Paula Patton Talks deja vu

Paula Patton Talks deja vu

Maybe it was living across the street from the 20th Century Fox studio that made Paula Patton want to be an actress. Perhaps it was her fondness for playing ‘pretend’ as a child, or her lifelong love of movies. Or maybe, just maybe, she had the strange feeling she would one day co-star with one of the world’s biggest stars, Oscar winner Denzel Washington, in Tony Scott’s Deja Vu, which is that rare thing: a gripping thriller with action and brains. Whatever the reason, the petite and pretty twentysomething had only managed a handful of small roles, in Hitch and Idlewild, when she beat hundreds of better-known actresses to play Claire Kuchever, an ordinary girl who gets caught up in extraordinary circumstances when she becomes the first victim of a terrorist who subsequently blows up a packed passenger ferry. Enter homicide detective Denzel Washington, who is introduced to a top secret government program in which he finds it’s not only possible to spy on living people from satellites -- as in Scott’s earlier thriller, Enemy of the State -- but to look back in time to peek into the lives of people who, like Claire, are dead. What better way to solve a crime than to witness it?

Just when you think there are no new ideas under the sun, along comes a film like Deja Vu with a totally ingenious plot, that feels totally fresh.
Yeah, the idea was really great, I was somebody who was already into quantum physics and a person believes that anything is possible, so to have a film come along that dealt with deja vu and parallel universes, and put it into an interesting thriller/suspense movie -- I thought it was ingenious. And of course it’s fun, but it also makes you think -- you leave it thinking ‘What’s possible?’. It’s scary to think that the government could be watching you at any time.
Yeah, the technology in the film is highly advanced...
Exactly. You can’t go back in the past -- not yet. But you never know…
...but Tony Scott makes the science fiction aspects of it totally plausible.
Absolutely. That’s what’s great about working with Tony Scott -- he wants to make science fact, not science fiction. He did so much research with quantum physicists and technologu. Remember this is the man who made Enemy of the State, which showed us technology where you can look down on people from satellites -- and all of a sudden you could do that. So in Deja Vu, when you do have to take that leap of faith into believing we could look back in time, he’s already convinced you that it’s possible.
Maybe it’s not so far fetched for you -- after all, you did say you dabble in quantum physics!
(Laughs) No, I don’t dabble! I just watched a documentary about it! I don’t want to seem smarter than I am…
So if you can go back in time for a second, tell me how you became involved with Deja Vu? I auditioned for it in the summer of 2005, and obviously I wanted to be a part of it. I mean, Denzel Washington! Tony Scott! [Producer] Jerry Bruckheimer! But quite frankly I didn’t know how much of a shot I had. And then Hurricane Katrina happened and the film got put on hold because it was going to shoot in New Orleans... and then it came back again, and I read with Denzel for the role and I got it.

Where were you when you were told you’d got the part?
Oh, I remember that day so vividly! It was 8 o’clock in the morning on a Monday, and I woke my husband up screaming! And he knew immediately what it was. I’ve been pinching myself ever since.

When did you start to freak out?
The moment they told me. I was like ‘Is it true, can they take it away?’ I really didn’t believe that I had [the part] until I was on set, and then I was just working not to get fired. And half way through the movie I finally realised ‘Oh it’s too expensive for me to get replaced!’ (Laughs)

What was the most surprising thing about working with Denzel? I don’t know… To be honest with you, Denzel is a very mysterious person, so I can’t say that I know who he is outside of Deja Vu. He’s got a great sense of humor -- he made me laugh a lot. But what didn’t surprise me is that I learned so much from him. He blows your mind. I became a better actress because of him. If you go with him on the ride that he’s on, and you’re not resistant to his technique, he can make anybody look better than they are, because he believes it. Maybe that’s why he’s such a great ‘guide’ in movies, because he believes it so much while he’s doing it, that’s why we believe him. And that’s why he can play so many different characters and we never go ‘Oh that’s Denzel playing this’ -- we really believe that the character is him, whether it be a bad cop in Training Day, or a good guy, or anything.

You’re right: he’s got a very natural acting style, so you don’t see him acting the character so much as being the character.
He doesn’t have a plan for how he’s going to do something, and that’s what I learned from him: as an actor you prepare, but how you accomplish what you need to do in a scene shouldn’t be something you planned out -- it should be organic. Denzel just free-falls, so if you fall with him into whatever’s going to happen at that moment, your acting seems so pure and real. Even the director doesn’t know what he’s going to do, because he surprises you on every take -- he does something different and unique and totally honest and real to that character. That’s what’s so remarkable about him.

How did you find Tony Scott as a director?
He’s like Denzel -- he doesn’t always know how he’s going to shoot a scene, but he gets up at like 3 in the morning to make his storyboards, has the cameras -- at least five -- set up for every shot, but then he sort of acts like a conductor behind the monitors, having the cameras move in a particular way, to go hunting for a particular shot. I think that’s why his films feel so alive. He likes things to be as real and honest as possible whether it be the performances or wardrobe or location. He liked me to wear my own clothes to be as real as possible, and do as much work on location as possible, rather than on a sound stage.

The film was shot in New Orleans, a few months after Hurricane Katrina. What was that like?
It was intense, that’s all I can tell you. You go to the ninth ward and then you realize you’re out of it, and the destruction goes on for miles. Nothing prepares you for it. It’s such a ghost town -- there’s so much destruction everywhere… so much pain in the people. But it shows how human beings are survivors. When you’re working on a movie you tend to take things so seriously, but then you realise there are worse things than a ‘take’ not going right!

It’s a testament to Tony Scott that he decided to shoot there anyway, to bring the economic boost of a big movie to such a damaged place.
It was, and both Tony and Jerry Bruckheimer are not the kind of people who could go into a city like New Orleans and not hire local crew. There was a real sense of wanting to give back to the community and that was part of the responsibility of going there to shoot as well.

Watching the film, I thought it must be particularly difficult to play the scenes where Denzel’s character is watching you, because you don’t know you’re being watched -- you can’t be self-conscious.
Yeah, they’re challenging scenes because you have to remember how you behave when you really are alone and no one’s watching you. And there’s a natural tendency for an actor to act for the camera a bit -- not that you should, but... you have to be careful. I was trying to be as honest to how I’d be if I was alone in the house as possible, short of picking my nose!

You’re dead when Denzel meets you, but then he gets to see you alive again, and kind of falls in love with you. It’s vaguely necrophiliac when you think about it...
(Laughs) I think that’s part of the deja vu of it, that when he sees her [corpse] he has a strange feeling that he’s met her already. He’s someone who’s character investigates crimes after they happen, and is constantly dealing with death, and when he sees this young innocent victim, and gets involved with this government program, he actually sees this person alive. It’s the unique aspect of the movie, and it makes sense for his character, because he’s a bit of a loner, and he’s always dealing with death, and now he has a chance to stop something before it happens.

It’s such an ingenious story that when I watched in in the theater I wished I had the DVD so I could listen to the commentary and watch all the behind-the-scenes stuff. Are you a DVD geek at all?
I am a DVD geek. I was so late on my Blockbuster fees I only ever buy DVDs now, so now everybody comes to my house to rent. I like to watch deleted scenes, and go behind the scenes and learn all about the making of the movie. Making a film is a long, collaborative process and sometimes the things you think ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe this is happening’ turns out to be where the magic happens.

Has being in such a great movie helped your career?
Obviously a film like Deja Vu helps you get other work, and as an actor you’re always wondering when your next job is going to be! (Laughs) I’m going to start a movie with Kiefer Sutherland called Call Me Yours. And at the beginning of next year I’m going to be in a movie called This Wednesday which is partially based on a true story of a female pimp in Atlanta, and I play that role. That’s going to be challenging because it’s outside any reality that I’ve known. It’s nothing glamorous, but I’m really excited to get deep into that role. But I got to do so many fun things with Deja Vu, like the international press tour, with Denzel and Tony and Jerry Bruckheimer, I had the time of my life. Everybody treated me like a princess -- and then I had to go home and take out my trash!

And I’m sure you must have got deja vu every time you were asked the same questions over and over again, but in a different country!
Yeah, but I don’t mind talking about myself! ‘You wanna talk about me? I can do that a little longer!’

What did your loved ones think of the movie?
They were so happy for me: my mom, my dad, my husband [singer Robin Thicke], my friends… My mom was like ‘I can’t believe you’re in a movie with Denzel Washington!’ It’s beyond your wildest dreams because when you start, you just want to act -- in anything. I didn’t even dare dream I’d be working with Denzel and Tony and Jerry Bruckheimer -- that triumverate. And to get to work with them so early on in my career is such a blessing.

Déjà Vu is now available from Buena Vista Home Entertainment in both DVD and Blu-ray formats

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