MEDIA > ARTICLES > POSTER CHILD FOR OSCAR CONTENDER BABEL

London girl becomes poster child for Oscar contender Babel
Sat, January 27, 2007. By James Reaney

London's four-foot-seven Oscar connection has already picked her top flick. "My favourite movie is Babel -- but I haven't seen it," says Emilia McCarthy, the nine-year-old photo double for one of Babel's cast members, Elle Fanning. "It is very strong. It has all the things kids are not supposed to see," she says of Babel.

Having just seen it myself, I can tell her it's a great film, which has seven Oscar nominations -- including a best picture nod -- to go with the 14A status, nudity, language and violence that have shielded it from McCarthy.

The Grade 4 Jeanne Sauve French immersion pupil doesn't know the plot twists, tragedies and triumphs that unfold in Babel. But she knows she played her part in it. She worked for six weeks on the film in Mexico, one of three locations used in Babel's chaos theory of connections among events in Morocco, Mexico and Japan.

Director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and two its stars are up for Oscars. Adriana Barraza, the loving nanny in the Mexico-based episodes, and Rinko Kikuchi, the teen rebel in the Tokyo sequences, are nominated in the best supporting actress category.

"He's not one of those bossy directors. He's very funny, too," she says of Mexican master Inarritu, Babel's boss and visionary. Inarritu insists on authenticity -- meaning night work for his young stars who are lost in the desert. "If it's in the movie that it's supposed to be 3 a.m., they would have to film at 3 a.m. exactly," she says.

Inarritu's night shoots. Sets being swept for scorpions and snakes. Nine-hour days. Thirty-five- or 40-degrees plus temperatures by day. That's work. "It's definitely not glamorous. It's hard work," Emilia says.

Having Babel as her first film did mean spending time off screen with Elle Fanning and the other stars with the big trailers. Emilia had a small trailer, still a good thing to have at a shoot when many others were out in the sun. "She was very supportive and stuff . . . she was very nice and we were best friends when we were there," Emilia says of the younger sister of star Dakota Fanning. Elle is actually about eight months younger than her photo double. But it's Emilia you see in Babel's poster, being carried into the desert by Barraza's character.

Barraza plays Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett's maid. (Pitt and Blanchett are in the scenes in Morocco and so off the radar of Emilia's Babel shoot). Barraza takes their two children -- including Elle Fanning's character -- to a family wedding in Mexico, only to descend into the hell of the desert and the demons of U.S. border authorities.

"She paid attention . . . to her acting, but she's also very nice," Emilia says. It's Emilia in the long shots in the desert and even her blond self in some of the shots of a terrifying car chase. The car itself is a studio creation. It couldn't run off the rails even if its driver -- a troubled young man played by Mexican heartthrob Gael Garcia Bernal -- wanted to.

Emilia can tune in on Feb. 25 for the 79th annual Academy Awards as part of London's truly cool connections to the telecast. When nominations were announced in Los Angeles this week, Oscar-winner Paul Haggis, who was raised in London, notched his third screenwriting nod in a row as co-writer for Letters From Iwo Jima.

Haggis's father lives not far from Emilia's parents, Barry McCarthy and Margarita De Antunano, making their west London neighbourhood a true patch of Hollywood North. Getting almost as much buzz as Haggis is London-born Ryan Gosling, who received a best actor nod for his portrayal of a drug-addicted teacher in Half Nelson.

Now, Gosling's family moved to Cornwall when he was maybe three months old or a toddler, depending on the source. For the record, Gosling is also claimed by the Hamilton area since he spent some high school time in Burlington.

Emilia may not have the Oscar-winning glow already attached to Haggis or the breakthrough buzz surrounding Gosling. She does have her own deal and her own stories about making a great film. A deal by struck by her Toronto-based agency before filming began in 2005 called for her to paid $750 US a week, plus $100 daily living expenses.

Emilia speaks English, Spanish and French, giving her a chance to make friends on the set with Mexican performers. Her mother was born in Mexico. Emilia's Mexican grandmother was at the shoot along with her parents, all helping the young performer find her way.

Her own positive outlook and charm helped get over the heat and the new words she heard about it. "Act dehydrated," was the command of the day on occasion. "I said, 'I don't know what dehydrated means,' " Emilia recalls replying the first time she heard the D-word.

In passing, it should be noted that Inarritu draws astonishing, powerful performance from young, even very young, actors -- Moroccans, Americans, Mexicans and Japanese performers -- in the rural or urban wilderness settings for Babel.

As for Babel's memorable marriage scene, it turns out Emilia's Spanish only went so far. "There was a lot of swearing -- it's in Spanish. I don't know what they meant, but they had the feeling," she says. There are suggestions she may have, in all innocence, passed along a few of the colourful expressions to unwitting English-speakers eager to show off their newfound Spanish on the set. That would fit right in as a comic counterpoint to Babel's themes about communication, loss, sex, love, violence, inhuman stupidity and true human nobility around the world.

Elle's photo double from London has done a few things other than stand in the desert for a great movie. She's studied acting, modelling, fashion, dance, singing, gymnastics and more. She has been in a U.S. TV infomercial for country singers.

She even has a book, Baby's Wish, including some prime Emilia drawings. It has a launch at Chapters South, 1037 Wellington Rd, on Feb. 24 at 3 p.m. That's the weekend before the Oscars. Not bad timing.

Right now and beyond Oscar-time, she can be seen in Babel. I'd recommend waiting through Babel's extensive credits -- including the king of Morocco, Pitt and R&B popsters Earth, Wind & Fire -- to see Emilia's name. Some of her family did that recently, taking in the two-hour-plus sweep of the majestic movie. Then, they waited through the credits. Then, they stood up and cheered for Emilia and everybody. You might feel like doing the same.

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