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[INTERVIEW] Hollywood actress Kate Bosworth

Kate Bosworth [Lee Jin-hyuk/10Asia]

Quite often she is referred to as a 'fashionista' or 'Orlando Bloom's ex-girlfriend' but Kate Bosworth is an actress whose filmography is more interesting than her sense in fashion or personal life. After debuting at the age of 14 through movie "The Horse Whisperer", she started appearing in films which required her to act well across actors her senior. Critics were cold when she played roles in "Beyond the Sea" starring Kevin Spacey and "The Girl in the Park" with Sigourney Weaver, but Bosworth has not ceased to take up new challenges. And now she has played the role of Western girl Lynne in "The Warrior's Way", the character who leads the emotional flow of the story. Lynne was portrayed as someone who can get angry yet will never scream at anyone and one who will get sad yet will not despair. Below are excerpts from the press interview held after the screening for the film set for a release on December 2.

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Q: The action scenes were impressive but wasn't it tough physically to play the role? You have such a slender physique.
Kate Bosworth:
I think I'm physically more slender when not training for a role. (laugh) Whatever the role demands physically or mentally I'm prepared to do.

Q: How was it meeting your Korean fans yesterday at the premiere for the film?
Bosworth:
They're so lovely and passionate. I've been to many premieres in my life but I've never experienced anything quite like that last night. They were just so excited and I felt so flattered and honored to have them be there for Dong-gun and myself. It was just a really nice experience.

Q: A lot of people are curious as to how you as a Hollywood actress felt when you met Jang Dong-gun for the first time.
Bosworth:
The first thing that I noticed about Dong-gun was his warmth. He has a lightness about him that's very comforting and welcoming. He wants everyone to feel comfortable and good about themselves, anyone around him. And I suppose it's a little strange for me to get these questions as in my thoughts on Asian actors because in America, I was raised to just have an open mind and embrace everyone ethnically so I don't differentiate culturally. I just look at someone and think about whether he's a good actor or not.

 

Scenes from "The Warrior's Way" [SK Telecom] 

Q: Is there any movie you watched that served as reference for your role in "The Warrior's Way"?
Bosworth:
No, I didn't watch any specifically. I guess I just had more of a general thought of the type of wild west woman that I wanted to portray. I thought Renee Zellweger did an amazing job in "Cold Mountain". I thought she portrayed a woman who is fighting hard for her circumstances so I had her in mind a little bit. And there's a show on HBO called "Dead Wood" that was quite good. I didn't watch any specifically but had certain references in mind when I was thinking about her.

Q: Your character Lynne comes off as rough and tough at a glance but there's actually an innocence and cuteness about her deep inside.
Bosworth:
When I was growing up, I loved Disney animated movies. It's part of the reason I wanted to act in very obscure ways. I was so in love with them that I wanted to be them. So there was some kind of cute, adorable but, I suppose it's the innocence, the earnestness that those characters have that is so loveable. And so I love that she had this ferocity about her and this desire for avenge but on the other side, a real kind of an innocence and earnestness and decency about her. So I thought a lot about that.

Q: I heard you wanted Lynne's hair to be red so you had it dyed. Is the appearance of the characters you play important for you?
Bosworth:
First thing, it was a wig, a very good wig. (laugh) So well-made, beautiful. And the exterior of a character is very important to me. I'm extremely involved with the process of costume, hair and make-up, and how that changes as the character changes. It really is the physical manifestation of the internal. So the red hair was my idea and I think it was perhaps the first conversation that director Sngmoo and I had. I think he had originally seen her with black hair. But part of the beauty about working as a director and actor is that ultimately as the actor, you're playing this person so you have to feel confident in every aspect of this character and I think a good director understands that. So that being said, he's a very visual and very specific director. It's something that is difficult to let go of because it's something he had created and lived with for so long but it was a main physical aspect to the character he had to rearranged in his head a little bit, although it was something as simple as hair color. But she's so fiery, spunky and wild and there are descriptions of burning sunsets so I immediately saw her as red-haired so we talked and told him. I also showed him physically because he's a visual director so he needs to really see it to grasp it.

 

Kate Bosworth [Lee Jin-hyuk/10Asia]

Q: Do you not wish your character and Jang Dong-gun's character got more involved romantically?
Bosworth:
I actually enjoyed the innocence of their relationship. These two characters were so unlikely to come together and like each other because they're so different. But they get along and there's something that attracts them to each other, a certain commonality of pain maybe. And in that way, they connect at the heart. So I embrace boldness or something shocking in the film - I think that's a good thing artistically. But I don't value anything that requires much virtuosity. It has to make sense for the movie, it has to show something important or essential in the characters. So I didn't feel there was anything more to explore to them because they had such enormous things to overcome so it would've almost seemed silly to me if we'd seen more romance.

Q: You've already said that it isn't often that Hollywood actresses get to play roles like Lynne and your filmography shows that you've recently worked a lot with new directors. So do you work with them more now because it gives you the chance to play a larger variety of roles?
Bosworth:
It's simply because the character I've read and the screenplay I've read is interesting and new to me. The fact that the last two films I shot were by first time feature directors is coincidence. The film I shot before that was a film by Rod Lurie who wrote "The Contender" that won the Oscars. It starts with the script and what's put in front of me when I read. So the last two projects were directed by first time feature directors but I do enjoy the freshness that they bring. I love that they have this healthy excitable appetite that they come to film. Everything is new and colorful, like seeing color for the first time for them. And yes, that's an infectious energy to be on set with.

Q: You're an actress but also a style icon. Netizens around the world keep an eye on what you wear. Where do you get the inspiration for it?
Bosworth:
I feel constantly inspired when I come to different parts of the world because it's always new and different and I get inspired by change. There's a freshness to it.

Kate Bosworth [Lee Jin-hyuk/10Asia]

Hollywood actress Kate Bosworth poses during a photo session of a round table interview for film "The Warrior's Way" in Seoul, South Korea on November 23, 2010.

Kate Bosworth [Lee Jin-hyuk/10Asia]

Kate Bosworth [Lee Jin-hyuk/10Asia]

Hollywood actress Kate Bosworth poses during a photo session of a round table interview for film "The Warrior's Way" in Seoul, South Korea on November 23, 2010.

Kate Bosworth [Lee Jin-hyuk/10Asia]

Reporter : Lee Seung-Han fourteen@
Photographer : Lee Jin-hyuk eleven@
Editor : Jessica Kim jesskim@, Jang Kyung-Jin three@
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