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26/7/05
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Page 23
Drum: PROFILES 23
Oscar never comes to stay, Newton won’t need to
keep next March 5 free. However, there are ancient
institutions that she has nothing but respect for,
such as her alma Mater, Downing College,
Cambridge. “Do I miss the academic life?” she
ponders. “No, because I feel as if I’ve never left it.
That’s not to say that I’ve always got my head in a
book, or that I see acting in pretentious terms. But
having read anthropology,
in it. And I’ve always been sure to balance learning
with doing. That hasn’t stopped and hopefully never
will.”
Having recently given birth to Nico, a sister for her
four-and-a-half-year-old daughter Ripley, Newton
currently finds herself studying the toughest
anthropology course of them all – parenthood. With
her hands well and truly full, she’s taken a break
“ And what of the time ahead? ‘Well, there’s a part of me that wants to work with
the great filmmakers of today,’ she says with a sigh. ‘I’d love to work with Sofia
Coppola, Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry, and Paul Thomas Anderson.’ ”
it gives you a way of thinking and of processing
information that never goes away. I didn’t read
anthropology because I
needed it for a career,
I read it because I
was interested
from acting, although this month’s Crash should
nicely fill the gap while she’s away. “It’s an absolutely
terrific script,” says Newton of the Paul Haggis
picture.