She’s the essence of sexy – Catherine Zeta-Jones. Even her name sounds hot! And on the big screen, she makes guys wish they were Zorro, or Seth Myers from Saturday Night Live. Catherine just hosted SNL this past week and showed everyone her assets with a pseudo strip tease and tap routines, and comedic skills.

Already an accomplished singer and actress in her native Wales, it was her 1998 role of Elena, in The Mask of Zorro, that let Americans know Catherine was now ours to worship. After numerous mega-hit films, she came back to reprise that role in the new film The Legend of Zorro opposite Antonio Banderas.

It’s always a nice site to see Catherine walk into a room, and so when she came to talk to Latino Review about her latest film, we knew we were in for a treat. Check it out:

WHEN YOU WORK WITH A YOUNG ACTOR, DO YOUR MOTHERLY INSTINCTS COME OUT?

CZJ: Yes. For sure. I'm so glad he probably couldn't understand what I was saying, so I would have really like annoyed him. Like: Why don't you tie your shoelaces? Why don't you tuck your shirt in? Be careful up there, Adrian.

WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO GET YOU TO COME BACK TO THIS ROLE? THIS IS THE FILM WHICH MADE YOU REALLY WORLD-WIDE FAMOUS.

CZJ: Well . . . I used to bump into Antonio and Martin Campbell, it was always in the conversation. Let's do another one. Come on. It's so much fun. And like you said, for me it was not just professionally important but personally important. Michael saw me in it and — seduced me! (laughter). Hounded me. Followed me around the world until he found me. Look at me now. Two kids later. So we always talked about it. I can't even believe it's been 9 years since we did the first one but anyway, my life goes on and . . . we had a few drafts that were sent that were just not right, and all the elements had to be in place. And we didn't want to do a sequel unless we were going to do one that was as good as or could surpass the original. And just to have that third element with Adrian in there, some of the drafts I read before just kind of forgot that I had a kid at the end of the movie. Was like: let's just forget about that and redo what we did before and once that element was in it, I went — you know what? I think this is going to work. And here we are.

THIS ONE IS PRETTY PHYSICAL. WERE YOU EXPECTING THAT?

CZJ: I wasn't expecting for it, but I was hoping for it.

HEARD YOU KICKED RUFUS SEWELL PRETTY HARD.

CZJ: I know. I nearly broke his nose. Is he talking about that? God, enough already! I sent him flowers. I went into his trailer three times to make sure he was okay. I felt bad.

HE SAID IT WAS THE TOUGHEST KICK HE'D HAD FROM ANYBODY, INCLUDING ANTONIO.

CZJ: My god.

YOU WERE THEATRE TRAINED SO YOU KNEW FENCING FAIRLY WELL.

CZJ: No. Never. I never had done it till I went down for the first one. I had very little time between finishing Oceans 12 and going down to Mexico and they'd been shooting for a few weeks before, and I was really kind of nervous because I remembered on the first one we'd had like three weeks of Zorro boot camp. Every day we were practicing, and I thought — oh my god, imagine if my sword fight is in the second week of shooting. At that point, I didn't know the schedule . . . so it kind of came back. It really did. I treated it like choreography and dancing — and a one and a two and a three and a four and a five and turn and down and up — it kind of came back to me. It's a great exercise. I love it. After the first one I had great expectations of continuing this and maybe being an Olympian sword woman (laughter) . . . of course, lazy old me . . . an Olympic medal would be pretty cool though, too.

THIS IS YOUR SECOND SEQUEL IN A ROW IN REFERENCE TO OCEANS 12.

CZJ: I wasn't in the first one. . . I was in the sequel of the sequel. I don't know. I haven't really thought about that. . . Doing a sequel 9 years after the first one, I just thought this was an opportunity I couldn't refuse. I couldn't wait to get down there. I couldn't wait to see our crew. A lot of them were the same people. And I had a tear in my eye when I saw Antonio in his Zorro get up. . . It had to be done.

WHAT'S THE STORY WITH SHARON STONE? WHAT'S GOING ON WITH THAT?

CZJ: I don't know. Supposedly Sharon Stone was to play Lana Turner (IN THE JOHNNY STOMPANATO FILM) Yeah. I know Sharon really well, and I don't know. But guess what? (puts on petulant voice) I wanted to be in Basic Instinct 2!

ARE YOU DOING LANA TURNER?

CZJ: I will be doing it —

WHO'S DOING STOMPANTO?

CZJ: Keanu Reeves is still onto do it. Johnny Stompanato.

WHY DID YOU WANT TO DO IT?

CZJ: It's just a great. I've got myself on film just to get it in my head that the studio won't turn around halfway through the movie and go — she doesn't kind of look like her. My father in law is going to be my research engine. My Google.

YOUR FATHER IN LAW WAS WITH HER IN BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL.
WAS IT SORT OF S AND M? HE SMACKED HER AROUND AND SHE LIKED IT?

CZJ: Oh honey, you know so much! . . , Have you been googling again? You know everything to do with S and M. I know that. . .It makes a great screen moment.

WILL THIS BE YOUR SEXIEST MOVIE EVER?

CZJ: You'll have to pay your 10 bucks and see it.

WHO'S PLAYING CHERYL?

CZJ: We don't know yet.

DIRECTOR?

CZJ: Adrian Lyne.

ARE YOU EVER CONCERNED ABOUT CHOOSING FILM ROLES WHEN YOU HAVE TWO CHILDREN AT HOME AND YOU KNOW THEY'RE GOING TO SEE THEM? WHY IS MOMMY DOING THAT?

CZJ: Well, I have to have that conversation because my husband has done it too many times. I figure I'll just be able to join in and we can just both do it together.

WHEN YOU FIRST WENT TO MEXICO YOU WERE AN UNKNOWN. NOW, I GUESS ALL THE MEXICANS KNOW YOU.

CZJ: Yeah, that was one of the biggest differences actually. When I first went down to Mexico City, I used to look at Antonio and Tony Hopkins getting followed around . . . I'd usually be standing right next to them, and like, you know, not that I wanted — nobody knew me and I used to go to the museum of archaeology three times a week and walk around — fine — people used to speak to me in Spanish, and I used to get such great bargains at the market, and when when I go back it's a different thing and just trying to keep where I live private was quite hard. I had my restaurants I used to go to, cantinas, and they used to cook for me and I used to get my driver to pick it up, and it became really great, and I didn't have too much of a problem.

TOO MUCH TO TRADE YOUR ANONYMITY FOR WHAT YOU'VE GOT?

CZJ: What do I do? Would I change it? No. Sometimes, it gets a little tedious, sure, but that's one of the cons in so many pros.

YOUR CHARACTER IS A GREAT MODEL FOR YOUNG GIRLS. IS IT IMPORTANT TO YOU TO PLAY A ROLE LIKE THAT?

CZJ: Oh sure, I can't wait for her to see it. I mean, God knows, I don't like having dolls made about me, but I can't wait to buy her a Zorro . . . doll. She's been coming with me in the mornings to go swimming here. Everytme she sees the posters it's — Mama! Zorro!
. . .She wants to go to work. Me work! Zorro!

WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO DO MOSTLY MARTHA?

CZJ: It was a movie that I saw and just loved and there was a character I had never played and had the opportunity to play and it's an intimate movie, and after doing Oceans 12 and Zorro, I just wanted to do something that was a little bit more — as great as they are and as much as I loved them — I just wanted to do something a little —

IT'S NOT REALLY A COMEDY

CZJ: No, I don't think it is a comedy. No but there's very.

HAVE YOU FINISHED IT YET?

CZJ: No I haven't even started.

WANT TO BE WONDER WOMAN OR ANYTHING LIKE THAT?

CZJ: Not really. I like people who you can believe and not have those stupid powers. Zorro, you know, he's just a guy, working for the people, save the people.

THE LEGEND OF ZORRO Hits Theatres Oct 28th