Rosario Dawson Press Conference
Can you talk about the chemistry between you and Will Smith?Rosario Dawson: "Was [it] bad? I'm so sorry. We tried really hard but he smells, you know? It's so difficult."
It works.
Rosario Dawson: "It's beautiful, and it was one of those things where you hope for it when you read the script. I knew how many people were up for it and we were all auditioning. I was looking back at Men in Black II and going, 'We seemed to like each other. We like each other. People can believe this.' It was one of those relationships that you know can unfold beautifully in a film to the point where it would be a movie you'd want to watch over and over again. I knew it would be one of my favorite romances ever to see. It was definitely one of my favorites that I've ever read, and so there's obviously as much preparation as I possibly could to put behind it. But there's also just that element that you can't force. It either is there or it's not. I'm just really grateful that we all seem to feel that my interpretation of Emily and his interpretation of Ben created it to be the perfect sort of thing for Gabriele. Gabriele felt it."
What adjustments did you have to make to give this film a light touch?
Rosario Dawson: "It doesn't seem so light actually with Gabriele sometimes when he's yelling at you from across the room. It was really incredible actually having someone be so intensely sensitive to your tricks, to your behaviors and your -isms and really call you on it. Not in this, it wasn't that it was harsh. It was just very direct, which is sometimes very shocking but just because it wasn't that he was thinking about [it] that he saw it. It was that he was feeling it. It was just really coming from, 'What are you doing?' It was just like he'd be in the scene and engrossed and all of a sudden you'd do something that would just cut him off. It was like you slapped him. And he'd go, 'Don't do that again.' And you'd just be like, 'What?' Sometimes it was unconscious that you were doing it. And it just really just made you more and more and more purposeful. I could feel that in the audition."
"The audition that we did was rigorous and I felt I was a better actor just from the audition. I knew I'd be a better actor for doing this film with these people because I knew how committed they were to telling the story as incredibly as they possibly could because it was that precious. So I was so grateful to be there. I knew I was ready for it. It hurt sometimes. It was something to kind of get over, your ego, whatever. 'No, I'm not doing that again.' 'Yes, you are.' 'Okay.' And just really just be with it because I didn't want to fight being a better actor. I didn't want to fight not getting something right with Emily. I wanted to fight to do that, so that was an interesting thing to be wrestling all the way through. And I just was so grateful actually for the 15 years I've been acting that allowed me to be present for that because I couldn't have done this 10 years ago."
Was there a frustration you had to work out with Will's character's stillness and silence?
Rosario Dawson: "Yeah, no, and it was also very difficult because my loquaciousness comes with a lot of hand gestures and a lot of energy and she doesn't have that. That was something really interesting to try to see that I was fighting, that she was fighting to be the person she was in the body that she had to do it. To have an understanding of the things I just normally take for granted. 'Oh, I forgot something upstairs, I'm going to run up.' Well wow, Emily couldn't run. I really want to say this and I really want to make my point across. I'm angry. I'm going, 'No, she'd have to be so much more still with that and more pragmatic in that sense.' It's just not something she's capable of doing. So it was really interesting."
"She didn't have any fight in her. When he cuts her off when she's trying to be really into him and he's like, 'No,' she goes, 'Okay. Normally, I really like you. You seem really interesting and I'd love to fight for this to happen, but I only have six weeks. So if that’s going to be it, then that's going to be it and [I'm] thankful actually so much for the memories we already do have. I'm going to go back to my life and you go on to yours, whatever little bit that we have.'"
"Just speaking from the heart so much was so impressive to me, to have to be more succinct in my loquaciousness because she was direct like that all the time and speaking from the heart. So that was something that was really sometimes frustrating for me for her and really very kind of interesting for me to connect me to her. I mean, we were in the same body, Emily and I. She looked like me, she felt in so many ways like me, but wasn't in any capacity as healthy as me and that was something very frustrating to try to imagine. It felt like I was wading through water at times in my performance with her."
Did it make you more aware of your own heart and health?
Rosario Dawson: "Oh, I've always been very, I think, thoughtful in that regard. That's also really helpful. I mean, Will's very thoughtful in that regard as well and we talk health and all that. My mom's diabetic and asthmatic so that's the person… I mean at the moment I'm very healthy so it's not something I think about as strongly. I don't have any terrible habits. I'm not a smoker or any of that, so it's not like I really think about that. It would be a shock to find out my health is in any sort of dire straits but my mom's health is something that I'm concerned with all the time and I'm just sort of present to that. That makes me worry because I have zero control in that. I'm very present to that so I know this is going to be a really difficult movie for her to see."
