BoxOffice® Pro - May 2012

COVER STORY > DARK SHADOWS
Is there any film of yours that you’re okay
watching?
No, because it’s not about the film, it’s just
about me. No. But I guess the ones that I’m
in the least, I’d feel the most comfortable. So I
really should have seen New Year’s Eve.
It’s been 20 years since the last film you
did with Tim Burton: Batman Returns. Did it
feel like that much time had gone by?
I just have this overall feeling of Batman
Returns—I actually don’t remember it that
well—so I just remember that it was a lot of
hard work. The best kind of hard work. And this
was the same, only I’m older now and not that I
wasn’t appreciative before—because I was—but
again, it’s Tim Burton giving me the opportunity
to play a childhood fantasy. Catwoman was a
dream come true, and I relished every moment
of it, and here I am now in Dark Shadows
amongst the vampires. Among everything else
that Tim brings to the table is all the people, all
the talent, that he surrounds himself with and
that gravitates to him. In every department, everywhere
you look, it’s just so exciting to see that
level of work coming from everyone who walks
onto the set—or even who doesn’t walk onto the
set but works behind the scenes. He’s intense,
but he’s a lot of fun to work with. On this one,
we just had this almost telepathic kind of communication
about the tone of the movie. It was
kind of weird and hilarious, and we laughed a
lot. I watched the old Dark Shadows show every
morning in the makeup trailer. It took everybody
a while to get ready and usually I get really
impatient with that whole process, but this was
so fun because we were all completely addicted
to Dark Shadows.
I’ve felt so sorry for every actress who’s
been cast as Catwoman after you—fans
have been so hard on them. Did you feel
that same scrutiny when you first took on
the part?
There wasn’t all this hideous blogging on the
Internet. There may have been a lot of criticism,
but I just wasn’t aware of it. And now, it’s just
in your face. Anybody can just say the most
hateful things, and then anybody can jump on
the bandwagon. Also, because I was the first
person to do it in a movie setting—
and it had been a long time since
the TV show—the old Catwomen
weren’t really
fresh in people’s
minds. But
MEOW!
WHY ARE
FANS ALWAYS
SQUABBLING ABOUT
WHO SHOULD PLAY
CATWOMAN?
people definitely have their favorites, and I’m
not a lot of people’s favorite. I think people have
been unfair about it to the people who have been
passed the torch, the Catwoman torch.
I’m imagining that torch.
The whip—it’d be the Catwoman whip.
I was surprised to realize that this is your
first film with Johnny Depp.
I know! I’ve just been such a huge fan for so
long, so long. He’s so much fun to work with
and you never know what to expect. He didn’t
disappoint.
That clique of Tim Burton, Johnny Depp
and Helena Bonham Carter is always working
together. Was it hard to be the new
person coming into that circle?
Everybody was coming in and out, so everybody
was having to feel like they were restarting
again. Except for Johnny—he was there all the
time because he’s in every frame just about.
Some of my most tedious days of shooting were
those family scenes around the table because all
the actors were there, except for Eva Green of
course, and it takes forever because you have to
shoot everyone’s coverage so you’re doing things
for the 150th time. But everyone was so funny
and so entertaining that we just laughed a lot.
Your next film, People Like Us, is directed
by Alex Kurtzman. He’s written some of
the biggest movies of the last several summers—Star
Trek, Transformers—but this
is his first time at the helm. How was his
learning curve as a director?
He’s a really good director. It’s a real character
piece, and he’s great with actors. He loves actors;
he’s great with story; he’s just tireless. He’s
really, really good. I play Chris Pine’s mom, and
the movie, again, is about family. Initially, it’s
about the tearing apart of a family, and then it’s
about it coming
back together
and accepting
each other
warts and all.
There are no
perfect relationships; there is no perfect family—we’re
all dysfunctional to a degree. And
that’s liberating because then you can begin to
have real connections with people.
Do you see a family resemblance between
you and Chris?
Maybe a little? We’re both fair. Do we look alike?
You both have those light blue eyes.
We have eyes.
And noses and ears.
Noses and ears! Exactly.
Especially in the last ten years, you’ve been
playing more fun villains than romantic
heroines. Talk about your choices.
There’s a kind of freedom in taking on those
kinds of parts where the movie isn’t really
resting on your shoulders, or on whether or
not you’re romantic or sexy and pleasing to the
audience, or whether that audience is with you
and rooting for you. That can color your performance.
For me, the best actors are the ones
who don’t care about that even when they’re the
lead in the film, but it’s not always easy to pull
that off. I’m actually enjoying the work more
than ever—it’s been kind of liberating.
Is there a beauty trap in Hollywood where
your first decade in the business, you had
to be careful to pick a wide variety of roles
to make sure you would continue to be
offered a wide variety of roles and not just
be hemmed into playing romantic leads?
I think in the beginning, it took a lot of patience
and there was a lot of waiting in between
parts. I’ve always just looked for parts that I
thought were interesting. I was never very calculated
about things, which I probably maybe
should have been more so. But I think it really
came about as being always on the lookout for
any opportunity that I could find that allowed
me to play a part where beauty wasn’t important.
In fact, I had to play against that, and a
lot of those parts came in unusual ways. A lot
of them came in TV in the beginning.
You’ve turned down a lot of roles that
other actresses would kill for, but you
don’t strike me as someone who would
have regrets about that.
People turn down things for different reasons,
and it’s not always because you don’t want to do
something. I’ve turned down things that I really,
really, wanted to do … but I wanted to do
something else more. And sometimes it’s a life
choice. So, yeah, I don’t have many regrets. Of
course, it isn’t easy when you go on to see that
movie become a big blockbuster and you see
the actress get an Academy Award. But you go,
“You know, I know I made the right choice.”
So it’s true: I don’t have any regrets.
92 BOXOFFICE PRO MAY 2012