if it works,well be doing it in New York and London. And after Prospero,then what? Usually after Prospero everyone retires. But I aint going to retire!