British actor takes turn as American in `Glory’

Cary Elwes doesn’t sound like you’d expect him to. The English actor speaks in an accent that has more traces of Charlie Sheen’s Eastern intonations than any of the crisply accented British characters he has played during the last six years.

Eight years of living in the United States and his first co-starring role as an American have seen to that.

He is one of the stars of “Glory,” a film about the important role black regiments played during the Civil War. Elwes portrays Cabot Forbes, a young Union officer from Boston who helps Col. Robert Gould Shaw (Matthew Broderick) form the 54th Regiment. The film will open today at local theaters.

Since his starring role in 1987’s “The Princess Bride,” Elwes has been touted as one of today’s most intelligent young actors. While he could have cashed in on the film’s popularity, the publicity-shy actor chose to remain out of the public’s eye and carefully select his next project.

“Glory” stood out, Elwes said, because it told a powerful story about a part of American history that got “brushed under the carpet.”

“One of the things that really intrigued me about `Glory,’ was that it dealt with an aspect of black American history that you don’t find covered very well in textbooks,” Elwes said in an interview from his Los Angeles apartment. “It was a very proud moment in American history when the black regiments helped liberate slaves and end the Civil War. In helping to fight for the country’s freedom, blacks helped forge a great nation. But because they were black, they didn’t get the recognition t hey deserved.

“I think anyone who opens their eyes to what’s going on in the world can clearly see that outside of black Africans, black Americans have suffered the most. America isn’t the only country guilty of not talking enough about their wrongdoings. It seems to be the case that whatever country is responsible for an atrocity isn’t exactly eager to promote its wrongdoing. I know that’s the case in Britain. It’s human nature. But that doesn’t make it right.”

Born to an upper-crust English family, Elwes at first seems an oddball choice for “Glory.” Slender and blond, Elwes has the refined good looks of an aristocrat. But audiences shouldn’t have a difficult time picturing him as an American soldier, Elwes said, because many of the officers who led regiments during the Civil War came from America’s privileged families.

“Sometimes being an outsider can actually give you more insight into people,” he said. “I was able to approach the role from a historic aspect, without having patriotism becoming an obstacle.

“Making `Glory’ was intense, but I really felt a sense of accomplishment doing it. I think people will be able to be entertained from watching the film, but they’ll also be informed by all the history that’s in it.”

Elwes has a history of selecting cavalier roles from the past. He made his film debut six years ago as a 1920s student who enjoyed a schoolboy crush with a male classmate in Marek Kanievska’s “Another Country.” In 1985, Elwes co-starred in “Lady Jane,” playing a high-born, 16th century teenager who married young Lady Jane Grey. And in “The Princess Bride,” set at a time when all fairytales had happy endings, Elwes brought swashbuckling elegance to his role of the good-natured farmboy, Westley.

“I would love to do a modern story, but the parts that have come my way and interested me the most tend to be set in the past,” said Elwes, 27. “For me, I guess these period pieces have a lot more going for them. The problem with a lot of scripts set in the present is that many of them tend to be mediocre, and mediocrity just bores me. As an actor, it’s exciting and challenging to get to re-create history.

“But what I’ve found over the years is that when you’re dealing with the past, you’re also dealing with the present, because history seems to be repeating itself. These period pieces can have strong meaning to audiences as to what’s going on today.”

Chris Sarandon, who played Prince Humperdinck in “The Princess Bride,” believes Elwes could make a fine comedy. “When we were shooting together, he would just crack everybody up,” Sarandon said. “Cary is one of the funniest guys, and one of his greatest assets is that he is a perfect mimic. By the end of the shoot, he sounded more like me than I did. I don’t think there’s anything that’s beyond his reach.”

Born in London, Elwes grew up in an artistic environment where quality was stressed over commerciality. Elwes’ grandfather was the society portraitist Simon Elwes; his father was the late portrait painter Dominic Elwes, and his stepfather is American film producer Elliott Kastner. One of Elwes’ three brothers, Damian, is an artist, while another, Cassian, is a film producer.

“My family undoubtedly had some sort of influence on me, because from a very early age, this is what I always felt I wanted to do,” Elwes said. “But I think that for most actors, there’s more to their desire to act than nurturing.”

Following in his older brothers’ footsteps, Elwes enrolled at the prestigious prep school, Harrow. Although he was among the upper echelon on the social scene, Elwes became disenchanted with the importance his countrymen place on class distinction.

“I’m not interested in class background, but I found that I had fallen in with a specific clique in London,” Elwes recalled. “That kind of frightened me, and I wanted to get away from all that. The best way, I thought, was to come to America.”

While still in college, Elwes acted in Off-Broadway plays. By the time he graduated in 1984, he had a small role in the feature film “Another Country.” Offers for roles in teen-exploitation films followed, but Elwes passed on them.

“That’s one thing I said I would never do when I started out,” Elwes said. “I wanted to do things that had some meaning, rather than just something that traps viewers with special effects and childish pranks.”

Although Elwes’ resume consists primarily of quality work, a few clunkers like “Oxford Blues” and “Bride” have slipped through.

“Everybody needs bread on their plate when they’re starting out,” he said, laughing. “So I hope you can forgive me for the few roles where I was plying what little skills I had to my craft and trying to feed myself.”

Unlike many of his peers, who are intent on broadening their careers to include writing screenplays, Elwes said he’s concentrating on his acting career.

“If I had a talent for writing, I’d definitely put it to use,” he said. “But I’m concentrating on what I have, which is acting. Bill Goldman (the author of “The Princess Bride”) said staring at a blank piece of paper that is saying `create’ is the hardest thing, and I think he’s right. I have too much respect for writers to presume I am one.”