Elisha Cuthbert stars as a gorgeous fashion model who is kidnapped and tortured in Captivity, directed by Roland Joffe (The Killing Fields) and co-starring Daniel Gillies (Spider-Man 2).
How difficult was it for you to keep up that level of adrenaline the whole time while filming?
“I think once you’re up there, you stay up there. And then I’d get home and I’d crash. I’d have just the best sleeps of my life. Whereas on other movies that are different than this sort of high octane energy, I find myself having really restless nights because of sort of the pressure and the stress of sort of filming. But when I’m doing something like this, it’s just a breeze really.”
Was it more emotionally or physically draining?
“Both. Certain scenes were different than others. Certain scenes were really physical, like there was this section in the film where I get buried alive in sand and physically that was just painful. I mean it’s three days of that and it was really intensive. But then there’s like mental aspects of like trying to find where she breaks down, where she gives up, where she fights through, where she gets pissed off, you know? Emotionally jumping from scene to scene and they’re all very different because I’m not going to play it all one way. I mean obviously there’s a progression so that is hard to kind of go, ‘Okay, where’s she at at this point?’ And there’s no other actors to work off of until later on in the movie so that was hard.”
Did you end up doing all your stunts? Was all of that you in the film?
“Yes.”
Did you have a trainer?
“No, but I don’t find it a feat. But Daniel [Gillies] was telling everyone earlier that I was working a 13 hour day and then going to gym for an hour and then going to bed. But that was only because I was so amped up by the time I was done that I needed to just like run it off, you know? Then I’d get tired because it was sort of this consistency. It has nothing to do with my love for the gym, let me tell you. I’ve never actually done that for any other movie, so yeah, but I was working out quite a bit. And also the physicality of making the movie, too, got me into some sort of shape. …I watch what I eat obviously. I’m not a regular gym-goer but I’m conscious of it.”
What do you like to do for exercise?
“I jog, actually. It’s the only thing that seems to work. I guess there’s something about it. And walk, too, I walk and jog a lot – and just eat right. I’ve never been a big eater. Really, my choices on things that I like to eat are kind of healthy, which is kind of good for me. I’m into eating salads and fish. I’ve always been a big fish eater. I like fruit. I have friends that you have to force-feed them the good stuff. I’m lucky I actually like it. Brussel sprouts and all that.”
Why do you think audiences like the Saw movies, the Hostel movies, and this movie, the torturing beautiful people type of thing? Why do audiences go for that?
“I don’t know. I guess there’s a vulnerability in seeing a female character trying to get out of something really drastic. But I mean I went into this one sort of feeling like I wanted to play her as real as possible, so she has moments of breakdown. But in the back of my mind there was always strength there. I always wanted her to be strong. And even if she wasn’t strong, to start to discover her strength throughout the course of the film. That was there from the get-go. I don’t like playing weak female characters. That’s actually one of the reasons why I choose films like this is to be strong and to be able to play a character that goes through something. That’s always more interesting to me.”
Do you feel the theme could be that beauty is like a prison, or that beauty can be painful to maintain and causes jealousy?
“Yeah. There’s a lot of things in the film that I think going back you can go, ‘Maybe it’s about that,’ or ‘Maybe it’s about this.’ So I think yeah, that definitely could be a part of it. I know Roland had a lot of ideas about it. You know, the whole concept of falling in love under crazy circumstances and having vanity be a dangerous issue and could ultimately destroy you. All of these elements are a part of the film. You can kind of take whatever lesson you learn from it, I suppose. I think it’s going to be different for everybody.”
Did you do any research with victims or did you use your imagination?
“No. To me it wasn’t documentary-esque. I went off the script itself and decided to play her as real as I thought if I had gone through something like this, and then adding the elements of sort of the celebrity of it and all of that. But Roland actually before we started filming wrote up a diary for me that spanned from her being 12 all the way to the point that you see her in the film. We did a lot of backstory and that helped me go through the film with the knowledge of who this girl was and how she would react in any circumstance, just knowing who she was at such a deep level.”
Have you gotten more kidnap type of scripts since 24?
“No.”
You don’t think there’s a difference in what you’re receiving because of being on 24?
“No. I just think people see me like that because I think 24 is my most notable role ever. To have that much air time is amazing, and to be all over the world. I think to be recognized for such a specific role has kind of put people thinking that that’s sort of what I’m into doing. But, really, I mean I’ve done romantic comedies and dark comedies and independent films and two horror films. But I think I just like horror films. Maybe that’s why this is the second one.”
