Truly, madly... in love with Malta

Actress Juliet Stevenson (Mona Lisa Smile, Bend It Like Beckham) was sick at the thought of having to leave Malta.

The leading lady in the movie Clarion's Call, whose shooting has just ended after five weeks, confessed she "absolutely loves the island", which rekindled delightful childhood memories of 40 years ago.

Ms Stevenson lived in St Andrews between the age of six and eight, her father being in the British Army and stationed here. During her stay in Malta for the filming of the romantic comedy - her only return since then - she sought out her old home, which still stands, although it has been divided into two apartments.

Even though she was so young, Ms Stevenson still harbours "hundreds of happy memories". Malta had such a "huge impact" on her and she has made it a point to pass that on to her two children, who accompanied her.

"Malta was as idyllic as Gozo is today," she recalled, pointing to the urban sprawl as one of the major changes between then and now. One town literally merges into the other, she said. But even though it can get confusing, she knows her way around and considered her family to be "regulars".

Compared with the throbbing city of London, where Ms Stevenson lives with her family, "everything is so manageable" in Malta.

During her stay she lived in Attard and was overwhelmed by the fact that her daughter could run around the streets on her own. "It's wonderful - the safety and the friendliness. When you live in a city like London, you step out of the door and people start shouting at you. Everything is a battle...

"I've been very happy here and it is quite alarming, in a way, to think how much happier we are here than we are able to be in the city we live in.

"We've already made so many friends, who I'd love to see again. I fantasise about having a house here and have talked to my husband about it. I would love it. For children, this is better..."

Ms Stevenson is one of the few actresses who shuns the American scene. She has always been wary of Hollywood's transitory and ephemeral nature.

"You may be flavour of the moment for a minute, but it never lasts. In the UK, if you are careful and lucky, you could go on working your whole life without being subject to fashion. I hate all that. I just want to get on with my craft."

Besides, Ms Stevenson could simply never live in America and claims: "I would feel more foreign than I do in Russia."

In Clarion's Call, a Canadian/UK/Maltese co-production, Ms Stevenson's "gorgeous" character is a woman who brings her family to Malta on a vacation, but has a secret agenda - a date from 25 years ago with a man with whom she had had a mad, passionate affair on the island.

She describes the script and its overall message as brilliant and "resonant". Her character is "well observed and I instantly felt I knew it; although I'm not in her situation, she is not a million miles away from me.

"It's wonderful to have a script like this for women of my age; otherwise you get to play endless mothers, wives, or partners. I'm not complaining, but it is wonderful to have a part where you are the emotional centre of the piece."

In Clarion's Call, the narrative is driven by this woman's heart and mind. "Like all good things, you cannot really define it. It's about a woman's life - confusions, longings, fears, passions and insecurities, multiple responsibilities as opposed to dreams. It's all about real life, but the way in which the story is told is quite comedic.

"It's about real feelings, but translated into something light. When I first read the script, I wrote on it: 'think soufflé'; don't weight it down." Ms Stevenson often does that - finding images and scribbling notes on her script.

"I don't identify with the character's story at all. She did everything the other way around. Work was everything to me and I had children late" - Ms Stevenson had her second, three-year-old son at 43. "I couldn't have done it any other way...

"But I do identify with the way she is... Under any sort of emotional pressure she cannot stop talking to anybody, even to herself. She's an open character, easy to read, transparent and unable to lie...", Ms Stevenson said, slipping into the role and gesticulating wildly as her character would have done.

If Ms Stevenson were not an actress, she would have been involved in human rights - a subject that has always interested her.

"If I were ever ambitious for anything when I was younger, it was for change. I like the idea of making a difference; that what you do changes the quality of life for the better. I've always been haunted by the idea that I'm not being useful enough."

Truly Madly Deeply (1991), a film about a woman who is heartbroken by the death of her boyfriend, is an example of Ms Stevenson making a change. Today, the movie is used in bereavement counselling and she is chuffed about it.

"Every role is significant in its own way, but certain roles last much longer in your memory and mean much more to you than others." Truly Madly Deeply is one of these.

Ms Stevenson is passionate about many issues, but particularly, she is at war with junk television that is fed into a child's mind. "I'm very suspicious of TV," which depresses children, makes them hyper and aggressive, she feels, trying hard to control what her children watch.

Coming to Malta has allowed her children to get in touch with nature and lead a slower, more peaceful life - another reason why she loved it so much.

Ms Stevenson is about to return to the theatre after an absence of five years due to the birth of her "little boy".

"I did so much theatre when my daughter was a baby and was out every night, missing out on the chance to put her to bed."

The hands-on mother in the actress - a vital facet of Ms Stevenson - is still apprehensive about her return. Her children are clearly a priority and the most important and exciting part of her life. She works hard to strike a balance between her career and her family, although she modestly complains that she is constantly struggling and feels that she gets it "more wrong than right".

"It is not easy, switching from one role to the next, and a great strain in that I can't spend the amount of time I want to prepare for a part. I find that creatively frustrating. You need to have your dream time, which I don't have much of..."

I left Ms Stevenson, aware that it would be "difficult" for her to slip straight into her role in Clarion's Call without having a moment to herself in between.

But, on second thoughts, "being a parent teaches you to switch off and on pretty fast, throw yourself in and out," she said, clicking her fingers in the air.

"I used to really live inside something and almost not come out, but I cannot do that now. They (her children) are joining me for lunch and I have to make decisions about what kind of bread to buy..."