Those two tendencies converge in Woody Allen's new movie 'Whatever Works' (in theaters June 19), in which she plays Melody, a sweet, innocent, not-too-smart Southern belle who absconds to New York and falls in love with Boris, a crotchety, brilliant, reclusive and, yes, much older man, played by Larry David.
Wood opens up about what put her in shock on the 'Whatever' set, which high-profile movie she bailed on to star in 'Spider-Man: The Musical' and how she's prepared to sink her teeth into the role of vampire queen on HBO's 'True Blood.' -- By Tom DiChiara
Evan Rachel Wood Photos
In this film publicity image released by Sony Pictures Classics, Larry David, left, and Evan Rachel Wood are shown in a scene from, "Whatever Works." (AP Photo/ Sony Pictures Classics, Jessica Miglio) ** NO SALES **
AP
Actress Evan Rachel Wood attends The Cinema Society & The New Yorker screening of "Whatever Works" at Regal Cinema Battery Park on June 10, 2009 in New York City. The Cinema Society & The New Yorker Host A Screening Of "Whatever Works" - Outside Arrivals Regal Cinema Battery Park New York, NY United States June 10, 2009 Photo by Jim Spellman/WireImage.com To license this image (57651868), contact WireImage.com
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NEW YORK - JUNE 10: Actress Evan Rachel Wood attends the after party for the "Whatever Works" screening hosted by The Cinema Society & The New Yorker at River Cafe on June 10, 2009 in New York City. (Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Evan Rachel Wood
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Evan Rachel Wood attends The Cinema Society & The New Yorker screening of "Whatever Works" after party at the River Cafe on June 10, 2009 in New York City. The Cinema Society & The New Yorker Host A Screening Of "Whatever Works" - After Party River Cafe New York, NY United States June 10, 2009 Photo by Jamie McCarthy/WireImage.com To license this image (16833747), contact WireImage.com
Jamie McCarthy/WireImage.com
Evan Rachel Wood attends The Cinema Society & The New Yorker screening of "Whatever Works" after party at the River Cafe on June 10, 2009 in New York City. The Cinema Society & The New Yorker Host A Screening Of "Whatever Works" - After Party River Cafe New York, NY United States June 10, 2009 Photo by Jamie McCarthy/WireImage.com To license this image (16833745), contact WireImage.com
Jamie McCarthy/WireImage.com
Evan Rachel Wood attends The Cinema Society & The New Yorker screening of "Whatever Works" after party at the River Cafe on June 10, 2009 in New York City. The Cinema Society & The New Yorker Host A Screening Of "Whatever Works" - After Party River Cafe New York, NY United States June 10, 2009 Photo by Jamie McCarthy/WireImage.com To license this image (16833744), contact WireImage.com
Jamie McCarthy/WireImage.com
NEW YORK - JUNE 10: Actress Evan Rachel Wood attends a screening of "Whatever Works" hosted by the Cinema Society and The New Yorker at Regal Cinema Battery Park June 10, 2009 in New York City. (Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Evan Rachel Wood
Getty Images
NEW YORK - JUNE 10: Actress Evan Rachel Wood attends a screening of "Whatever Works" hosted by the Cinema Society and The New Yorker at Regal Cinema Battery Park June 10, 2009 in New York City. (Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Evan Rachel Wood
Getty Images
NEW YORK - JUNE 10: Actress Evan Rachel Wood attends a screening of "Whatever Works" hosted by the Cinema Society and The New Yorker at Regal Cinema Battery Park June 10, 2009 in New York City. (Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Evan Rachel Wood
Getty Images
NEW YORK - JUNE 10: Actress Evan Rachel Wood attends a screening of "Whatever Works" hosted by the Cinema Society and The New Yorker at Regal Cinema Battery Park June 10, 2009 in New York City. (Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Evan Rachel Wood
Getty Images
This is your first true comedy. Was that intimidating for you? And what attracted you to this movie?Yeah, absolutely -- especially a Woody Allen comedy. Everything appealed to me about it really. The character was so different from anything I'd ever done. She was Southern, and I'm from North Carolina. When I first read it, I didn't know who else could do the part except Woody Allen, but then when I met Larry, I was like: "Perfect!" I mean, how many chances would I get to play Larry David's wife? Come on [laughs].
Was working with Larry and Woody at the same time like a little slice of hilarious sarcastic Jewish guy heaven?[Laughs] It was amaaaaaaazing. It was really great. It was weird. I loved just watching them talk and go over the script and stuff. I would just stare. People are like, "What funny things did they say?" or "What did they talk about?" I said: "I don't know. I was just in shock the whole time that I was actually there."
A big theme of 'Whatever Works' is to do what's right for you no matter what other people think. Is that an idea that guides you? And do you think the offshoot of that -- that love can bloom in the craziest of places -- is plausible?
Yeah, absolutely. That's what I always say -- not in those words, but don't let anybody tell you what makes you happy. Just figure out what works for you and hold onto it. That's the way to go. I think [love] happens when you least expect it, and that's usually the best, you know, when love finds you because -- I don't know -- I believe in fate in a weird way, I guess. I've always met people or had something like that happen to me at the weirdest times and just ... I don't know. Stuff I wasn't planning on doing and at the last minute decide to do, and then something monumental and crazy happens and just changes my whole life.
You're a black belt in tae kwon do -- will you be showing off those skills in an action movie, maybe like Zack Snyder's 'Sucker Punch'?
I hope so. Well, I can't do 'Sucker Punch' because of 'Spider-Man: [The Musical].' Rehearsals start in October, and then it should open in February ... I've heard all the music and sang some of the songs with Bono and the Edge, and I'm pretty comfortable. I love the music. It's really good. They did an amazing job writing for the stage.
Have you done anything to prepare for your role as Queen of the Vampires on 'True Blood' this season?No, not yet ... but I got fitted for the fangs, and that's good enough for me. I've just been --- there's so much dialogue, she's got a lot to say. So I've just been doing that. But no, I've been preparing for this role my whole life [laughs]. I've been waiting to play a vampire for so long. So, I'm just, I'm ready to go. [I'm in] the last two episodes. I'm a little upset that I know how the season ends already because I was a fan of the show. But she's fierce, she's very scary. And after the last two episodes, I think I kind of have to [return next season]. But we'll see.
You're supposed to be the title character in Jodie Foster's 'Flora Plum.' Is that still happening?
Yeah, we had a small window to shoot in Louisiana if it wasn't hurricane season. But all the lead actors we wanted weren't available, and she didn't want to compromise or settle, so she put it on hold again -- and we were so close. A month later I would have been training on the trapeze. So I was a little bummed out.
Of all the characters you've played, which one's closest to you?
Probably Lucy in 'Across the Universe.' I mean, I felt like everything she was going through in that movie, I was, too, at the same time.
Summer 2009 Indie Sleepers
Summer Sleepers
So you think summer movies are all about ginormous box office blockbusters? Au contraire! There's plenty on tap for those with more, ah, discerning tastes, including new movies from indie directors Ang Lee, Steven Soderbergh, Jim Jarmusch and Woody Allen.
And if you want big-name stars, those are here, too: Robert Pattinson as Salvador Dali, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel as young lovers, Jessica Biel as a saucy race-car driver. Find out what films may be poised to become this summer's breakout sleeper hits.
Summit Entertainment/ Focus Features/ Sony/ Fox Searchlight
'Adoration'
Opening: May 8
Starring: Arsinée Khanjian, Scott Speedman, Rachel Blanchard, Devon Bostick
What It's About: A teenage boy is torn by the bits and pieces of a family history he never fully understood in this new film from acclaimed director Atom Egoyan ('The Sweet Hereafter'). Using the Internet as his forum, Simon (Bostick) disguises his own personal narrative as a news story about terrorism, but painting his parents as the subjects. The boundless parameters of the Internet provide Simon with a massive -- and highly opinionated
-- audience.
More on 'Adoration':
Sony
'Little Ashes'
Opening: May 8
Starring: Robert Pattinson, Javier Beltran, Matthew McNulty
What It's About: Pattinson plays the young Salvador Dali, a student in Spain who meets fellow artists poet Federico Garcia Lorca (Beltran) and filmmaker Luis Bunuel (McNulty). Dali and Lorca develop a close and complicated friendship, with both men feeling an intellectual -- and sexual -- attraction to the other. Of course, 'Twilight' fans don't care about the plot, they'd watch Pattinson read from a phonebook ... and pay for the privilege.
More on 'Little Ashes':
Check this out:
Regent Entertainment
'The Brothers Bloom'
Opening: May 15
Starring: Adrien Brody, Rachel Weisz, Mark Ruffalo
What It's About: Rian Johnson's writer-director follow-up to the under-appreciated high school noir 'Brick' is just as original and twice as accessible. The tale of lifelong con men Stephen (Ruffalo) and Bloom (Brody) who set out to scam quirky heiress Penelope (the beautifully zany Weisz) out of her fortune, the film works as a con caper, a sweet romance and a sibling dramedy. But it never cons us into caring about the characters; it elicits our affections honestly.
More on 'The Brothers Bloom':
Summit Entertainment
'Easy Virtue'
Opening: May 22
Starring: Jessica Biel, Ben Barnes, Colin Firth
What It's About: An American race-car driver (Biel) scandalizes a posh English family when she marries its young heir (Ben Barnes) after a whirlwind romance. Stephan Elliot ('Priscilla, Queen of the Desert') directs this adaptation of the Noel Coward play, so though there won't be any drag queens in this period comedy, the movie itself certainly won't be a drag.
More on 'Easy Virtue':
Sony
'The Limits of Control'
Opening: May 1
Starring: Isaach De Bankole, Tilda Swinton, Bill Murray
What It's About: Hipster auteur Jim Jarmusch's first film since 2005's acclaimed 'Broken Flowers,' his latest enigma has only been revealed to be about "loner/stranger in Spain who's in the process of completing 'a job' that's most likely illegal." Said loner/stranger is Jarmusch favorite De Bankole getting his first major lead, with Murray playing the villain. We think.
More on 'The Limits of Control':
Focus Features
'The Girlfriend Experience'
Opening: May 22
Starring: Sasha Grey, Chris Santos
What It's About: Shot in 16 days in October of 2008, just before the presidential election, Steven Soderbergh's latest follows Chelsea (Grey, in her non-porn feature debut), a high-end call girl who offers her customers the full "girlfriend experience" -- sex, conversation, intimacy. And to those who think it impossible to capture real intimacy onscreen, there are no "actors" here, quite a bit of improvisation and, reportedly, very little sex.
More on 'The Girlfriend Experience':
Magnolia Pictures
'Away We Go'
Opening: June 5
Starring: John Krasinski, Maya Rudolph, Maggie Gyllenhaal
What It's About: A young couple (Krasinski and Rudolph) expecting their first child travel across the country in search of the perfect place to settle down. It's a nice change of pace for director Sam Mendes, who's better known for dark films ('American Beauty', 'Revolutionary Road') than quirky comedies; but the stellar cast (Jeff Daniels, Allison Janney, Catherine O'Hara) and lovely trailer give us high hopes, as does the street cred of the screenwriters: husband-and-wife novelists Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida.
More on 'Away We Go':
Focus Features
'Cheri'
Opening: June 19
Starring: Michelle Pfeiffer, Kathy Bates, Rupert Friend
What It's About: It's Stephen Frears' first film since his acclaimed 'The Queen.' Based on a Colette novel set in 1920s Paris about a courtesan's son (Friend) and the older-woman lover (Pfeiffer) he's forced to leave, 'Cheri' promises to be a delicious, sexy bonbon of a film. If you think you recognize the lead actor, you may know him as Keira Knightley's model-actor boyfriend. Yes, he is more than Keira's arm candy.
More on 'Cheri':
Miramax
'Whatever Works'
Opening: June 19
Starring: Larry David, Evan Rachel Wood, Ed Begley Jr.
What It's About: Woody Allen returns to his beloved New York City after shooting four films abroad to tell the story of, well, himself. Sort of. David plays an eccentric man with a number of bizarre love stories tangling up his life, including one with a much younger woman (Wood). Sound familiar?
More on 'Whatever Works':
Sony
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