Geena Davis
Charly is an exceptional part and really the most difficult that I've had. There were the physical challenges of the stunt work along with the creative challenges of a character with a big arc. It's the most fun for an actor if you can change as much as possible during the movie. I don't know how you would top this. How could you have a character change more than this character? To be a school teacher/assassin is about as unique as you can get.
It's not that there's two completely different sides to the character, but they keep messing with each other. Like Samantha is in charge but Charly keeps trying to come out. Finally Charly takes over, but the mom decides that she has to come back. They're really at war with each other. It was terrifically fun to chart that out. We shoot movies completely out of sequence so I had to keep track of the character's changes all the time.
Women will like this film. The demographics of action movie audiences have been evolving and changing and women comprise a large section of the audience now. From the response to movies like Thelma and Louise and from the response so far to this movie, women that've seen it come out feeling jazzed. They come out saying, "Wow, that's cool. She really kicked ass."
Stunt work is great. Charly has so many skills and is such an expert in so many ways that I had to have very extensive training for the movie. It was terrific.
I felt like I was in school or something for a long time -- eight months before the movie started. I trained -- I spent virtually every day going from the gym in the morning, to the skating rink, to the tae kwon do studio and then I'd go to the shooting range. I had top expert teachers in all those areas. It was as much fun as shooting the movie.
Working with Sam Jackson was a dream. He's the greatest guy on the planet-- oh -- Renny excepted. I'm so in awe of him and was before I ever met him. He's a fantastic actor, full of life and spark and humor.
Working with Renny, we become utterly obsessed by work and we just live it 24 hours a day. We loved this script so much that we couldn't stop talking about it. We definitely bring it home with us.
When we shot the seduction scene with Sam Jackson -- Renny was like five feet away going, "More." It was really a goofy day. It was really funny; partly because Sam is so funny and he's not supposed to be responding and not wanting this to happen. Every time I looked at his face I started laughing. Then there's the camera right there and Renny saying, "All right now, nibble his ear." God, my life is weird.
When I tossed my daughter out the side of the house, it was great. She had a little harness on and a little wire and I just flung her out there.
Renny's Finnish. He doesn't realize how cold it is. He's like at home there and he doesn't realize that for other people it's considered a hardship. He keeps going back to the snow. In the drowning sequence, where they have me down to my underwear, it's part of the characters' sadism -- they wanted me to be as cold as possible. But I don't think Renny realized just how cold it was.
Charly or Samantha? Well, when somebody gets to be as cool as Charly and wear the great clothes, it's pretty appealing. It was fun to play both characters, but I would say it's a little more fun to be Charly.
Interviews with: Samuel L. Jackson | Renny Harlin | Shane Black