Elizabeth Debicki talks up her U.N.C.L.E. movie role

Elizabeth Debicki

Elizabeth Debicki, cast as a femme fatale in a movie version of The Man From U.N.C.L.E., has been talking up her role in the film scheduled to start filming in September.

The datails can be found ON THE WEBSITE OF THE TELEGRAPH NEWSPAPER IN AUSTALIA. Here’s an excerpt that refers to director Guy Ritchie and actors Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer:

“I’m a big fan of Guy’s work, I always have been,” Debicki told Confidential. “It is really exciting to be part of a remake of such a great show. The cast is fantastic and it will just be fresh and interesting and fun and dynamic. I love Guy’s genre, it is such a mashup which makes for really interesting films.”

(snip)

“I’ve certainly had more offers than before but I just felt like this was the right project,” said Debicki, who is staying with friends in LA until rehearsals start later this month.

“The timing is right for me and it is a great role.”

Debicki, who hasn’t yet met Ritchie, Cavill or Hammer in person, can’t reveal too much information on her character.

Cavill and Hammer will play secret agents Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin, the characters made famous by Robert Vaughn and David McCallum in the original television series.

“It is a substantial role, certainly to the plot and storyline,” she said. “Armie and Henry are really the leads as they are in the original TV series and there are baddies and goodies on either side of them.”

There were a number of femme fatale characters in the original 1964-68 television series. Two of the most memorable were Angelique, played by Janine Gray, and Serena, played by Senta Berger, both in the show’s first season. It remains to be seen whether the 23-year-old Debicki is playing of those characters or an entirely new character.

Michael Ansara’s visits to ’60s spy television

Michael Ansara in The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

Veteran actor Michael Ansara died last week, according to obituaries including one in one in the Hollywood Reporter.

Obituaries referenced how Ansara played a Star Trek Villain. However, the Syrian-born actor made guest star appearances in The Man From U.N.C.L.E., The Girl From U.N.C.L.E., It Takes a Thief, Hawaii Five-O and Mission: Impossible. (To view his IMDB.com entry, CLICK HERE.

The actor, who passed away at age 91, received an unusual send off on Aug. 4: Bob Schieffer’s closing commentary on CBS’s Face the Nation.

Schieffer described what it was like as a 20-year-old college student interviewing Ansara and his then-wife Barbara Eden in 1957 in Fort Worth, Texas.

“They treated me with patience and good humor,” Schieffer said. “I hope I’ve learned to ask better questions. I’m sure they forgot the episode and I never saw them again. But I never forgot how kind they were to a kid who had no idea what he was doing. When you’re the kid, you never forget those things.”