Interview Josh and Lucy

[aloha]

Don´t know if that´s a new one, but it´s very interesting!!


Lucy Liu and Josh Hartnett
April 04, 2006
-By Jenny Halper


Thanks for the sugar, sugar.

It sounds like Lucy Liu is sending Josh Hartnett a mating call, but she really is referring to the granulated baking kind. In “Lucky Number Slevin,” a neighborly errand tentatively edges into a first date, and she ends up getting both.

But “Slevin” isn’t all sweet. Written by Jason Smilovic and directed by Paul McGuigan (“Wicker Park”), it’s a thriller that blends comedy, tragedy, and healthy helpings of violence. When unsuspecting Slevin (Hartnett) is pinpointed as a pawn in a deadly battle between the Rabbi (Ben Kingsley) and the Boss (Morgan Freeman), Lindsey (Liu), an overtly curious coroner, also gets caught up in the game.

Q: How does a guy on the run fall in love so quickly?

JOSH: I think that he's had this giant hole in his life and that has been filled with the idea of revenge. Is that ultimately going to fulfill him as a person? When he meets this girl (Lindsey), and she's obviously incredible, she becomes the thing that's going to fill his life. So I thought that it made sense under those strained emotions that he would glom onto her.


Q: The sex scene has a very playful tone- it seemed like a lot of fun to shoot.

LUCY: It was great. We were both really relaxed, we really had great chemistry together, we both like each other a great deal…it seems so intimate onscreen, but you’re surrounded by a hundred people, so it didn’t feel at the time that it was so intimate. We were playing a game in bed. And I think that’s what people do, which is a really nice thing that Jason (Smilovic) brought to the movie. How real people talk. How they really react to each other- by talking, joking around, testing each other. And I think that makes it intimate.

JOSH: I liked that there was actually a sex scene and not just a wake up in the morning afterwards. I liked doing it at the door and then cutting to after the sex. And everyone has seen the montage with the legs intertwining. How many times do we need to see it? You don't need to anymore.

Q: Can you tell right off the bat if you and your co-star will have chemistry?


LUCY: Not always. You don’t really get to know someone until you work with them. When you meet somebody briefly there’s so much stuff going on. We’re talking about sets, there are costume fittings- you don’t really get a good vibe. But I think when you work with someone on any set you get to know someone really quickly, cause you’ve got two weeks to work together…it’s a very quick connection.

JOSH: And he finds himself falling in love with Lucy pretty easily- that’s the way I played it.

Q: Josh, do you worry about getting typecast as nice guys? And Lucy, this is a definite change from villainous parts like in “Kill Bill.”

JOSH: I've never said that I was the good guy and I never tried to play only good guys, and I've done a lot of kind of darker turns. I've tried to do more complicated stuff.

LUCY: I never felt like the roles I was playing were villainous. If you think about her past (in “Kill Bill”), her parents were killed, she had no choice but to seek revenge, and once you’re in that position you have to continue being in that position. But she was never gonna die peacefully. She was going to be murdered. So I always see the characters as very heartfelt.


Q: When you get a script like “Lucky Number Slevin,” do you think “this is going to take my career to another level”?

LUCY: I never think (a script) is going to take my career to another level. Sometimes you do something you’re so proud of and it never gets released. So to me it’s just about working with the people that you work with, and being able to play different characters. And doing something you wouldn’t expect yourself to do, so it’s more of a challenge. Or working with somebody that you find interesting. That to me is key.

JOSH: I think that I would like to be able to do it my way, but I would like to be able to continue to make films and in order to do that you need to have success, whether they be acting successes or monetary successes. I want it to be about the acting. I did this film and then I did a film called “The Black Dahlia” and now I'm going to do this movie called “Resurrecting the Champ.” I hope that I'm going to prove and continue to prove throughout my life that I really care about my craft and hopefully people will enjoy the characters that I play, and not necessarily just the look.

Q: What about your look in this film?

JOSH: I didn't work out at all because I felt like the character should be soft and vulnerable and almost non-threatening. That's why I really liked the idea of him having his shirt off. I wanted to gain a bit more weight for it and get a little paunch and so we goofed around a lot on set and I pushed my stomach out and Paul (McGuigan) would say, “No.” But then in “Black Dahlia” I play a boxer and so I'm obviously in good shape. I guess I look better.

Q: Lucy, in choosing roles, do you feel pressure from the Asian American community?


LUCY: Nobody’s thrown any chopsticks at me recently. There’s always something to criticize. People do that as well, build you up to tear you down. So I don’t read any magazines, I don’t channel that energy because I think it’s just a ton of animosity. Who doesn’t want to look fabulous? But I’m not going to put my house on display anytime soon. I’m not going to be posing on my couch. There’s a certain amount of privacy I like to hold on to.

Q: What’s your favorite drink?

LUCY: I don’t drink very often. I’m drinking hot water right now. With lemon. I’m really simple…a cheap date. I’m more of a food person than anything else.

JOSH: I drink what's put in front of me. When Sir Ben Kingsley buys you a drink you drink it.

“Lucky Number Slevin” opens on April 7th.

Thanks, aloha. New interview to me. Very cute.

[Jocasta]

Good interview, thanks for posting it!

I hope that I'm going to prove and continue to prove throughout my life that I really care about my craft and hopefully people will enjoy the characters that I play, and not necessarily just the look.

This says so much about Josh; I wish all of his knockers would read this and understand that he's not shallow and driven by fame or money.

But then in “Black Dahlia” I play a boxer and so I'm obviously in good shape. I guess I look better.

Better?!?! He looked pretty darn tasty to me as Slevin!

[Intensely Deceiving]

LOL! I quite like the last line. I NEVER DRINK! But if Ben Kingsley bought me a drink... I would probably drink it.