Rhona Mitra isn't known for playing it safe -- hence her decision to dial up SuicideGirls earlier this week while blazing through L.A. traffic with an ornery bulldog bouncing around in her back seat. Luckily, there were no fatalities and we were able to discuss the particulars of her latest action opus, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, which drops in theaters today. A 32 year-old Anglo-Indian stunner, with a voice like erotic asphalt, Mitra first came to our attention as Alan Shore's mind-fuck buddy in the final season of The Practice. Her character, Tara Wilson, then moved on alongside Shore (played by James Spader) to form the early nucleus of David E. Kelley's follow-up legal drama, Boston Legal.
After a brief stint steaming things up on Nip/Tuck, Mitra came screeching onto Hollywood's radar last year with a memorable turn in Doomsday, a nasty little neckbreaker of a movie with a distinct John Carpenter vibe that had genre fans standing up and cheering -- and begging for more of Mitra. This week they're getting it, as she takes up the sword previously wielded by Kate Beckinsale in a big-budget Underworld prequel set in the twelfth century that explores the origins of the feud between the aristocratic vampire clan known as the Death Dealers and those beastly, low-born Lycans who come howling at their door.
Ryan Stewart: Isn't it considered dangerous to talk on a cell phone while driving around?
Rhona Mitra: I've got you on the speaker phone. Anyway, I believe you had a time issue, so...
RS: I'm just kidding, it's fine.
RM: By the way, if you hear snorting in the background, that's my bulldog in the back of my car and I apologize. [to the dog] Oh, get down! [back to me] Excuse me, so sorry. That's my little monster in the back.
RS: No problem. I was doing a little research before you called and the internet seems to think you're on Christopher Nolan's list to play Catwoman.
RM: Ah yes, I've heard that!
RS: Did you start that rumor?
RM: No, I didn't start it, but it's a fantastic rumor. It would be interesting if I was that calculating, wouldn't it? I would have done something like that a long time ago and I can think of a million others I could have conjured up! I'm not quite sure I would start with this one.
RS: You should have your agent go around starting them up, see what happens.
RM: [laughs] I don't have people like that in my life. You might be looking more to a different type of personality who would do something like that, but not me.
RS: I looked at some footage of the new Underworld -- it seems to be drawing a sort of allegory of interracial love, or at least a 'two different worlds' kind of love story.
RM: Yeah, it's exactly that. It's about crossing those boundaries and dealing with the prejudice. It's pretty poignant, given where we're at in today's world. I think there's a sort of Romeo and Juliet parallel that can be drawn. The fact that it's set in the twelfth century and it's a vampire and a werewolf [which] could be just metaphorical, I suppose. It's not really so fantastical and far-removed in its premise. There's also a social comparison as well, as far as the class system and that hierarchy -- there's a focus on that, with the revolt of the werewolves, the lycans, against the vampire world. You could liken it, I suppose, to Spartacus, with the slaves going up against the Roman empire.
RS: As far as you know, can vampires and werewolves actually procreate?
RM: [laughs] Yes, they can! I mean, we haven't seen the outcome yet, but they definitely give it a go.
RS: By the way, I'm tempted to throw some Skinwalkers questions your way, since that was your first werewolf movie. You're becoming an expert in the field.
RM: No, Skinwalkers was one of those jobs that I literally had to do at the time because I needed a job. I've kind of forgotten that Skinwalkers even existed. And they're such different creatures, the actual movies themselves. Do you know I had completely forgotten that I even did Skinwalkers?
RS: Really? I haven't, it's on TV a lot.
RM: No, it's just more that it's something that didn't really permeate me in any way, my system. It didn't stay with me.
RS: What did you bring of yourself to Underworld ? Did you get involved with any aspects of production other than just the acting?
RM: Yeah, the costuming. I was very aware of how iconic the first costume was -- it became so much about that costume. I mean, people still talk about it and I wanted there to be some level of similarity only in the connection that Bill Nighy's character makes in the first Underworld. A lot of the reason behind his fondness for and his connection to the Selene character, as he says, is borne out of a reminder and a familiarity between Sonja and Selene. [The dog starts making trouble again] Sorry, I'm distracted because I'm driving! So, yeah, that's a resonance that really needed to be there and the costume designer, who is a lady called Wendy Partridge who did the Selene costume, she came back and we sat down with Len Wiseman, actually. It was Len Wiseman, Patrick [Tatopoulus] and I and Wendy, we all sat down a few weeks before we went into production.
RS: That's cool, that they wanted you to pitch in with pre-production.
RM: Yeah, this was all around Christmas time and we did drawing after drawing after drawing. It was very important to make this costume feel real, I suppose, because we didn't have any of the latex or the PVC that they had to make Kate's outfit out of because of the time that it was set in. So, we put together lambskin and this very fine, delicate chainmail. The corset is the common link between the two costumes and then there's this wonderful armor, because she's a warrior, she's a Death Dealer. She charges out on her horse and kills wolves in the midst of the night and I think we really wanted to make sure that she looked like that. I wanted to make sure she looked like she was the capable "son" that Viktor never had, I suppose, because that's what she ends up being. She's more like the son that he never had, rather than a daughter. It was important to me that we didn't go the Xena: Warrior Princess route, which could have very easily happened.
RS: Are you strong enough to wield a real sword?
RM: No, they gave me a little girl's one. [laughs] And by the way, they are not light, I'll have you know! No, there were some times that I used a real sword. There are different ones, there are ones that they have you practice with, which are just featherweight, and then they have an intermediate one which meant that I could swing it around my head and make it look effortless, but then the real ones are incredibly heavy. Have you ever held a real sword?
RS: Nope.
RM: Oh yeah, they are very, very heavy things. When we ended up clashing them together, those pretend ones would actually break, so they weren't much good. They were just holding us up, so I'd end up getting a regular one and making it work.
RS: Are you an actor who's willing to play hurt? I guess that's required of action stars to an extent, right?
RM: You know, I've been very fortunate in that I don't get hurt that much. The stuntmen are so fastidious, usually, and when you rehearse as much as I've rehearsed -- we all did -- for things like the fight sequences, people shouldn't get hurt and I haven't. I make sure that whatever it is we're going to be doing, we do it again and again until it's a very finely tuned dance more than anything else. There's such little room for error when you do things again and again. I think maybe on some productions where they don't pay such attention to the choreography and the stunt work people do end up getting hurt, but I've been quite fortunate in that I've worked with great stuntmen who make sure that safety is their number one priority. There may have been a little grating here and there, but that was usually due to costuming, I have to say, more than anything else. Any discomfort I ever felt was the grating of chain mail against my skin, but that's about it. I'm not a baby, you know? I have two brothers that did, and still do, rough me up on a pretty permanent basis, so I'm not about to run off to the corner and cry.
RS: I've heard that Kate Beckinsale might come back for the fourth film, and that this film is just a detour from her storyline. Do you consider it your franchise now?
RM: If it's anybody's franchise, I would imagine that it's gonna be Michael Sheen's. This is just a one-off thing for me.
RS: Speaking of leading men, you're dong something next with the guy from Mad Men, right? I love that show.
RM: Yeah, I've got a film coming out called Boy in a Box with Jon Hamm, also Josh Lucas. I also just completed a film called The Truth About Men with an Australian actor called Joel Edgerton who was in Kinky Boots and Ned Kelly.
RS: You worked with one of the legends of the action genre, Paul Verhoeven, but it was at the very beginning of your career so the role was tiny. Sort of a missed opportunity?
RM: What's Paul done since then? Black Book? No, I was a baby then. It was the first job I did when I came here. I don't call it a missed opportunity, I don't think. If anything, I feel that my relationship with that film was very much a kind of foot-in-the-door thing, and I wouldn't repeat that particular adventure again if it came my way, but it was really what brought me to the States and then I was offered the role in Party of Five. So, I'd consider it to have been a transitional project, but not a missed opportunity.
RS: You're not going to quit doing action before you get your signature role, your Ellen Ripley, right?
RM: Well, I'd never dream of saying that I'd ever step into that particular outfit. Sigourney Weaver as Ripley is so iconic. Now, is there a possibility that I could do more action and would like to do more action? I love and have loved these experiences I've had. I like the hard work and I like going to bed feeling a bit bruised and roughed up and feeling very fulfilled at the end of my day. As long as I still get to do a little bit of both and I don't end up becoming pigeon-holed...I think choice equals ultimate freedom and the reason why most of us do what we do is to have the freedom to wear as many different hats as possible and explore as many different facets of our psyches and our physicality and all of those things. However that is expressed, whether it's through the action genre or anything else, I'd absolutely love to continue doing it. It's probably a possibility for as long as I'm capable.
RS: I'm sure that the longer you stick with the action genre, the more of a fan you'll become as a moviegoer.
RM: Well, with genre movies there's a big difference between watching them and taking part in them, isn't there? For me personally, it all depends. I'm a big fan of Christopher Nolan's and I enjoy the Batman movies, as of Nolan's involvement in them. As a viewer, I really take it movie to movie. I'm not necessarily a massive, rabid fan of the genre. It seems to be drawn to me, or has been with the last couple of movies that I've taken part in. But also, in the meantime I've also done smatterings of television work which have involved, you know, combat more in words than anything else. I'm a man for hire. I take whatever comes across my table and look at it and weigh up the experience more than anything else, really. I try to figure out whether I'm going to have an enjoyable time, because at the end of the day you're talking about giving over between three to seven months of your life. I personally really enjoy what's involved with the genre, the physical aspect of it and the mythological aspect and the psychological aspect as well.
RS: It keeps your imagination stimulated, keeps you sharp?
RM: It gets you thinking outside of your box -- me, personally, this is -- it takes me outside of my world. There's a level of escapism which is something I really, really enjoy. Actually, I find it necessary. I find it to be a necessary component in my life and it enables me to exist in the world as it is today. Otherwise, I find it can all get to be a little too much, a little bit too serious.
Underworld: Rise of the Lycans opens in theaters everywhere today.
After a brief stint steaming things up on Nip/Tuck, Mitra came screeching onto Hollywood's radar last year with a memorable turn in Doomsday, a nasty little neckbreaker of a movie with a distinct John Carpenter vibe that had genre fans standing up and cheering -- and begging for more of Mitra. This week they're getting it, as she takes up the sword previously wielded by Kate Beckinsale in a big-budget Underworld prequel set in the twelfth century that explores the origins of the feud between the aristocratic vampire clan known as the Death Dealers and those beastly, low-born Lycans who come howling at their door.
Ryan Stewart: Isn't it considered dangerous to talk on a cell phone while driving around?
Rhona Mitra: I've got you on the speaker phone. Anyway, I believe you had a time issue, so...
RS: I'm just kidding, it's fine.
RM: By the way, if you hear snorting in the background, that's my bulldog in the back of my car and I apologize. [to the dog] Oh, get down! [back to me] Excuse me, so sorry. That's my little monster in the back.
RS: No problem. I was doing a little research before you called and the internet seems to think you're on Christopher Nolan's list to play Catwoman.
RM: Ah yes, I've heard that!
RS: Did you start that rumor?
RM: No, I didn't start it, but it's a fantastic rumor. It would be interesting if I was that calculating, wouldn't it? I would have done something like that a long time ago and I can think of a million others I could have conjured up! I'm not quite sure I would start with this one.
RS: You should have your agent go around starting them up, see what happens.
RM: [laughs] I don't have people like that in my life. You might be looking more to a different type of personality who would do something like that, but not me.
RS: I looked at some footage of the new Underworld -- it seems to be drawing a sort of allegory of interracial love, or at least a 'two different worlds' kind of love story.
RM: Yeah, it's exactly that. It's about crossing those boundaries and dealing with the prejudice. It's pretty poignant, given where we're at in today's world. I think there's a sort of Romeo and Juliet parallel that can be drawn. The fact that it's set in the twelfth century and it's a vampire and a werewolf [which] could be just metaphorical, I suppose. It's not really so fantastical and far-removed in its premise. There's also a social comparison as well, as far as the class system and that hierarchy -- there's a focus on that, with the revolt of the werewolves, the lycans, against the vampire world. You could liken it, I suppose, to Spartacus, with the slaves going up against the Roman empire.
RS: As far as you know, can vampires and werewolves actually procreate?
RM: [laughs] Yes, they can! I mean, we haven't seen the outcome yet, but they definitely give it a go.
RS: By the way, I'm tempted to throw some Skinwalkers questions your way, since that was your first werewolf movie. You're becoming an expert in the field.
RM: No, Skinwalkers was one of those jobs that I literally had to do at the time because I needed a job. I've kind of forgotten that Skinwalkers even existed. And they're such different creatures, the actual movies themselves. Do you know I had completely forgotten that I even did Skinwalkers?
RS: Really? I haven't, it's on TV a lot.
RM: No, it's just more that it's something that didn't really permeate me in any way, my system. It didn't stay with me.
RS: What did you bring of yourself to Underworld ? Did you get involved with any aspects of production other than just the acting?
RM: Yeah, the costuming. I was very aware of how iconic the first costume was -- it became so much about that costume. I mean, people still talk about it and I wanted there to be some level of similarity only in the connection that Bill Nighy's character makes in the first Underworld. A lot of the reason behind his fondness for and his connection to the Selene character, as he says, is borne out of a reminder and a familiarity between Sonja and Selene. [The dog starts making trouble again] Sorry, I'm distracted because I'm driving! So, yeah, that's a resonance that really needed to be there and the costume designer, who is a lady called Wendy Partridge who did the Selene costume, she came back and we sat down with Len Wiseman, actually. It was Len Wiseman, Patrick [Tatopoulus] and I and Wendy, we all sat down a few weeks before we went into production.
RS: That's cool, that they wanted you to pitch in with pre-production.
RM: Yeah, this was all around Christmas time and we did drawing after drawing after drawing. It was very important to make this costume feel real, I suppose, because we didn't have any of the latex or the PVC that they had to make Kate's outfit out of because of the time that it was set in. So, we put together lambskin and this very fine, delicate chainmail. The corset is the common link between the two costumes and then there's this wonderful armor, because she's a warrior, she's a Death Dealer. She charges out on her horse and kills wolves in the midst of the night and I think we really wanted to make sure that she looked like that. I wanted to make sure she looked like she was the capable "son" that Viktor never had, I suppose, because that's what she ends up being. She's more like the son that he never had, rather than a daughter. It was important to me that we didn't go the Xena: Warrior Princess route, which could have very easily happened.
RS: Are you strong enough to wield a real sword?
RM: No, they gave me a little girl's one. [laughs] And by the way, they are not light, I'll have you know! No, there were some times that I used a real sword. There are different ones, there are ones that they have you practice with, which are just featherweight, and then they have an intermediate one which meant that I could swing it around my head and make it look effortless, but then the real ones are incredibly heavy. Have you ever held a real sword?
RS: Nope.
RM: Oh yeah, they are very, very heavy things. When we ended up clashing them together, those pretend ones would actually break, so they weren't much good. They were just holding us up, so I'd end up getting a regular one and making it work.
RS: Are you an actor who's willing to play hurt? I guess that's required of action stars to an extent, right?
RM: You know, I've been very fortunate in that I don't get hurt that much. The stuntmen are so fastidious, usually, and when you rehearse as much as I've rehearsed -- we all did -- for things like the fight sequences, people shouldn't get hurt and I haven't. I make sure that whatever it is we're going to be doing, we do it again and again until it's a very finely tuned dance more than anything else. There's such little room for error when you do things again and again. I think maybe on some productions where they don't pay such attention to the choreography and the stunt work people do end up getting hurt, but I've been quite fortunate in that I've worked with great stuntmen who make sure that safety is their number one priority. There may have been a little grating here and there, but that was usually due to costuming, I have to say, more than anything else. Any discomfort I ever felt was the grating of chain mail against my skin, but that's about it. I'm not a baby, you know? I have two brothers that did, and still do, rough me up on a pretty permanent basis, so I'm not about to run off to the corner and cry.
RS: I've heard that Kate Beckinsale might come back for the fourth film, and that this film is just a detour from her storyline. Do you consider it your franchise now?
RM: If it's anybody's franchise, I would imagine that it's gonna be Michael Sheen's. This is just a one-off thing for me.
RS: Speaking of leading men, you're dong something next with the guy from Mad Men, right? I love that show.
RM: Yeah, I've got a film coming out called Boy in a Box with Jon Hamm, also Josh Lucas. I also just completed a film called The Truth About Men with an Australian actor called Joel Edgerton who was in Kinky Boots and Ned Kelly.
RS: You worked with one of the legends of the action genre, Paul Verhoeven, but it was at the very beginning of your career so the role was tiny. Sort of a missed opportunity?
RM: What's Paul done since then? Black Book? No, I was a baby then. It was the first job I did when I came here. I don't call it a missed opportunity, I don't think. If anything, I feel that my relationship with that film was very much a kind of foot-in-the-door thing, and I wouldn't repeat that particular adventure again if it came my way, but it was really what brought me to the States and then I was offered the role in Party of Five. So, I'd consider it to have been a transitional project, but not a missed opportunity.
RS: You're not going to quit doing action before you get your signature role, your Ellen Ripley, right?
RM: Well, I'd never dream of saying that I'd ever step into that particular outfit. Sigourney Weaver as Ripley is so iconic. Now, is there a possibility that I could do more action and would like to do more action? I love and have loved these experiences I've had. I like the hard work and I like going to bed feeling a bit bruised and roughed up and feeling very fulfilled at the end of my day. As long as I still get to do a little bit of both and I don't end up becoming pigeon-holed...I think choice equals ultimate freedom and the reason why most of us do what we do is to have the freedom to wear as many different hats as possible and explore as many different facets of our psyches and our physicality and all of those things. However that is expressed, whether it's through the action genre or anything else, I'd absolutely love to continue doing it. It's probably a possibility for as long as I'm capable.
RS: I'm sure that the longer you stick with the action genre, the more of a fan you'll become as a moviegoer.
RM: Well, with genre movies there's a big difference between watching them and taking part in them, isn't there? For me personally, it all depends. I'm a big fan of Christopher Nolan's and I enjoy the Batman movies, as of Nolan's involvement in them. As a viewer, I really take it movie to movie. I'm not necessarily a massive, rabid fan of the genre. It seems to be drawn to me, or has been with the last couple of movies that I've taken part in. But also, in the meantime I've also done smatterings of television work which have involved, you know, combat more in words than anything else. I'm a man for hire. I take whatever comes across my table and look at it and weigh up the experience more than anything else, really. I try to figure out whether I'm going to have an enjoyable time, because at the end of the day you're talking about giving over between three to seven months of your life. I personally really enjoy what's involved with the genre, the physical aspect of it and the mythological aspect and the psychological aspect as well.
RS: It keeps your imagination stimulated, keeps you sharp?
RM: It gets you thinking outside of your box -- me, personally, this is -- it takes me outside of my world. There's a level of escapism which is something I really, really enjoy. Actually, I find it necessary. I find it to be a necessary component in my life and it enables me to exist in the world as it is today. Otherwise, I find it can all get to be a little too much, a little bit too serious.
Underworld: Rise of the Lycans opens in theaters everywhere today.
VIEW 3 of 3 COMMENTS
jodymark:
She is a real foxy...bad-ass in Doomsday...
paulnikon:
One hot broad.