INT: Jessica Biel

Jessica
Biel is one of those actresses that have been able to transition from
television to film. As Mary Camden on
the hit series “7th Heaven” she was introduced to the world on the
family drama as the pretty older

Camden

daughter. Soon she decided to try and
broaden her horizon by taking on less “moral” projects such as THE RULES
OF ATTRACTION and getting a little bloody with Leatherface in THE TEXAS
CHAINSAW MASSACRE remake. All the
while she continued shedding her Heavenly history.

She
now plays opposite such heavyweights as Edward Norton and Paul Giamatti in
the magic infused romance THE
ILLUSIONIST. And as Sophie,
she gives an intriguing and sophisticated performance as the woman torn
between two lovers. I recently got to
sit down and chat with Jessica at the Four Seasons in

Beverly Hills

. She is a beautiful and charming
woman who seemed very at ease with a bunch of journalist.
I was impressed with how she carried herself, very self assured and
just plain stunning. She talked openly
about the audition, what it’s like to work with Edward Norton and if she
would ever go back to the world of BLADE.

Jessica
Biel

It
must be kind of a romantic dream playing a European Duchess?

It is,
it was. It was fabulous; it was
just so much fun. I mean, I
dressed like a princess. And
that wasn’t necessarily a goal for me as a little girl.
I wasn’t necessarily princess crazy, but as an adult, it was just
so fun. And lovely, and living
in Prague for a couple months was… I really, you know, if I didn’t ever
have to come home I wouldn’t have. I
would have stayed forever.

Well
if it wasn’t a princess fantasy, what drew you to the character in the
first place?

I was
really interested in this woman who in my opinion was stuck; this modern
woman stuck in, you know, 1900. But
I felt like she could have been easily me, just put back in a time where I
was restricted by so many things; societies’ restrictions and family, all
of the stuff that you have to not do and not say and everything.
I was intrigued with bringing that person to life.
I also had only done modern characters who are very expressive and
talk with their hands… and with her, she’s just bubbling under the
surface at every moment, there’s so much going on but everything’s
placid and perfect up here. So I
was really interested in working with those elements as well as an accent
which I’d never done before, you know, dressing up and really creating a
person. Really stepping into the
shoes of someone that I really had no idea or I had no previous experience
(with).

Having
never done it before was it easier or harder than you thought it would be?

Um, it
was probably harder than I thought. I
definitely didn’t expect it to be easy.
But I put a lot of pressure on myself to get the accent really…
right. It was a constant worry
and a challenge everyday. So
that was my main thing and creating a relationship and a love between two
people in a short amount of time that never really could express itself
until one moment. It was a
challenge. It was a big
challenge everyday.

Wow.

What
about being the only main female in the cast, was that a little daunting?

Maybe
a little bit, a little intimidating on the first few days but it was fun. It’s
really fun to be the one female around; I mean it was a little bit of a
boy’s club. All those guys
went to school together and I’m a little bit younger than them and they
are all about the same age. They
knew each other before but they were cool.
They treated me really well, brought me into the inner circle.
It was fun.

So
you didn’t get special treatment?

No,
definitely not. I was treated
like one of the guys which is how I would prefer it anyway.

What
magic tricks did you learn, if any?

I
didn’t learn any magic tricks; Edward (Norton) learned everything.
I didn’t really get to spend much time with the advising magicians
either, I just sort of sat back and watched him learn all of his slight of
hand. He was really good too.

How
was the audition process? I
heard a story that you came in a costume, what was that like, when you first
auditioned for the role?

It was
really last minute and kind of chaotic.
The person who was supposed to be playing the role, I don’t know
who that was or what happened but there was an opening and literally at 6
p.m. I got a frantic call from my agents that said, can you do this audition
tomorrow, can you have an accent and can you be great?
[Laughs]

No
pressure.

I can
do it. [Laughs]
So I went in and I read with the casting director and we worked it
through and she took the tape and sent it to Neil (Burger) who was already
in Prague, this was like two weeks before they were going to shoot.
And he liked it and Edward hadn’t left yet so they brought me back
the next day to read with Edward. And
I just thought, you know, I have nothing to lose, I’ve got one
opportunity… I’m gonna go for it. So
I bought this crazy [Laughs] outfit fully decked from head to toe.
I looked like some crazy person walking down the street and it
worked.

I
thought either I’m gonna be totally laughed at or they’re gonna love it,
one or the other. And I guess I
gotta… I have no inhibitions at this moment and put it out there.
And I walked in and I think there was a little shock at first, a
little like, “Oh God, no!” [Laughs]
And then Michael London said, “Oh, thank God well at least we have
one costume out of the way.” [Laughs]
And it put me at ease, I was like Ahhh, you love it, okay!
And I had a good audition. And
then they sent it back to Neil and like, I waited for four days to get this,
to know… yes or no, yes or no and it was yes and the next day I had to
leave for Prague.

Wow.

It was
crazy.

Wow again.

Where
do you find a 19^th Century Princess Costume after 6 in LA?

[Laughs]
Paris 1900 on Main Street and Santa Monica, it was a life saver.

Did
you have to buy it or…

I
bought it. I walked right in
there and I don’t care what it cost, put it on my credit card.
Dress me! [Laughs]
I have an hour, let’s go. [Laughs]
I actually went back later with a bouquet of flowers and I said thank
you so much I GOT IT! [Laughs]

Have
you had similar costuming experiences that didn’t work out so well?

You
know… the only other time that I wore like a full costume but it was still
modern was Ulee’s Gold. I
walked into Ulee’s Gold like totally punk rocked out like hair,
mini-skirt; I was fourteen so I owned that ugly stuff anyway.
[Laughs] But I haven’t
dressed up before. That would be
really bad to have a really horrible experience.
[Laughs]

If
it helps you book the part, its okay.

Yeah,
that’s okay.

You’ve
done quite a large range of characters, everything from comic book
characters to big action. Is
there anything that you’d like to do again, will we see you again in a
comic book adaptation? Are the
“night stalkers” done?

I
think their done. I think
that’s over with. Nothing ever
came really with the Night Stalkers, I actually thought that, maybe we would
do an adaptation of that but… I don’t know, I just don’t think that
Blade (Trinity) did so well. It
just didn’t do as well as everyone would have hoped so no one was
interested in rethinking those characters.
But I’m open to it; I’m open to other comic book adaptations or
big action… I mean, I like action movies, I like doing action movies, I
think they’re fun.

It’s
not something that I want to do all the time but every now and again.
I would even dabble in horror again if it was the right thing, maybe
more psychological horror and less gruesome, but I would never say never to
anything. Cause I know how this
business works; you think, oh I’m gonna do this for sure and then you’re
like, well, okay I’ll do that. I
mean literally, that’s how it’s gone every time I’ve done anything I
said I’m not gonna do that. And
then of course, I do it. [Laughs]

What
are you playing in Next?

I’m
playing a schoolteacher. I’m
playing like the most normal, sweet, quiet but strong kind of saucy woman
who falls in love with Nick Cage’s character but I’m actually a
schoolteacher that once a week I work at the Havasupai Reservation so
she’s really kind of interesting. And
I fall in love with him because… he’s been
searching me out cause he is a Pre-Cog and he can see into the future
and he’s been seeing this woman, he doesn’t know why, that when he sees
this woman he can see further into the future than he usually can and he
finally finds her and he knows it’s the person he’s supposed to be with
so he sorta has to hang on to her and she’s like, who are you… you’re
just a creepy guy. [Laughs]
Get away from me. So
he’s kinda got to woo her so they have this kind of quick romance and the
FBI are after them and it’s exciting.

So
all the crazy stuff happens around you?

Yes.
I’m not fighting or anything. I
do a bit of running and I get kidnapped by terrorist and I get dragged
around for awhile. It’s kind
of great.

Dodging
bullets?

Dodging
bullets a little bit but not hardcore action or fighting or anything like
that.

You’re
also in a film with 50 Cent (Home of the Brave).

Yes.

So
can you talk about the differences in maybe acting styles with 50 Cent and
Nicholas Cage?

Oh, I
didn’t get to work very much with 50 slash Curtis.
Actually I didn’t work at all with him.
So I don’t really know what his acting style is.
Nick surprised me every moment. I
was on my toes at every second waiting to see what was going to happen…
next. [Laughs]
He was so much fun and so personable and he’s a total goofball.
He tells these great stories, he’s just got so much to talk about
(he’s) super smart and he’s fun. I
just, you know kind of fell in love with him and working with him was just
lovely. And um, I didn’t get
to work much with 50… and I don’t know, maybe he would have been like
that. That was my experience
with Nick.

What
was it like working with Edward Norton?

Edward
was incredible. He’s just so
passionate about every inch of the filmmaking process.
He wants to know what I’m doing, what the camera’s doing, what
Neil’s (Burger) doing, he’s just… he’s on top of it, he’s got it
all figured out. He just cares
so much about it. He was lovely
with me, we had a great time. We
really kind of connected. I feel
like he… he never does the same thing twice.
He’s always changing it up and switching things up and saying
things differently. He is
amazing.

Did
he try and give you direction at all?

Yeah,
he did, he did give me some direction. I
asked for it to, I said, you know please, I’m open to it.
Anything, talk to me about it, what do you think, let’s collaborate
on this. I don’t remember
exactly what it was but I do remember he came and whispered something to me
and it was always a great note. He
always has great, great ideas.

Wow.

How
did being in the Czech Republic sort of (help) your performance?
Being in Europe, surrounded by all the old architecture, sort of the
memories of that period?

It
brought it all to life. It was
part of it. Everything was
alive. You step out of your
trailer and carriages are everywhere, the extras are dressed up, you look
around and you’re transported back to 1900 Vienna.
It was just amazing. It
just became real, it didn’t feel silly, it didn’t feel fake.
I just felt like I was a Duchess walking down the cobblestone street
just on my way to whatever it was I was doing that day.
It would have been different if we had been in a soundstage, it would
have felt false. It was such a
feeling of authenticity. I
don’t know… it was like, sticky and filled with smells and visuals,
sights and sounds, it was incredible. That
was the only way I think we could have done this film.

What’s
the coolest place you went to in Prague?

That’s
a hard question because we went all over the Czech countryside, which was so
cool cause we didn’t just see Prague.
I think maybe Chesky
Krumlov, this little tiny town. It
had this incredible, old theatre and it was intact.
The way they would make wind and how they would move the sets around
was all intact. It was amazing.
Beautiful, candlelit… I mean, it was incredible, I don’t even
know how old it was. But, we got
to go on the stage and see that and (they had) beautiful waterfalls and this
little, tiny, simple fairy story like you’re in… what’s that old…
the movie’s that Shelley Duvall made… (Fairie Tale) Theatre.
I felt like I was walking into (Fairie Tale) Theatre.
You know, like Snow White was going to pop out or something, it was
just amazing.

Let me
know what you think. Send questions
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