The beautiful blonde ingenue Kate Bosworth has become a bona fide leading lady with her turn as Lois Lane, the former paramour who sets the Man of Steel’s heart soaring in Superman Returns. Here, she tells Hollywood.com how the role of the intrepid reporter was one to die—and dye—for.
Hollywood.com: What was your first exposure to the world of Superman?
Kate Bosworth: I didn’t grow up reading comics. My first exposure to Superman was when I was about six or seven. The [Richard Donner/Christopher Reeve] film had already come out when I was born. I was born in ’83 so it was on VHS, and I watched it with a friend who lived across the street, I was in San Francisco, and a friend of mine lived across the street, was my best girlfriend. And we were very into film, [Laughs] even at that age. It’s kind of funny, but we loved watching movies, she was sort of my movie buddy, and we watched Superman and we were very excited. It was sort of one of those films that you just want to be in. When you’re a young person you just fantasize about being Lois and being carried across the city, the same way you want to be Wendy in Peter Pan.
HW: So this was a bit of a fantasy project for you to get involved with.
KB: The main reason why I was most excited about joining this film was because it is Superman, and it’s so exciting and so great. Another main reason was Bryan Singer, he’s been one of my favorite directors of all time. And the third thing that was most exciting for me, was that, I was nervous to sign on because I hadn’t read a script, it was very top secret, when everyone was cast, no one had read the script, they came in with two scenes to read, it may or may not be in the film, but it was very big. And then when I was offered the role, I had to go in and sit in a room on the Warner Brothers lot, and they locked the door [Laughs]. And I’m not kidding you. I’m not exaggerating. And I sat there by myself with the script, and I’d been offered the part, and I just thought “Oh, what if it’s really bad? What am I gonna do?” And so I was very nervous, and I read it, and it was such a tremendous script. What was most important to me was that it was a story, and it wasn’t just a whole bunch of things exploding and looking cool and flash, it did have a tremendous heart from the very beginning, and I knew that that was very important to Bryan to have that come across in the film, and I really think it does.
HW: Were you at all concerned about how the fans would react to your casting?
KB: When I was first offered the part, I was—it was my first fear, because, really, I mean, the icon notion of it is nerve-wracking. But I think what was most nerve-wracking for me was the investment and passion that the fans have for this film. And you know, I just wanted to do my best, and honor them and how they view the film.
HW: Have you read anything online about what the die-hards thought about casting?
KB: No. [Laughs] You know, I don’t ever read that stuff, to be honest, just for the exact reason that I said: my nerves were all in a crazy way, because if I had read all that stuff, you know, why? Why would you read that? You go and you do your job, you’re cast for a reason, you have to trust the people that have cast you and the people that are around you, and on this film we had Bryan Singer, who is such an incredible film maker and a very dear friend now of mine, and at that point you’ve gotta trust that—and trust yourself, most importantly, because I think that all actors are insecure. I think that I certainly am. You’ve gotta just go in and trust yourself. I think if you read all of that noise, although you want to honor the fans and then do your best, if you read all that and get caught up in it, then I think it probably would not be good for you—it wouldn’t be good for my performance.
HW: Why are you insecure?
KB: [Laughs] Well, I think that that is a very funny question, because–it’s sort of a presumptuous question to be honest, because you don’t know me, and it’s a kind of vague thing to ask, considering you don’t, but I mean, I was insecure because I think almost all artists are insecure. I don’t ever watch myself and think, that was great, I hit it out of the park, never. No, I mean, I’ve just begun my career. I’m 23, I’m just learning. I feel like I’ve just come out of the gate. [Sighs] I guess I just feel like one of the things I love most about this job is that I don’t feel like you can ever master it. I think you’re always learning and you’re always growing, and even when you think you’re at the top of your game, there’s always something else that you can do and learn. I think that if I wanted to fall into a niche where I knew I was really good at something, I could do that and I could feel secure there. But I don’t want to do that. I want to do things that challenge me, that I will be scared doing, because I’m not the best at it, but I certainly want to do it to have that experience and to challenge myself and be seen in different ways. I could sit there and be a cookie-cutter certain way, and sit there and probably make money from it, and do what people expect me to do, but that’s not what I want to do. And I think that if you don’t do what you want to do in life, then what’s the point?
HW: Have you seen the final cut of the film?
KB: No, actually, I saw the film yesterday for the first time, and it’s funny, because I really hadn’t seen anything, and that was my choice. I never watch dailies, even when I came in to loop, Bryan wanted to show me other scenes. I said “Nope, don’t show me anything, I want to see it at the end, when it’s all said and done.” So it was exciting for me to be able to see it, because I think I was pretty much the only person that was directly involved with the film who had a very fresh pair of eyes.
HW: Tell us about your first meeting with Brandon Routh.
KB: I met Brandon [Routh] for the first time when he had the role already, and I came in to screen test. I was very curious to see how he was as a person, but to see how he was gonna play the role, because as I said, I was given two scenes, one was Lois Lane with Clark Kent, and one was Lois Lane with Superman, so I was—so when I was going into the room, I was very curious to see how he was gonna play both, and excited to see that, and I think like many people I was sort of–I don’t know, I was skeptical in a way, you know what I mean? I think I was going in sort of hypercritical of. I thought how is anyone really gonna be able to pull off Superman nowadays? I really was—I was curious. And I went in, and I started to read with him as Clark Kent first, and I thought, oh he’s really, really good, he’s playing this really well. And I thought well OK, Clark Kent, I want to see how he plays Superman, you know, the second one. But I was impressed with how he played Clark Kent. And then we went to the Superman scene, which is the rooftop scene, so you know, it was a lot of different emotions were going through my characters head and his, and I remember being in the middle of that scene, and just realizing in the moment that I had become totally lost in just reading with him, in a white bare sparse room with a tripod video camera and a couple people sitting around watching, and that’s when I realized that he was gonna be tremendous in the film.
HW: Was it tough to work in Sydney, so far away from home?
KB: It was in the way that I missed my family and my friends, but it was such a time of real independence for me. I loved being in Australia.
HW: What did you do to express your independence?
KB: Well, I was 22 when I went over there, and I was living on my own—with my dog—and I had my own apartment, and I’d never been on location for so long on my own. When I went away on location before, I was younger and I’d usually bring my mom or friends because I was nervous to be on my own and just feel grown up. And this was the first time where—obviously I was playing a mom and she was getting married, and I was ready to embrace feeling like a grown up [Laughs]. And I had such a good time, being there. I had a great time.
HW: How was it to be a brunette?
KB: Well I was a brunette in Wonderland so it wasn’t—you change your hair color, you can be pretty shocked into how you look. You look completely different. But it certainly helped in creating a character and feeling like a different person, the same as when you put on a completely different wardrobe would. Yeah, it was great, I loved it.
