An Interview with
Jessica Biel
After being seen on
television for years on the family-oriented and WB’s number
one rated show, 7th Heaven, Jessica Biel left the show recently
to pursue more roles on film. Recently seen in the edgy film,
The Rules of Attraction, Jessica’s next film will have fans
giving her kudos for being in the remake of one of the scariest
films ever made, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Not only is she
the centerpiece in the film, she has to have the audience believe
in her fear for survival. Recently I got a chance to sit and meet
Jessica Biel while in NYC promoting her upcoming horror film The
Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Jessica speaks about her role as Erin
in this film as well as her next role opposite Wesley Snipes in
Blade: Trinity.
 What
was the attraction to this film?
Jessica: The
script. I really liked the script. I loved meeting with Marcus.
After I met with Marcus, he just had such a different idea of
what this could be and what he wanted it to be. I just didn't
expect it. Didn't expect what he was going to say. That was a
big attraction for me.
Had you seen the original?
Jessica: I think
when I was younger, pieces of it. I didn't really remember it.
But I saw it before we shot.
Did you have any makeup at all?
Jessica: Not
much. We started the day usually- - of course we had foundation
and stuff like that but I wore chapstick, I wore a tinted chapstick,
and mascara and by lunch it just was all gone.
Was that real sweat
or did they spray you?
Jessica: It was
both. They did spray but we were all so sweaty anyway. A lot of
it was real.
How emotionally taxing
was the shoot? Did you cry to sleep?
Jessica: That
was one thing I did not do. I cried so much during the day. I
would just go home and pass out. I was just out. I didn't dream,
I didn't have nightmares. It was so taxing. I just remember every
day my eyes and my eyelids, I looked like I'd been in a boxing
match. My lips were swollen, my eyelids were swollen, I just cried
all day long. It was like being premenstrual for like a month
at a time. It was very taxing.
 Did
the physicality of this prepare you for Blade 3?
Jessica: Yeah,
I guess it did. I mean, I did a lot of running in this movie.
Blade, I've been training like a maniac. It's so much more physically
demanding then Texas Chainsaw Massacre was.
Does martial arts
make you feel sexy?
Jessica: Yeah.
You feel incredibly strong. I feel confident really. I walk down
the street now and I'm sort of like "Somebody screw with
me. I will savat you in the head and kick you in the shins so
fast. I'd slit your throat with my credit card." I know all
these things. He's teaching me self-defense. Just so you know,
ladies, you can slit somebody's throat with a credit card if you
need to, which I didn't know until two days ago.
More on training?
Jessica: This
man I'm working with, Chuck Jeffries, he's this amazing martial
artist and what's cool about Blade is I'm not learning just one.
He has experience in I think probably hundreds of techniques of
different martial arts and boxing and street fighting. What's
cool about it is it's not going to be anything like Crouching
Tiger. No one's like spinning through the air. This is back to
old school fighting techniques. I'm just kicking people in the
head all the time.
How was it working
with Wesley Snipes?
Jessica: I've
actually only worked one day on Blade so far. I've just been there
training for a month and a half. My first day was with Wes. I
didn't have any dialogue with him but he's really cool. He's interesting.
He's kind of more of a reserved person than I would have expected,
but he's really funny and he's kind of coming out of his shell
and he's really nice. I'm getting along really well with him.
Do you have any superpowers?
Jessica: No superpowers.
I'm completely human. I'm just very badass. I'm an archer, so
I've been working with this compound bow for the last month and
a half. That's my signature weapon.
Do you have a cool
outfit?
Jessica: I have
a cool outfit. I do. But it's not very Blade. I'm not in leather
pants and a leather shirt and all this cool leather stuff. I'm
very much more- -I'm more casual. I'm almost wearing- - I have
all these different outfits but my outfit that I like the best
is this cool like almost like workout pants. Like black workout
stretch pants and I have a cool brown leather vest. And I'm wearing
like a sports bra. And it was really cool. I'm really dressed
for the part because there's no way you could go out in a wonderbra
and do this.
 What’s
the feeling like being the lead of this film [Blade: Trinity]?
You’re the centerpiece
Jessica: It's
nerve-wracking. It's always nerve-wracking for me I think. I always
feel like I got myself into something that I don't know if I'll
be able to handle. Not that I won't be able to handle, just will
I be able to do as well as I want to do? It's always a concern
when you star in something, especially something that is such
a huge budget and huge people and everyone is expecting so much
great stuff. It's kind of nice with Texas, no one expected anything.
Then oh great, it's good. It's just a lot of pressure. I feel
a lot of pressure to look right physically to make this character
look believable and realistic, like she can kick these guys in
the head. And also to kind of.. if this movie were to be great,
Blade/Wesley would kind of be handing the torch off to Ryan and
I. If it's good, there might be possibility of a spin-off. And
so that's a little scary. Oh my God, more pressure? But it's also
very exciting. I'm not at all complaining about it and I'm excited.
I'm having a great time. That's one of the things about the martial
arts is it's really fun. It is so fun. Every day, instead of having
these long dialogue scenes or long crying scenes, I'm just fighting
with cool stunt people and we're making this great action and
it's nothing like I've ever done before. It's really fun.
What was the most
physically difficult Texas scenes?
Jessica: I guess
the obvious answer is the running, but you know what the most
physical scene in Texas for me was dragging Tucker around. Tucker,
he was into it, which is so good and he literally just let himself
be dragged. And he might look kind of not like he's going to weigh
a lot, but he's heavy. And I dragged him many, many takes and
after that, I was- - my muscles were burning. That was a really
hard scene. That was really hard.
Can you do research
for a film like this?
Jessica: Yeah,
definitely. I used the original a little bit to not necessarily
research my character. I kind of had an idea of what I wanted
to do with her, but this was to see what happened in the original
movie that I didn't like, what I thought we could improve upon,
and what I thought was great and what we needed to- - maybe some
sort of a vibe that we needed to keep.
 What
didn't you like about the original Texas?
Jessica: There
was no character development at all. I didn't even care about
the characters. I was watching like "Well, die already."
The only person I was really interested in was the main girl who
was I thought really good. And especially when she gets alone
by herself. The other characters were just so, you know, whatever,
they were swimming in the water in the lake and they were cute
and they were in love, blah blah blah. I didn't even know them.
I didn't feel like I knew them at all and couldn't relate to them.
And that's what I really wanted to change, that's what I noticed.
I was like this has got to change immediately because that's the
only way people are going to like this movie is if they like these
characters and they want them to stay alive.
Are you signed on
for sequel?
Jessica: No,
I don't think there’s anything about sequels in our contract.
Would you do one?
Jessica: I don't
think so. I have a problem with sequels, and now I’m doing
a third, of course. I have a problem with doing a sequel for this
movie. It’s just not needed. What would it be to do? It’s
the same story again? To make more money? It would be done just
for a commercial payoff or something. It wouldn’t be for
like another acting piece. It’s like you can’t really
keep this going. And the sequels that have been done from the
original, I personally think really stink. They were not good
at all. And it starts being silly. People are like, “Okay,
okay.”
Especially the Renee Zellweger and Matthew McConaughey
one
Jessica: Yeah,
not a good one. I saw that too.
THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE
OPENS OCT 17
|
