And I was reminded of something that happened to me. I was five years old and we were driving. The doors were jammed and there was a man trapped inside.
In South Africa everybody carries a weapon, and the man begged for someone to shoot him because he didn't want to burn to death. Nobody could get him out of the cab, so somebody shot him. It was horrific, but definitely a moment that made me have a great value for life. Other things in life have taught me not to take a moment for granted. And it took a woman, a first-time female director, to offer me that role.
Paul Haggis [the director of Crash and In the Valley of Elah ] recently said to me, "You know, often it's the material that will define an actor, but you didn't do that. You defined yourself with what you chose to do. I do like the challenge of finding material that people don't want to risk a lot of money on and that studios don't necessarily jump to go, "Yeah!
We want to tell that story. Everybody wondered how a movie like that could be successful. I get bored so quickly. I just really liked the material. And the girl was cool. I wasn't ticking any boxes. I just try and do good material and how it gets made is secondary. As you get older, you get wrinkles and your boobs sag. But you get wisdom, too. So it's not all bad! They can see Russia from their house, too.
I don't avoid glamorous roles. But I don't see so many. You tell me one glamorous role that is in a good movie you have seen in the last ten years. My point is, it's not a case of wanting to be glamorous or not. It's about wanting to tell a good story. And the physical is at the bottom of the list for me.
Your job, as an actor, is to be a clean canvas for your director, and you have to tell the story as authentically as possible. I don't know if I would be who I am today if I'd grown up in a different country.
In our house the news was always on, the newspaper was always on the dining room table and my parents had a real thirst for politics, and that's how I grew up.
A lot of my American friends grew up in a different way, and because of what's happened in America in recent years, they are asking questions, playing catch-up. But I can understand that, because they were living in a country that was comfy and cozy. I wasn't. I want to know what is going on. I have an interest in world politics--how can you not when you live on this Earth?
I'm just flabbergasted when people don't give a shit. But once you got there, it was an hour's drive back, so you may as well watch whatever it was.
I was about eight or nine and Fatal Attraction was playing and Mom didn't want to turn all the way around, so she was like, "Well, this is as good a way for you to learn as any". But you try very hard to move on.
My mother was an incredible example to me. I can't imagine going through life without her. I think she has influenced who I am, but without intent really. She would always say, "That's how I feel, but you should figure it out for yourself. I'm responsible for my own actions, my own decisions.
So it's a weird one, because she didn't want me to be her, but I think now, at 32, I look at her and I kind of go, "Wow, I somehow aspire to be you. The reason I did North Country wasn't just because of what the women were going through. I was really fascinated to understand where the men came from. But what those women suffered was appalling. Just appalling. The real lady that this happened to is still in therapy and on medication.
When you meet her, you understand that this has taken a real toll on her. Look, I can't forget I'm a woman. I love being a woman and I love being feminine, so that will always be part of my work, obviously. But I approach the material with a more humanistic approach. I think that kind of stuff can become over-earnest if you approach it with a big hammer. Personally, I've been lucky. Maybe it's the way I was raised, but I know right from wrong and I know wrong when I walk into a room--and if I feel it's wrong, I walk right out again.
There were a lot of pros to winning the Oscar, but a lot of cons, too. Suddenly, it all became about transformation. Every movie I did after Monster was jumped upon as yet another transformation. Even when I only had dirt on my face, like in North Country it was transformation. I do all this work with Guillermo Arriaga on The Burning Plain script, we explore all these themes, and then we come on these junkets and it's like, "So you don't play a glamorous role again.
You know, how many great stories can you tell in a Dior dress? Or is it because I've done a J'adore perfume ad that I can only be one type of woman? I don't think women are that. We are many things.
One day we wake up and we want to put on jeans and T-shirt, and the next day we want to fucking have our hair done. But that doesn't mean that I don't have access to raw emotion. But it seems to be a problem for journalists. I don't know how to say this without sounding strange. But I feel like having this tragedy [her mother shot her father] at such a young age has given me a leg up from other people.
Because, man, from 16, I knew the value of life and I knew how quickly it could be taken away. And from that moment on, I made a choice to either swim or to drown, you know? People want to think that I am this tortured soul, that my work is drawn only from this one well.
And though I would never sit here and say that it didn't mark me, or mould me into the person that I am, my life has had many painful journeys and heartbreaks since my father died, many of which I draw on for my work.
We're either really good hookers or really good mothers. The only thing that really stuck with me the first time I went back was walking through the house that I grew up in, and everything seemed so small. It was such a bizarre feeling. I was like, "My mother made me sleep in a closet.
I've never been a fan of labels. And I'm not a big fan of overly justifying bad behavior, or why people are the way they are. I think it's a cop-out. And I don't have a lot of empathy for that.
I don't have to make these giant movies. It's such a blessed place to be in. I don't have to take a job to pay a mortgage on a house that I can't afford. My life comes first, then my job. I'm incredibly lucky to be in a position where I don't have to work all the time to live. It's not like I've been [offered] any great glamorous roles that had great conflict and great storytelling. But I'm not going to be picky, because they're hard to come by.
If I sit around waiting for a good, glamorous story to come around, I'm probably never going to work. So if you don't consider my character [in In the Valley of Elah ] beautiful, I'm sorry, but that's really me. That's my natural hair color.
That's me with very little make-up. There's no prosthetics. That's what I look like. I think we're starting to live in a culture where we're so celebrity-obsessed that we're starting to believe that when we see celebrities, they're supposed to look like they do on magazine covers.
But that's about people doing hair and make-up for you, and wearing big gowns. I look for roles involving good stories and good filmmakers. And it's my job as an actor to service those stories as best I possibly can. It's not about how I look physically. Physical's the last thing I think of. All of that stuff is really nice. I do have a bit of a guilt--I don't know if it's the African in me--but I'm one person and how much makeup do I need? I have a normal-sized closet. I donate things.
I don't have a nature in me to want things in excess. I actually don't like it. A lot of times, I will auction it off and have it go to charity.
And my friends benefit a lot. I call it Narnia. Movies 01 07 Movies 25 05 Movies 19 04 Birthday: 08 Aug Related Articles. The Addams Family 2 Review. George Miller's Furiosa Delayed To See all related lists ». Do you have a demo reel? Add it to your IMDb page. Find out more at IMDbPro ». How Much Have You Seen?
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