Did you enjoy the wardrobe that you got to wear?
Olivia Wilde: Oh ya, the clothes were great. The clothes in every film always inform you a lot about the character. When you step into the wardrobe you suddenly understand who you are. When I played a stripper I didn’t know who she was until I put on the stripper shoes. When I played a doctor I didn’t really understand it till I had the lab coat on. With Suzy, once I put on this incredible shearling coat and fedora and eight inch boots, I thought, “ok, I know this chick.” I love 70’s style and music and that’s part of what intrigued me about doing Rush.
Did you talk to the real life Suzy Miller to prepare for your role?
Olivia Wilde: I didn’t. It was interesting because Ron and I spoke about how much contact I should have with her. She certainly gave her blessing, which was important to me, but Ron didn’t want me to do an impression of her, which I would have been tempted to do. Chris and Daniel had to do an impression, and they studied speech patterns and mannerisms. For me, I had more freedom to interpret my character. Suzy remembers James quite fondly right now, and that kind of informed the way I interpreted her. But I also wanted to make sure that I didn’t leave out that sense of frustration and anger and pain that James brought about in her.
What is sexiness on the big screen?
Olivia Wilde: Confidence, in men and women. Someone who has a self assured confidence and owns their power is sexy. It certainly doesn’t mean the amount of skin that is shown. On camera, sometimes it’s difficult to be still and to just hold your own. When you watch someone who is able to capture stillness in a confident way, it comes off as sexy.
Tell us a bit about working with Ron Howard.
Olivia Wilde: I followed Ron around this set like a shadow. I was so amazed by his calm demeanour. He does so much preparation so that when he’s on set, he can focus on the actors. He never seemed too overly concerned with the action or the technical aspect, he was listening very closely to our performances and giving a lot of helpful feedback.
That concludes our interview but we’d like to thank Olivia very much for her time. Be sure to check out Rush when it hits theatres this Friday!
