Elisabeth Shue, the Academy Award-nominated star of “Leaving Las Vegas,” returns to theaters this week in the thriller “Hide and Seek” marking the end of a two-year film hiatus spent finishing up a degree in political science at Harvard, starring in a Broadway play and raising two children. It’s been 20 years since Shue, 41, first captured our attention in “The Karate Kid,” and history has certainly been kinder to her than poor ole’ Ralph Macchio. (“Get him a body-bag, yeahhhhh!”) Shue reflected recently about her two-plus decades in the movie business.
QUESTION: What motivated you to go back to school to finish your degree?
ELISABETH SHUE: It was just something I had to do. I felt it was important to complete what I had begun, and frankly I was really looking forward to a break (from acting) and reinvigorating my mind. Just to see what it was like to go back to school as a woman, and how I’d respond to learning then. It was really good to want to be in school, to choose classes because they’re difficult.
Q: Did the experience at Harvard have a big impact on your decision-making process upon resuming your acting career?
ES: In a lot of ways I just feel a little more motivated to find material that is more intelligent, possibly. And there is subject matter I’ll gravitate towards a little more so than others. For me it’ll always still come down to (choosing) complicated, interesting characters, and they don’t necessarily come from the mind. They usually come from their soul and heart and a sense of desperation.
Q: How would you describe your “Hide and Seek” costar, Robert DeNiro?
ES: He’s a very generous human being.
Q: The most important role in your career thus far has probably been “Leaving Las Vegas,” for which you were nominated for an Oscar in 1996. Have you watched the film recently?
ES: I did watch it, I think, about two years ago. I was going to do an interview about it or something — there was some reason why I was supposed to watch it. It was really fun to watch it, with all that perspective and having not seen it for so long.
Q: What did you enjoy most about seeing it again?
ES: Just the respect of the work that had gone into it. And I was in awe of Nic Cage’s performance again, and the way (director) Mike Figgis pulled it together in such a beautiful way.
Q: It’s been 20 years since your big break in “The Karate Kid.” Could you reflect on how far you’ve come, and what’s in store in the future?
ES: As far as sensuality, our culture is starting to embrace the (idea) of women who are getting older as being just as full, if not fuller, than when they’re younger. It is a good time for women who are older right now.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 28, 2005. Read the original PDF.