Actress Michelle Nolden Recalls ‘Time Travelling’ With Eric Bana
Posted June 3, 2008 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Actress Michelle Nolden was thrilled to get a part in the big screen adaptation of The Time Traveler’s Wife, based on Audrey Niffenegger’s bestselling 2003 novel. It’s too bad the day she filmed her big scene opposite star Eric Bana she was under the weather.
“Eric was such a gem to work with. He was really sweet. I was sick as a dog that day we were filming and I think he was afraid that I might barf on his shoes,” Nolden relates to CityNews.ca in a recent interview at the Birds and Beans café in Etobicoke, recalling the day-long shoot aboard Chicago’s L train.
The Brantford, Ont.-born actress plays Annette de Tamble, mother to Bana’s time-travelling protagonist Henry de Tamble. Though the story is set in The Windy City much of the filming was done in the GTA, notably around the University of Toronto campus. Rachel McAdams also stars in the film, which is expected to screen at the Toronto International Film Festival in the fall before a Christmas Day opening.
Niffenegger’s novel made waves when Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston, back when they were still a couple, bought the rights to it before it was even released to the public.
“It’s one of my favourites,” Nolden enthuses. “Once I picked it up I was hooked. It’s such a compelling, ingenious love story. It’s different, it’s a twist.”
Nolden, her television producer husband Chris Szarka, and their 16-month-old son Alex, currently split their time between Toronto and L.A.. This fall she stars in the dramatic eight-part series ZOS: Zone of Separation. Shot in Bosnia, the program follows a team of United Nations military observers attempting to enforce a ceasefire in a fictional town not unlike Sarajevo.
The actress admits it was one of the most rewarding and difficult roles she’s ever played.
“The challenging thing about a military observer is they have no weapons. They go in as the eyes and ears of the UN, and have to rely on their wit and their judgement, being able to remain non-partisan in the face of war,” she describes.
Nolden’s son Alex was only five months old when ZOS was shooting in Bosnia – fortunately she had some help on the trip.
“My mom and dad, who are angels, hopped on the plane with me and all four of us went. It was 35-40 degrees every day with no air conditioning. It was insane. But they were troopers,” she said. “You get the sense of what it’s like to be picked up out of a country you know and feel safe in and dropped into this place where you don’t. There are still remnants of the war and the wound is still fresh.”
The Gemini-nominated actress wrote and directed her first short film, Loonie, last year and loved the experience, saying she can see herself on the other side of the camera in 10 or 15 years. For now she says her focus is just on getting good acting jobs and raising her son.
“In some ways it’s easier (to balance acting and family) because Alex is my main focus, so the work fits in around that,” she says. “I don’t put the same pressure on myself as I did before he was born.”
