| How did you prepare for a high-tech movie
like Swordfish?
I kept going to the gym. [Laughs] All
the computer dialogue, I could never take enough classes to understand
what all that stuff is. I didn't really care to, either. A lot of
this was just studying the script and finding what I wanted to do
with Ginger. She was the classic femme fatale. I didn't think she'd
be likable at first, so my challenge was to make a sexy girl as
human … as I possibly could.
And as a consequence, you revealed some
of your own sexuality.
Yeah, I did. I've never explored that
part of myself on-screen before. For so many years, I've said no,
no, no [to nudity]. A lot of it was not being comfortable with myself
and being afraid and wondering what people would think. Finally,
over the past couple of years I've sort of shed myself of all those
worries and that did me good.
Are you referring to Introducing Dorothy
Dandridge?
That helped a lot, because I finally
got some critical acceptance. I had this monkey on my back for so
many years, to prove that I was more than a model and I could really
act. So that freed me up to try things. I always had this burning
desire to prove something.
What about the half million dollars to go
topless in Swordfish?
Totally not true! I would sell these
babies for way much more money than that. But it's made for great
publicity for the movie.
Where did that story start, then?
I have no idea where that came from;
nobody's owning up to it. But totally, totally not true.
Was it a freeing experience, pardon the
pun, to bare your breasts on camera?
Not just that. To me it was more than
that. It was playing a character who was that in control of her
sexuality, that comfortable with herself. That was the challenge
— that and to not sit there looking half scared to death,
which is what I felt inside.
Was it really necessary?
I don't think nudity is ever necessary.
I think you can make every single movie and never show anything
and it's fine. It was a bold choice on our part. It was written
in the script, and when I got offered the part I was told that's
who this girl is and it's not negotiable to be taken out. So any
actress, whether it be me or someone else, had to play the part
as she was written. So I did. It's a choice that one makes.
Would you do it again?
Oh, absolutely, I will do it again if
the part inspires me or calls for it.
Are you surprised we're having a discussion
about this?
Nope. I knew it would happen; I expected
it and you have not let me down. [Laughs]
How did you feel on the day of that scene?
The hardest part was three months before,
deciding to do it. When the day came, it was very anticlimactic.
Hugh was more uncomfortable than I was, because I see these all
the time. He was like, "Oh my God! There she is."
It's a striking example of the power women
have.
That's what I thought. I hope women would
feel that way because that's our power and not feel exploited. If
we learn to use that power, we have the world right here. Should guys be expected to expose more in
movies?
I think some men have made bold choices
and I think more men in the coming generation will.
The interracial romance in Swordfish
isn't even an issue.
That was what was really exciting and
made me get over the nudity really quickly, because I saw this as
an opportunity to take a black woman to another place where we haven't
gone before. That's been my struggle, to be just a woman in a movie
and not let the fact that I'm black hinder me from getting parts
that my counterparts are able to play. This was a big step in that
direction.
Is Hollywood less colorblind now?
I think it's less but it's still struggling.
The more there are little steps like this, eventually they will
realize it that it is OK, that we can just be people. Color doesn't
have to matter all the time. In some stories it does have to matter,
but there are so many stories where it doesn't.
|
