"Never before Scene" Elektra clips at MTV.com
A nifty Elektra movie article along with some exclusive clips can be had over at MTV.com...
Damien: I was kind of hoping you would show up in that red outfit you've got. What do your parents think of that?
Jennifer: I think they've just given up on me in general. I'm pretty much the black sheep; at this point they just turn the other way.
Damien: I know our audience has some questions for you, so let's take our first question from the audience members right here, and her name is Shauna.
Shauna: How has Elektra changed since we last saw her in "Daredevil," and how does she change through the course of this movie?
Jennifer: Ooh, that's a good question. Well, she was dead last time we saw her, so there's that. Then she's brought back to life, and when she's brought back to life she no longer has Daredevil and her father has been killed, and so she was kind of a dark chick before, but now she's bad dark. She has ice around her heart. There's nothing warm and fuzzy about this person at all, and the way she keeps herself isolated from humans is by killing for money, and the way that she kills for money is by keeping herself isolated from humans. So she can go along like this for a while. But then eventually in the movie she meets this young girl and her father and she's actually sent to kill them. And she can't do it. There's something real in her that she forgot about, and so she teams up with the young girl and her father to save them from the bad force that's gonna get them. And it changes her personality slowly but surely.
Damien: All right. Someone did a little character study. Let's go to Joseph, who has a question. Joseph, what's up?
Joseph: You're usually associated with more good-girl rolls. Elektra's more morally conflicted. What did you enjoy about playing a darker character?
Jennifer: The whole point of being an actor is that you get to play everything. It's like you can't decide what you want to be when you grow up, so you're just somebody who's everything. I never anticipated being a killer, but, you know, hey, why not? I like it because everybody, even the most evil [character], there's something in their soul somewhere that at one point in time was for real, and I like it because sometimes you see people go from being good and whole and happy to being a completely miserable person. And in this case, she is a killer for money, she is a mercenary, she is an assassin, and we see her against her own will, her heart kind of warms up and she remembers or realizes for the first time maybe that she has a soul and she has a heart.
Damien: Very nice. All right, Melanie is next.
Melanie: How much did you have to train for this role, and did the physical work you did for "Alias" and "Daredevil" help you?
Jennifer: Oh, totally. Oh my gosh, are you kidding me? Yeah.
Damien: Was this movie easy for you?
Jennifer: Uh, no! No, there's nothing easy about it. No, but I couldn't have taken the steps I needed to take to do Elektra if I hadn't done "Daredevil" and three years of "Alias." So a big part of my training was just kind of on the job for the last three years nonstop all the time. And then for this movie I learned how to use the bow stick, which was that thing you guys saw. I worked more with the sais than I had before. You know what those are, right? They're her weapons that are the three-pronged sword things.
Damien: The ones you spin around.
Jennifer: The ones that you stab yourself with and have to get stitches. And I did a lot more boxing and stuff which I had done a little bit of [before], but this time I got a little grittier with it. And then I fought with big swords, which I had never done before. So I did a lot of training, but what I would do is I would go to work and my trainer would meet me at work to do just a workout, and then the fight guys would meet me after that and I would fight with them, and then I would work however long. And then that night I would see the fight guys again, and then five hours on Saturday and five hours on Sunday.
Damien: So within a 24-hour period, how long were you training?
Jennifer: All together it probably wasn't more than two hours, because I was working 16 hours a night. So sometimes we would train a half an hour and I would just be like, "OK, I'm so fried. I'm so done, I have to eat. I have to go home and go to bed right now."
Damien: Let's move on to John.
John: What was the most difficult stunt or scene that you had to do?
Jennifer: The most difficult one was against this actor Will Yun Lee. He's an actor that does his own fights as well, and I'm just kind of learning as I go. The only way I stay alive is that I rehearse nonstop, because you know, I'm not really somebody who goes out and fights on the street. He grew up ... his dad was one of the first tae kwon do masters in the United States, and he grew up with his dad as his sensei, so he is wicked good. He is out-of-control good. So he had these two huge katana swords, these Japanese swords that are heavy steel, and we fought each other in the fastest, nastiest fight. It's at the end of the movie and there's all this wind blowing, and I have all this hair in the movie and it kept being in my eyes and I would just hear the clank, clank, clank of my sais hitting his sword. And, you know, his swords would be coming full-on as hard as they could at my head, and it's just kind of like you'd better know where to block, because if you don't block you're gonna lose your noggin. So that was the scariest thing.
Damien: So you memorized the moves even though you couldn't see?
Jennifer: Memorized them, yeah. We had drilled them for so many hours, I can't even tell you. I mean, thank God, because I couldn't see, so if I hadn't just been able to trust that he knew exactly where I was and I knew exactly where he was and, you know, you get yourself all pumped up. I mean, I'm a girl, I'm kind of a girly girl, and so to get myself all grrrrr, you know, I have to get in there and grrrrr. I remember in high school, the guys before a football game, that's what I feel like. I feel like this crazy person, like growling at myself in the mirror, and then he and I were just dukin' it out, 'cause he wasn't kidding around — he had no trouble going there, you know, he's not a girl.
Damien: Well, it's good to have your head here and not just a torso, that's nice.
Jennifer: I did lose a little blood, but we made it out OK.
Damien: I can't believe you did all your own stunts like that, that's absolutely insane.
Jennifer: That's the fun stuff. Why do the movie if you're not going to get to do all the fun? I mean, you saw me on the tree, we were in the middle of the forest and they stuck me on the top of this eight-foot tree. Where was I? No, I wasn't on the top of it, I was on the middle, but it was straight up, and we built it — it was a fake tree — we built it on some kind of springy thing, and as it started to fall, I had to climb up on to the top and run down the tree, and right before I hit the camera that was at the end of the tree, they yanked me off with a wire. It was so terrifying, I screamed for my mama. I almost peed my pants.
Nicole: I just wanted to know, do you start looking at other action films differently?
Jennifer: I do, I'm kind of a snob.
Damien: What do you think of Jackie Chan and all them?
Jennifer: Oh, Jackie's incredible. Look, I'm going to tell you the truth. If something's going to hurt enough and it's something I don't know how to do without breaking my leg, if it's like gymnastic — I mean, I can back flip with a wire, but I don't actually know how to back flip — I'm going to put my stuntwoman in, Shauna, she's incredible. Or if I'm going to get hit by a car, I don't know how to get hit by a car and come out standing. Shauna is some kind of freak of nature, she can actually do it. Jackie Chan does that stuff too. All the fighting I absolutely did, you saw me do tons of stunts, but if there's something I truly don't know how to do, I'm not [about to do it]. I mean, Shauna wouldn't let me, it's just ridiculous. I've learned how to do more and more, and I love that, but I can tell if I'm watching something. If you don't see the actor's face while they're fighting and you just see their back, and then they cut and all you see is this, [she breathes heavily], they were not fighting. You have to see it all happening at once.
Audience member: In the tough action scenes, did anyone get hurt?
Jennifer: Yeah. Luckily, thank God, nothing too serious. Several sets of stitches, actually. My double was working with the sais and accidentally flipped one in and stabbed her leg. And they're dulled, you know, everyone's like, "They're dulled." Yeah, right, it went in her leg five inches, and she had stitches there.
Damien: Did they stop the movie at that point?
Jennifer: She left and came back.
Damien: And then she threw herself in front of a speeding car. That's like a normal day for her.
Jennifer: Yeah, that's Shauna for you. She's the coolest of them all, but then, we hit a guy on the head and he had to get stitches. Oops.
Damien: How about you? Did you get hurt?
Jennifer: I got hit with a katana sword, and I have some permanent ...
Damien: Are you seriously going to catagorize that as something? After you just told me a sword went into a lady's leg five inches?
Jennifer: Dude, my finger blew open into bits. You gonna call me some sort of wuss? You gonna call me out, Damien?
Damien: I though you broke a nail. I thought that's what it was going toward. I didn't know that happened. So your finger exploded into a thousand pieces?
Jennifer: A thousand pieces. My finger exploded into a thousand pieces. No, I just got hit with a sword, and I'm not gonna tell that anymore 'cause you think it's lame. But at the time it hurt a lot.
Lana: I was wondering if you could tell us a little more about the villains and how they're all different from each other.
Jennifer: Well, there are two sets of ninjas, and that's kind of who this secret war is going on between. The bad guys are the Order of the Hand, and the good guys are the Chaste, so we're going to concentrate on the bad guys 'cause they're always more fun. But the head of this little band of bad guys that is after me is Kirigi, Wun Yun Lee, who I was telling you about, who's this kick-ass martial artist, like for real, the real deal, and that's kind of his thing is that he's just out-of-control good. So that's fitting. And then there's Bob Sapp. Do you guys know who Bob Sapp is? He's the number one wrestler in Japan, but he's this huuuuge, huge, beautiful African-American man. He's ginormously large.
Damien: Is that the guy you cracked on the head?
Jennifer: Yeah, and he plays Stone. And his thing is that he's made of stone, and so I can break a stick across his back, and when I hit him with my sai it bends my sai instead of stabbing him, and he and I got into a pretty good tussle. He actually picked me up, I was on all fours in the middle of a fight, and he picked me up by the collar and top of my jeans and swung me like a suitcase, and I'm not some little girl, I've got some meat on me. He could have flung me around his head. Anyway, so there's Bob Sapp, then there is Tattoo, who you guys might have seen, with all the tattoos on his body, and his thing is that all the tattoos on his body come to life, like the wolf that comes out of his body or the snakes that come off of his back. That's a really, really cool effect. And Kinkou is, I don't know if you're familiar with capoeira ... Am I saying that wrong? Capoeira? Well, he's a capoeira expert.
Damien: Is that the Brazilian karate?
Jennifer: Yeah, it's really based on balance and agility.
Sam: Were you a fan of comic books before?
Jennifer: I grew up with two sisters, so we didn't read comic books. I have to say, though, "Elektra," it is a story that would have appealed to us if we had known it existed. We were so far out of that demographic, we didn't even know she was around. But of course, since "Daredevil," even since I was auditioning for "Daredevil," I started reading the comic books, and now I've read all the "Elektra" comic books, and then you can't help but branch off, you read "Elektra" and then you want to read "Wolverine," then you kinda branch off, and now I get why they're such a huge deal, they distill the story down into this much space. And they don't even have to have words, or if they do have words or dialogue, there's so much of what they say, and they're so beautifully rendered. ["Daredevil" artist] Frank Miller's a genius.
Josh: The outfit looks like it would be hard to do all those stunts in. Were there any "wardrobe malfunctions"?
Jennifer: You mean like Janet Jackson? I know what you're talking about. I hear what you're saying, Josh. No, no, I kept it all together, thank you very much.
Damien: We actually have a clip of a wardrobe malfunction ... No, I'm just kidding.
Jennifer: Oh, I was like, "For real? Am I lying? Did I give you a show?" I don't think I did.
Damien: No, we're not going to do that to you. Good question.
Jennifer: I think I kept it all on.
Shmir: I've read that your dad had issues.
Jennifer: Well, my family, I'm from West Virginia, so my family is fairly conservative. But not in an over-the-top kind of way, just like, when I was growing up, if I came down in something short, he would say, "Go put on some clothes." Like a typical dad, like a dad. But now I am grown up, and he can't tell me what to wear, so all he does is, "Oh, Jennifer. Uh, Jennifer ..." but he'll go and see it.
Damien: Did you get to keep the outfit? What about the weapons?
Jennifer: I did not even ask to keep the outfit. That is something you put on, if someone's paying you a lot of money. It's not that fun to wear, to be honest, even though during all the fitting we worked really hard to make sure I could move in it and do what I needed to do. You're still all ... I would rather be in sweats, so no, I did not keep the outfit. And the weapons, I did keep. I spent so many hours with them in my hands, they are mine. And I am theirs. Supposedly your weapon takes on your personality, and you take on your weapon's personality. Is that right? Since you're my resident expert. Yes, right, weapons are an extension of yourself.
Damien: In that case, my weapon was, like, a kitty cat.
Jennifer: Yeah, I never had weapons before.
Matt: Had you ever thought of using your powers or weapons against the paparazzi?
Damien: I've got the name of a great lawyer.
Jennifer: Good question. I hadn't had that thought before, but now maybe they should watch out. They are in my closet. Thank you, Matt.
Audience member: Do you think this movie will have a different appeal for women than men?
Jennifer: Hopefully. It makes sense to me that it would appeal to both. For men, there are some great fights ...
Damien: The red suit.
Jennifer: If you like that type of thing, there's the red suit, with a little bit of skin. But Natassia [Malthe] is in this movie as well, and she's a really, really beautiful woman. And then there are some cool special effects, great stunts, like it's an action movie, but for women. Part of the story is between Elektra and this 13-year-old girl and how this girl affects Elektra, and women can't help but have some sort of nurturing instinct. And it's kind of an emotional movie, and I feel kind of crazy saying that 'cause it's a comic book movie, but I think women can make their men think they're going to a movie for them, but hopefully they will really enjoy it.
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EarthsMightiestAdmin
12/31/2004
MTV.com