GINNIFER GOODWIN:
Why do you like About.com?
It’s an accurate representation of whatever it is I need.
What do you look up?
I’m a homework obsessive/fanatic about when I play a part doing an excessive amount of research. I mean, that just happens to be the website that I defer to a lot. I’ll search anything, any topic that I need academically to understand for any field I’m doing. It’s so all-encompassing.
What did you look up for this role?
To tell you the truth, I relied on a lot of personal experience for "Win a Date With Tad Hamilton" as I am from the south where the first Piggly Wiggly was born. We actually have a Piggly Wiggly museum. I’ve had films where I’ve had to do much more homework, things that I didn’t understand so much, [like] the 1950s for "Mona Lisa Smile", or prison life for a film I’m about to do. So "Win a Date With Tad Hamilton" was much more about personal experience.
I guess I actually did a lot of research on Marilyn Monroe. For some reason, [she] inspired me as someone that my character thought that she was like, even though she’s clearly not. She was sort of a role model for my character. So that’s someone who I did a lot of research on.
Are people as innocent as these characters or are we jaded?
Well, I think that certainly I know where I come from, there is still this innocence, absolutely. And I would have believed that if I had won a date with the biggest movie star in the world, I don't think I would have had any inhibitions coming from Memphis, Tennessee as far as that goes.
Who would you like to win a date with?
"I would like to win a date with Paul Newman" sounds totally strange. I’d pick Paul Newman.
Tell us about "Mona Lisa Smile?"
I play Connie Baker, a mousy, breakable punching bag of a bird of a girl who carries the baggage for all of her friends and smiles in the face of conflicts, but has a lot thrown at her. It was a beautiful, magical experience working with those women [on] my first film. It could not have been a more fulfilling experience.
Is it a female "Dead Poets Society?"
Absolutely. I hope we can live up to that film.
TOPHER GRACE:
Did you give Josh any advice for playing a teen heartthrob?
No, I don't think I have any of the problems, the wonderful problems that this character had. I didn’t talk to him about this role, but I did talk to him about what it’s like to have a huge burst of luck that, all of a sudden [to] just be thrown out on the scene. He had a television show starting this year so I did feel like, even though he’s older than me, [I could] give him a little bit of advice as to how to basically deal with all you people.
What advice?
I hate using words like stay normal and that bulls**t, but actually you want to basically know what matters and what doesn’t, and this truly doesn’t matter. You may think you’re going to change a lot, and then you really don’t have to. Some people do just because they think they have to. He is such a mellow guy. I’ve worked with him all summer. He doesn’t need any advice from me.
Will we know that Rosalie eventually ends up with you in the end?
Well, you’ve gotta pay to find out. Look, I believe one way or another, there are two very obvious choices. It’s not like at the end she writes a book and drowns herself. It’s either one vote or the other. It’s all been done before, but to me it’s about, regardless how it ends, these movies are more about the craftsmanship of the entire film, as opposed to trying to avoid predictability. I think sometimes when people try to avoid predictability, they wind up making a movie where the ending really changes what happened.
Would you ever auction yourself off?
No.
Does this character represent your comic sensibility?
I mean, I definitely have an awareness that people who see "That '70s Show" are going to see this, unlike when I did "Traffic" where it was completely opposite audiences. But I think that’s an awful reason not to do something. That’s actually a great reason to do something. But the character is different. He’s more cynical and there’s more of a growth.
NEXT PAGE: Director Robert Luketic
