Is this picture going to be a very “you’re in the room,” I mean like the opening scene in the cafe, it’s so savage just the way it’s written, is the camera just going to show it the way it is?
It is, but then it’s also like – some of the girls on the set were like going “that is so cool” and it made them feel aggressive because I sing that L7 song “Shitlist,” you know: [Singing] “You made my – Shitlist!” Personally I think it’s stupid for a person to act like that. Some people think though, “Yeah, if I was to beat the s**t out of a person, that’s the way I’d want to do it”, so it’s that kind of a thing.
Well, it’s a fantasy that people can live vicariously through you.
Exactly, and that’s fine.
Do you think that maybe you taking a role like this in a movie like this – despite the fact that it’s an Oliver Stone movie – because it’s this young woman who is a s**t kicker, and who acts on what she feels? She’s not demure, she’s not a victim?
Well, no, I actually play her as very pathetic sometimes. I don’t know if you read the new script but she got abused by her father and all that so there are moments that I wanted to play her multi-layered and I didn’t want to, like, make it that she’s fearless and stuff and it’s because she’s trapped in that age in her mind, I made some scenes very pathetic like the gas station scene. The way it’s written it’s really like lusty…like she’s a seductress, and I made it, like, really pathetic. She asks him, “Do you think I’m beautiful?”
It’s funny that you should point out that scene cause Mallory is really reacting to her jealousy and so she tries to turn the tables on Micky in the most crass way that she can. Is that because she is like a simple person upstairs or that’s just the most direct way she could think of?
We made it like their relationship is like “the thrill is gone,” you know, like that B.B. King song?
Do you notice that when Woody looks at something, his eyes are a little wider than most people’s would be? He’s sort of looking at something beyond what he’s looking at, he’s like looking through you a little bit?
You should tell him that, he’ll like that. (Laughs)
“it’s really like lusty…like she’s a seductress, and I made it, like, really pathetic.”
Well, I was talking to Dale Dye who is probably the most professional guy I’ve ever met –
I love Dale, see I love working with all those guys like [stunt coordinator] Phil Neilson, I had so much fun with them they are so cool.
But Dale was saying Woody’s thing is that he gets that snake-eyed look, for his character. Just before he’s about to kill somebody he gets that reptile look. For your character, is there a certain thing that Mallory will do? Like when a rattlesnake coils to strike, it starts rattling: is there something similar that Mallory does that you have developed for her or is she totally unpredictable?
Totally unpredictable, hopefully, that was what I wanted. You would not know what she was going to do next. She would yell a lot sometimes and then in the scenes like the one that we talked about where it’s the standard girl seducing s**t, I wanted to make it really multi-layered, so no there is no one trait. I mean you might see things that are similar, I mean she yells a lot.
Talking with Oliver, he really typified Mallory as being this animalæ, this pure animal, the way she acts is purely by instinct.
Uh-huh, it’s not premeditated.
We were talking about premeditation and forethought and planning and that’s not her strong suit. But just acting right on whatever her impulse is. You were mentioning that there were some things that you improvised?
It’s the drive-in scene after they get bitten by rattlesnakes and they go to a drive-in and Oliver said just ask about death cause Woody just killed this Indian and we finally kind of feel bad. And it’s kind of the end of the road, too, they are kind of feeling bad, so we just ask questions and I just talk a bunch of s**t, and feel how you feel if you were bitten by a rattlesnake you know totally, and Oliver loved it. Which was so funny cause I said: “Oliver, I’m lying through my teeth”. And that’s what acting is, especially if you are playing characters to an extreme, not everyday people, it’s just you are lying.
Is Mallory a liar?
No, she’s not, I’m saying me – Juliette – playing, acting is a big fat lie. It’s so funny.
