INT: Poitier/Winstead

You
gotta hand it to Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, they both
have very good taste in the women they cast… Salma Hayek anyone (JoBlo’s
true love). And with GRINDHOUSE,
they give us a bountiful bouquet of beauties.
Two of which are the lovely and talented Sydney Tamiia
Poitier and Mary Elizabeth Winstead who appear in Tarantino’s
DEATH PROOF. Ms. Winstead of
course, is no stranger to genre including appearances in BLACK
CHRISTMAS (an unnecessary remake… sorry Mary) and FINAL
DESTINATION 3. As for

Sydney

, she also had a taste of horror in Snoop Dogg’s HOOD OF HORROR.
Both have a wide range of other projects but it is a pleasure
to have them both adding a little class to a Tarantino film.
And we are certainly going to be hearing much more about Mary
Elizabeth when LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD comes exploding into
theatre’s this coming July.

When
these two lovely ladies (who are both very tall) came to chat
GRINDHOUSE at the Four Seasons in

Beverly Hills

, I was truly entertained. Both
are very sweet, and have a great deal of enthusiasm for their latest
project. It’s always clear
when an actor really believes in a film they are promoting.
They both talked about working with Quentin and also the kind
of film that this represents.

And
in case you were unaware, Sydney spoke of her father Sidney Poitier,
one of the great actors of our time and how he fought to NOT do the
so-called “blaxploitation” movies.
She talked of him seeing the movie with her and was curious
to see his reaction to the film… I would like to hear that
conversation. But in my humble
opinion, she has nothing to worry about.
Her work is terrific and she was able to make Jungle Julia a
full, fleshed out character that should make her father proud… and
she looked uber hot too. As
for Mary Elizabeth, she gives quite a show and is adorable in her
cheerleading outfit. Read on for more about GRINDHOUSE.

Good
morning…

Poitier &
Winstead: Good Morning.

Now
Sydney, you don’t have your middle name in billing… It just says
Sydney Poitier.

SP:
I should. I
don’t know why but…

Somebody
said to me that they thought it was going to be your father in the
movie.

SP:
Yeah.

And
I said, ‘well, no.’

SP:
He had a sex change. [Laughing]

What
was it like working with Quentin on this?
Is he the strangest or most fun
director…?

MW:
The most fun by far. I
mean, everyday on the set, it didn’t feel like work.
It was like being at some amazing party that never ends.
From the morning, everybody’s laughing, having fun.
In between set-ups and going back and forth from your trailer
we’re all dancing and listening to music on the set.
You know, I don’t think I saw my trailer once in this
entire production. And
then, as soon as we wrapped for the day, everyone was like,
‘what’ll we do now?’, ‘where do we go?’ [Laughing] It was
just amazing and I don’t think there’s any other experience to
come close to it.

Mary,
you worked with Zoe [Bell] who this is kind of her first big role.
How did you make her
feel comfortable getting into
the…?

MW:
I think we just sort of… we got to know her really well
before we even started shooting, which was great.
She has the most amazing personality and she’s perfect to
be an on-screen persona because she is just so great to be around
and to watch. So we were
all really confidant in her, I think, and we didn’t try to give
her pointers or tell her how to act or anything like that, which I
think she appreciated. We
just kind of let her in to be a part of the group and made her feel
at home, which was the most important thing.

We’re
you both fans of “grindhouse” movies or has that come from
making the film?

MW:
I didn’t know what the term “grindhouse” was before I
got the film. Once I
learned what the term was and I had the film I knew I had seen some
of them. I wouldn’t
say I was a fan per say, I sort of was vaguely aware of the genre.
I have become a fan because of it; I have a different view of
it. Certainly, Quentin
makes you see it through his eyes and you start to see it in a whole
other light and he’s shown us some stuff, and now when I’m
cruising my NetFlix or the video store, I stop on those ones that
I’m like, ‘oh, “Switchblade Sisters”, that sounds good.
[Laughing]

I
spent a lot of time in Austin before shooting this movie and my
favorite place in the world is the Alamo Drafthouse which shows a
lot of really cool movies and exploitation films, and they have
these free midnight showing and was always my favorite thing to do,
rather than going out on a Friday night, I would wanna go to the
Alamo Drafthouse. So I
knew a bit through that. I
was really excited because it’s like an energy unlike anything
else when you go to those movie theatres.
It’s packed and everybody’s having the best time and
laughing and yelling at the screen and so I was really excited to be
a part of something like this.

What
did you dig the most out of all the movies?

MW:
I love them all. I
saw some crazy horror films, I saw blaxpoitation, which were really
fun and I think it’s something we are missing in cinema today.
Now we’ve got these assembly line films that are all kind
of the same and we know the formula they’re going to follow.
And with those it could be dialogue through the whole thing
and all of a sudden something completely ridiculous happens.

Sydney,
your dad never had to do any of those, did he?
Did you talk to him about it?

SP:
No, you know, it’s interesting because when he was coming
up, he was one of the very few black actors working and it was at a
time when the country was really racially charged, and the black man
was portrayed in a certain way.
So my dad had this opportunity to… you know, he always
talks about social responsibility, he always thought that he had a
social responsibility to portray black men in a completely different
light.

So
he didn’t have to do “Blacula” and things like that?

SP:
He wouldn’t, is more what I should say.
For him it was a really conscious choice because he had been
given this sort of opportunity to show a much more multi-faceted
African-American man, and play roles that weren’t even necessarily
written for African-American men, so for him, that was his path.
So he chose not to do that kind of stuff.

And
by the time the “blaxploitation” came out in the Seventies, he
was already an Oscar
winning, established actor.

SP:
Yeah, exactly.

Is
he gonna see this with you?

SP:
Yeah. [Excitedly]
He’s gonna be there on Monday night [at the premiere].

What
do you think he is going to think?

SP:
I think he’s gonna like it.
I mean, he’s a Quentin fan.
He’s not really a fan of violence per say, but loves
“Pulp Fiction” which is really violent.
If it’s done in a certain way, if it has sort of like an
artistic feel to it, which Quentin’s movies always do, and if it
kind of is organic with the characters in the story, he’s into it.
So he’s really excited that I’m doing this film and
he’ll be there. I’m
curious to see what he thinks. I’m
more worried about what he’s gonna think about Robert’s
[Rodriguez] than Quentin’s. [Laughing]

Have
you ever talked about doing a project together?

SP:
Yeah, we’ve talked about it.
We actually did one thing together about ten years ago, a
Showtime film and we had the best time working together. He’s
on to other things. They
don’t make parts that are interesting to him anymore.

I
wanted to ask… “Jungle Julia” [Sydney’s character in “Grindhouse”]…
is she a bitch?
Do you see her as a
tough chick who is kind of mean?

SP:
I wouldn’t say she’s mean… Bitch?
Yes. But in my
opinion, in a good way; what she is… she’s unapologetic about
who she is. She’s very
hedonistic, she’s slightly narcissistic.
She wants what she wants, she likes to say what she feels and
she doesn’t really worry about what other people are gonna think.
She lives her life very unapologetically and for that I
really admire her and I think a lot of people will probably hate her
for that. But you kind
of have to love her for that, because it’s kind of something that
a lot of people don’t give themselves permission to do.
People always sort of… you know, you’ve got to be polite
or you do this or that… Jungle Julia has none of that.
You know, life is to be lived, it’s to have fun, it’s to
enjoy and she does fully.

Anything
like you?

No.
Not really.
I mean, I have it in me obviously; I couldn’t play her if I
didn’t and I think we all have everything in us for the most part.
But to give myself permission to be more like that, to sort
of allow myself to be free and to be bitchy.
To be more about whatever it was that I wanted… playing
that character was a huge joy to me.
It was fun.

Mary,
regarding your “cheerleader”, did you base your “actress”
character on somebody
in particular?

MW:
I didn’t base it on anyone specific; I think she’s kind
of a combination of a lot of people I’ve known in my life.
But she was so fun. And
what’s interesting is that apparently, a lot of the people that
auditioned, played her as like a really annoying, bitchy, stupid
actress and I kind of saw her as someone that is loveable and naïve
and so I think it was kind of funny that people took her that way on
the page. I tried to
bring a few more endearing qualities to her.

Do
the two of you have anything else coming out after this?

MW:
Yeah, I have “Live Free or Die Hard” which comes out this
July Fourth.

And
Bruce [Willis] is in this too [“Grindhouse”].

MW:
I know. I
didn’t know he was in this until I started working on that and he
was like [Whispering], ‘I’m in that too.”… which is kind of
funny.

Who
do you play in that?

MW:
I play his daughter.

Do
you get to be rescued?

MW: Ah, kind of,
but not really because I’m a McClane so I get to throw some
punches. I get to kick a
little butt.

Is Bonnie [Bedelia]
back as your mom?

MW: She’s not.
No, I kind of take over that role as the family member whose
kind of taking care of herself, but also needs a little help from
John McClane. And then I
have… “Bobby” comes out on DVD and “Black Christmas” in a
couple weeks so… [this week]

Sydney?

SP: Um.
I’ll be in “Live Free of Die Hard” [Laughing]…
No, I don’t have anything coming out.
As of now I’m just auditioning and looking for that next…

Being picky about the
scripts?

SP: Um, pretty
picky. Now it’s hard,
because I’m really spoiled.

What
about the name? Growing
up being called Sydney?

SP: I always was
fine with it, most of the time, growing up.
I think when I officially got into the business and went away
to college to study acting at NYU, I had a little weirdness.
Like I remember this one drama student came up to me at
orientation, because we had an orientation with all the new drama
students, thousands of us in this room and they were calling out
everybody’s name and they were dividing us into different acting
studios. And they called
out Sydney Poitier, and the whole room just erupted into laughter,
it was like a joke and I had to put my hand up.

I was humiliated and embarrassed and this one girl came up to
me after and was like, ‘don’t tell anybody that’s your name
because people will use you’.
So I had a moment of weirdness and I called my dad and I said
maybe I should just go by my first and middle name because I don’t
know, people are freaking me out here.
And he was like, ‘when I first started out in the business,
they wanted me to change my name because they didn’t think it
matched with a strong, black man.’
Sidney Poitier… it’s kind of like this lyrical, dorky
name, I don’t know. And
he said, ‘and I told them, this is my father’s name and this is
the name I’m gonna do right by.
I’m not changing it.’ And I thought, screw it, I don’t
care what people think. I’m
keeping my name, and I love my name.

Do you think that the
order of “Grindhouse” is correct?
Does it worry you that some people might make it through the
Rodriguez film and not make it to Tarantino’s?

SP: It worries me
a little, but not really. So
far, everybody that’s seen it…

MW: Great
reactions. It’s good
to hear.

SP: Yeah.

MW: Because it
is… you don’t know what to expect.
How people are going to be able to take sitting through two
movies, if the people are going to be up for that.
But so far everybody is really excited.

Well the rhythm’s so
different?

SP: Exactly.

MW: I’m glad
that there are the trailers in between to give [audiences] a break,
giving you the time to forget about the first film… a little bit.

Did they ever talk
about switching them?

MW: I always
heard that it was gonna be [this way]…

SP: Yeah… and
I’m sure there is some kind of ‘grindhouse’ reason behind it.

Did you have a relation
with Kurt Russell from “Sky High”?

MW: Yeah, a
little bit. I was really
excited to work with him again because I knew he was the most fun
actor in the world to be around.
And he’s such a “guy’s guy”, not pretentious in any
way. Just really down to
earth and cool and funny.
I was just so happy he was gonna be in this.

Let me know what you think.
Send questions and comments to [email protected].