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"The Truth About Charlie" stars Thandie Newton as a young woman desperately searching for answers about her husband's murder and a missing fortune. Mark Wahlberg costars as the mysterious 'helping hand' who is ready to assist her in her search for the truth.

Writer/producer/director Jonathan Demme admits the chance to see Thandie Newton in the role of Regina Lampert (originally played by Audrey Hepburn in "Charade") was the key motivation behind making "The Truth About Charlie."

"I was really keyed to making another movie with Thandie. She's truly a great young actress: charming, deep, incredibly smart, funny, so totally classy, and ready to try anything as an artist, really fearless, and equipped with a remarkably imaginative point of view on character and story," said Demme, adding, "When I saw 'Charade' again, I immediately felt that here was a superb vehicle for this exceptionally gifted and thus-far underutilized actress."

THANDIE NEWTON (Regina Lampert)

Were you familiar with the original "Charade?"
The first time I ever saw "Charade" was at Jonathan's [Demme] house. He said, "Come and watch this great old movie with me." We watched the film and he said, "Don't you think that would make a great update?" I thought it would. [He asked], "With you in that part?" I said, "Oh please, shut up." Then two years later, we were doing just that. That's why I would pull him aside on the film set and go, "Oh my God, can you believe this is happening?" I mean, maybe that's what people who sort of go into a business together feel like, that all of this is happening. I'd also feel freaked out sometimes because everybody [was] there. I thought, "Oh my God, this was just an idea that germinated in the den of your house while we were watching a video."

Was it daunting to take on the Audrey Hepburn role?
No. What I thought when he said, "You in that role," I genuinely did think, "Oh, yeah, right." It wasn't until a good six months later that he said, "'I want you to do this and I want you to read this updated version that I've done." I very quickly read a new version - "The Truth About Charlie." I didn't have time to reference back to the other one. It was very different, [with] different characters and so on.

I take my job very seriously and I don't tend to look outside of what I'm doing. I tend not to look at what other actors have done to inspire what I'm doing either. I concentrate solely on the piece. I was aware that I was playing Regina Lambert, not playing Audrey Hepburn playing Regina Lambert. Maybe I was in denial because I was playing a role that she played, and that's as close as I'm ever going to come to Audrey Hepburn, is to play a role that she played. That in itself is an amazing thing.

Was there any discussion of trying to make sure you're different from Hepburn?
When I read the new "The Truth About Charlie," I was aware that there were a few lines that were the same. I never went back to "Charade." I thought that had to be left alone so that I could be free and fresh to interpret it from my point of view. It was never referred to, ever. If there are any similarities, they're accidents, or [we] decided we wanted to draw from that film some great lines or situations. But all that said, I heard [Demme] do an interview recently where he made a point that the best set pieces in "Charade," he decided to absolutely do new stuff. Like the great orange scene in the club when they're passing through. That would've been great but they did that - and they did it beautifully. He wanted to try and use that as a challenge to do something equal. Then he came up with the Tango, because Jonathan wants to be challenged. I don't think he's interested in just taking a film and using it in every way.

Have you developed a shorthand working with Jonathan Demme?
I suppose so. Yes, in that I'm not afraid of what he might say or of disappointing him. None of that worries me because we have this kind of baseline of respect and he's a great, great friend. You can tell, I'm sure, that he's a great friend, a great person to have in your life.

The two films were so different that it was hard to know if we were really working the same way. "Beloved" had a certain set of demands and we didn't actually know each other very well on "Beloved." I kept my distance from everybody because it was quite a hard part to play. I just felt it was easier for me just to withdraw and only be there when I had to be 'Beloved.' With this film, we were just all hanging out together all the time. Jonathan and I were really good friends and had been for years. I would sometimes pull him aside and say, "Can you believe we're making this film together?" It just seemed like we got away with it because we're really good friends.

Why was the nudity necessary, and how comfortable were you with it?
Because it was Jonathan, I knew that there would be nothing. You think that you've seen a lot more in that scene, but you've actually seen nothing at all. In "Charade," there's a scene where Cary Grant has a fully clothed shower. [Demme] wanted to just flip it and have me having a nude shower. I wondered why, but Jonathan's not exploitative and it's not gratuitous.

I think the other reason why it was important is that Regina, at that point, is so trusting and so glad to have someone that she can kind of rely on. He really seems to be the business, this guy. He's gonna really help her out and she's got nothing else and no one else. On the one hand, he's in the living room going through her stuff - that's the moment when you realize that actually he is probably as much of a threat as anybody else - and she's there naked in the shower. It's just the juxtaposition of her absolute vulnerability and his exploitativeness. I knew at the time you were going to get that. And also just her naiveté. She's there washing in the shower and not thinking that there's an audience out there who's going, "Oh, God, she's nude in the shower." And there's the fact that you don't see anything, so I was comfortable with that.

Was shooting this film different from your average film?
It was different. Sometimes I wasn't even aware of what they were doing, because we were having to shoot quickly in daylight. We were having to shoot quickly because in 10 minutes, the train was going to come and loads of people were going to come in. We were really relying on what was happening at the time in Paris. We didn't want to control crowds or do anything like that because you don't have to have a permit. You don't have a fixed camera in Paris. So that was different, but I was primed a little bit for that with Bertolucci where, similarly, a lot of it was handheld and we were out in the streets. I was very comfortable with that.

What was different, though, was we had to sort of rush through and do things so quickly that I kind of lost sight of what we just did. [I thought], "Was it good? Did I get that?" There was the scene in the wheel with Tim Robbins, which was honestly the coldest day of my life. Oh God it was horrible, and Jonathan wasn't even there. He was in another little car talking through a walkie-talkie at the end of each shot. It was kind of you're on your own and that was very different. I haven't experienced [that] before. There were other times like that where they were shooting long-lens and Jonathan was miles away. If I was lucky, I could reach him on a walkie-talkie.

What was it like to work with Mark Wahlberg?
He brings many different people, actually, which is interesting for the casting of Mark in this film. I would say to Mark, "Who are you going to be today?" because I just never knew. He's got a number of different attitudes or personas, and he's not aware of it. I'm quite inquisitive and I don't just see what's there. I tend to want to get deeper. I suppose I would try with Mark, but all you get is the kind of surface personality that would change.

Is that Mark Walhberg or his character?
For the character, obviously, that would be the same too, so it was kind of disconcerting. Whether he was doing that because of the film or because that's just him, I was never sure. We worked in very, very different ways, which was refreshing. It's always nice to not know what to expect and just sort of wing it, especially when you haven't rehearsed because Jonathan doesn't like to rehearse. Mark is very, very low key. He doesn't want to talk; he just wants to do it. I just wanna chat and, because we haven't rehearsed, just talk about the scene. It did make me question whether talking was just kind of throwing up a smokescreen. Why not just get in there and do it and be more exposed? He didn't like a lot of chat. His preparation was impeccable. Sometimes I would go, "Oh, what's my line?" and he could tell me, which is embarrassing. I wouldn't have expected that he would be like that.