Friday, November 16, 2007

Lizzy Caplan Interview - BlackBook


BlackBookMag.com has an interview with Lizzy Caplan, who plays Marlena Diamond, aka LenaDia.
BB: What can you tell me about Cloverfield? Is that even the name of the movie?

LC: I can’t even tell you that. It’s so weird, and I’m fully aware of how obnoxious it is.

BB: Have you seen it yet?

LC: No. I saw the newest trailer, though, which should be coming out in a few weeks. I think people are going to be pleasantly surprised, because this is a much bigger trailer [than the existing teaser], with more explosions and whatnot. It’s either going to be really good, or really disappointing. I don’t think that there’s much chance of gray area.

BB: What drew you to the character in the first place?

LC: Well, we weren’t exactly clear about the characters we were playing when we signed on. The producers sat us down and we auditioned with scenes that aren’t in the movie. Some were from “Alias” and some had been written specifically for the audition. And they were all very misleading.

BB: So, in casting, you read from Jennifer Garner’s lines?

LC: I’ve never really watched “Alias,” but I think they were Jennifer Garner’s lines. I had to plunge a syringe into some guy’s chest, and we were in France, and I didn’t have any idea what was going on.

BB: What convinced you to take the part?

LC: I’m a fan of “Lost.” That was it. During the first few weeks, it was like, “Oh god, this is what we’re doing? I had no idea. I’ll never sign on to another film again not knowing full well what it is.” But honestly, if Woody Allen or Wes Anderson called me today, and said, “Hey you want to do something? You don’t get to read the script,” I’d be like, “Yes, yes, yes!”

BB: How did J.J. Abrams ensure that the story wasn’t leaked? Did you get to take the script home with you?

LC: They’re actually coming by to pick it up today. We had to swap out every new set of pages with the old pages. They’re bright red, the scripts, and watermarked with our names. So, nobody wanted to be the one to accidentally leak it. They’re pretty hardcore about all of that. I don’t know how they’ve managed to keep it so secretive, though, because people obviously want to know more. And nobody knows anything. The speculation is very inaccurate.

BB: What are some of the more ridiculous speculations?

LC: There’s all this YouTube stuff about analyzing the trailer. People are seeing things that aren’t there and making up stuff that isn’t true. There’s this one still of me and Jessica Lucas, who’s another actress in the film, and people thought there was some crazy lion behind us. But people are wrong.

BB: Have the paparazzi been diligent about trying to get on set?

LC: There have been a few instances. The movie has gone though a bunch of different, strange names so that people don’t catch on. At one point, the title was Chocolate Outrage. But it’s interesting because nobody in the movie is famous. The movie is the celebrity. So it was almost like we were existing in the belly of Julia Roberts, where nobody cares about us. They were just taking pictures of this person that we were living inside.

BB: How has this project been different from, say, your experience with Mean Girls?

LC: The physically demanding elements were definitely different, and it’s shot in a very specific way. There’s no turning around, no close-ups, and no coverage. Also, because there were no recognizable names in it, the movie looks like it cost 150 million dollars even though it doesn’t. It was done really cheaply. People trying to make large-scale movies are going to be forced to do them for a lot less money after this comes out.

* Thanks to Vernon for emailing me about this!

22 comments:

  1. Whats up with the hazmat suits on the first picture?

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  2. Holy crap my excitment level for this movie has gone through the roof!

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  3. Uh, my guess is that they think people may be "contaminated" by whatever the thing is? Just a guess. (Roll eyes here).

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  4. So the larger question is this: are there smaller "creatures" as reported in the trailer but now believed to be these dudes in suits?

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  5. Where do these pictures come from?

    They look like promo items you'd find in Fangoria, only sans gore.

    "Gore" the thing, not the political one.

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  6. The only sign of smaller mosnters were the Shadows that were "ripping a girl apart" (mentioned on CHUD and AICN)

    now that we see its not monsters ripping her apart, but just HASMAT trying to contain her, i think we can put to rest that theory...

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  7. One interesting thing that I've read is that every "infected" person we've seen so far has been female. Does anyone think that this could have something to do with the bladder infection from the first Jamie & Teddy video? Sorry if someone already mentioned this.

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  8. I'm kind of glad that the smaller monster thing is not true. To me smaller monsters would take away from the plunder scenes with the big monster. I want to see Army guys and the big one go at it :)
    GO ARMY!!!!

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  9. I think that Jamie will be one of the first infected. Whatever's in that box will probably get her. Whether or not that turns her into one of these "smaller monsters," I dunno. Maybe the main monster is a collective of all of these Slusho drinkers who get absorbed into it somehow. Although that sounds pretty damn silly.

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  10. She's bleeding from the nose, eye(s?), and mouth slightly, and it appears that she's bleeding heavily from the ears or has had a head/neck injury. Her shirt's also completely covered in blood around the midsection, though that could just be from blood traveling downward.

    Kind of what you'd expect from blunt trauma, high pressure, or maybe sonic damage. I think it's safe to say she's probably gonna die.

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  11. ... and that is something, we also know from:

    http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/iamlegendawakening/

    The similarity is ... interesting.

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  12. I am a new cloverfieldclues.blogspot.com viewer and i am here to spread my knowlegde

    in the picture with the blue suit guys look at the 2nd guy from left

    to right...Do you see his face?

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  13. *Another important*

    At the end of the second trialer
    main characters are in a helocopter and are attacted while attempting to flee.

    What i am trying to say is the monster is after something and the main characters must have it.

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  14. something i just wanted to say dont look fard to a big killing of the monster at the end

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  15. Another thing i want to add about the bio suit azuls(guys in blue)


    do nothing but Look at the womans left hand.
    If someones trying to save you, you dont push away form them unless shes trying to get away put to weak.

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  16. O yea to add to what i said remember "Slusho is people"

    Females are sweet

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  17. Where did the pic of the bio suit azuls come from?

    if not 1-18-08.com then i dont trust it

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  18. No offense, c lover f ield, but couldn't you have put your thoughts into a single post? <_<

    Anyhow, I plan to see Beowulf this weekend. It's somewhat hard to tell what's going on in all the video camera clips.
    Damn JJ Abrams...I've never been so pumped about seeing a movie in my life. They've done a hell of a job marketing it. :-)

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  19. Um, c lover f ield... If you're gettting this info from somewhere, please be aware that this website (Cloverfield Clues) has been very careful about not posting spoilers without giving people a chance not to read them. If you're getting this from the set or a script or other source, then you're spreading spoilers and violating the spirit of this blog.

    "something i just wanted to say dont look fard to a big killing of the monster at the end."

    Well, I kind of figured that since J.J. Abrams made a big point of announcing he wants this movie to launch a series of movies starring the same monster.

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  20. w8t so theresa going to be a third trailer in a few weeks?

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  21. Personally (I think) that the "irresistible" ingredient that everyone is engulfing is what the monster is after. I mean... it comes out of the sea, the main ingredient is from "the depths of the ocean", and this ingredient could very well be a main part of its diet...

    What if the monster just is hungry? It might just sense its main food source shifting from under the sea to on the surface. I'm not saying it's that EXACTLY but... you gotta admit, SOMETHING drove the thing from the water to the land, and it has to do something with slusho's ingredient, tarugato's drilling, and man's ignorance.

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