Mona Lisa Smile interview
Julia et al...

Mona Lisa Smile interview Julia Roberts plays an inspirational art history teacher in Mona Lisa Smile, a kind of all-girl Dead Poets Society set in 1953. Starring Spider-Man's Kirsten Dunst, Julia Stiles from Save the Last Dance and Maggie Gyllenhaal, last seen in cult hit Secretary. Virgin.net quizzed them all...

VN: Tell us something about Katherine Watson, your character in Mona Lisa Smile.
Julia Roberts: "I think her ideas are very ahead of their time, in that she isn't married. So of course her students think she's a spinster because she's over 30 and not married! So we have all these interesting concepts about what the philosophy of success and the philosophy of contentment was in 1953."
VN: What was it like working with the actresses playing your students?
Julia Roberts: "Incredible. There are five student characters and I think they're all really well-defined, really interesting and performed beautifully by the girls. Marcia Gay Harden plays another faculty member and she's extraordinary - she's seemingly the reverse of Katherine and her ideals."
VN: How much did you research the period in which the film is set?
Julia Roberts: "Until I started doing my research and reading some books and watching some documentaries and stuff, I didn't realise how this moment really paved the way for so much. And yet, we're kind of trapped because this is just before the feminine mystique and all that kind of stuff, so we can't be too clever. This is the cusp really, I think, of that revolution of the woman's voice."
VN: Kirsten, tell us about Betty Warren, the character you play in Mona Lisa Smile.
Kirsten Dunst: "I'm very narrow-minded and I don't question anything, and this is the way it's supposed to be. And I think everything's going to be perfect once that bubble is filled. Everybody has certain things in their mindset when they grow up, and to be faced with new things is a lesson that we all learn."
VN: What was it like working with Julia and the rest of the girls?
KD: "There's definitely an ease with working with women your own age, and I really admire all the girls I'm working with. I love that they're girls my age who I'm working with who love it as much as I do."
VN: How did you find working with British director Mike Newell?
Kirsten Dunst: "He's so good. And he talks to everybody in the room all the time. Like when we're doing big scenes with lots of extras and everything, he makes sure that everybody understands what's going on. He's a smart man."
VN: Julia, how would you describe Joan Brandwyn, the girl you play in Mona Lisa Smile?
Julia Stiles: "She's set on this track of getting married to the boyfriend she's in love with and raising a family; that's always what she's expected to do with her life. And in the back of her mind, there is that possibility, and that sort of dream of going to law school, which Katherine cultivates."
VN: What's it been like to act with Julia Roberts?
Julia Stiles: "She's so generous, and I'm floored at how good an actress she is. I've been watching her very closely, take after take, and she does everything with a new slant so everything is fresh. It seems like she's doing it for the first time, which is really hard when you're doing the same scene over and over again."
VN: How did you get on with the rest of the girls?
Julia Stiles: "I had so much fun with the other girls, we got along great. And then you have these other actresses who are so accomplished, like Marcia Gay Harden - she was hysterical."
VN: Maggie, tell us about Giselle Levy, your character in Mona Lisa Smile.
Maggie Gyllenhaal: "That was what attracted me to it, the character I play. I feel like she's dealing with things that are current and that a lot of women my age are dealing with."
VN: Giselle feels a special bond to Julia's character...
Maggie Gyllenhaal: "I, more than any of the other students, am immediately moved by her. I see something in her that's different than anything I've found, and so there's a kind of fascination. I don't think she really lets me down."
VN: How was Julia Roberts to work with?
Maggie Gyllenhaal: "The camera was on her and she had a little speech to give. I watched her just sort of click on and there was actual life behind her eyes, and it was very focused, very strong. I think that's what her appeal is: she's a focused, clear, strong woman."

By Neil Smith

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