Interview: Catherine-Zeta Jones & Aaron Eckhart On No Reservations

By Kellvin Chavez on July 23, 2007

A few weeks ago I had the chance to attend the New York press conference where Catherine-Zeta Jones and Aaron Eckhart talk about their upcoming film “No Reservations”

The film follows Master chef Kate Armstrong (Catherine Zeta-Jones) lives her life like she runs her kitchen at a trendy Manhattan eatery—with a no-nonsense intensity that both captivates and intimidates everyone around her. Kate's perfectionist nature is put to the test when she "inherits" her nine-year-old niece Zoe (Abigail Breslin), while contending with a brash new sous-chef who joins her staff. High-spirited and freewheeling, Nick Palmer (Aaron Eckhart) couldn't be more different from Kate, yet the chemistry between them is undeniable. Rivalry becomes romance, but Kate will have to learn to express herself beyond the realm of her kitchen if she wants to connect with Zoe and find true happiness with Nick.

Below is what they had to say:

AARON AND CATHERINE, HAD YOU BOTH ALWAYS WANTED TO PLAY CHEFS AND HOW WAS IT? ALSO, WHAT WAS THE CHEMISTRY LIKE BETWEEN YOU BEFORE YOU GOT TO KNOW EACH OTHER, WERE THERE MEETINGS?  

ZETA-JONES: Well, we met for lunch actually because I had heard through Scott [Hicks] that Aaron was really interested in being in the movie and I thought that would be terrific. So we met for lunch and we'd never met before. We got on really well and chit chatted about the project. We talked about Mr. Hicks and then before we knew it we were all signed on and up here in New York ready to go. So it was an easy process for us to get together. Then the idea of being a chef, for me, was pretty terrifying, to be quite honest with you. I'm serious. If I could pull this one off, let me tell you. But after we had this intense training together which was a laugh because we arrived in this kitchen with my little apron on, looking ever so professional and looking at Aaron going, 'Oh, God, my finger is coming off before you know it.' We had a few weeks of that and we were off and running and then I felt very comfortable in the kitchen and I still do actually.  

AND SO DO YOU NOW COOK AT HOME?  

ZETA-JONES: Oh, all the time [Laughs]. No. I have a new appreciation for being in the kitchen. I have a new appreciation for when the catered food gets put on my table how much goes into it as opposed to going, 'Is this cooked right?'  

AND AARON?  

ECKHART: Well, the same thing. We had a great time getting to know each other in the kitchen. At first Catherine and I, Scott got us in there at – what was it –  FIANA with Chef Michael White. We went in there, in the kitchen, and we were trying to stay out of the way and be very courteous with each other and move around the kitchen. By the third or second day you're bumping into each other and you're reaching over each other and becoming very familiar. That was a lot of fun, doing that.  I've never had a fantasy about being a chef, nor will I.  

ZETA-JONES: He was ever so professional when I first him. I had to take a few gulps because he came with all his knives, his little private knives. He was like, 'Where's the spoon, Scott?'  

IN LIGHT OF ALL THAT, I'M SURE THAT YOU GUYS HAVE FAVORITE RESTAURANTS WITH SOME FAVORITE DISHES. SO WHAT WOULD YOU MAKE FOR EACH OTHER IF YOU HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE SOMETHING AS A RESULT OF WHAT YOU'VE LEARNED?  

ZETA-JONES: I think that I would make Aaron some Welsh lamb, some good roasted potatoes, good solid stock food that I was brought up on, I think.  

AND WHAT ABOUT SOME FAVORITE RESTAURANTS?  

ZETA-JONES: I can't remember the name, but maybe you can find out. There's this restaurant that's outside of Barcelona which is like going inside of a chemistry lab – (SP?). I went there and it was completely jam packed and you had to book like two years in advance and so I got to eat at a table in the kitchen. So I could see all these cooks who looked like scientists, literally, concocting these amazing dishes with textures that you've never even seen or felt. You put your spoon in something and it would all dissolve. It was genius. So, I think for me, that experience, going there, was one of the best I've ever had.  

ECKHART: Well, I'm just really a surfer. I like fish tacos and things like that.  

FISH FINGERS?  

ECKHART: Well, I wouldn't go that far. Fish fingers are so '80's, man. Stuff like that, but if she cooked me Welsh lamb and roasted potatoes and stuff like that it'd be great. I like Shepherd's pie and stuff like that.  

ZETA-JONES: Until he tells me he's a vegetarian and I would get really annoyed.  

ARE YOU A VEGETARIAN?  

ECKHART: No, I'm not. I love meat.  

WHAT ABOUT RESTAURANTS?  

ECKHART: Well, God, I don't want to sound ignorant. Josiah at (sp?) Maleese is great. They have truffle eggs and all that sort of stuff.  

CATHERINE, IS THERE A FOOD OUT THERE THAT YOU CAN'T RESIST AND HOW DO YOU STAY IN SUCH GREAT SHAPE?  

ZETA-JONES: Thank you, and this might sound so ridiculous and so crazy, but with smoked salmon sandwiches on brown bread with potato chips in the middle crushed down. I had them during each of my pregnancies and I actually had it two nights ago for dinner as well. It's one of those comfort foods.  

AND DO YOU HAVE A WORKOUT REGIMEN?  

ZETA-JONES: Yes, I do. It keeps my brain sane and it gives me an energy. In fact, I've been over in Europe doing a lot of swimming which I absolutely adore doing. So that's mixing it up a bit.  

AND IS YOUR ROUTINE FIVE DAYS A WEEK?  

ZETA-JONES: No. I'm not going to lie and tell you that I do. I have to drag myself down to the gym like everyone else, but when I finish it I do enjoy it and I can eat more smoked salmon sandwiches with potato chips crushed in the middle.  

DID YOU CREATE THIS RECIPE?  

ZETA-JONES: Yes, I did. A little bit of lemon, a little bit of salt and pepper.  

SOME ACTORS SWEAR OFF WORKING WITH ANIMALS AND CHILDREN. HOW WAS IT WORKING WITH ABIGAIL BRESLIN?  

ZETA-JONES: Just adorable inside and out, such a talented actress and very real young lady. She's not pretentious in any way and I've had a lucky run with working with children, not so much with animals though I almost got thrown off a horse, but with children I've been really lucky to be working with great talent and children that you're going to be watching for the rest of their careers and wishing them the best because they have the talent. So she was an absolute dream.  

I KNOW THAT YOU DID A LOT OF RESEARCH FOR THESE ROLES. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT WHAT YOU DID EXACTLY? I KNOW CATHERINE WORKED AT A RESTAURANT AND THAT YOU BOTH WORKED WITH CHEFS, BUT CAN TALK ABOUT THOSE EXPERIENCES?  

ZETA-JONES: Well, Aaron and I started off, like the second time that we met we were basically in the kitchen together. It is intimidating because we started off initially with just us, Michael the chef and just gradually he would take us through the kitchen. Like in a way, it's organized chaos. You think that everyone would be slamming into each other, burning each other, yelling get out of my way, but it actually moves really gracefully. It's like a ballet. Me and Aaron wanted to learn to fit into that environment so that we could look like this was our job, that it was for real. What was terrifying for me was when all of the other chefs would come in and you were trying to get out of their way. You're there to learn and so you want to be helpful and not do anything really ridiculous and then I went out onto the floor which was really pretty terrifying because I've never been a waitress before. I know that other actresses have, but I'd never been out there before, and I started screwing up my lines and forgetting what sauce it was and then there was one dessert that was this big concoction of this buoy and this ball of chocolate and so I would say, 'Just have it. It's delicious. Just have it, it's great.'  

WHAT DO YOU DO IN YOUR LIFE TO NOT LET YOUR CAREER TAKE OVER YOUR LIFE? THESE CHARACTERS SORT OF HAVE A LIFE THAT IS THEIR WORK. HOW DO YOU KEEP THAT FROM HAPPENING IN YOUR REAL LIVES?  

ZETA-JONES: I always hate to say the world balance when it comes to my family and children because at the end of the day that is my life and everything else is a bonus. What's changed for me considerably since I've had my family is that the logistics have completely gone crazy. As opposed to me being offered a role in Romania for four months, I'd say, 'What time's my flight?' I'd pack my case and I'd be gone – now I can't do that. I try to schedule my work in between times where they can either come with me or when I know that Michael [Douglas] is definitely not working and doing a movie here in New York, this movie 'No Reservations,' was great because our home is predominantly Bermuda and even though we were working pretty much everyday, Scott would give us some time off. So I would go home to Bermuda for either a day or they would come and see me. Then my last movie that I completed was during summer break and so they were with me all the time. So that's the only thing that I think is a balance and more of a struggle than it ever was before in my life.  

WHAT WAS THAT MOVIE YOU DID DURING THE SUMMER?  

ZETA-JONES: 'Death Defying Acts.'  

AND AARON, WHAT ABOUT YOUR LIFE AND CAREER?  

ECKHART: I'm always trying to get both of them. When I have one I don't have the other. I don't distinguish between the two. I mean, they're just both very pleasurable. I'm single with a girlfriend and I can go to Romania if she's not available.  

ZETA-JONES: You wouldn't go without me, Aaron [Laughs].  

ECKHART: No. I would go as you.  

THE FILM ALSO HAD A LOT OF GREAT MUSIC, AS WELL AS FOOD. AARON, DID YOU LISTEN TO OPERA WHILE YOU WERE MAKING THIS MOVIE TO GET FAMILIAR WITH IT?  

ECKHART: I did when I was making the movie. I listened to one song a lot. It doesn't come totally natural to me. I'm not a great singer. It was interesting to do those days.  

ZETA-JONES: They would play the first few bars and then turned the sound down so they could get it – it was brilliant.  

ECKHART: Catherine, please [Laughs].  

ZETA-JONES: [Laughs] It was brilliant. You were brilliant. You really went for it.  

ECKHART: Scott really helped me out.  

THAT'LL BE ON THE DVD, RIGHT?  

ECKHART: Yeah. It's all on the DVD. I did actually like doing it, experimenting with it, and like Scott said, there are such amazing voices and to see the difference just a laymen's voice and their voices is amazing stuff. Saying the words and having the poetry in the words and the meaning in the images that go along with the music is really inspiring and it's archetypical with all these symbols and imagery. I think that's why theater and opera is important because they tell tales. This is the tale of a guy who lost his love and all of that sort of stuff. So it was very appropriate for the film, but to sing it, it was a stretch. Catherine has a beautiful voice and so to sing in front of her was tough.  

DID SHE COACH YOU?  

ECKHART: Not at all.  

ZETA-JONES: No. I stood there and I said, 'Come on, Eckhart, give it your best.' He did. He did a great job. I actually did an opera many, many years ago at the English National Opera which was an amazing experience. It was terrifying for one. They did a season of [?] and so you didn't have a run up of doing it the whole week. It was like you were on two days and then 'The Magic Flute' two days and so every night felt like a first night, and I would see these great people with these great talented voices chatting each other up on the side of the stage, where they're going to go for dinner, where they're going to go for a drink and then, 'Oh, one second –' and they would go onto the stage and just boom these songs out. I was shaking in my shoes, going, 'I'm on next.' It was really interesting to do. We toured Germany with it for a while and it was really interesting to be a part of that opera world.  

ARE YOU AS DRIVEN AND AMBITIOUS AS THIS CHARACTER IS ABOUT HER CAREER, AND HOW DO YOU DO THAT AND HAVE A SUCCESSFUL RELATIONSHIP?  

ZETA-JONES: I wouldn't say that I was like Kate in the way that she was so blinkered in her career and her work and how she goes about it, but I've always said that I've had a healthy ambition, I call it, where I did want to come from Wales and try different things. I wanted to go to London and do some theater and do some TV. I had that inherently in me, but I wouldn't say that I was such a control freak the way that Kate is or that there was nothing else in my life. I had my friends and I had my other life in addition to my career.  

AND THE RECIPE FOR A SUCCESSFUL RELATIONSHIP?  

ZETA-JONES: I think just to be kind to each other. I've said it before, but we meet so many different people in life and sometimes we spend more time being nice and friendly to complete strangers than you to the person that you love more than anything else in the world. So just to have that in the back of your mind is good, to be respectful, kind and nice.  

IS IT EASIER TO LIVE IN BERMUDA?  

ZETA-JONES: There's a real sense of privacy in Bermuda, and I have to say that it's been very great bringing up my children there – taking them to school without any hassle and there've never been any photographs or photographers hanging around. So for me it was the ideal choice to bring up my children with it also being easy to go to New York. We travel and we don't stay there the whole year around and so it's been fantastic for me.  

ANY DRAWBACKS?  

ZETA-JONES: Of course there are drawbacks. I mean, socially we have a lot of friends in L.A. and a lot of friend in New York and we have a lot of friends in Bermuda which is a different life. I so appreciate coming back to the city more than I ever did before because it's the complete opposite to where I come from and it's only an hour and forty five minutes on the plane. I sound like a Bermuda tour guide. 'Come to Bermuda! Don't come to Bermuda!' [Laughs]  'I love you, but please don't come to Bermuda.'  

AND AARON, ARE YOU RECOGNIZED EVERYWHERE YOU GO AND IS IT HARD TO FIND A PRIVATE LIFESTYLE?  

ECKHART: It's basically the same as [Abigail]. She's probably eclipsing me a little bit.  

WHAT STRUCK YOU BOTH ABOUT THE SCRIPT WHEN YOU FIRST READ IT?  

ECKHART: Well, what struck me first, like Scott talked about to me, there are so many things about this movie, so many different layers between the food and the love and loss, the healing. How food can help you heal. How music can too. My character's philosophy of life is so breezy and fluid and just has, I think, a really more relaxed way of life as opposed to Catherine's character, Kate, and how we can help each other and how all of it is all intertwined. Then, Scott directing it, he was just a perfect fit and then Catherine too of course, it was like the whole package. For me I really was very happy to be in this film for all of those reasons.  

ZETA-JONES: I think that what the film also says quite clearly is that it's not just bereavement, but it's that you have to heal. It's the way that you conduct your life, the way that you look at the world outside, how blinkered and how self-centered in a way that we can be and how through different relationships and sometimes through grief you're able to heal and come out on the other side stronger and happier and with a different life than you ever imagined you could possibly have.  

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT WHETHER YOU'D SEEN THE ORIGINAL FILM, THE GERMAN FILM 'MOSTLY MARTHA,' AND IF YOU LET THAT AFFECT YOUR CHARACTER OR NOT?  

ZETA-JONES: I think that on a character basis I certainly didn't go into this movie wanting to be a caricature of that wonderful performance. You have to just put that aside and just know that that was a beautifully created performance culturally in that world and as a completely different situation to where I was going to portray this character. I think that the director did a fantastic job of creating that environment in that movie and I did see the movie after I read the script. I loved the script so much that I said, 'You know what, I can't resist it. I have to see the movie.' A guy who works with him who's not a film buff, I bought the DVD and put it on the kitchen table and he's not a film buff at all and he said, 'Have you seen that movie? It's great.' I thought how on earth did a guy from Bermuda, half Portuguese see this German movie 'Mostly Martha.' He said, 'It came to this small little film festival and we just happened to be there. Cued up and went in and saw it.' I said, 'Okay, well, if you loved it –' and he's a big old burly gardener – 'as much as I loved the script I can't resist. I have to see it once.' I saw it once and then I put it away and I never saw it again.  

ECKHART: It's the same for me. My character is so different. When you're making a film you're really focused on what you're doing that day. There were other issues to deal with such as chopping, sautéing, opera, love. Those things consumed my now, but it was a touchstone and we all loved the movie and referred to it. It's not something that you have to put away and can't mention. I think that she even came to the set one day.  

ZETA-JONES: Sandra [Nettlebeck] did, yeah.  

ECKHART: So I think that they both stand on their own.  

DO YOU FEEL THE SAME WITH TWO-FACE IN 'BATMAN' THAT YOU'RE DOING NOW?  

ECKHART: Yeah. I feel that you don't want – one is completely separate from the other. I don't feel like I have to do what Tommy Lee Jones did. I think that's not even something that I consider. It's not something that even bothers me.  

WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO BRING TO HARVEY DENT IN 'BATMAN?' IS HE GOING TO START AS THE NICE GUY HE IS IN THE COMICS?  

ECKHART: There are people here who will put poison darts into me if I talk about Harvey. It's really incredible. Yeah, that's why I loved the script and wanted to do the movie. It's not even about how I'm perceived as an actor as much as what I want to go to work on and do. I would like to just go to work and try to make people happy as opposed to backstabbing someone or whatever it is. I found that very refreshing. I felt like going to work on this film – a lot of times I don’t even like working. You sometimes just go there and you do your thing and you make some people laugh and you cook some food and it was a good day's work. Whether or not it will help to take off the edge I don't know because it just seems like I can't get away from Chad and things like that, but I do like playing romantic kind of comedy roles and I have a lot of fun doing it.  

IS THERE ANY ROMANCE OR COMEDIC ELEMENTS TO HARVEY DENT?  

ECKHART: Well, I can't tell you. We're not here to talk about 'Batman.' There's a whole year to do that, and I – no [Laughs].  

CATHERINE, DO YOU MISS THE STAGE AND WOULD EVER RETURN? SECONDLY, WERE THERE ANY ASPECTS OF KATE'S TYPE-A PERSONALITY THAT YOU CAN RELATE TO AND CAN YOU RIP A TABLECLOTH OFF LIKE THAT?  

ZETA-JONES: Yes, I can [Laughs]. In fact, there's been an influx of offers for me to come back to New York and do some stuff. If I'm going to do it, it's predominantly musicals and one straight play I got the other day, but if I'm going to do it it's such a big investment with the rehearsal period and invariably they want you to be in a good portion of the run of the show. So it would have to be something that I'd really want to commit to. On the musical front there's a revival of this, a revival of that, a revival of this, and it's kind of like I already did my revival on film and it's there forever. If there was a fresh new musical then perfect. On the play front I would love to. I just need to find the right piece of material and know that it's a lot of commitment for me which means I have to do that logistics thing which I'm really bad at. It's that organization of where everyone goes and if they'd all move back. It's always in the cards and I'm happy to have that. I'm very flattered that theater does come my way quite a bit. And I wouldn't say that I'm a perfectionist in the way that Kate is because it's borderline anal retentive and I would hate to give myself that title, but I think there is a quality there. There is a much shyer quality to me that people don't usually see and I could relate to Kate, not that in stoic way, but just in being a little reserved. I get perceived sometimes as, 'Here comes the show girl –' and in fact I have my insecurities and I'm a lot more reserved and quiet than I let on to be. I do that for a reason sometime, but I've found a quietness in her that I related to.  

COULD YOU TELL RIGHT AWAY IN REHEARSALS FOR THIS FILM THAT YOU AND AARON WOULD HAVE GOOD CHEMISTRY?  

ZETA-JONES: You can't really rehearse chemistry. It's just something that happens. Sometimes you can put the best of actors together and watch them and go, 'Why is this not working?' It's just something that just happens, and as an actor it's great because it's like, 'Whew. One less thing to worry about. Lets get on with it.'  

DID YOU SEE THIS ROLE FOR AS THE DE-GLAMORIZATION OF CATHERINE ZETA-JONES, PLAYING A WORK OBSESSED SINGLE WOMAN? IS THIS ROLE LIKE CATHERINE ZETA-JONES WITHOUT A MAN?  

ZETA-JONES: [Laughs] I think that's a compliment. I'm not sure. It was definitely one of the things that when I read the script that made me go, 'Wow, this is not a character that even a director or producer would think was a slam dunk for me. Lets get Catherine Zeta-Jones to do this.' I think that's what was exciting to me, to be able to play a much more vulnerable character and of course – not to be like this is my de-glamorization – to come down a bit of what is necessarily an image of me onscreen. I think that's why I found this such a fascinating experience because it was like a breath of fresh air for me as opposed to going into work with how the hair and makeup was. Everyday I went in to work with just my chef's outfit and that bloody green coat. I was going to burn that green coat after this movie because everyday I would go into my trailer and be like, 'There's that green coat.' I'd say, 'Scott, we've got a few other options.' 'Nope. Kate has one coat and it's great.' I said, 'Fine.' So apart from that it was a fantastic experience and I enjoy just being much more simple and more still with my work. I had a great time doing it. I did say to Michael, or well (SP?) Nigela Lawson is a fan of mine, and we watched the screening of it and Michael was laughing when he saw me with the completely natural bed-head and reaching for the alarm o'clock and I said, 'Do you think that (SP?) Nigela Lawson wakes up like that?' He said, 'No. I don't think so, sweetie.'  

YOU'VE ALWAYS SEEMED, AARON, LIKE A PERSON WHO'S LOVED ACTING, BUT NEVER CRAZY ABOUT BEING A MOVIE STAR. HERE YOU ARE WITH THIS FILM, AND 'THANK YOU FOR SMOKING' WAS ONE OF THE BEST REVIEWED FILMS OF LAST YEAR. SO CAN YOU AVOID BEING A STAR? CAN YOU JUST ACT AND SAY, 'I DON'T WANT TO GO TO THAT NEXT STEP?'  

ECKHART: You could. I don't advise it. In this day and age it's so difficult to get a movie made and to be in the movies that you want to make that you have to, I think, come along with everyone else. I also feel like as you get older your tastes change and I was just talking to Gary Oldman about this. I said, 'Gary, would you do "Sid & Nancy" again right now?' He said, 'No. I wouldn't do it because I don't want to climb that mountain right now.' I just think that there are times in your life where you want to climb certain mountains. As I get older I feel like I would rather make people laugh and feel good coming out of the theater. 'Thank You For Smoking,' when people came out of the theater feeling good and smiling made such an impact on me. This film, I'm so happy that this film is a family film that deals with issues of mourning, loss, love, food, happiness, laughter – everyone can go see the movie. I can't say enough about that and I'm so happy to be a part of that and I hope to be a part of it so much more. If it's a romantic comedy, whatever it is it doesn't matter as long as it inspires people and makes them laugh and makes them feel good about themselves then I'm in. I'm in. That's how it's changed my life.  

AARON, WILL YOU EVER GO BACK TO THEATER?  

ECKHART: I would. If there's a strike I'm going to do theater.  

CATHERINE, WHO DO YOU PLAY IN 'DEATH DEFYING ACTS?'  

ZETA-JONES: I play a psychic who guides Houdini.  

HOW WAS THE EXPERIENCE?  

ZETA-JONES: Fabulous. Gillian Armstrong directed. We had a great time.  

DOES MICHAEL EAT THAT SANDWICH OF YOURS?  

ZETA-JONES: No. He thinks it's gross. When I bring out the marmite then he really wants to throw up.

Source:Latino Review

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