Continuing my coverage of the RED 2 press day I attended in New York City last weekend, here’s the second star who graced us with her presence – Mary Louise Parker. You know her from such works as Weeds, Angels In America, a bevy of other films, and some theater work, but the next part you’ll be seeing her play is Bruce Willis’ love interest Sarah in the upcoming RED sequel. More guns, more explosions, more being protected, but most importantly for us, more Mary-Louise Parker.
While covering a bunch of topics, you can read on to check out Mary-Louise discuss the change her character makes from RED to RED 2, her thoughts on all the “making out” she had to do in the film, and who she would love to work with if RED 3 goes ahead. Hope you enjoy it!
In RED 2, Mary-Louise’s character Sarah starts to take a liking to all the action going on around her. This is how Mary-Louise described the changes that take place in her character:
Mary-Louise Parker: When you first see her, she’s living her life as an operator. I think her whole outlook [mirrored] romance novels and this idea of adventure, a life that was mysterious and captivating. I think that’s what she’s always dreamed of. Then she got a little taste of it, and she wanted more. That’s what this movie focuses on – her desire to be exactly what Catherine Zeta-Jones’ character is. It’s perfect that Catherine shows up in the movie playing that part because she walks in with that glamor – she doesn’t even have to reach for it.
Since the theme of this press day somehow centered around a few characters having to participate in a good amount of “making out” (including Sarah), someone cheekily asked Mary-Louise how one prepares to make out with so many different characters in one film:
Mary-Louise Parker: Did I? Four or six characters? Oh, yeah! I think that was my idea actually. I believe there were just two of those moments, but then I said “I think that should be [Sarah’s] thing when she doesn’t know what to do.” When you have children you can’t remember anything but play dates and such. I totally forgot about that.
I’m not shy really. I’ll kiss anyone, really, with varying degrees of enjoyment, but I have to say Mr. Willis is up there. It would be nice if it could have been Bruce in every scene, but I like that kissing was kind of the only weapon she had.
A lot of the actors that day kept repeating how the whole cast and crew felt like one big family, so we asked Mary-Louise what that feels like on-set and how it felt coming back to do RED 2:
Mary-Louise Parker:Â You don’t really get that in movies and I did on this one, especially with Bruce [Willis], John [Malkovich], and I, because we spent the most time together. The three of us were an unlikely little trio that happens to, for whatever reason, blend together super well. It’s a weird kind of mix of people, isn’t it? The three of us? But it just works. If you’re going to be stuck in a car with someone, like John Malkovich, you want to like them. He happens to be my hero, so I felt very lucky.
Continuing the question, we asked Mary-Louise if there was any improvisational work between the three of them on set:
Mary-Louise Parker:Â John and I do a lot, and there’s some that goes on. It’s kind of hard doing that in film, because there’s a lot of cameras going at once and if you overlap too much the sound people don’t like it. If it’s a master shot, you can get away with some of it.
