Cinematical

Not long ago I had the chance to sit down with Gretchen Mol for an exclusive interview about her upcoming projects, including the new comedy The Ten, opening August 3rd, in which she plays a virgin librarian who is deflowered by Jesus Christ himself. If you were a fan of the MTV series The State, this is the movie you've been waiting for. It's a State movie, all the way down to a wink-wink cameo from Michael Ian Black. We also talked about the highly-anticipated Russell Crowe remake of the classic western 3:10 to Yuma, which is arriving in September, and in which she has the leading lady slot. Mol, who's about seven months pregnant at the moment, was in a pretty relaxed and reflective mood when we spoke, and among other things, talked about arriving at a comfortable place in her 30s and being able to relax a bit after the success of The Notorious Bettie Page -- she no longer feels like she's scrambling to get a major accomplishment under her belt, so to speak. Here's the interview, in full.

RS: For your character in The Ten, the glasses she wears and the whole outfit -- did they tell you to come up with your own idea of what a 35 year-old virgin should look like?

GM: No, well ... I always wanted to wear glasses, but the question was, it almost might be over the top or too obvious. But the movie kind of lends itself to these kinds of cliches -- especially my little section, I think, because it's got this torrid kind of romance novel vibe to it. So I thought the glasses would be great. And when I met with the costume designer, we were all in sync on everything.

RS: Did you watch The State's MTV Series back in the day?

GM: I'd heard of it, and since, I've seen it, but I'd seen Wet Hot American Summer. And actually, I've seen David do stand-up at the Fez Under Time Cafe years ago, so I was familiar with their stuff, and I was a huge fan of Wet Hot American Summer.

RS: So you had enough to work with, that you didn't feel the need to go back and study those old shows to get a handle.

GM: I didn't. David was very adamant about wanting people to basically play it straight, and the situation in the script, as he and Ken had written it, was just hysterical, so really it was just about taking what you know and applying it here -- just totally committing to this woman's story and her situation.

RS: Did they approach you for the role?

GM: They did. I don't know exactly how they thought of me, because I don't have a lot of history with comedy, so I was excited, but I had worked with Paul -- we did Shape of Things together, and we worked together on stage for like a year -- so he knew me really well, and I thought 'He knows that I have other facets of my personality that might not be explored yet' and they sent me the script and I was so excited, because I don't get to just play around like that, that much. And they were getting this amazing cast ... it was not a question in my mind, you know. It was in the middle of summer, and it did sort of feel like the old days of going back to summer theater, and being with a bunch of great people and having fun and making a film at the same time.

RS: The whole thing must have been pretty quick -- a few days?

GM: Well, we went to Mexico. Maybe four or five days in Mexico, and then a few days in New York.

RS: Did they use everything you shot?

GM: I think most of it, story-wise, is in there.

RS: Do you and Justin speak Spanish, or did you fake it?

GM: I studied Spanish in high-school, but I totally couldn't do it to save my life. They had some cards, and we were in Mexico, which was great, but I really worked hard before we went down, and I had most of it down. I asked a friend of mine just to say the line so I'd get the accent back and everything. But yeah, at the end of the day, a couple of the lines, it was like [babbles some nonsense] Can you just say that in my ear one more time, please?

RS: So has this made you more open to comedy, like maybe traditional romantic comedy?

GM: I've always been open -- I would love to do more of that. I really feel like that's how audiences get to know actors, in a way, through these kinds of more playful things.

RS: Right, and you sometimes tend toward, for lack of a better phrase, 'guy movies.' Rounders was all about the guys, as is 3:10 to Yuma, I assume.

GM: Yeah, it's not a large role [3:10], but ... Bettie was certainly not a guy movie at all, and those are the kinds of things you die to do. And then, I'm so excited to be part of 3:10 to Yuma, just because it's great actors and people will go see it and that's good for me. But that's definitely part of the tradition of Hollywood: for every movie, there's a zillion guys and one girl. [laughs]

RS: Have you seen a cut of 3:10 yet?

GM: Yeah.

RS: Is it good?

GM: It's great. It's great.

RS: I've heard that. I've heard it might be awards material. They were going to open at Toronto but then they pushed it forward another month.

GM: Yeah, because Jesse James was gonna open on the same day. I think it was sort of smart of them to sort of try to piggy-back on 3:10, I guess, but I'm glad 3:10 decided ... Lionsgate pushed it up. But I've seen it, and I think it's great. What I love is that it really does feel like a classic Western. He's not trying to reinvent the wheel, you know, in terms of the genre, except that maybe it's got a little more action, you know. The acting is phenomenal. Russell and Christian are so great together, so it's exciting.

RS: You were talking about genre-hopping before -- are there any genres you haven't gotten a toe in yet but would like to?

GM: I'd love to do them all again, you know? To me, it's just if the movie's good and the script is good and the director's good. Any genre ... they're all interesting, you know, but you just have to find the good ones.

RS: There's talk that you might be up for the role of Janey Slater in Watchmen.

GM: I've not heard anything. I heard about it on the Internet. I've never been talked to. I'd love to do something like that. I've never done that, like a comic book thing. That would be fun, I think. [laughs] But I haven't heard anything about it.

RS: So two years on from Bettie Page, what did that do for your career? What did it change as far as what you're offered or what you're interested in?

GM: At the end of the day, it's not so much what I'm offered -- I'm simply back on the table in some people's minds in a way that I wasn't before. And that is a great leap for me. I can feel that difference. And of course, I'm pregnant, so that sort of puts things in a different ... your priorities change and everything. I felt like my 20s were about trying to establish something, and it's hard. It's hard in this business. Now, low and behold, for me anyway, the Bettie Page experience was about my own confidence and my own sense of feeling like 'At least I've done something that I'm proud of, and not everybody has to see it.' Of course the more the better and all that, but I can almost relax that part of myself a little bit more. I still really want to work and I still wish I was one of those actresses that knew what the next project was going to be, but that's never really been my career, so I suppose I have to be happy with what I've been able to do.

RS: Did the pressure of having to carry a movie outweigh the fun of it?

GM: I didn't feel like that, because I felt that Mary, her influence was so strong -- her vision, to me, was so strong, of who Bettie was and what she wanted to do with the story. So I didn't feel alone in it. And the truth is that every actor ... this is the dream. You want to carry it. You want that responsibility. You want to be used every day. You've got this part of yourself that's almost dormant in the off-times, and every time there is an off-time you question if it's still there, you know? So it's really great to be given that kind of responsibility. And yeah, of course it's pressure, but it's so side-lined by the amount of time you spend hoping and wanting something like that to come your way.

RS: Do you have any behind-the-scenes ambitions for down the road?

GM: You know, directing is not something I really see, because I don't have the kind of the mind that ... I don't like to have a lot of ...

RS: Busywork?

GM: Yeah, and the ability to quickly make decisions and all of that. That's not my forte, I don't think. But I actually do like writing. I don't think I'm great at it, but I had fun trying to adapt a book into a screenplay, and then I kind of thought 'Oh, I'm too old to play the part, so forget it, I'm not gonna keep going with it.' [Laughs] But it's fun to keep yourself active with things like that, but I don't know how seriously.

RS: So what's up next for you?

GM: Now, of course, my baby is due in September. I'm looking for something, but I don't know what it's gonna be. I just don't know. I've been sort of out of the loop, away. I just moved back to New York. I was in California for a couple of years, and needed an excuse to move back and I got the perfect excuse. [Laughs] All my family is here. I'm gonna try and just embrace this time and not get too worked up about what the next thing is.

RS: And you've got an indie drama in post, right? Boy of Pigs?

GM: Yeah, it's an independent. I'm gonna see some of it on Friday, so I don't know much about how it's turning out, but the script was amazing. It's a great role. Set during the Kennedy assassination, and my character is having an affair with Kennedy, and there's a young boy in it played by Cameron Bright. It's sort of his coming of age story. He's obsessed with his neighbor across the street, and through spying on her, he's also getting some of this political stuff that's going on. The political element to it is very kind of 'under,' you know. It's very much a subplot, but it's interesting. But it's really a story between this young boy and the woman.

RS: I want to circle back to The Ten, because Ken Marino is an up and coming talent, for sure -- I've spoken with him, and hear his name a lot. I wanted to ask about your interaction with him.

GM: He was kind of co-directing and he came up with these great ideas. He always had an idea. They're all just very serious. You think you're gonna go to the set of a comedy and it's just gonna be like 'Everyone is having such a ball!' and there is that element, but he's very ... talented and smart and always looking for like, 'Do you think? What do you think? Let's try that. Let's try it that way.' I thought his suggestions were always really great. And then, I don't know if you've seen the trailer, but that part with the 'goof' line -- he's a great actor. He has great timing. I loved him in Wet Hot American Summer. He's one of those people, to me, that ... it's so subjective, what makes a person funny, but I just watch him and he cracks me up. But as a person, and you've talked to him, he's pretty serious, and takes it pretty seriously.

RS: He had a pretty straight dramatic role in that other movie he recently did.

GM: Diggers, yeah. I didn't see that.

RS: Some heavy acting. You could watch it and never know he had a big comedy background, really.

GM: Wow.

RS: Did you feel any pressure to show up on a set like this and sort of be goofy and funny as a person? If it were me, I can imagine myself wanting to sit alone and just sort of study. Are you like that, or do you try and get in the spirit?

GM: It's better for me to try to get in the spirit of it, and you know, let them be the judge. Because I can't be the judge. As soon as I'm thinking about trying to be funny, I know I'll just not be funny at all. And I actually don't ... I've never felt that anybody thought I was. You know what I mean? Because I haven't been sort of rewarded with those kinds of roles. I'm not there to try to be Ms. Entertainment, but I had so much fun with it.

RS: Was it their idea to insert your real name into one of the lines in the big cast sing-along song at the end?

GM: Well, they had like three different variations, and that was one, and I said 'I like that one!' The other ones were really ... I was like 'I can't say that.'

RS: Wow. What were the lines?

GM: Oh God. One of them was ... [long pause] I can't even remember how it goes. [Sings] "My name is Gretchen Mol. Don't ever..." ... Something about how I went to Mexico and didn't know ... I can't remember. I can't remember! It was one of those things where I was like, 'No, I don't want to get into trouble, and if I say that, I'll get in trouble.'

RS: Come on. You obviously remember. What was it?

GM: [Long pause ...she turns apple-red.] You have to ask David.

RS: Come on. Let's hear it.

GM: [Laughs ... she picks up a couch pillow and holds it over her face] No, I can't!

RS: Off the record.

GM: [Considers] Off the record ... [Long pause] It was something like ... [sings] "I went to Mexico, didn't know how hard I'd fall..." No, that's the one rhyming with my name. It was something about "Don't ever --" [cuts herself off short and screams with laughter] Oh God! I can't! NO! Look at me! I'm turning bright red! Ask David. Maybe they'll put it on the DVD.

RS: Ugh, now I have to buy the DVD just for that!

GM: [Laughs] You'll buy it anyway.

RS: I don't think I'll find a better note to end on than this.

GM: Tell them I turned seven shades of red.