It is hardly unusual for an actor to keep an eye on the camera while being photographed, but Anna Gunn's obsession seems to have less to do with vanity than research.
As a makeup artist fusses with Gunn's red mane during a recent photo session at Westwood's Geffen Playhouse, Gunn seems less interested in flattering angles than in grilling the photographer about how the camera works -- and where she might go to improve her shooting skills after finishing her current role as a photojournalist in the world premiere of Donald Margulies' play "Time Stands Still."
"Part of what I love about acting is it allows me to get inside people's minds," Gunn says. "With this role especially, since I'm already interested in photography and photojournalists, I couldn't get enough.
"The sense that it's opened up for me is personal responsibility: It's important to bear witness. It's important for people to know."
Margulies' drama tells the story of war photographer Sarah (Gunn) and her boyfriend, print journalist James (David Harbour), whose relationship is thrown into crisis after Sarah is wounded on the job by a roadside bomb.
The incident occurs after James has already fled the combat zone with a crippling case of post-traumatic stress disorder. When Sarah returns home to recuperate, neither is sure whether a relationship forged in war can survive ordinary domestic life.
And the pair have wildly different reactions to the recent choice of their middle-age editor friend (portrayed by Robin Thomas) to marry Mandy (Alicia Silverstone), a young Pollyanna who is horrified by Sarah's photos and can't understand Sarah's compulsion to get the shot instead of trying to help the subject.
Some critics have quibbled about the polemical manner in which playwright Margulies, a Pulitzer Prize winner for "Dinner With Friends," presents the multiple ethical issues in "Time Stands Still." But they have embraced Gunn's performance as one that transcends that perceived weakness in the script.
Writes New York Times critic Charles Isherwood, "Ms. Gunn's quietly centered but passionate performance helps keep us attuned to the human being beneath the lofty principles." Times theater critic Charles McNulty, who calls Gunn's performance a "standout," offers that her "deeply inhabited portrayal reconciles the play's zigzagging public and private concerns."
