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Clint Eastwood shoots the rehearsal. Do you?
Paul Haggis: “We never did just one take. Multiple takes. Many. I did a bunch. Sometimes I do one take. Sometimes I did 20.”
Charlize Theron: “You're very in tune with, because actors are all different, and it's very tricky when you throw us all together because we all work differently. You want to get the best work out of every individual actor. I think it's a real talent for a director to be able to shoot in a way where he's not compromising himself but he's also doing it where he knows the actors are working at their best. There was an instant, actually, when I said to him flat out, I said, ‘I don't like rehearsal. That's just me. I'm a cow and if you milk me a lot, I'm going to get dry.’
I was working with a certain actor who really loved rehearsal, really loved working out every single kink. It was about three in the morning and it just got to that place where Paul had realized that I wasn't delivering anymore because we had just overdone it. It was incredible because the AD just came up and said, ‘We're going to pick this up tomorrow.’ I just thought that was so… Very few directors will be that in tune. A lot of directors will just kind of be on their schedule. And I understand that. It's reasonable. They have to make their film, but Paul just realized just from what I had told him and watching my work that I wasn't going to be able to go there. So we picked it up the next day. It was a little fresher for me. It was a little better. It's tough when you have two actors that are very, very different like that.”
How do you select your roles?
Charlize Theron: “It's usually a combination of two things. Sometimes it's not as equal as it was in this case for me. It's the material and the director. It was very, very equal for me on this.”
Is it important to downplay your beauty?
Charlize Theron: “No, I just want to tell good stories. I want to tell good stories, stories that matter to me, stories that I think are beautiful.”
Paul Haggis: “Stories where you can be pretty.”
Charlize Theron: “Nudity is something that really didn't make it in the movie.”
Paul Haggis: “Her and Tommy, exactly.”
Charlize Theron: “You know, Paul and I talked a little bit when we started to talk about Sanders. I said to Paul, ‘People make such a big deal about it. The irony of it is when it comes to finding a character for me, it's just about the facts.’ You look at this woman. So, it's not about how can we make me look different? I think the great thing about being an actor, it's not about that. It's about how do we get access to the truth. To me, that's always the biggest question - whether it's where is the scene going or how do I physically look or how are we going to facilitate Paul in telling this story correctly.”
Can you give us a Bond update? Daniel Craig said this one is going more humorous?
Paul Haggis: “No, he was joking. That was humor. No, it's what you saw in Casino Royale, you'll see in this. He has a wicked sense of humor. Everybody went, ‘Oh my God!,’ and they latched onto that fact.”
What can you do now that you've relaunched the franchise?
Paul Haggis: “I have no idea, which is why I didn't want to do it. But now I'm doing it and I'm having a great time. I'm on page 22. I'd get to page 23 if you guys just leave me alone for a few hours.”
Isn't it supposed to start in January?
Paul Haggis: “It's supposed to start in December. I'm on page 22.”
Bond will be on time?
Paul Haggis: “Oh yeah, of course it will be.”
So it’s not the Roger Moore version?
Paul Haggis: “No Roger Moore version.”
So you're not much further along than last time [you talked to the press]?
Paul Haggis: “No, I'm a lot further along. I wasn't writing at all, I was doing the story. I just started this week. It'll be good. I'm really looking forward to it.”
