O-word elicits dread for Julie Christie

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Convincing Christie to take the role was a challenge for Polley, who first read Munro's story flying home to Canada from Iceland, where she had just finished the 2002 film "No Such Thing," in which Christie had a small part.

Polley immediately imagined Christie as Fiona. But Christie has made as much of a career turning down films as she has acting.

After "Darling" and her followup, "Dr. Zhivago," Christie started declining high-profile offers in favor of smaller, less commercial films such as "Fahrenheit 451" and "Far From the Madding Crowd."

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As the years passed, Christie became less and less inclined to work and found fewer parts that interested her.

"I knew it would be difficult, because she's not the most ambitious of actors in the world, and she's not that interested in working all the time," Polley said. "She really liked the script and spent about two months really agonizing over it, then gave a very definite, `No.'"

It took months of arm-twisting before Christie finally agreed, "and once she did, it kind of became clear why it's so hard to get a yes out of her," Polley said. "Because she gives all of herself to what she does. Once she said yes, she was more committed than anybody."

Christie continues to take small parts in such films as "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban," "Troy" and "Finding Neverland," saying the workload is slight and the paychecks help cover the upkeep of her centuries-old farm.

Polley and Christie share a desire to do interesting, unusual work, which generally means staying away from Hollywood.

"It's been a kind of greed and a kind of egotism, but it's not necessarily wanting to avoid the Hollywood thing, but in fact, it incorporates wanting to avoid the Hollywood thing, because the Hollywood thing is so inevitably not original," Christie said. "It's avoiding non-originality, so that means you're really down to a very small choice."

Christie now has nothing on her schedule and said she's in no hurry to go back to work.

"I might never make a film again. Maybe that 10-year thing won't happen," Christie said. "Or maybe it'll be 40 years and the call will come in, and I'll have just had my heart attack and go, `God, I missed it.'"

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