nicole_powers

Evan Rachel Wood has a lot to say about a little role in The Wrestler. She only appears in two scenes in the movie, but they are pivotal. She plays the estranged daughter of Randy "The Ram" Robinson (Mickey Rourke), a professional wrestler who continues to prove hes an unreliable dad as he has flings with strippers and groupies on the road. Off the set, rumors were that Rourke and Wood were having a fling of their own.

After clarifying that situation, among others, during a day of press for the Darren Aronofsky-directed film, Wood relaxed for a tte--tte with SG, kicking her shoes off and curling up on a Four Seasons sofa. Her hair is now bright red, after her raven-haired stint with Marilyn Manson ended. The recently adopted kitten Nicodemus kept her company.

"My aunt calls him a cat in a rabbit suit," Wood said. "It's a Devon Rex. They don't have dander so if you're allergic to cats you can still be around them." Wood, however, is not allergic.

As a child actor, Wood never did the fluffy kiddie movies. Only Practical Magic could pass for cute. The TV series Once and Again was acclaimed for its mature depiction of families of divorce. Her portrayal of an under-bad-influence teenager in Thirteen ensured she got first pick of any edgy indie movie roles. Most recently, she won acclaim singing Beatles songs in Across the Universe, an ambitious musical film set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War.

After The Wrestler, Wood will be playing the role of Mary Jane in the Spider-Man Broadway musical for her Across the Universe director Julie Taymor, who is returning to her theatrical roots. The film Wood shot for Woody Allen, Whatever Works also comes out next year.

Fred Topel: You don't strike me as a WWE fan but I wouldn't want to assume.

Evan Rachel Wood: No, I wasn't but I definitely respect wrestlers a lot more now after seeing the film and knowing that it's based off a lot of real people. There are so many of them that are really like that now. They've just dedicated their whole lives and bodies and minds and everything to it and had to give it all up.

FT: What was it like to come in briefly for these really intense two scenes?

ERW: It's weird at first but everybody just welcomed me with open arms. I'd been in contact with Darren for a while before that, so I was pretty comfortable with him. I was just nervous about Mickey and how our relationship was going to work. But it worked out well, not speaking to each other. Darren and Mickey and I all decided that we were going to keep our distance in between takes and not be in hair and makeup at the same time. I could never see Mickey out of costume or character so he was always The Ram to me.

FT: Do you usually take a literal approach to a performance like that?

ERW: Sometimes. I mean, I did that for Thirteen. I spent a lot of time with Holly [Hunter] and Nikki [Reed] and slept over at the house we filmed at. Holly and I would just talk and brush each other's hair and things like that, so yeah, usually. Or I just try and feel out what the actor's going to be like and want to rehearse a little bit just to see pacing and certain things so Darren must have had a lot of faith in me and Mickey to not rehearse or do anything like that for such huge scenes. I think it was different for everybody on set too because that was towards the end of filming so all they'd been doing is wrestling stuff. Then comes all this emotion so you could feel it on set. You could hear a pin drop. Everybody was pretty into it.

FT: Would you rehearse with Darren reading Randy the Ram's lines?

ERW: Mm mm, no. I never read the lines with anybody actually except Mickey.

FT: Randy doesn't even have the words to have these important conversations with his daughter. What was it like doing those intense scenes when you don't get that feedback from the other character?

ERW: I think that's one of the reasons why she gets even more angry, because she sees how hard he's trying and she wants to help him, and reach out and understand and forgive him, but it's not fair to her. She can't wait around for him to figure it out, so I think she just pushes away with great force.

FT: Is she the most reactive character you've played?

ERW: I think so, and the most adult character. She's got an agenda. She knows what she wants out of her life. She's finally got it together. She's living with somebody. She's in school. She doesn't need this right now and she knows that, and she lets her guard down for a second but she throws it back up. She's not going to take it. She's not a victim and I liked that about her.

FT: Could you relate to Randy's character because you've had some complicated relationships, from dating a rock star, to rumors of even dating Mickey?

ERW: Yeah, it is hard. It's hard when people seem to focus, I know it seems so much bigger in my world, but it's hard when people focus so much on that and attack you so personally when I just want to make movies. So I understand the feeling of giving everything you have and working so hard just to entertain people and not getting anything back or feeling people don't appreciate it. I know that people do. It's just people are human. It's hard hearing that negative stuff sometimes.

FT: In another interview, Mickey acted like a protective father defending your honor against those rumors.

ERW: Yeah, he is. He really is. I think that's why people thought we were dating because we got so close in a family kind of way. That's why we felt comfortable enough to put our arms around each other. We were just buds. Good old Mickey pulled an Adrien Brody on me on the red carpet. I went to kiss his cheek and he turned and kissed me on the lips and 500 cameras go off and my boyfriend gets pissed. It sucks that you have to be so careful about that, and I definitely learned my lesson.

FT: How important is it for you come out and talk about this small but pivotal role in the movie?

ERW: Well, it really means a lot to me and it means a lot to me for Darren and Mickey too. I think they deserve this and they worked so hard on it, for no money, no studio and for the movie to be where it is now. And I'm really proud of what I did in it too. I worked really hard on it so yeah, absolutely. I've been there day one to rah rah for it.

FT: Is your hair red to play Mary Jane on Broadway?

ERW: No, no, I didn't think about that until after I did it. Then it hit me when I was looking at myself in the mirror.

FT: But you'll have to keep it for the show.

ERW: I figured they'd put a wig on me or something.

FT: Have you done stage before or will Spider-Man be your first real onstage experience?

ERW: No, I started off in musical theater and actually, right before I do that, I'm going back to the first theater I worked at which was my dad's. I haven't done a play there since I was little and I'm going back to do Romeo and Juliet, just for fun. So I'll get a warm-up.

FT: Having done rehearsals and workshops already, do you have any sense yet of how big this might be?

ERW: It's going to be huge. It's going to be really huge. All the new technology they're using, the songs, and with a mind like Julie, with something that's already huge. Julie always takes things even bigger than they are so I know it's going to be pretty breathtaking.

FT: How does singing Bono songs compare with singing Beatles songs? [U2s Bono and The Edge wrote songs for the Spider-Man musical.]

ERW: Different. Very different. At least they aren't U2 songs because then there would be just as much pressure, but since they're original songs, it kind of gave us more freedom and I got to work with them closely on it and kind of make them my own. So it's just exciting to be able to be a part of theater history and actually originate a character on Broadway. That's a big deal.

FT: In Whatever Works, how did you find that Woody Allen comedy rhythm?

ERW: Oh, I don't know. I rehearsed a lot with Larry [David] for that and I trusted Larry to tell me when I was funny and when I wasn't. So he really helped me out with that.

FT: And he told you when you weren't being funny?

ERW: No but he told me when I was so that was enough. If I wasn't making him laugh, that was the hint.

FT: What kind of character do you play? Is she one of Woody's great female characters?

ERW: She is. She's so nave that she comes across really dumb because she just doesn't have the experience but she sees the good in everything and she's just a sweetheart. He's like an Ebenezer Scrooge character. He's just bah humbug to everything, hypochondriac, neurotic. It's very classic Woody Allen but it's still different than anything he's done. But that character dynamic, you can't not be funny when I'm married to Larry David. It's just pretty funny.

FT: Five years later, what response are you still getting from Thirteen, especially as you start to look different as you grow up?

ERW: I still get a big response from it and it's great. It doesn't feel like it was that long ago at all because it still is so fresh in people's minds I feel like. I haven't been as proud of the work I did in Thirteen until The Wrestler.

FT: I almost feel bad going back and asking about your older movies, but is that one kind of okay to bring up?

ERW: I don't mind at all, yeah. Yeah, it changed my life. There's been three films that have really changed my life, Thirteen, Across the Universe and this one really were the best ones. And those are the ones that I get complimented on the most.

FT: They must be very different audiences too.

ERW: Yeah, completely. I get really young girls coming up to me for Thirteen and I get families coming up to me for Across the Universe, mothers and daughters. Then I get big burly men coming up to me for The Wrestler.

FT: Do the big burly men say, "Can't you give a guy a break?"

ERW: Some of them do, yeah. Some of them, especially fathers that have daughters that don't talk to them anymore are like, "Why?" But I also get the other end of people that had issues with their parents and it really strikes a chord with them so it works both ways.

FT: Is Whatever Works the last teenage/young adult role you'll play?

ERW: Yeah, and of course my luck, right before I did that I said that I wasn't going to do any more teenagers again and then that came about. But I felt like she was in adult situations. She's not in school and she's married so it seems slightly more adult. And it's a comedy so it was still going to be something different.

FT: So what then are you looking for these days?

ERW: Well, I wanted to do theater. I wanted to do what I'm about to do, just take a break from filming for a while and just do something for me and something fun and with people that I love. Julie's like a mother to me and going back into her world is going to be really fun because she creates a different world for you when you work for her. Same thing in Across the Universe. But Across the Universe was eight months and this is going to be a year so it's not too much longer.

FT: Is it a different process for you when you can do the whole story in one night, one run?

ERW: Yeah. I'm sure. I haven't done it in so long, I'm curious to see how it's going to be but I can't wait for that immediate reaction from the audience again. Having to play to the back row and being able to sing every night, I just can't wait.