Shortly after our interview ended, Eva Green returned to her home planet, happy and ridiculously hot.
I love people like Eva Green. I love actors who not only maintain a personal sense of style but who genuinely seem like they are tuned in to a private radio station, listening to music only they can hear. I love them because we often see that individual personality come out in their work in ways that no one could predict. They give performances that are alive in unexpected ways, and the films they are in are much richer for it.
Eva Green made a pretty serious impact on male moviegoers as soon as Bertolucci introduced her in “The Dreamers,” and there is no doubt… she’s a stunning woman. As she’s gotten older, though, what’s become increasingly clear is that she is not really equipped to be part of the machine. She’s been in some big films, sure, but I don’t get the sense that she has handed herself over, heart and soul, desperate to be a movie star.
Instead, she seems to following her own path, project to project, drawn to certain types of characters. Films like “Womb” and “Perfect Sense” aren’t designed to make her a superstar. Instead, these are movies actors do because they’re compelled by the material, because they like what the film has to say, or because of a filmmaker they trust.
When Green does show up in big films, she’s memorable. I think it was essential for whoever played Vesper Lynd in “Casino Royale” to cast a big shadow even after she’s gone, a presence that would haunt Bond as he moves forward in the series. That’s Green in a nutshell. Say what you will about her, but “forgettable” is not a description people use about her.
In “Dark Shadows,” she plays Angelique Bouchard, the witch whose spurned passions kick off the entire thing, and she was in rare form when we sat down to discuss the movie at the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills.
The film opens Friday, and I’ll have my review up later today, plus more interviews coming with the rest of the cast as the week continues.