Claire Danes earned a permanent place in many a television viewer’s heart back in 1993 when, at the age of 14, she played Angela Chase on “Wicked” screenwriter (and writer of the stage musical’s book) Winnie Holzman’s short-lived ABC drama “My So-Called Life.” It was rare to see a teenage character portrayed by an actor of the same age (Danes was actually a year younger than the 15-year-old Angela), and what a startling difference it made. Danes effortlessly conveyed the terror and elation of being a high school freshman in America, which meant she could go from heartbreakingly sympathetic to downright irritating on the turn of a dime. Such are teenagers. We were all there once.
Some of us also had the opportunity as teenagers to leave the communities in which we were raised and visit other cultures and countries. In retrospect, these were vital experiences that broadened our understanding of the world and taught us the importance of empathy. This is how we grow and, hopefully, become more enlightened human beings.
It’s one thing to visit another country as an exchange student, and quite another to do so as a burgeoning movie star who’s making a major studio film. So when Claire Danes was jetted off to the Philippines in the late 1990s to shoot Jonathan Kaplan’s “Brokedown Palace” (a riff on Alan Parker’s “Midnight Express”), she was blanketed in privilege; however, given that the film was shot in poverty-stricken areas of the country (which was doubling for Thailand), she was exposed to conditions the likes of which were disconcerting foreign to her.
It had an effect on her. And when she shared her honest reaction to all of it with the U.S. media, she incurred the fury of the Philippines government.
The Philippines v. Claire Danes
In a 1998 interview with Premiere journalist Christine Spines, Danes opened up about what, to her, felt like a hellish ordeal. Here is the passage as it appeared in the erstwhile movie magazine:
“The shoot was plagued with malaria and hepatitis outbreaks, and had to be shut down for several sick days. ‘It was just so hard,’ Danes says, now comfortably ensconced at a Beverly Hills lunch joint, where she’s gobbling up a plate of extra-rare ahi. ‘The place just f***ing smelled of cockroaches. There’s no sewage system in Manila, and people have nothing there. [We saw] people with, like, no arms, no legs, no eyes, no teeth. We shot in a real [psychiatric] hospital, so takes would be interrupted by wailing women — like, ‘Cut! Screaming person.’ Rats were everywhere.'”
When the country’s then president Joseph Estrada caught wind of Danes’ comments, he brought down ye olde ban hammer. “She should not be allowed to come here,” he told CBS. “She should not even be allowed to set foot here. Her remarks were uncalled for.” (It’s worth noting that the 1998 CBS story elided the “[We saw]” qualifier from Danes’ quote, which makes her comment sound a good deal worse than it was.)
Since Danes went 90210 wild on the Philippines, she has been persona non grata in the country, and her films cannot be screened. There is no readily available evidence that the ban has been lifted, so Filipinos haven’t been able to see Danes’ Primetime Emmy Award-winning performances in the HBO film “Temple Grandin” and the Showtime series “Homeland.” Meanwhile, Danes is still getting roasted for having once been a sheltered 19-year-old who spoke without empathy, and whose worst professional choice was probably turning down Kate Winslet’s role in “Titanic.” The world is a deeply silly place.
This post was originally published on here
