Karen Allen back in Marion’s shoes
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From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman. To hear an audio clip, click here.
‘Indy’ redux
Karen Allen revisits feisty role in 4th ‘Indiana Jones’ film
In 1981’s “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” Karen Allen got to drawl one of the seminal action movie’s now-immortal lines: “Indiana Jones. I always knew some day you’d come walking back through my door.”
But Allen never expected to step back into the high heels or sturdy boots of Marion Ravenwood, the fieriest of the Indy’s leading ladies, even when their cinematic quest to keep the Ark of the Covenant out of Nazi hands made millions, won four Oscars, spawned two hit sequels and perpetuated years of rumors about a fourth film.
When that long-awaited fourth movie, “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” opens Thursday, Allen will reunite onscreen with Harrison Ford as everyone’s favorite archeologist/adventurer and his feisty former flame. The actress, 56, said she had no idea she would get to revisit one of her favorite characters until she got a call from director Steven Spielberg.
“I hadn’t expected it. … I was really, really surprised. I mean, there had been some rumors on and off over the years … what they would actually do, I never, of course, had any idea,” Allen said in a phone interview from her New York City home.
“So it was literally the phone ringing at my studio (where she designs her knitwear line Karen Allen Fiber Arts) one day and me picking it up. And Steven was on the line saying that they had announced that they were going to make the next film and that they had written a wonderful role for me in the film. And I was surprised and delighted and just very excited.”
Nearly 20 years ago, Indy literally rode off into the sunset in 1989’s “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” which followed the whip-snapping, wisecracking hero’s 1938 mission to beat the Nazis to the holy grail.
The years - and presumably the mileage - between Indy’s exploits are reflected in the Cold War-era setting of “Crystal Skull,” which has the fedora-wearing protagonist trying to keep the Soviets from finding another legendary, potentially powerful artifact - the Crystal Skull of Akator.
Few details have been revealed about the plot of the film, which also reunited the creative team of Spielberg, co-story writer George Lucas and producer Frank Marshall. Allen, who hasn’t seen the finished film herself, couldn’t share much about how her character has changed since she and Indy descended the steps of a government building at the end of “Raiders.”
“There’s not a lot I can say without maybe revealing things that I can’t reveal. … It’s 20 years later, and she and Indy have not seen each other in a long time. Their lives have gone off in different directions, and she kind of gets thrust back into the story in a kind of unexpected way,” she said.
Spielberg’s invitation to reprise the role brought challenges along with joy.
“The worst part of it was he then, of course, told me that it had to be a big secret and that they weren’t gonna tell anybody, and that maybe they weren’t ever gonna tell anybody until the film came out that I was in the film. Which then was excruciating,” she said.
In the 27 years since “Raiders,” Allen’s life has changed significantly. Besides appearing in movies such as “Starman,” The Glass Menagerie” and “The Perfect Storm,” she teaches acting and yoga, has a teenage son and her own luxury knitwear line. Secretly sneaking off for four months to film “Crystal Skull” was problematic.
“That became kind of the difficult part of the puzzle,” she said. “Fortunately he changed his mind … but I had already been shooting the film for several weeks when we announced that I was in the film.”
Still, throughout the shoot, Allen said, “there was never a moment where I wasn’t happy to be there.”
“It felt familiar and comfortable in the sense that these were people I had worked with before. But then, of course, you add to it the wonderful Shia LaBeouf and Cate Blanchett … and John Hurt and Ray Winstone, who are also fantastic. That was like this new element these new actors that were coming in to play roles that I was getting to work with” she said.
Despite the years of false starts and discarded scripts, Allen said Ford, Spielberg and Lucas concocted a fantastic story of exotic relics and colorful characters.
The colorful character of Marion, a hardy soul equally at ease in work boots or a white gown, has become the role Allen is most associated with - and she doesn’t think it’s a bad way to be remembered.
“I think it’s a wonderful character. … An actor could hardly ask for a more lovely introduction to a female character than (in “Raiders”) in that bar in Nepal where she’s drinking men under the table and … punching Harrison in the jaw squarely when he arrives back into her life,” she said, laughing. “I just think she was a beautifully conceived character, and I had such a wonderful time creating the character when I was shooting the film. And she and the film have certainly stood the test of time.”
After all these years, Marion still has her pluck and sense of humor in the new adventure.
“They did her righteous in that sense,” Allen said.
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I think Karen Allen is out a doubt one of the most fantastic female action icon around . She knows how her character can be feisty and unreal for Indy himself and taking charge of certain situations like these scenes were absolutely awesome to watch on what a much more older and wiser Marion Ravenwood can provide . Here are some of my favorite scenes from this movie . 1.) Running from these Russians going into the quick sand and she told Indy her secret about her son Mutt is actually Henry Jones Jr.III his son and not knowing until now in which obviously they continue to argued until help arrived inside the truck trying to excaped for some reason . Driving two cars and one of them that looks like a boat sort of 457 in which she actually can drived it full throttle towards at the edge of the cliff and would ended up into the water rapids and then dropping three times at least while Indy gave her the directions of turns and told her : don’t you ever do that again she says : yes, dear . By the time they reached the last drop from the water fall, she was still holding onto the wheel and began to smile and laugh which it’s so funny how she does it as well . Also there was doing those physical training of doing their own stunts without using a body double person to run down these difficult giants steps going into the cave especially Karen Allen who is out a doubt in fabulous shape at her age and also Harrison Ford as well come on now guys . If there’s going to be another Indy 5 in the works , I think this time we will see if Karen’s character Marion Ravenwood would actually can have her own fight scene once and a while and see if she could take another punch against a Asian woman martial artist who is very unawared of her feisty attitude towards anybody else including her son Mutt as well .