The T.O. actress on her first theatrical collaboration with husband Atom Egoyan, and her status as the Queen of Rotten Tomatoes.
1. Need a tragic heroine? Give Khanjian a call.
The actress has become Toronto theatre’s go-to gal for heart-shredding performances. In 2008’s Palace of the End she played an Iraqi survivor of Saddam Hussein’s torture chamber. In last year’s Andromache, she was the eponymous widow forced to marry her enemy to save her son’s life. It doesn’t hurt that she built her reputation starring in such dark-hued films as Exotica and Ararat, directed by her husband, Atom Egoyan. Now the two are collaborating on the Canadian Stage production of Cruel and Tender, based on Sophocles’ The Women of Trachis. Khanjian stars as a wife who is shattered when she learns her general husband has waged a brutal war out of his lust for a teenage girl. “I’ve found a profound satisfaction in exploring these women,” Khanjian says of her tragic roles. And being Armenian—a group subjected to genocide during the First World War—she feels attuned to work that deals with wartime atrocities. “Because of the history that I carry with me, I have always been very aware of all this,” she says. “So when these projects come up, it seems like I’ve been waiting for them.”
2. She’s still learning new things about her husband of almost three decades.
While Khanjian and Egoyan have made 15 films together, they’ve pursued separate careers in the theatre. Cruel and Tender is the first time Khanjian has had a chance to observe how he directs a play. She says Egoyan focuses on its visual aspects from the start. “By the second day of rehearsal, we were already working on how we were moving. This is not at all how he directs film. The camera is very specific and shows only so much. In the theatre, you don’t know where people will be looking, so he’s no longer dealing just with the actor playing a part, but also with the actor’s physical presence onstage.”
3. A fresh tomato looks a lot like an Oscar statuette.
Khanjian is no stranger to awards, but she was gobsmacked last year when she heard that Slate magazine had crowned her the world’s best film actress—based on data from the Rotten Tomatoes review-aggregator website. “It felt like this was my Academy Award,” she says of her 84.7 per cent “fresh” rating. “I knew it didn’t mean anything would happen to my career, but it felt good.” It was also validation for the 53-year-old Khanjian, whose accent and looks were a handicap when she began her career in the ’80s. “I was not at all perceived as a possible actor in television, film or theatre,” she recalls. “But my collaboration with Atom was a stable forum for my work to grow and take on significance.”
4. Her heart belongs to the stage (right now).
Khanjian won’t be in Egoyan’s next film, Devil’s Knot, but given how much the couple have enjoyed doing Cruel and Tender, their next joint venture could well be another theatre piece. Besides, Khanjian says she wants to tackle more theatrical work—maybe even a comedy. “There’s just something I get out of it—the thrill, the immediacy, that relationship with the audience.”
Cruel and Tender runs until Feb. 18 at the St. Lawrence Centre’s Bluma Appel Theatre, 27 Front St. E., 416-368-3112, canadianstage.com.
