Julia's angels
With ages ranging from 21-25, these beautiful, sexy, smart, savvy and talented actresses are among Hollywood's hottest actresses. Welcome Julia Stiles, Kirsten Dunst, Maggie Gyllenhaal and newcomer Ginnifer Goodwin.
"To be sexy or to be intellectual? Why can't we be both?"
That is 25-year-old actress Maggie Gyllenhaal (Secretary) explaining to us the dilemma of a lot of women her age today. The seductive and highly-opinionated Gyllenhaal is one of the four young actresses pitting talents with Julia Roberts in Columbia Pictures' female-powered drama, Mona Lisa Smile.
To a man, it would have been a fantasy meeting come true. To a woman, it was a day of intellectual bonding, female camaraderie and lots of laughter.
Don't expect any catfights here.
The girls -- Kirsten Dunst (Spider-Man, The Cat's Meow, Crazy/Beautiful, Interview with the Vampire), Julia Stiles (The Bourne Identity, Save the Last Dance, Hamlet, O), Maggie Gyllenhaal (Secretary, Adaptation, Riding in Cars with Boys) and newcomer Ginnifer Goodwin (NBC TV's Ed) -- hit it off quite well, thank you, onscreen and off screen.
Dunst, 21, admires Gyllenhaal and confesses that "I have learned a lot from her, and from the other women I worked with in this movie."
Gyllenhaal, on the other hand, lovingly pats Dunst on the shoulder and coos, "Ohhhh, you're so sweet." Dunst, in fact, is also going steady these days with Gyllenhaal's brother, hot actor Jake Gyllenhaal.
Stiles, 22, admiringly describes the other Julia (Roberts) as "a refreshing role model for us young actresses." Roberts excitedly applauds and flashes her familiar winning smile as she listens to Goodwin confess that "It was absolutely a gift for me to be around such talent every day of my life for five months."
This rare but very much welcome gathering of beauty and talent one early morning is enough to perk you up and get you going for the day. The young ladies are the epitome of the next generation of Hollywood actresses who are smart, savvy, sexy, intelligent and talented.
We are interviewing these four actresses -- all gathered in one room -- at a Beverly Hills hotel for this high-profile Mike Newell (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Enchanted April) -- directed "chick-flick" drama set in 1954 at the prestigious all-girls school in New England, Wellesley College. Yes, the school that produced the likes of former First Lady, now Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Julia Stiles, dressed in a blue-green top highlighted with a green necklace with a pendant, long dangling earrings, denim pants, several rings on her fingers and dark blonde highlights on her brownish red hair, is serious even off screen.
Portraying the very traditional and brainy class valedictorian, Joan Brandwyn, Stiles, who is an undergraduate English Literature major at Columbia University, is very formal off screen and carefully chooses her words when she talks. She says of her character, "Joan, like the other Wellesley girls, knows how to recite and regurgitate information."
Kirsten Dunst, wearing a gray closed-neck sweater and pink nail polish, looks so sweet and innocent off screen that you couldn't believe this is the same person who plays the bitchy, unforgiving and condescending editor of the school paper, Betty Warren, in the movie.
Her shoulder-length blonde hair framing her roundish bedimpled face makes her look so innocent. But as they say, don't let looks deceive you, as Dunst the actress really turns nasty and ruthless in her role.
Maggie Gyllenhaal, the scandalous and flirtatious student Giselle Levy in this entertaining movie, is sensuous in person with her pouty lips, big, beautiful blue eyes and naughty-girl look.
Dressed in a black clingy sweater dress and her hair seductively cut long in front and very short in the back, Gyllenhaal is a natural flirt. Blunt and intelligent, she aptly describes her character as one who "simply says that you have to eat if it tastes good, dance if you like the beat and have sex if you feel like it."
Ginnifer Goodwin may be the newcomer in the group, but she oozes with confidence and poise as she sits beside star-producer Julia Roberts during the interview. She gets the latter's trust as well and attends the premiere with Roberts later during the day. Sporting a blue backless blouse and denim pants, Goodwin has radiant flawless skin and is definitely much prettier in person.
Educated in Stratford-upon-Avon's Shakespeare Institute, the Boston University's School for the Arts acting conservatory and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts, Goodwin holds her own even with such a group of more experienced actresses. Portraying Connie Baker, a Midwesterner on a scholarship at Wellesley, Goodwin describes her character as "so insecure that she allows the other girls to make her their punching bag."
Mona Lisa Smile is the story of a Berkeley-educated art teacher, Katherine Watson (Roberts), who is hired at Wellesley College. She tries to open the eyes of the students during that pre-women's lib era and offers them other choices in life aside from being housewives after graduation. In the process, though, she also learns more about herself from her students.
Asked whether they could have thrived had they lived during the 1950s, the girls had varying opinions.
Stiles candidly discloses, "At first, I was getting a little bit frustrated because it was very different from what I was used to. There was a part of me that wanted to scream and rip my pearls off and take off the '50s girl because I wasn't so comfortable. But then what I liked about living in the '50s is that the pace was a little bit slower because technology hasn't advanced that much. The clothing had much more a permanent feeling rather than a 'plastic' feeling."
Dunst points out that one thing she hates about the '50s is wearing the girdle. "I was having a hard time breathing. It made me feel so uncomfortable. I can sit up straight without it so I really didn't need a corset or a girdle to hold me up."
Gyllenhaal adds that "in the '50s, you can see through their clothes, and there's something erotic about that. It's like a little aesthetic tease. These days, you are not supposed to see underwear because the person may not even be wearing anything. But in the '50s, there's this sort of acknowledgment that there's a lot underneath!"
Since most of them are young and relatively new in the business, we ask them how it was working with the more experienced and established 35-year-old Julia Roberts.
Stiles admits that "I have learned a lot about acting from Julia and I also admire her for using all her power in Hollywood to tell a story that she wanted to tell. She was really dedicated and hands-on in this project."
Asked what Roberts specifically taught her with regard to acting, Stiles narrates, "I remember we were doing a scene when she was telling us her background story in the Adam's Rib club. She had this really long monologue. To an ordinary actor, this would be scary, but Julia did it in one perfect take and it came out fresh and truthful. She made the words come out naturally instead of just getting over it with the speech. I tend to race and go fast when I have a lot of words to say and let the text lead me, but Julia was slow and easy about it and she delivered her lines so naturally."
Dunst, for her part, believes that Roberts, "who is one of the most powerful women in Hollywood these days, could easily use that power for other things, but she is doing interesting things, doing independent movies and definitely making good use of that power that she has. She is also so graceful and grounded."
Goodwin teasingly replies, "She's a scary monster! Just look at her (she turns and points her hands towards an amused Roberts, who is seated beside her)."
Turning serious, Goodwin says, "I learned a lot just by watching Julia work every day. It was like a crash course in acting. I have gone through five years of theater in training, and nothing has taught me so much as watching Julia take the risks that she takes in every scene. She is so dedicated. One day, she was sick with the flu and she had this powerful scene that she had to do. And she gave a 200-percent performance! It is truly such an honor to be working with her."
At this point, Roberts is already all smiles and applauds Goodwin, obviously very much pleased with her "girls."
Article by Janet Susan R. Nepales
Originally published at Inq7.net - Posted on December 2003
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