Hey everyone. Capone in San Digeo here, with the first of a trio of interviews on the 2009 release PUSH from director Paul McGuigan. The first talk is with the lovely Camilla Belle, who many of you capped on for her slightly overly made-up performance in the recent 10,000 B.C. I first remember seeing her opposite Daniel Day Lewis in THE BALLAD OF JACK AND ROSE, and later in CHUMSCRUBBER; THE LOST WORLD: JURASSIC PARK; WHEN A STRANGER CALLS; and THE QUIET. In PUSH, she plays a young woman with the psychic ability to place memories in other's minds. For some, this ability means that you could convince someone that they owe you money; for others, it's a means to make someone take their own life. Camilla's character is being pursued by the government for experiments, and she's doing everything in her power to avoid having that happen. I think that's all you need to know going into this interview other than, Camilla Belle is stunning to look upon. Enjoy…
Camilla Belle: I haven't really gotten to go around yet.
Capone: Are you going to try to stick around and check out the downstairs exhibit hall?
CB: I really want to walk around. [laughs]
Capone: Don't be afraid to throw a few elbows if someone is in your way.
CB: Right, okay. I got good training in Hong Kong, so I'm ready.
Capone: Obviously, it's still early in the process as far as promoting PUSH, so I'll admit I don't know much more about it other than what I saw during the panel. The idea of these younger people who just want to be left alone kind of goes against the grain of most superhero films. They aren't heroes; they use their powers when they need to survive. I like that you can draw the parallel between these kids and any young person who has a gift--a music protege or gifted athlete who doesn't really want to do the thing they're good at.
CB: I think with my character, through some quirk, she's the only survivor of the experimental drug program that has literally killed everyone else who was injected. She ends up being the only person who lives, which is a bit frightening for her character. She doesn't know what's going on or why people are after her. At the same time she's really, really powerful. Even she doesn't know how powerful she is, which taps into the fact that she's one of the most powerful people in the movie, but she doesn't use this power to its utmost ability, mainly because she's unaware of it. That's what great about Chris Evans' character in the movie is that he has so many faults, and in the beginning, he's not even that good at using them because he never uses them. And Dakota's character, her powers work really well. It's definitely not a straight-out superhero movie where everything works great, everyone is powerful automatically. The all have issues, which makes it more human, I think.
Capone: It's interesting that there's this evil counterpoint to your character in particular in Djimon Hounsou. He's the one who's chasing you all. That's an interesting dichotomy of the good and the bad with the same power. The temptation for your character is going over to this darker side.
CB: That's what's so fun about playing her is that you really don't know what side she's on the entire movie. She's quite mysterious. Sometimes she's more on one side, sometimes she's more on the other side. She really keeps you guessing, and I think that's going to be really fun for the audience, you're constantly trying to figure her out and you never really can. It was fun for me as an actor too, to play with that. It wasn't straight forward, I could really play around with the character.
Capone: You've done a bit of genre stuff in the past, but nothing quite like this. I I remember first seeing you in something like JACK AND ROSE and other heavily drama. What tempted you about doing genre work?
CB: I don't know. [laughs] For me it was all about trying different movies and attempting different characters. Each one presents some challenge, and all of the films I've done have been really, really challenging. For 10,000 B.C., I was working for six months and working with special effects and rolling around. It was this huge thing. And then with something like this, it is something of a big movie, but at the same time, it really is about the characters. It kind of plays with both genres, both levels of movies. And Paul tried to keep it quite real because he's not even used to making big action movies, so he really wanted to tone it down. But I just did a Brazilian movie that's an independent, small movie in the spring, which is called ADRIFT with a Brazilian director and a really small cast, and it's tapping back into I was doing in the beginning. For me, I'd like to be able to mix both. And you have fans of movies like PUSH, and you have fans of movies like BALLAD.
Capone: You brought up 10,000 B.C. came out, you got a lot of grief thrown at that film for the way the filmmakers dressed you and the fact that you looked way too put together for someone living in that period. I think some of those people missed the point that the film wasn't exactly trying to be realistic or historically accurate.
CB: It's a fantasy. That's what we were always joking about: it's not a documentary; it's a Warner Bros. movie. What do you want? I don't think anyone wants to see gunky people on screen. They don't want to see ugly black teeth on screen or people with dirt on their face. It's not QUEST FOR FIRE or APOCALYPTO. It's more of a fantasy take on that era, and Roland wasn't trying to make anything that was set in stone or historically accurate. He was trying to make a fun movie; I think some people missed the point.
Capone: In PUSH, there are all of these different nicknames for the kids based on their abilities--pusher, movers, watchers--is there a hierarchy among these people?
CB: I think there is in a way, but at the same time they're all trying to work with each other. I think Pushers are considered the most dangerous ones because they can make you do anything. You can make a guy kill himself, and everyone is aware of that, and that's why everyone is so scared of Djimon's character and mine as well.
Capone: Can you give me an example of something that your character does with her abilities?
CB: The same character that Djimon makes kill himself, she makes him believe that his best friend killed his brother. Things like that can be so powerful as they develop their powers, which they both do. It's sort of fun playing someone so dangerous.
Capone: PUSH sounds like a lower-key version of X-MEN. Most of these kids have also probably been ostracized at some point in their life. Is there a degree of loneliness with these characters that makes their coming together in Tokyo more of a bond?
CB: It definitely is between Dakota and Chris's characters, they bond over that. My character has a more complicated relationship with Chris' character since were love interests before they see each other again in Hong Kong. So those past complications get thrown into triangle between those three characters. They all feel differently about each other, but they also have this bond because everyone is on the run from Djimon.
Capone: What did you think of Hong Kong, and spending that much time there?
CB: It was fascinating. I had never been to Asia before, so I was really looking forward to being there. I've always been really fascinated by Asian culture to begin with. But it was sometimes a really hard place to be, because I'm from L.A., and everything is so laid back there and you don't see people for miles. But in Hong Kong…people think New York is crazy but it has nothing on Hong Kong. It's mad. There are so many people and so many things going on. It's so chaotic with the markets. I went out there a bit early just to spend time and try to feel what my character would feel being there. All these characters get lost in Hong Kong, but it was hard living their for all those months. But it made it all seem more real, living there for a few months. It was difficult, but I think it helped us bond as people and also really tapped into our characters.
Capone: Alright. Thanks for talking with us.
CB: Absolutely. It was great meeting you. Thanks.
-Capone
capone@aintitcoolmail.com
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