What attracted you to the role of Ellie in CURSED?
I wanted to do something a bit lighter. I thought it would be fun to do a big horror film in LA for three months. I’d just been away for two months in Orlando and I just thought it would be great. I thought it would be fun.
Do you believe in a werewolf or any supernatural powers?
I believe in…. I don’t know… I don’t know really. No nothing really
What was it like working with Joshua Jackson?
Oh it was great. He’s really great. He’s been working for as long as I have. So it’s great to work with somebody where everything is so familiar to them as it is familiar to you. You’re just sort of both old hands at it.
He’s looking good. Are there any other male movie stars you’ve worked with that you think are really good looking?
I tend to really like the older, old. I’ve crushes from the seventies. Like Elliott Gould in THE LONG GOODBYE and stuff like that.
Are you seeing someone at the moment?
Yeah. I have a boyfriend.
Is he in the industry?
Yeah. He’s an actor and a writer, director.
Is it easier to see someone who is in the industry compared to dating someone who isn’t?
Yeah. It is. I mean I’ve been with people who didn’t do this and it wasn’t that big of a deal but it’s nice to sort of speak in a short hand when you come home at night
Did you take a break last year because we didn’t see you for a while?
Well this movie took about a year and a half to film so I was working all last year pretty much until I guess we were done with all the additionally photography and everything in September.
You’ve had such an amazing career – achieved so much from such a young age. How does it feel now to have worked with so many huge stars, and where do you feel you’re at in your career?
I don’t know. I mean I think I’ve had a great time so far. Yeah I have had a chance to work with so many wonderful talented people… Um. I kind of learned from the best as a kind – just working with such incredible talent like Raul Julia and Anjelica Huston. Really learning how to behave on a set because of them and I feel incredibly lucky because of that and I don’t know where I am now. I guess now its gonna be a different. I guess it has sort of been changing. I suppose now I will have an adult career and I don’t know what that is going to be like, especially because I just became an adult officially [laugh].
You just turned 25.
I feel like that’s official adult age.
Do you have any advise to the younger stars like Lindsay Lohans etc, any traps they can avoid?
I don’t know. I think the kind of attention that’s paid to those types of people these days is so much more intense than when I was their age and so I don’t know how they deal with that. I would just say, never pick up a magazine. I mean when I was a teenager I would never and still now I don’t really like to read any of the articles. I don’t like to read too much about reviews or what people think of me. Because a normal person wouldn’t have that much input on who they were or what they were like so I feel like the best thing to do is to live your life as if these things weren’t happening.
You’re a very private person and we don’t see you that much, which is nice because obviously that works to your advantage when you are playing different roles, but do you consciously stay out of the Hollywood scene? Do you do your own thing?
Well its not that much fun to go to those parties. You end up having to schmoose and be on your best behaviour because it’s industry people and then someone’s gonna take your picture and I’m kind of shy. If it’s my premiere or something then it’s work and I know exactly how to behave and what I’m supposed to be doing. But if it’s just like somebody else’s party I don’t know what to do.
What is your normal stuff that you do in your spare time? Do you just hang out with friends?
Yeah. Hang out with friends. I like going to dinner. We watch a lot of movies on DVD at home. It’s sort of a quieter life. I mean I did do the whole crazy party teenager thing for a while. I mean I did live in New York for two years.
Do you live in LA now?
Yeah. And even when I moved to LA I was still partying and stuff but I think I just got it out of my system.
Hollywood can be a scary thing. Do you think it is an advantage being born and raised here?
Well. I wasn’t raised here, but I feel being raised in the industry is properly an advantage because I think things that might scare other people – I kind of know what that’s all about and that’s not intimidating to me. So yeah, I guess it is an advantage.
Favourite co-star?
I think the best actor I’ve ever worked with is Giovanni Ribisi. He’s just an incredible actor. I mean just as what I would imagine Marlon Brando to be like. You finish a scene with him and you go wait – and the room turns back into a set. You realise that he didn’t mean any of the things he was saying to you and you’re like – oh.
Is there anyone you look up to, a mentor or someone that has helped you out?
I think when I was a child Anjelia Huston had a huge hand in giving me advise and hooked me up with the agent I have had forever now, for fourteen years but since then, I don’t know, I don’t really.
What kind of attention do you get from fans or people that recognise you? Is it difficult for you to go into a restaurant? Do you find people starring at you?
It doesn’t really bother me and a lot of people say – what, are you walking around in a bubble? Do you not see people starring at you? But I just don’t notice unless someone is really starring at me and then I just smile and wave.
Any strange experiences? So many movies you’ve done may attract some weird people?
Well I don’t really know about that because I don’t read that stuff. My mother keeps s a file of like crazy people that write more than once.
Doe’s she monitor that for you? Look out for you? You just don’t want to know about it – is that how it works?
Yeah. She handles it.
So there are no strangers that have come up to you that are weird? Fans in the bathroom or something?
Oh yeah. That’s the best. When people want to have a conversation with you while you are peeing and you’re just like – really? because I don’t think this would be so comfortable for you either [laughs].
I thought you did a really good job in MONSTER.
Thank-you.
And Charlize thanked you at the Oscars. Was there a huge interest in you after that? Were you inundated with work and scripts?
No. No. When you play like ugly crazy lesbians [laughs] It generally doesn’t send the scripts flying.
Charlize got the scripts flying in.
I’m sure she did. She got an Oscar
You’ve played a few dark crazy characters. Would we ever see you in a romantic comedy?
Yeah. I’ve done a few romantic comedies. I mean the last one I did was the Woody Allen film. I think that there are pieces that are more shocking that certainly stand out more, but they aren’t really the majority of my career.
How did you get into acting? You don’t come from an acting family but you began at such a young age. What was it that triggered it as a career?
Well when I was young someone saw me in a play and said I should audition for commercials and my older brothers and sisters said I should do it if I wanted to.
But still, there are a lot of kids that go into commercials that we don’t see in movies. What was it that escalated your career to your first big role in MERMAIDS?
When you’re a kid you kind of audition for everything. Cause they assume you don’t have talent until you are an adult. They think when you are a kid that you just got lucky and you just happened to be able to read or something which I always thought was funny so they assume that if you can do one thing then oh, you must be able to sing and dance too. So you audition for everything and I just happened to get movies.
When you turned 18, you didn’t want to go to university?
I applied to Columbia and I got in but I deferred for a year and it was just when acting was sort of getting interesting for me and my career was getting really interesting so I decided not to go.
Would you go back and study?
No. I don’t think so.
Have you got anything coming up?
No. I Love Your Work is coming this year with Giovanni (Ribisi). This movie took about a year and a half to film in total so I just I kind of took from July until now off cause I’ve been working non stop for years.
And you have signed onto the movie WHITE ROSE playing Sophie Scholl?
Yeah. That’s in development right now
Do you know that much about Sophie School?
Only as much as the script told me. It’s not smart to get too invested into something that isn’t financed.
Horror films seems to be the biggest openers these days – with SCREAM, THE GRUDGE, BOOGEYMAN. Was that a big pull for you in choosing the horror genre?
No. I think we started shooting this right after Monster so that’s before. I guess The Ring had already come out before and I guess it was really big. I just wanted to, I just thought it would be fun. People make me aware of box office things but other than that I don’t really pay attention.
So when you choose a role you don’t calculate, what’s it going to do for you? It’s just based on the character?
Yeah. It has to be like something. Either it’s a director I’ve always wanted to work with or a story I love or someone I’ve always wanted to play, could be a location I’ve always wanted to go to, it could be a genre I’ve never worked in, timing, there are so many variables. And I think it’s more of my agent’s job to think about what the movie is going to do for me.
What role do you really want to play? Is there a particular genre you’d love to do?
I don’t know. I don’t know really. I’m open to whatever comes along. I don’t know what I want to do.
What’s refreshing about you, as an actress is you go against the grain unlike the typical Hollywood actress. You do what you want and we don’t see you a lot. Do you ever feel any pressures to conform to what Hollywood wants?
I think in the past I’ve felt pressures, to be a different person or change my personality but I don’t feel like that now. I feel like it’s just too difficult and people can tell when you are lying to them anyway.
What kind of music to you listen to?
I listen to all different kinds of things. My favourite band is The Pixies, and so of course I like Modest Mouse. Any. I’ve been listening to a lot of Leonard Cohen and The Kings of Convenience. Let’s see what else, oh I got into Dusty Springfield recently and The Carpenters – I love em
You come across as being a bit of an old soul.
I think that is so hysterical because I couldn’t be a bigger naive little kid.
Why is it that we see you like this? Maybe it’s the roles that you play? And you are not wowed by anything it seems?
Well I am wowed by things. But I just don’t experience my emotions in front of other people I guess. Maybe that’s it. I don’t know. But I am. People are always surprised when they meet me and hang out with me for a period of time that I’m like a silly little frivolous girl that’s like ‘no you can’t say that! No! Oh my god, that’s disgusting!’
Are easily shocked?
I am so easily shocked and I’ll believe anything. I’m so gullible it’s ridiculous.
Do you have a beauty regime?
Yeah. I have one thing I do religiously every day. My boyfriend has never gone out with anyone who has a regime. Like something I do every single night. It’s very old fashioned. I go and get my nails done once a week. He’s never seen anything like it.
Have you been asked to endorse products, the face of Revlon etc?
Yeah that stuff is a lot of fun. The only thing I’ve done is that Louis Vuitton campaign with those other girls and that was really fun. I really liked that.
Ultimate fashion purchase?
Um… I know I have a good answer here… ahh…
Favourite brand?
Ahh… umm…
What about Louis Vuitton?
Yeah I enjoy their brands
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