[IMG:L]It’s hard to imagine that with a recent resume full of knockout performances to her credit (including Rent, Clerks II and Sin City) that Rosario Dawson would have to audition for a role once, let alone twice – yet, as she tells Hollywood.com. that’s how far she had to go to land the part in Death Proof, director Quentin Tarantino’s installment in the double feature Grindhouse.
Hollywood.com: It wasn’t so long ago that Kevin Smith was going around pronouncing you the world’s hottest geek girl. Now you’re adding to your geek street cred by starring in a Quentin Tarantino movie. How’d that come about?
Rosario Dawson: I auditioned twice for Quentin, I auditioned twice for Sin City and I auditioned twice for this. I flew to Austin with Sydney [Poitier] and we talked about it and I was very excited. I came and I had met Quentin before because he co-directed on Sin City and we kind of became very friendly then, and I would have done anything for him—to just say “Action!” at one point—at all. He didn’t direct any of my scenes. Then I went down and as soon as I walk in he said “Abernathy – I have read everybody for it, including Rose [McGowan] and no one seems to get her. They just really can’t figure out all her transitions and I know you can do it – go.” And I was like [big gasp], because I was having a hard time figuring her out as well. I thought it went really well. Robert [Rodriguez] was there, we had a really great time, we laughed our asses off, and then I left and I didn’t get the call, that “Yes, we have the part” call. I was really disappointed.
HW: You’ve been a major Tarantino fan since long before you met him.
RD: When I had first started acting I was discovered on the street I was 15 and Kids came out when I was 16 and I decided I wanted to keep acting. I asked my dad what movie I should watch first to start getting into watching great acting, and he gave me Reservoir Dogs and I watched it seven times that week! I think most parents would have been very nervous about it, but my dad was like “Oh great, she gets it.” And I think he is phenomenal. Every once in a while Quentin will make me do the speech that he does, on the Reservoir Dogs shot that he does in that one, the “Like a Virgin” monologue. I got that memorized, because I am retarded like that. I actually beat him to it because he swore he only said “dick” seven times and I knew he said it nine. It was a big argument on set, so it was kind of cool to win that one. I was like “No, dude, I am sorry you don’t know you own movie, but I can tell you right now you said nine times, I’m just telling you. I got the whole rhythm memorized.” But it was really important to me to be able to have a scene and be able to work on his dialogue to be able to work with him and be able to impress him that I could do it. He only works with people that he is really a fan of, that is why he calls up Uma Thurman, why he called up John Travolta and Sam Jackson, the people that we take for granted who are huge celebrities right now. He was knocking on their door: “Give me an opportunity to bring you back out here again, because I want you for my movie and I am going to do it based off of my celebrity as a director because no one else would be funding movies with you guys being the stars in.” We take it for granted that now that is happening again, but that was not happening at that time. So the privilege of being able to work with someone who I knew only works with people that he is a tremendous fan of was a really big deal to me.
HW: So how’d you finally land the part?
RD: I went back in and I asked for a second audition and I flew into New York, because that is where he was doing it. We waited four hours in the lobby because he was reading all these other people. I am watching other women I know are auditioning for my part and I’m going “Whatever.” Tracie [Thoms] was there with me and we both went in together—we watched all his movies, she worked on her Sam Jackson pimp laugh, I worked on all the rhythm of my dialogue, and we went in there. And all we did for four hours sitting in that lobby was just keep doing the scene over, and over, and over again. When we got upstairs we did the scene with him and he was like “Oh my God, I feel like I’m watching my movie.” We were like “That is the point!” We sold ourselves so hard, doing the whole “Quentin, hire me” dance…I definitely didn’t get this handed to me based off of my career or previous relationship, I fought for that role. I am glad. I talked to him and he was like “You were not bad in that first audition, but it really made the difference that you came back in the second time.” Ego dropped away. It was like “I just want to be a great actor for you and collaborate with you on something. If it’s not this movie, I just want to know that you know I can bring it.”
[IMG:R]HW: Can you describe why you wanted to be a part of this so badly?
RD: People are going to see these movies because of Robert and Quentin. They are not watching for the actors that are in it, and not even watching for the Grindhouse aspect of it. It is really nice to watch two movies for the price of one, but the two movies for the price of one that I want to watch have to be directed by Quentin and Robert. That is what you are going for. That is a really remarkable thing. There is not pressure as an actor—literally, I don’t have to worry about it. I am not selling this movie. This is Quentin and Robert doing their genius, and I am just really excited to be a part of it. Honestly, Quentin would not be Death Proof had he not given me one of these roles. There are eight roles in his movie and it would have been a really sad day for him had he not cast me in one of them. This is his “Reservoir Bitches” movie, and I really wanted to be one of those chicks.
HW: Even though you were stuck sitting in the back seat while Tracie Thoms got to drive like a maniac and Zoe Bell got to hang on the hood of the car?
RD: I know, it was very badass of them. Actually I had envy for quite a while. I still do, I think, a little bit, over Zoe‘s amazing hood ornament impression. Having worked with Jeff Dashnaw, who was the stunt coordinator on Sin City as well, I thought that I would be able to maybe get a chance to get on the hood of the car. You don’t have to go 70—65 will be fine. But it never happened. Insurance nightmare I guess. I got to be in the car most of the time. I was very excited about that doing all the 360s and 180s.
HW: But Quentin also always maintains the feminine touch, particularly in his dialogue.
RD: He is very close to his feminine side, I have to say. He is really good at hanging out with the girls. We did a lot of that, we were on location and it is a mostly female cast, so we spent a lot of time together. I have never witnessed a director who is that comfortable on his actors, but especially around a cast of women. The dialogue that he creates for them, the situations he creates for them—I mean, look at this cast. They are every size, shape, color, age that there is. Every single one of them is treated with the respect of the beauty and the striking ness of each of these individual women as they should be. That comes from his matriarchal raising, how he was raised in a matriarchal household, single parent mom raising him, and he has that in him. Even though he is doing those homage to great chase car films like Bullitt that didn’t have women in it really, even though he is doing that 70s Grindhouse thing where most of the women were usually topless and being slashed and thrown in the back, as expendable as a zombie—This is the 2007 version of a Grindhouse movie and it is going to be a badass chick who is coming over that wall with a gun strapped to her leg…Those women kicking the shit out of each other in the trailer of Kill Bill is one of the most incredible scenes you have ever seen, and you do not doubt for a second that those women are tough as hell and you do not want to be on their bad side. That is a really cool thing to create and it is not generic, it is not crazy, it’s not exploitative, it’s not silly. They are dynamic and incredible women. It was striking for me to be working with Zoe as closely as I did as an actor and then watch her go out of the side a window and slide down the hood of the car and giggling 70 miles per hour. I mean, it is insane to me that is what this woman does for a living and she makes it look easy. It is striking and I am really looking forward to women watching this movie because I think it is going to be a big surprise for them to look at it and watch it.
HW: Having made films with Tarantino, Rodriguez and Kevin Smith, you’ve worked with the three writer-directors that were the vanguards of the indie film movement, as well as the champions of film geek cinema. What do they have in common and what is unique about them?
RD: How much time do we have? Jeez—They are really, really, really remarkable men in that they are fans first. That is what they bring, that is where the integrity comes from. Not so much the idea of like “I’m a star, I have got to make sure that my next film is as good as my last film.” It doesn’t come from that; the next film that they make is one that they would want to have on their shelf amongst all the other films that are their favorite movies. If it’s not going to compare in that way, then there is no point in putting energy into it…because he goes over [schedule]. Kill Bill went over quite a lot. We went over about two months on our shooting as well. He wants to make sure that he gets exactly what he needs. If he is going to spend that much time and energy, he is not on his phone; he is on location, he disappears from his world. That is a really incredible thing, Kevin the same thing. These are people who when I listen to them talk about moviemaking I can: Quentin has done liner notes for a Johnny Cash album, he has directed CSI episodes, he was a guest host on American Idol. Kevin Smith went and was doing that TV show [Digrassi: The Nest Generation]—these are people who you want to listen just talk about filmmaking in general, because they are an encyclopedia. They are the actual physical Wikipedia of movies and TV shows and music, everything they are those consummate fans. But that doesn’t necessarily translate into anything great, just because they can regurgitate. I have been around a lot of geeks at the different ‘cons’ and they can talk a lot of “…in Episode 4…” but that does not mean that they can walk the walk. These are people who ingest all of this information and then actually filter it through the talent that they inherently have and put out incredible product that fan after fan is never disappointed by. I would have gone to see this movie anyway, just because it is Robert and Quentin and I know without a doubt it is going to be worth my time. They are going to make it worth my time. Same thing with Kevin, it is going to be funny, it is going to be great, you are going to have all the potty humor and all those different things but it is going to be strikingly great. He is going to have moments that are actually touching, there is going to be a purpose behind it because that is important to him. To be up there and not just talk about great movies that he loves and then not make good ones…There is no middle ground with [Tarantino, Rodriguez and Smith]—these are high stakes for them, because this is their life. That is very, very, very cool. I think that is something you can’t fake. Honestly, when I watch this movie and look at the trailers in the middle of this, there is no excuse in Hollywood why they are not making better films. None. The women roles, as bad as they can be, the action scenes and all the different things that happen? You can make a great dynamic, really fun, exciting movie, for an audience to watch and it still be a great popcorn movie and still have great acting in it, great actors in it, great moments in it. There is no excuse not to have that. They just proved it in this movie. The movies they are making homage to are pretty terrible most of them. The fact that they brought it out and made the 2007 version with badass chicks to boot? Come on, Hollywood – step up your game.
