Glen plaid jacket ($1,400), vest ($695) and pants ($825), Marc Jacobs. 81 Newbury St.; marcjacobs.com. Fedora, Eugenia Kim (price on request). Intermix, 186 Newbury St.; intermixonline.com. Santos Demoiselle watch ($19,075) and Trinity de Cartier collection ring ($1,050), Cartier. 40 Newbury St.; cartier.com
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 Silk jumpsuit ($1,285) and swing trench coat ($1,895), Stella McCartney. Similar styles, Gretta Luxe, 94 Central St., Wellesley; grettaluxe.com. Trinity de Cartier collection bracelet ($11,500), Santos Demoiselle watch ($19,075) and pendant necklace ($2,000), Cartier. 40 Newbury St.; cartier.com. Asa booties, Christian Louboutin for 3.1 Phillip Lim (price on request). christianlouboutin.com
ON THE TOWN IN BOSTON “I felt really comfortable here. It’s sort of a mix of things I’m familiar with in London and New York.” On weekends, she’d often stroll over the bridge from Boston to Cambridge and catch a flick at the Kendall Square Cinema. “It’s about a 45-minute walk, and a very nice one.” And she loved nothing better than renting five DVDs at a time from Mike’s Movies on Beacon Hill, then watching them back-to-back under a blanket in her hotel room. “They had no idea who I was until the last day. They thought I was just a crazy person who rented tons of movies.” As a true Londoner, Hall enjoyed the steak at Mooo in the XV Beacon Hotel and bought Alexander Wang gray oxford brogues at Barneys New York in Copley Place. “I wear them all the time and always associate them with Boston.” One thing about the city was a surprise: Hall’s first paparazzi encounter. “Someone used to hide behind the potted plants at The Ritz, pop out when I was walking out the door and call my name. I’d start to say hi to him every morning.” |
Even though British beauty Rebecca Hall won rave reviews and a Golden Globe nomination for her breakout role in 2008’s sexy Vicky Cristina Barcelona, there’s a very good chance you couldn’t pick her out of the proverbial lineup. “I seem to get by without people recognizing me,” Hall happily muses. “My roles are all over the place. It’s unlikely anyone would have seen everything I’ve done, so they tend to think of me just one way.”
Admit it. After seeing her go toe to, ahem, toe with Javier Bardem, Scarlett Johansson and Penélope Cruz, you thought Hall was a neurotic New Yorker in real life, or at least an American. In truth, she was born in London to performer parents and talks with an acrossthe- pond accent akin to her character’s in Frost/Nixon, where she played David Frost’s babe girlfriend in one seriously va-va-voom white dress. “That’s what interests me most as an actress,” she explains of her range of roles, from Christian Bale’s doomed magician’s wife in The Prestige to a bank manager caught up in the fallout from a violent robbery in this fall’s hotly anticipated crime drama The Town. “[I love] the curiosity of human character and getting as far away from myself as possible. I’m actually nothing like any of the characters I’ve played on-screen.”
Or stage either. Hall was part of The Bridge Project’s critically acclaimed Shakespeare and Chekhov theater productions directed by Sam Mendes in Brooklyn, New York, last year. “One night I’m playing the glamorous Hermione in The Winter’s Tale, totally in charge of her faculties and sexuality, and the next night the confused and soon-to-be-impoverished Varya in The Cherry Orchard. It’s two ends of the personality spectrum.”
And what did she do next? Costar in the Will Ferrell movie Everything Must Go, filmed in Phoenix, Arizona. Hall admits it sounds rather jarring, but she relishes the dramatic changes. Besides, she says, “It’s not your standard Will Ferrell movie. It’s based on a short story by Raymond Carver.”
Family Matters
Hall’s easy transformation from classic Shakespeare onstage to suburban angst dramedy on-screen seems less daunting when you delve into her upbringing. Her father, Sir Peter Hall, founded London’s Royal Shakespeare Company and served as artistic director of the National Theatre and Royal Opera House. After two previous marriages, one to actress Leslie Caron, he wed Hall’s mother, famed Detroit-born opera soprano Maria Ewing.
“I’m definitely half American,” says Hall, 28. “I feel very comfortable in America even though London is where I grew up and always lived.”
And lest you think her early home life was all high culture and proper afternoon tea, Hall’s parents were surprisingly controversial considering their professions—both on and off the stage. When they divorced in 1990, the British tabloids ate it up.
Yet the famous couple’s daughter still flies under the radar when visiting her hometown. “They couldn’t care less about me in London,” she says. “But the world of the paparazzi is consistent globally. It doesn’t really matter where it takes place. [Celebrity gossip] appears everywhere. They’re all looking for someone more interesting than me.”
Hall did garner some attention recently when Kate Winslet and Sam Mendes split. “Yeah,” she laughs. “Big news. I was friends with Sam Mendes while we worked together and his marriage broke up.”
The actress isn’t one to let the innuendo bother her. “Reading about myself never really interested me,” says Hall. “I’m genuinely not curious what my public image has become. I learned at a very young age you have no control over it, so the best thing you can do is have a good sense of yourself.… You have to let it go.”
Fashion Sense
One place you won’t be seeing Hall is in the tabloids’ snarky “Who Wore It Best?” comparisons. A fashion original, Hall describes her understated style as comfort chic. Colors, or lack thereof, range from taupe to black. “I’ll pick something that’s simple and a single block of color, but that stands out if you look at it over time.”
Favorite designers include Ann Demeulemeester, Isabel Marant and Marni, all of which she combines with a passion for vintage. “I like textures in clothes and sensual dress. But I have expensive taste, which is kind of a pain in the ass. I like expensive fabrics that feel good against your body.”
