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by Avelino
Whitcomb

Entrapment the Interview

I caught up with actress Catherine Zeta-Jones and director Jon Amiel on their visit to Madrid (Spain) to promote the opening of their new film "Entrapment." They arrived directly from Cannes and stayed at the Ritz Hotel where we had a short conversation.

Catherine was wearing a colorful Dolce & Gabbana
design with a corset-like top (a mainstay of her wardrobe). Amiel, on the other hand, paired a more classical-looking green suit with a black turtleneck sweater.

I must say that 5'8" Ms. Zeta-Jones is as beautiful off-screen as she looks on it. Yet, I cannot help but notice - as I had done in the film - that she has a scar on the base of her throat. The result, I learn later, of a tracheotomy that saved her life when she was a child. Not that I mind, specially in the case of this woman of which Spielberg, after seeing her in the television series she did about "Titanic," as Catherine recounts said, "that he thought I was worth rescuing from this sinking ship."

The basic element in Entrapment, a story about an insurance agent on the hunt for a mature master art thief, is, without a doubt, the interaction between its two main characters, Zeta-Jones and always-marvelous Sean Connery.

How did you focus the role of your character, Gin, in "Entrapment" in order to transmit visually the mounting chemistry with Mr. Connery?

She was always going to be a strong woman, smart, agile, and athletic. I, most definitely, wanted to put some humor into it but, more than anything - and Jon helped me very much with this - it was important to elude the boredom of just having a one-dimensional character.

Invariably the characters that come up in movie roles are you're sexy or you're sexy; you're funny or you're funny; you're smart and you're smart. It is very difficult to find all those attributes gathered in one role. But Jon helped me very much also, because I didn't want just to be a tough ass broad. It's very important for me to still maintain my femininity and also the vulnerability that makes this character acceptable and a reflection of what women are really like - we have all those attributes. We wanted to have that vulnerability, so that Sean could be able to play his vulnerability against mine, and that's what's interesting to me.

However great the actor or the actress is, I think that it’s very hard to learn how to have chemistry on the screen. I've been very lucky in this with Banderas and now with Sean. I think that it's a sense of humor, that, once you break the ice and feel there is a great connection between you as people, it translates unto the screen. And when you have great fun making a movie, as we did, it really does transcend unto the screen.

Jon Amiel adds: If you take nitroglycerin and some gunpowder (Catherine laughs) it’s not difficult to make an explosion. It wasn't difficult to create terrific energy between the world's sexiest man - according to several votes - and one of the world's sexiest
women.

A well-kept secret in this film is that we also rehearsed very hard. We rehearsed over a period of ten days before we even started filming just working with Catherine and Sean on the scenes where they were together alone.

I think that the scenes they did together are enjoyable pieces of 'sword fighting' as

anything in Zorro (Catherine laughs). Thanks to Sean and Catherine's willingness to really work at what they do, we were able to create characters that were rich, complex, interesting, paradoxical and, above all, huge fun to watch.

What personal points did you find to have in common with Mr. Connery that helped you achieve this chemistry?

Although we are from different generations and from different countries I sensed - and so did he - that there was a great connection in from where we come from. Even in the work process - how we approached it - and how we enjoyed the work. And just having that time that we talked about to rehearse, to be able to play and to be able to find things. All this made me very unintimidated of an extremely talented force on screen. One of the most frightening things that I would anticipate when I started shooting was how do you hold screen time for that amount of time with Sean Connery. We really had a great working environment, so I could say to Sean and Jon (Amiel) ‘I disagree (Laughs), could we try it another way?’ With such a relaxed atmosphere, where we are all working to get to the same place, I, as a young actress, feel very comfortable and I think that’s why it came out like that.

Amiel: I can tell you one other thing that Sean and Catherine had in common; they both love to flirt (Catherine laughs). I doubt whether I was worried about the chemistry between the two of them. The moment I looked across the room and saw Catherine and Sean talking to each other in a way that was playful, flirtatious, challenging and very equal, I knew that we had no problem with this film. (Catherine laughs)

Zeta-Jones: He’s had forty years more experience with flirting that I have. (She laughs)