[IMG:L]Okay, so the highly-anticipated Robert Rodriguez–Quentin Tarantino double feature Grindhouse got a bloodier reception at the box office than expected (in hindsight, maybe releasing a three-hour homage to cheap-o gore-fests, no matter how stylistically cool, on Easter weekend may have been a miscalculation) but it’s still one of our favorite flicks of 2007. And no performance in the film made us sit up and take notice more than Sydney Tamiia Poitier’s mesmerizing turn as the sexy, strong-willed Austin DJ Jungle Julia in Tarantino’s virtuoso car chase cinema Death Proof.
Hollywood.com crashed Miss Poitier – the daughter of acting legend Sidney Poitier – taking in all the sights and sounds of the Comic-Con Exhibitors Floor – including a real one-legged girl with a machine-gun prosthetic in full regalia as Planet Terror’s Cherry Darling dancing at her Grindhouse booth promoting the forthcoming DVD release – for a post-mortem on the daring double bill and some inside info on how Tarantino made her dad feel cool all over again.
Hollywood.com: Is this your first time visiting Comic-Con?
Sydney Tamilla Poitier: I came down last year when they announced the cast and showed a little bit of Robert‘s footage and stuff. It was really quick, we were in an auditorium, and then we kind of came out for a quick signing. I didn’t really get to spend that much time. This is my first time actually really experiencing it a little bit. It’s surreal. I have never seen anything like this in my life. There is so much going on in the movies, the comics, the fans, and people dress up. It’s really cool. I like it!
HW: What are you going to do if you see a Jungle Julia walking around?
STP: That would be crazy bizarre. I don’t even know what I would do.
HW: Or a Stuntman Mike…
STP: That might freak me out a little bit!
HW: What has your life been like since the film? Do you think the film is going to have a life beyond the theatrical?
STP: I really hope that it does. I think it will. I think that Quentin‘s movies tend to always have a really big life on DVD. I think Robert‘s too, so I think that will be one thing. Plus it hasn’t been released in the rest of the world yet. I think that comes in the fall, right around when the DVD comes out in the States. I think there is definitely more life out of it – it’s the kind of movie that will be around a really long time. It maybe didn’t do so great theatrically, but it’s the kind of movie where people are going to own the DVDs and watch over and over and over and over. Maybe one day they are going to do midnight showings – it’s the perfect midnight showing movie. That is what I am hoping for, and I could see it happening. It’s just a great, fun movie.
[IMG:R]HW: Your performance was so strong. Has that opened up a lot of doors in Hollywood?
STP: Yes and no. I think because maybe not as many people saw the film as we had hoped there has been a little bit less of it. But, the people who have seen it have had a really strong reaction to it – Casting directors in particular. I am getting called in on a lot of bigger, better things that I wouldn’t have been called in on before the movie…I might be doing a film, it’s not official yet, in the next few weeks. It would be in New York, indie kind of cool movie. There is a lot of stuff pending. I’ve had a lot of really great auditions, in the last couple of months especially. I don’t know yet, we’ll see what’s next.
HW: It seemed the Death Proof cast got on famously, like an acting troupe family. Have you stayed in touch, or has it been a thing where you do the job and go your separate ways?
STP: I’ve stayed in touch. In Death Proof, because it’s divided into two sections, all my work was done with Vanessa [Ferlito] and Jordan [Ladd] and I talked to Jordan on the way down here in the car. I talked to Vanessa maybe like a week ago. We still talk all the time – she’s getting ready to have a baby. We all stay really, really in touch.
HW: What’s something we don’t know about either Quentin or Kurt Russell? Something you found unexpected when you got to work with them?
STP: I didn’t know that Kurt Russell was such a goofball and just laughs all the time. Quentin? I don’t think I realized how childlike and exuberant he actually was. I knew he was passionate about movies and I knew he was full of this creative energy. But, he is as excited as a 5-year-old kid with his first fire truck or something. He is just so excited, and that was pretty cool to work with.
[IMG:L]HW: Did he have questions about your dad that he had to ask you immediately?
STP: We did have a couple of conversations about my dad. Actually, he had me and my dad and my sister over to his house to watch some original prints he had of my dad’s movies, including one that I had never seen and I don’t think my dad ever saw. It was called The Long Ships – I think he wasn’t too happy about doing it back in the day when he did it. He thought it was kind of silly, but then watching it through Quentin‘s eyes and Quentin‘s commentary through this whole thing, he was like “This movie is cool!”
