HEATHER GRAHAM: I mean, if anybody says that they absolutely know what makes a movie do well, then they’re lying because obviously nobody does, you know?
CHRIS NEUMER: Have you found that there are certain red flags or certain green flags as you look through scripts that sort of attract you to projects? Not that you’re reminiscing, but just that you sort of learned what to look for.
HEATHER GRAHAM: To be honest, the main thing that I’ve learned is, sometimes I’ve read things and I’ve thought “I’m not really that into it”, but people have talked me into it, saying “Look at this, look at it this way.” I guess I’ve learned sort of to trust more of my gut instinct, not always saying that I wouldn’t sometimes make a wrong decision, but sort of learning to trust your instincts more or good.
CHRIS NEUMER: Realizing that you are, in fact as right as you think you are.
HEATHER GRAHAM: Well, because you are an artist and maybe something is good but it doesn’t inspire you. So it just means maybe you’re not supposed to do it. You know? Or maybe you don’t like something and you talk yourself into it and you go, “Why’d I talk myself into that?” You know. I don’t know. The more I work, the more I think I should just be myself and just choose things I want, whereas before I was really worried, like, “What if I don’t do this and this?” You know what I mean? Kind of more caught up in fear of making the decision, but now I’m just working more and just following my instinct and going, “Screw it. This is what I think so I’m doing that.”
CHRIS NEUMER: Is it better for you as an actor, or easier, if you find a project that you’re really into, to do well in that project, than on something where you’re going, “Okay this is a good script but I’m not feeling it.”
HEATHER GRAHAM: Um, say that again.
CHRIS NEUMER: Is it easier for you to do a better job on something that you read and go, “This is for me,” than on something that you read and go, “This is good but I’m not feeling it…”
HEATHER GRAHAM: Well they usually go a lot together, if you feel something’s really good, usually you can really relate to it I guess. That’s usually the case.
CHRIS NEUMER: Does that make it easier for you to relate to the character?
HEATHER GRAHAM: Yeah. But it’s kind of not like, yeah, it’s not such a stretch. You have some part of you that identifies or relates in some way.
CHRIS NEUMER: Is there—I was talking about this with John [Corbett] a great deal earlier. We were having a great deal of fun sort of comparing acting as a job versus playing in the NBA. I’m not going to bore you with the details of that, other than with what I’ve done already, but is there a sense of something that gets your motivation going and keeps you up on a high level? If you’re playing for a bad team, how do you keep your spirits up and running?
HEATHER GRAHAM: Well, I think it’s just like script. Reading a script. Feeling inspired by a script. I think it all kind of comes down to the writing, and of course, the director as well. But I think as an actor, you know, when you’re reading that script and you’re working on something for a month before you show up on the set, you just want to be inspired by the words that you say and the story. And I think the thing that Brian said about me being funny, which I think is really sweet of him, it’s funny cause I feel like I’m a lot of times unintentionally funny. You know what I mean? Like when I’m not really trying to be funny is when my friends just like think I’m like… they’re just laughing so hard.
CHRIS NEUMER: That’s a good thing.
HEATHER GRAHAM: Yeah. Like, if I’m trying—I mean, every now and then I can tell a joke and it will be funny, but I’m not really like a joke teller. But it is—I think I have like a weird, quirky thing that people, my friends, think is funny.
CHRIS NEUMER: You’re funny being you. You’re naturally comfortable in your own skin. Gotcha. Now one thing I’ve been noticing, I just talked to Kim Peirce, the woman who directed Boys Don’t Cry and she’s doing Stop Loss, and she was talking about how hard it was to be a female director attempting to direct something that had action in it in Hollywood. She was talking about how people sort of see you—not so much for male stars, but for females—as one thing or another. It’s like, well, if you’re going to win the Oscar, you can’t be sexy. The only way you’re doing comedy, is if you’re not over there doing drama, and I was curious, do you feel a lot of that? Do you feel that there’s a certain sense of compartmentalization of you as an actress on your projects?
HEATHER GRAHAM: Ummmmm. I mean, I feel like it’s more like, probably, if you’re a journalist you think more that way, but if you’re an actor you think like, “I want this job. Oh I didn’t get it.” or “Oh, I got it.” Do you know what I mean? It’s like, you might reason about the reasons you did or didn’t get a job, but at the end of the day, it’s just like, “What’s next?” Do you know what I mean? I guess that’s why I’m getting into producing because I really don’t want to worry about what these random people are thinking. Do you know what I mean?
CHRIS NEUMER: The random people being like who?
HEATHER GRAHAM: Well if people are hiring you or not hiring you, it’s like, “Why are they doing this?” or “Why are they not doing this?” I mean, what a waste of my mental energy, I’d rather just make myself a beautiful dinner and eat it. (laughs)
CHRIS NEUMER: That’s a good point. Somebody told me that the best thing they’ve ever learned was how to deal with rejection and then when they got dumped they were like, “Eh. I’m moving on.” I was like, I wish I had that!
HEATHER GRAHAM: I think some of it’s like timing in your life. It’s not all like, you know, “Oh, how do I reason what this person thought,” or what that person thought, you know?
CHRIS NEUMER: So you don’t deal with the compartmentalization?
HEATHER GRAHAM: It’s funny because sometimes in interviews people ask me that and I think it’s because you’re intellectual and that’s an intellectual point of view, and I’m not saying that I never think of it that way but I’m just saying it’s not fun to think of it that way, so I choose not to. You know?
CHRIS NEUMER: I wasn’t even really thinking about until Kim brought it up. It’s her point, not my own. Then I started thinking about you and how you’re good across the board and—
HEATHER GRAHAM: Oh, that’s nice. And I do feel like there’s not a lot of female perspective out there. There is some. I just feel like there’s not a lot of voices. Every year maybe there’s like a few things, so I just feel like, if anything, I’m rooting for more female voices in cinema and I want to be one of them, you know? So that’s what I’m more into instead of, “Why did I not get this job or that job?” Because it’s just—you know what I mean? I don’t know. Like, yeah I would like to get certain jobs. But I just think, like, hopefully if I’m meant to get it I will. I guess I try to have a more spiritual attitude about it. Just like it’s not all about, oh my life, and having to get this one job or having to get this other job, it’s just kind of about enjoying my life and hoping that I get the jobs I’m supposed to get. But I agree with you. I hope I get lots of jobs as a across-the-board good person. (laughs)
CHRIS NEUMER: Yes. It’s funny, while you’re talking, I’m sort of envisioning a scene with a girl waving a sheet on a beach and it’s backlit. And I’m like, “This is sort of like what Heather’s talking about… now how do I put this into words?” As Heather’s sitting here waving a sheet on the beach.
HEATHER GRAHAM: Exactly. I’m kind of coming from more like “whoooo” perspective, but it’s funner to be there. (laughs)
CHRIS NEUMER: This is very true.
HEATHER GRAHAM: It’s funny because I have a friend, she went to Yale and she’s really into Feng Shui and the teas and she’s into all these wacky things and her boyfriend’s kind of looking at her sometimes, like, “Why are you?...” But it’s like she’s very smart, she just chooses to—it’s funner to look at things from this kind of more like off-center spiritual point of view than like just sort of totally logically.
CHRIS NEUMER: Yeah… Some people craft their careers to a ‘T’. I’m going to do this and I’m going to wear this, I’m going to try out for this, I’m not going to try out for this.
HEATHER GRAHAM: But you know, I think that, like when I worked with Frank Oz [on Bowfinger]. He said that he had worked with Michael Caine and Michael Caine said to him one day, “I have no idea what I’m doing.” And I just thought that’s so funny, because I think every actor feels that way and if they don’t admit that, they’re lying I think. Every actor kind of feels like, “I don’t know what I’m doing.” But then you just go out there and do it and then you have moments where you go, “Oh I did know what I was doing.” Or, “I did know at that moment, but that moment.” Do you know what I mean? To really say that you’re in control of it, I just think…
CHRIS NEUMER: Oh, good lord no.
HEATHER GRAHAM: It’s probably—I mean I think people would like to believe that they are [in control], but ultimately, I think that we’re…
Chris Neumer
