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April 19, 2002
By
Veronica Mixon
Ben Chaplin is rising fast as a leading man.
The dark handsome 31-year-old British actor has
starred opposite Uma Thurman in The Truth About
Cats and Dogs, Nicole Kidman in The Birthday
Girl, Winona Ryder in The Lost Souls
and Michele Yeoh in his next film, The Touch.
When I met him at The Drake, an elegant Park
Avenue hotel in New York City, Chaplin who appears
to be a serious young man exhibited his wry sense
of humor while talking about his new film, Murder
By Numbers.
The London born actor talked easily about his
leading lady, Sandra Bullock, the challenge of
doing sex scenes and action movies.
THE INTERVIEW
How does nice British lad like you get involved
in this?
I don't know. I don't know how it happened. I
got dragged down and here I am.
Are American accents easy to do?
No, it's a difficult accent to do actually. Americans
think British accents are easy. I'm sure we do
them really bad. Yeah, there's always that.
Like Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins?
That wasn't real? It was a great performance.
There's something to be said to tossing the accent
out and saying look at me. Dick Van Dyke had the
courage to do that. There are many wonderful performances
that are well fitted by poor dialect. Any accent
is hard to do correctly. English people tend to
hear the R sound too much and over emphases it.
My mum thinks she's really good at it and she's
[imitates her]. But there are people in America
who talk like that. You can justify any accent
by saying I met this guy who lived in a pebble
and he lived in Maine.
You're have a good year - Nicole Kidman, Sandra
Bullock - and mistreated by both.
Yeah, I know. But, I don't know what that's
about. The two films [Birthday Girl and
Murder By Numbers] have come out close
together so it looks like I'm being very whipped.
But there was actually a big gap between movies.
What was it like being seduced by Sandra?
It was interesting. I did it but I didn't have
a lot of choice in it. Good lesson. It was quite
fun actually. She has nice feet and she had a
pedicure before shooting that day. And, Sandy
doesn't do that in many films so I felt honored
in a way - to receive her foot. Another actor
told me that love scenes and sex scenes weren't
acting in a way. You just shut off and do what
you'd normally do. He said that's why doesn't
want a stunt double action scenes. I never believe
actors when they say they want to do their own
stunts because it's too easy to get hurt. And,
then you're deemed uninsurable. But, I've just
done my first bit of action.
Which film?
A Chinese film, "The Touch" that we shot in China
with Michele Yeoh and Richard Roxbury, who plays
the duke in "Moulin Rouge." He was really great.
The action is a kin to sex scenes in that it's
very hard to act and [pause] - as long as I don't
say fuck it's fine. It's hard to act and fight
at the same time. Stunt men have this short hand
for acting. You realize why they do it because
you have to make broad strokes when you're doing
something really physical. You learn the discipline.
Do you fight Michele in this?
I don't fight Michele. She knocks me out once.
But, I don't mess with Michele. She can wrap her
legs three times around her head and eat a peanut
butter sandwich and chat with you at the same
time. She really can. She did. You had a lot of
sex scenes in The Birthday Girl.
So, are the sex scenes tough to do or are
they easy?
It depends on whom they are with. The Murder
by Numbers one was quite tame and Barbet [Schroder,
the director] was very specific about what he
wanted and there wasn't anything hardcore. It
was fun. If there is any tension in the air with
someone who hasn't done one, it can be quite difficult.
Also, it's difficult as the male because you do
feel a sense of responsibility as the penetrater
or something. You feel a sense of dignity and
to the woman's well being that you behave yourself.
They fascinate people and I understand why because
I can never believe I'm doing them. The day I
go in to do a love scene, [I say] I didn't sign
up to do this. You see that day in the schedule
and you say, there it is.
How was it with Nichole Kidman?
Nichole is great! Nichole is very use to them.
I'm not calling her a slut. She's done a lot of
them and in Birthday Girl probably 1/20th
of what we shot in terms of the sex made it into
the film. We did a lot of sex scenes for the film.
I felt I lost my cherry on that one. I came out
a veteran of the sex scene. She was fantastic.
You couldn't have asked for a better person than
her because it's absolutely professional but there's
no coyness. She's absolutely free. If you're free
and understand that it's part of the job and you
get on with the crew, it's just one of those -
you can actually get creative with those and they
can almost be fun.
Do you think some of those scenes will show up
on the DVD?
Maybe. The bigger, longer uncut! The European
uncut version!
Did you study police work for this film?
I did actually. Los Angeles Police Department
(LAPD) was really generous with their time. I
got to ride around with vice squad.
What was the most interest thing you came
across?
Seeing prostitution in places where I didn't
know it happened. Like in Venice [California]
on streets I'd been up hundreds of time and I
never noticed. They're very discreet and the guys
that stop are general 30 to 35, married with a
wife and children.
Sounds like Hugh Grant?
There you go.
Did you get any insight from the vice cop?
I remember him telling me a story about getting
a call in 3 o'clock in the morning and it's on.
You have to do a crime scene and investigate a
horrible murder. You're not feeling it but you
don't want to go to work that day but somebody's
life has been taken and you're that person's last
line of defense. You really take that personally.
As for the murder itself, you don't take that
personally. You don't look at the body particularly
as a victim otherwise you wouldn't be able to
do you're job.
So, the character that Sandra Bullock plays
is over the edge?
Yes, she's not doing her job right at all and
nor are they doing their job by getting involved
romantically. And, the other thing is, if you
don't back up your partner in front of a superior,
the relationship is over. It's a sad thing. You
commit a mortal sin as a policeman. What he told
me was fascinating. He said, you have to get yourself
up and ready for the crime scene so on the way
to it, driving, you play music to psych yourself
because the first 48 hours are crucial. That's
when you win or lose the case, really.
What's next?
Just finished that film in China - "The Touch."
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