Her (2013)

I: Between Fincher and Steven Soderbergh who both seem to know absolutely everything in the world, are they handing you down things and being like, “Learn this.” Are you getting a film education from directors like that?


R: I mean, I am. Unfortunately, I’m so bad. I won’t even tell you the movies that I haven’t seen.



I: Oh God. I don’t shame anybody for that. There’s too many. You can’t see everything.


R: I saw The Godfather for the first time, a week ago.



I: That’s really exciting. Did you like it?


R: I loved it and it was so exciting. It also just made me really depressed though. I also watched Annie Hall for the first time last weekend and it was like, why don’t people make movies anymore, like actual movies. And so it was really depressing, but it is so exciting, I have so many amazing movies like that to watch.



I: So, is that what you’re using your time off from acting, to kind of do the research?


R: Yeah, I’ve been watching a lot of movie and also, you know, catching up with life and spending time with family and I’ve had a lot of work stuff to do, just not acting.



I:  Are you playing Joaquin Phoenix’s ex-wife in Her?


R: Yes.







I: I feel like you’ve done a couple of roles, this too, playing older than you are, or someone who feels older than you are.


R: Well, I guess maybe, I look younger than I am, but I feel older than my age, which is kind of a weird place to be. But, the Spike Jonze film takes place kind of in the future, so I don’t know. It didn’t seem, playing his ex, they were worried about my age. They thought I was too young for it, but because I kind of play this genius scientist and it takes place in the future, so being younger than him, I don’t know, just didn’t feel weird. Kind of how in a period piece, it wouldn’t feel weird for me to be married to someone that age, you know.



i: The idea of strong women in movies is something that gets talked about , but a lot of films will claim they have a strong female character who is also really limited in what she can actually do. Then I was thinking about your sister on “House of Cards”, which is such an interesting female role in the way that it plays with sexuality and strength and the way that those two things can exist at the same time, and they’re very rarely shown that way. Do you feel like there is like a strong female trap, like here are the two different ways that we can be strong in movies and that’s all that you get out there?


R: Yeah, it’s really frustrating the way that females are depicted in film and what’s available. You just think about the roles that are out there for men. They’re so interesting and I’m sorry, but females are the more complicated, interesting sex. We are. And we’re just not depicted that way and that’s one of the things I loved about this is that she’s a mom. But I’ve read so many scripts where it’s like, the protective mom and she just will do anything to protect her child and it’s so, it’s just not real life. No one is that, most people are not that, you know, good. And here was a mother and it was just, to me, so much more interesting the way she was a mother and how complicated it was and it wasn’t, I don’t know. It’s definitely frustrating that females are, they’re not portrayed as complicated or as interesting as they really are.