Yeah.
What was your favorite scene from the original?
The shower scene. Although I'll tell you, doing it, I was petrified. That's one scene we did actually reshoot. We reshot it to make it a little scarier. Again, because in American films you can push a scene like that a little bit further. Although I kept asking them to put Toshio [Yuya Ozeki] in the tub and no one thought that was a good idea. Perfect example [of her sense of humor], "Don't you think you should see little Toshio in his underwear, looking up while Karen's in the shower?" And nobody went for it.
What is that kid really like?
I won't ruin it for you. [Pausing] Sardonic, see? He's been doing these movies since he was a little kid, like 5, and I'm not sure if he still wants to be making these films. He didn't speak any English. I think it was harder for him than the adults, because he's still learning how to communicate.
One thing I thought was interesting, obviously because we're working under our union the hours are very, very strict in Japan. I think actually what I'm going to do when I'm done and take my next vacation, is I'm going to go over and start unions in Japan. I'm going to unionize Japan. Because the way they work those crews is so criminal. There's no overtime so they can just keep going. [It’s] very different. The work ethic is incredible though. We could learn a lot from that work ethic. In America it's like, "OK, time for a break!" They work so hard.
They work for 24 hours?
Well, that's the old story I heard about the Jackie Chan films. That, like, Jackie Chan will just keep going and when crew members drop he just replaces them. I don't know if that's true but after having worked in Japan, I believe it might be true.
Did you see “Lost in Translation?”
Yes.
In the scene where the director is trying to direct Bill Murray, is that what your experience was like?
Lost in translation is a very literal thing and I don't think I ever understood until… You don't realize that in English, we say like four words, we practically grunt and you're like, "Oh, okay." And in Japanese it's a longer explanation and all that and so literally, Shimizu will go on forever and then the translator says, "Be cuter."
Is it true you started picking up Japanese and when they realized you could understand what they were saying…
They stopped talking around me, real quick. Actually, it was really funny. In the beginning they would say things and I could pick [them] up. Like there was this one very infamous day, which hopefully will make the DVD, because I did videotape the whole thing, where we couldn't find Shimizu. And I shot a video called "Where in the World is Shimizu-san?" And I would go up to everyone, and when I finally got to the producers they were freaking out because I wasn't supposed to know that they couldn't find the director. Now first of all, okay, it was kind of obvious. We were all standing around twiddling our thumbs. I mean, you know, I'm blonde but not that blonde. But I understood that they really didn't know where he was and that nobody could find him. So after that day, they started to move farther away so I couldn't eavesdrop and hear, like, what time we were going to wrap or what time they were thinking of breaking for lunch -- those things, mainly, you never want actors to know. And this trip when we went back, they were still doing it. And I was so jet-lagged that I barely understood English when I got out there. I'm like, "You guys, you don’t have to be secretive. I don't know my own name right now." Last time I had like two weeks to get acclimated. This time, we didn't even have a day.
So where was Shimizu?
You've got to wait for the DVD!
When did you finish the reshoots?
I got home Sunday. And we left, like, two weeks before that. I'm sorry, but if you ask me [if this is] July, August… Your guess is as good as mine.
Was there any special physical or mental preparation for this role?
You know, I researched my character very thoroughly. You know, I'm Method (laughing). I wish I had a better answer for that, like I trained with someone for five months. The funny thing about it was you didn't really need it. I had two weeks before we started and being an American abroad in a place where you don't speak the language, you research real fast. There's a scene where my character's on a subway trying to figure it out and that was my life for the first weeks. Getting on, looking at those maps, trying to figure it out. So I guess in that sense, yes, I did research. But if I didn't research I would not have left my apartment for the first few weeks. It was what I like to call ‘forced research.’
SARAH MICHELLE GELLAR - "THE GRUDGE" INTERVIEW: CONTINUED ON PAGE 4:
