Hey, everyone. “Moriarty” here. Okay... today, I’m going to be running these four interviews with the principal cast of Universal’s new MUMMY movie. Before we begin, though, I want to address something, because I’ve been taking some broadside attacks over my editing room visit for the film. I’d like to once again point out the huge difference between looking at a few minutes of footage out of context and a final film. Some people have this insane idea that doing one of these post-production visits means I’m going to automatically love the final film. That’s just stupid. This is my job. I don’t get all slobbery and weepy over someone allowing me to do my job. Me driving to Universal to spend a half-hour interviewing someone is hardly some sort of rare and special treat. I have been doing this for 12 years professionally, and at least another eight before that since moving to LA. Even before there was an AICN, I used to talk my way onto sets or into the post process every chance I got because I find it educational. Even on a film you end up not loving, you can always learn something from the process. I am always pleased to sit and chat with someone about their work, and when you’re doing an interview or an editing room visit, that’s not the time for you to be trying to push a critical agenda. That’s when you’re giving the filmmakers a chance to make their case. I admire and respect Maria Bello, Jet Li, Michelle Yeoh, and Brendan Fraser, and yeah, I respect Rob Cohen, too. That doesn’t imply some sort of blind fealty to their work... simply the baseline respect I have for people who have carved enduring careers in a difficult business. Sometimes, I think the internet has created a culture of people who believe that the only response to something they don’t like is hostility and belligerence, and who are so willing to sell out their own integrity that all they can believe is that everyone else is as willing to sell their opinion as they are. That’s a real shame. I’ll have my own review of THE MUMMY: TOMB OF THE DRAGON EMPEROR on Friday, but until then, I’m more than happy to let the cast have their say, and I think the interviews are all fairly engaging in different ways. First up, Maria Bello. She’s one of those performers who always does interesting work, even when I don’t love the films themselves. Lately, she’s proven herself to be absolutely fearless about choosing roles in things like THE COOLER or A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, and I was happy to chat with her about joining this franchise, especially when the phone call began with that familiar honey rasp of hers...
Maria Bello: Hiiiiiii, Drew.
Moriarty: Hi, Maria, how are you?
Maria Bello: I’m good. How are you?
Moriarty: Good.
Maria Bello: Good. Where are you calling from?
Moriarty: I’m here in L.A.
Maria Bello: Oh, I see. I’m here in L.A. too, at the Four Seasons, laying in a bed.
Moriarty: I know, it would have been nice to be there all day, but I’m with the kids today, so I’m doing phoners.
Maria Bello: Oh, how old are your kids?
Moriarty: Our oldest just turned three, and a four-month-old.
Maria Bello: Oh my god, congratulations.
Moriarty: Yeah, little bitties.
Maria Bello: Are you guys sleeping at all?
Moriarty: No, not remotely.
Maria Bello: I remember that first year, we didn’t sleep the whole year. And still my son, y’know... we always had a family bed, and so now…
Moriarty: Yeah, that’s what we’ve been doing until just recently.
Maria Bello: Really? But believe me, he’ll always jump back in your bed. That’s what my son does. He still wakes up in the middle of the night and jumps in my bed.
Moriarty: That’s what we’re experiencing right now... the waking up and wandering around the house in the middle of the night thing.
Maria Bello: [laughs] I understand. It’s the greatest thing and the hardest thing.
Moriarty: Oh yeah. So, when I was talking with Rob, he told me about when you guys first met. And he mentioned a great quote from you.
Maria Bello: Which was what?
Moriarty: When he brought up RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK.
Maria Bello: Oh yeah.
Moriarty: And you told him that when you saw RAIDERS for the first time, that everybody else wanted to be Karen Allen, and you wanted to be Indy.
Maria Bello: That’s right.
Moriarty: This is one of the first big action films like this, this scale, that you’ve done. Was it something that you knew for a while, okay, when the right one comes along, or when I get this sort of an offer, I want to do that?
Maria Bello: Well, it was even more than that, I think. I’ve been obsessed with being an action hero since I was a kid. I saw Indiana Jones and I remember saying to my dad, “I want to be Indiana Jones when I grow up.” And he said “You mean you want to be the girl in Indiana Jones?” And I said “No, I want to be Indiana Jones.” And I really feel like one of the reasons I became an actor... hold on a second... [speaks to someone else in the room for a moment] Okay. Sorry. So... even throughout the years, I became known kind of as a dramatic actress, and people would ask me what roles I wanted to play, and they would always expect me to say Medea, and I would say Indiana Jones. And I had my agent looking out for years, and, you know, no one ever saw me like that. It was a month before my fortieth birthday last year, and I finally gave up. I thought “You know, I’ve done everything I’ve wanted to do. I’ve played these amazing roles, worked with great people, the only thing I didn’t do was my action movie. But how many action movies are there for a forty-year-old woman?” And then two weeks later, Rob called me and said he was really interested in me for this role. So it was a real gift doing this movie, and it was everything I ever expected. I felt like a twelve-year-old boy at the playground every single day.
Moriarty: It’s funny because one of the first things I saw you in was the short run of MR. & MRS. SMITH, back in the ‘90s, which was a spy show.
Maria Bello: Oh yeah! I loved doing that show.
Moriarty: Yeah, so it was like the first thing you did was kind of in that wheelhouse, and then immediately ER took you into the more serious, and PERMANENT MIDNIGHT, and all those.
Maria Bello: I know, you’re absolutely right about that and I think about that a lot. You know, but I wasn’t particularly offered a lot of action movies after MR. & MRS. SMITH, so I just sort of let the river take me where my career went. But now if I had my druthers, I’d do one action movie a year and one drama a year. I don’t think I could get rid of the drama, I love that part as well, but I sure loved doing the action movie.
Moriarty: How was traveling to China?
Maria Bello: It was incredible. I was there ten years ago, and they were in the midst of transition, it was kind of heavy, and this time it was completely different there. There was such hope and vitality and energy there. Because you know, China’s becoming this political and economic world power. And I’m still not a big fan of their politics, like I’m not a big fan of George W. Bush’s politics, but I fell in love with the Chinese people. They were so generous and kind and sophisticated and interesting, and I’m excited to see what happens with China.
Moriarty: The scale of this thing is actually pretty remarkably big...
Maria Bello: Yeah, isn’t it gigantic?
Moriarty: ... and I know you guys worked with Vic Armstrong, the stunt coordinator, on the picture.
Maria Bello: Yeah. He’s so amazing. I was just talking about him last night. You know he’s a star in the stunt community?
Moriarty: Oh, he’s a legend. He’s Indiana Jones, he’s the guy.
Maria Bello: He shot the second unit too, and I think he did an amazing job.
Moriarty: Were there some things that you pushed to do where there was some question of “I don’t know if we can let you do that?”
Maria Bello: You know, I had an amazing trainer and an amazing stunt double, who really let me do as much as I could do. I did wire work, I did guns, most of my fights. I took sword fighting for a couple of months, wu shu sword fighting, and I did maybe 90% of my stunts. And what I couldn’t do, like jumping out of a moving truck, that sort of thing they let somebody else do.
Moriarty: Oh, that looks like it hurts so much, whoever took that fall.
Maria Bello: Yeah, she’s incredible. Her name’s Kareen Lamo, with a k, and she made me look so much cooler than I actually am.
Moriarty: Also you’re doing some things in this movie, like working with the Yetis, say, in that sequence, that’s really not something you’ve done before, the whole special effect... it’s just not your world. I think of you more from movies like THE COOLER and PAYBACK, things like that. It’s kind of a different skill set, playing to the green screen creatures and things.
Maria Bello: It was pretty funny. Rob had such a vision of the movie from the first day, so we went into the art department and he had walls and walls just covered with what everything was gonna look like. So we knew exactly what the Yeti were gonna look like, how tall they were, we knew what Shangri La was gonna look like, the Himalayas. So that really helped the fantasy. But I have to say, we had to do one take ten times or more... when I have to come out and say “The Tibetans call them Yeti.” I would walk out, look at the green ball and start laughing in the middle of my line. It was a bit bizarre.
Moriarty: Now, some of the movies you’ve done, like HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, which I love... I think it’s a fantastic film... working with Cronenberg must have been a real treat.
Maria Bello: Yeah, it was. He’s such a good man, and he’s such a visionary.
Moriarty: And then also THE COOLER, and I guess it’s called NOTHING IS PRIVATE now, or TOWELHEAD?
Maria Bello: TOWELHEAD, yeah.
Moriarty: There’s a word that gets attached to certain actors, which is “brave.” Some people seem to think that means “naked,” but I always think it just means that you’re willing to be honest on film.
Maria Bello: I love that idea. I think you’re right, Drew.
Moriarty: It seems like people make a lot out of these things, but isn’t that one of the things you signed on to do in the first place as an actor? Push yourself and be in challenging material?
Maria Bello: Absolutely, and to be a full person, a full woman, you know. To bring all of my experience, all of the pieces of me, including my wounds and my joy, the dark places, to bring all of that to the screen. I really believe in that saying “To thine own self be true,” and the best thing I can do throughout the years is get to know myself more and more, and bring that to my work, as well as my personal life. And I’m real proud of that. Some people might think that sometimes it’s a little too honest, or a little too out there, but for me it’s just fine.
Moriarty: It seems like it’s hard enough for any actor to create a body of work that they’re pleased with, just because of what you’re offered, and what’s written, especially now that we’re in an age of sort of remaking everything, and making sequels to everything. It seems like it’s hard to find any original work that’s worth digging into, and for a woman I think that’s doubly so.
Maria Bello: I think that’s really changing, with the success of SEX AND THE CITY and with THE WOMEN coming out, and, you know, WANTED... I think it’s really changing, and I’m excited to be a part of that change.
Moriarty: That’s what I was gonna ask you, because you’ve navigated this for a while, and you’ve had to search out those roles. You’ve had to find things of interest to you. Are there things you feel like you’ve turned down because you didn’t feel like you would get something from it, or have you just worked? You know, “When I’m offered work, I take it and I just try to make something of it?”
Maria Bello: No, I’m really picky.
Moriarty: Are you?
Maria Bello: Yeah, I read some scripts, I usually read twenty pages and then put it down and I know whether I like it or not. It has to be something that I’m passionate about, that keeps me interested, or that I feel like I can do something with the role or it’s great people to work with. I’m quite picky like that, even though with the impending strike right now I get a little nervous, since I’m a single working mom. But still I know that I can’t give up myself for money because I’ve never done it, and that’s sort of why I think I’ve had a real nice career.
Moriarty: And you’ve managed to work with guys like Sayles and Schrader and Cronenberg in the process. When guys like that come calling, is it a chance for you to raise your game? Is it like, “Okay, now is when everything that I’ve learned on other films I’ve done, now I really get to come and play?” Are you excited when somebody comes knocking like that? Oliver Stone, for god’s sakes, with WORLD TRADE CENTER.
Maria Bello: [laughs] I know, he’s the best.
Moriarty: And you sort of caught Oliver at a weird moment. That’s a very different Ollie than we’ve seen before.
Maria Bello: Yeah, he’s amazing. We’re still real good pals. I’ve always been a huge fan of his work, but I just enjoyed getting to know his compassion and his humanity, which I think not a lot of people know about him, but it’s viewed in his film WORLD TRADE CENTER, and I was pleased to be a part of it.
Moriarty: One of the earliest fights I got in with a studio here at Ain’t It Cool was PAYBACK. I saw the early cut before the studio started playing with it. And then last year, or I guess two years ago now, the Director’s Cut finally came out.
Maria Bello: Yeah, I loved the first version. Which one did you like?
Moriarty: I’m a big fan of the original. I saw the one that Brian had all temp-tracked, you know, with the Lalo Schifrin ‘70s stuff. I thought it was fantastic. And it’s sort of nice how now in the age of the Director’s Cut, some of these things come back to these pictures.
Maria Bello: Yeah, like with Oliver’s film ALEXANDER. I thought the Director’s Cut was much better than the original film. But yeah, I agree with you, I liked the original PAYBACK. I mean I liked what the studio put out too, but...
Moriarty: ... but it was nice that it finally came out. Anyway, I know you have to run. Thanks, Maria.
Maria Bello: Thank you, Drew. Congratulations and I hope you finally get some sleep. Talk to you later.
Good chat, and thanks to Universal and Maria for making it happen, and to my transcription elf Ribbons for getting the raw transcript ready.
UP NEXT: The Dragon Emperor himself, a guy I’ve wanted to interview since I started at AICN... Jet Freakin’ Li!
Drew McWeeny, Los Angeles
Drew McWeeny, Los Angeles
