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What was the appeal of working on 300?
“It’s a funny thing. You read things as a woman and you think, ‘Oh, the female character, she’s got a few scenes, blah, blah, blah.’ And then you look at it overall and I was like, ‘I just want to be part of this.’ I just think Zack [Snyder’s] fabulous, I really do. There’s a generous spirit to him and the cast, and that’s very rare in people in this environment sometimes.
Film for me is a process. It’s not an end result, it’s a process. I think if you can’t enjoy that and you don’t appreciate everybody that’s working and putting everything into it, then it’s not worth doing. If you’re just into this for the glory and going, ‘It’s going to be on big,’ it may never be. You have to enjoy this moment because that’s really where it is.
It’s such an experience, my job. It’s such a crazy place to work. It’s very public and your mistakes are seen by loads of people, and your successes are seen by those people. So I enjoy it, but it’s all very different. It’s like we meet so many people and obviously you’re not going to jell with everybody and mesh, you know? I thought that when I first started out that I’d come home with 700 phone numbers and now I have like two (laughing). But you know, it’s just a great opportunity to explore the world, as well as meet people.”
Are you prepared to be recognized by fans of 300 as Queen Gorgo?
“But I look so different in the film!”
You do look different in the film, but when they find out who you are, that’s going to cause quite a reaction. Are you ready to be associated with this character?
“I just hope I can still get away with... I just don’t ever want to be photographed. I mean, I hate that. It’s an invasion of privacy.”
But you’re an actress and it kind of comes with the territory, doesn’t it?
“Yes, but I’ve worked for 15 years without being recognized or known pretty much anywhere. I can go anywhere, and for that to change terrifies me. I love my life; I love my anonymity. I love doing what I do, but I like being able to be trashed at parties and nobody’s going, ‘Look at her! Look at her with watercress in her teeth.’”
And you’re doing the television show The Sarah Connor Chronicles next?
“I just did the pilot. Yeah, a TV pilot.”
Were you looking to transition to television?
“I want some constant and TV’s changed so much now, especially in the States. It was a kind of cool project to get into. I just think it will allow me to do other work, to do other movies that necessarily I wouldn’t be able to. I think it puts you in a position of being able to take projects that are smaller, that you are interested in, that you wouldn’t necessarily be able to do.”
What was the appeal of playing Sarah Connor?
“It’s kind of a hard part. It’s a single mom with her kid - and the fact that she’s holding in her hands this boy that she loves who also is the key to the survival of the world. It’s pretty big, so there’s a lot to go on there.”
Is action your genre?
“It’s just been the things I’ve loved and I’ve been interested in. I just did a film called The Red Baron which is again the war story of the German fighter pilot. That’s a romantic love story. And then I just did a horror thriller in London, a low budget kind of very visual, very psychological movie. It’s pretty twisted. It’s kind of about losing your mind and reality, and the boundaries of reality and madness.”
Do you lose your mind in it?
“Yeah, I played two people.”
Is she really two people or does she just think she’s two people?
“It’s kind of…it’s like which side do you believe? Are you crazy or who knows who’s not crazy?”
