BLUE CURSH

Excerpts From An Interview with Kate Bosworth and Michelle Rodriguez

You've probably seen the bikini clad "Blue Crush" posters that feature Kate Bosworth and Michelle Rodriguez holding surf boards. From the posters you may be thinking that they are just two pretty faces with awesome bodies and maybe some acting abilities. If these are your thoughts, you'll be sadly mistaken because these girls are not only smart and beautiful, but also talented actors. In meeting up with the two they had a lot to say about bikinis, waves, and making this movie.

How did the filmmakers approach the bikini issue with you?

KB: I guess it was pretty obvious that I'd be in a bathing suit 95 percent of the movie, so I just had to accept that and go with it. Billabong sponsored us and their clothes are geared to athletic women.

MR: (Lots of laughs) I don't wax and I don't need to wax for some darn movie. Get a bunch of in growns. It's not my thing.

I don't think that you're hiding that there is a sex appeal to this, how do you feel about that being this much part of the film?

MR: I think they exploit it a lot more in the posters then it ever is exploited in the film itself. I mean personally speaking; I don't know…you guys have a different opinion?

What issues did you have with pruny hands and feet?

KB: It wasn't so much the pruning in the water. It was the calluses that you got from surfing. You get calluses on your stomach. It's like you get used to the board and being in the water. You basically turn into a fish.

MR: It's good for scrapping off dead skin. The ocean is like man, if you're looking for like some sort of fountain of youth. Definitely, clean salt water is the way to go.

Is a bikini realistic to the sport?

KB: Oh yeah, definitely. All the pro surfers wear bikinis. No one wears a one piece. And board shorts. You saw that in the movie too.

Michelle, would you go surfing now for fun?

MR: Yeah I would, of course with due protection. Only when I'm in Hawaii will I want protection. But in any other place I think I would be alright, unless there's a shark. I've only had two weeks experience surfing, it's not like I went to do this movie and I had six months to train and I got on there, and hung ho'd it. I did my own jet-ski stuff though.

Kate, how proficient did you get at surfing?

KB: I actually, in the peak of the learning and being in Hawaii, I actually got okay. I could hold my own out there. They really just threw me out into the middle of a pipeline on a 20 foot day and it was sort of fight or flight instinct. You just either stay or you go and I stayed.

Did you ride the big waves?

KB: I never dropped in, never. I don't think they'd even let me if I wanted to, but I was out there. I mean, I could have. I was that close to it. You've seen the movie. There's no green screen. Every time you see a wave barreling behind me, it's five feet away.

Kate, you said you've been self-conscious about the billboards?

KB: Yes, I said it's quite embarrassing. It's a woman's worst nightmare to be how many feet big on a billboard in a bikini. Everybody has insecurities.

Just objectively, what could you see wrong with that poster?

KB: From my elbows to my cheekbones to everything. It's like a different day, a different thing. It's all psychological. Everybody knows that. You look at yourself and you're like oh my God, what was I thinking. We're all, Michelle, Sanoe, Mika and I are all really secure and comfortable in our own skin and I think that's an important - I don't know if it's a message, but it's an important portrayal for young women I think. It's sort of the body of the new generation, just athletic and strong."

Michelle is the feminist voice of reason

KB: I like that. Usually they say, "Michelle Rodriguez kicks ass." That's all you have to say, but you put it very eloquently.

MR: My character was portrayed that way in the cut. But originally there are so many scenes that I'm so soft it's not funny. Talking to Anne Marie about her boyfriend and asking her to give me the juicy stuff. But they wanted it to be very specific. You know how Hollywood is, whatever, it's a cut. It has nothing to do with me trying to portray a hard hard core chick, it wasn't that. I tried to make her softer but it just didn't come out. They cut it down.

Kate, give us an example of Michelle doing or saying something wild?

KB: This is a perfect example of how - I mean, I lived with the two other girls, with Sanoe and Michelle. And I would say that what's kind of neat about the three of us is that we're such dorks. We're such dorks. Michelle walks up, she's like, "Hey girl, how you livin'?" And then trips and falls. And I'm like "That's why I love you, Michelle." That's why I love her, 'cause she has that balance. And she carries it off.

How does surfing empower women?

KB: I think that it empowers women by a woman coming down the wave, carving their own design into the face and showing their individuality. I think man, or woman, it shows your strength and uniqueness.

How did you handle waves knocking your suit off?

KB: God, every day. It comes along with the territory. That's what happens. Your bathing suit falls off and you wait.

MR: (Big laugh) Yeah they saw us naked a couple of times.

Kate, are you worried the movie could send the wrong message?

KB: To be honest with you, I think on the opposite end of the spectrum, that message takes over more than anything. I think that me dropping out of school, yes, I dropped out of school but I realized that that's not the best thing to do and if you notice in the speech that I give in the water, I say, "I hope Penny goes to college and quits smoking." It's like you realize your own mistakes, and try to pass that on to someone who has a chance to go to college and to quit smoking and to not make the same mistakes as I did. I think that any sister takes on that role.

So, it doesn't glorify it?

KB: No, not at all. Definitely not. And I don't know if you could cast an advocate for college more so because when I graduated high school, I deferred from college. I'm going in 2003 and I worked my ass off in high school and personally, I think it's incredibly important.

Where are you going to college and what are studying?

KB: I'm going to Princeton so I'll take advantage of their writing courses. I wanna write and I'm very interested in psychology.

Michelle what do you make of Vin Diesel's success? You worked with him, are you still in touch with him at all?

MR: I talk to him every now and then. I talked to him just before he went to Prague to go shoot XXX. He's destined. He knows what he wants you know what I mean, I think that confidence along with that can bring you anywhere you want to go.

Would you like to model yourself after a guy like that?

MR: No. (Someone said something about $30M paycheck, big laugh from Michelle) Well yeah! That would be sweet, then I can make my own movies, but he wants to be an actor for the rest of his life. I wanna be a director when I die.

Will you be back as a zombie in Resident Evil 2?

MR: Dude, you know the laws of movies and you know the laws of horror films, and one of the laws of horror films, when you have a zombie that gets shot in the head it must die forever. I don't like sequels. And you'll see that in any movie that I do. You'll see that probably one of them might have a sequel but I won't be in it.

Michelle you talk about wanting to be a director, tell us about it?

MR: Yeah I'm making tons of money, so I can sit on my ass and write. So the thing is, when you start making money you start developing, just like Puffy said, more money more problems. So (laugh) you have to take care of those problems so you can relieve yourself for a long period of time and then your mind is so clear that you can work on what you're doing. It's all surrealistic stuff I'm going to be doing. It should be off the hook. I'll disappear and everyone's going to be like uuuuhhh who's she? When I come back, and I'll be like yeah man, here's where I am mother******, take it (she did a little dance and said good-bye).

BLUE CRUSH OPENS NATIONWIDE AUG 16, 2002