A week ago I had the chance to attend the New York press junket for Warner Bros. new romantic comedy No Reservations starring Catherine Zeta-Jones, Aaron Eckhart and Abigail Breslin and directed by Scott Hicks.
The new comedy is a remake of the 2001 french film Bella Martha, or Mostly Martha to us English speaking Americans. This new film centers on master chef Kate Armstrong (Zeta-Jones), a type-A chick with a no-nonsense intensity that carries through from work into her faultering personal life.
Following the sudeen death of her sister she takes in her nine-year-old niece Zoe (Breslin) and while her personal life is spinning with grief and a new housemate she also finds her kitchen also has one more body. Nick Palmer (Eckhart) is hired by her domineering boss (Patricia Clarkson) and his high-spirited nature threatens the controlled atmosphere Kate is used to.
Catherine Zeta-Jones and Aaron Eckhart sat down in NYC for a press conference for a fleet of journalists and here is what they had to say.
Was there any kind of fantasy of playing chefs in a movie?
Catherine-Zeta Jones (CZ): The idea of being a chef, for me, was very terrifying to be quite honest with you. No, I am serious… if I could pull this one off… let me tell yah… [laughing]
After we had this intense training together and I had my little apron on, looking ever so professional, looking at Aaron going Oh God, my finger is coming off before you know it. We had a few weeks of that and so after a few weeks of that we were off and running and I felt very comfortable in the kitchen, and still do.
Aaron Eckhart (AE): I’ve never had a fantasy about being a chef… Nor will I. [laughing]
Do you cook at home now?
How about the chemistry between the two of you? Did you do a screen test before this happened?
CZ: We met for lunch actually because I heard through Scott that Aaron was really interested in being in the movie and I thought that would be terrific. We met for lunch, we had never met before, got along really well, chit-chat about the project, talked about Mr. Hicks and then before we knew it we both signed on and were up here in New York ready to go. It was an easy process for us to get together.
AE: We had a great time at getting to know each other in the kitchen. First off Scott got us hooked up at [3:15] with chef Michael Wright [White?] and we’re in the kitchen and we are trying to stay away and be very courteous of each other. By the third day or the second day you are bumping into each other, you’re reaching over each other and becoming very familiar, that was a lot of fun to do that.
CZ: Aaron was so professional when I met him I had to take a few gulps, he came with all his knives, his private knives, and I am like, ‘Where’s the spoon?’
Some actors swear off working with animals and children. What were your thoughts of working with Abigail?
I know you did a lot of research for these roles, can you talk about that?
CZ: Aaron and I started off, the second time we met we were in the kitchen together, and it is intimidating, especially because we started off and it was just us, Michael the chef and just gradually taking us through the kitchen. It’s like, in a way, organized chaos, slashing into each other, burning each other, ‘Get out of my way’, but it actually moves very gracefully, it’s like a ballet. Aaron and I wanted to fit into that environment in which we could look like this was our job and this for real.
What was terrifying for me was when the other chefs would be coming in and you are trying to get out of their way. You’re there to be helpful and to learn and not do anything ridiculous. Then I went out on the floor, which was really terrifying because I had never been a waitress before. I started screwing up my lines, forgetting what sauce it was and then there was this one desert that was a big concoction and I said, ‘Just have it, it’s delicious! Just have it, order it, it’s great.’
How do you balance your career and your personal life?
CZ: I hate to say balance with my children, because at the end of the day that is my life and everything else is a bonus. What has changed for me considerably since I had my family is the logistics have completely gone crazy. As opposed to me being offered a role in Romania, I would say, ‘What time is the flight?’ and pack my case and be gone. Now I can’t do that and I try to schedule my work when I know Michael is definitely not working and he is with them. Doing No Reservations here in New York was great because our home is Bermuda predominantly and I was able to go home, even if it was for a day, or they would come and see me. The last movie I completed (Death Defying Acts) was during summer break so they were with me all the time. That is the only thing that is a balance and a struggle than it was ever before.
AE: When I have one I don’t have the other, you know? I don’t distinguish between the two, I am single with a girlfriend and I can go to Romania if she’s not available. [laughing]
Who do you play in Death Defying Acts?
CZ: I play a psychic who guides Houdini.
How was the shoot?
CZ: Fabulous. Gillian Armstrong directed. We had a great time.
Aaron, this film has a lot of opera music and your character loves it. Do you listen to opera?
AE: I did when I was making the movie, I listened to one song a lot. It doesn’t come totally natural to me, I am not a great singer. It was interesting to do those days.
CZ: When they play the first few bars and turn the sound down so they can capture Aaron’s voice – [laughing] – it was brilliant!
AE: I did actually like doing it and experiencing it, to do the voices and see the difference between just a layman’s voice and their voices, and saying the words. Having the poetry and the words and the images that go along with the music really is inspiring, and that is why I think theatre and opera are important. They are telling tales and this is a tale of a guy who lost his love, so it was very apropos in the film, but to sing it was a stretch. Catherine has a beautiful voice, so to sing in front of her was…
Catherine, are you still as focused and driven with your career as your character is in this film?
CZ: I wouldn’t say I am like Kate in the way that she was so blatant in her career and work and how she goes about it, but I always said I had a ‘healthy ambition,’ which is what I liked to call it in that I did come from Wales and try to do things including some theatre and TV, but I wouldn’t say that I was such a control freak in the way that Kate is in that there was nothing else in my life. I have my friends, I have my other life as well as my career.
With so many stories out there about love, loss and grieving what struck you about this movie?
AE: There are so many different layers between the food and the love and the loss, the healing and how food can help you heal. My character is so breezy and fluid and just has a little more relaxed way of life as opposed to Catherine’s character, Kate, and how we can help each other and how that is all entwined. And Scott directing it, that was just a perfect fit, and Catherine of course, just the whole package. For me, I was very happy to be in this film for all those reasons.
CZ: I think what the film also says quite clearly is that it’s not just bereavement that you have to heal, it’s the way you conduct your life, the way you look at the world outside. How self centered and the way we can be and how to get into relationships and through grief, the way we can heal and come out the other side stronger, happier and with a different life than you imagined you possibly have.
This is a remake of Mostly Martha and I was wondering how much you deviated and also stuck with that film?
CZ: From a character basis I certainly didn’t want to go into this movie wanting to do a caricature of that wonderful performance. You have to just put that aside and say that was a beautifully created performance as culturally in that world in a completely different situation to how I was going to portray this character. I think Sam, as a director, did a terrific job creating that environment in her movie. I did see the movie, actually after I read the script. I loved the script so much I said, ‘I can’t resist. I have to see this movie.’ And a guy that works for me who is not a film buff, I bought the DVD and I put it on the kitchen table, and he’s not a film buff at all and he asked, ‘Have you seen that movie?’ I say no and he goes, ‘Oh it’s great!’ I ask him how this guy in Bermuda, half Portuguese, sees this German film Mostly Martha? He said, ‘It came to this film festival and we just happened to be there and saw it.’ I said if he loved it, and he is this big burly gardener from Portugal, as much as I loved the script I couldn’t resist. I watched it once and put it away and haven’t watched it since.
AE: My characters are so different. When you are making a film you really focus on what you are doing that day, issues to deal with such as chopping, sautéing, opera, love that consumes my now, but like Scott said, it’s a touch stone. We all love the movie and refer to it, it’s not something you have to put away and can’t mention. I think they both stand on their own.
That’s why I loved the script and wanted to do the movie. It’s not even how I am perceived as an actor as much as it is about what I want to do. I would much rather go to work and make people happy and not back-stabbing somebody. I felt like going to work on this film was a lot of times not even like working. You go there and you make people laugh, and you make some food and it was a good day to work. Whether or not it will help to take off the edge, I don’t know. I do like playing romantic comedy roles and I had a lot of fun doing it.
Do you feel the same way about Harvey Dent/Two Face for The Dark Knight?
Catherine, are there any aspects of Kate’s type-A attitude that you relate to?
CZ: I wouldn’t say I am a perfectionist like Kate is because it is borderline anal retentive and I would hate to give myself that title. There is a quality and I think there is a much shier quality to me that people don’t see and I think I can relate to Kate, not in that stoic way, but a little reserved. I get perceived sometimes as “here comes the showgirl” when in fact I have many insecurities. I am a lot more reserved than I put on to be. I found a quietness to her that I really relate to.
How did you find the balance in this film between grief, love and comedy?
CZ: You can’t really rehearse chemistry, it’s something that happens. You can put the best of the actors and end up wondering, why is it not working? It’s something that just happens and as an actor you are just like whew, one less thing to worry about.
Did you see this as the de-glamorization of Catherine Zeta-Jones, the work obsessed plain woman?
CZ: When I read the script this is not a character that even as a director you would not go we need Catherine Zeta-Jones to do this. That’s what was exciting to me, to play a much more vulnerable character, not as if this is my de-glamorization, but to come down a bit from what is necessarily and image of me on screen. I found it such a fascinating experience because it was such a breath of fresh air for me, just the process going into work and how the hair and makeup was and every day I went in and stuck on my chef’s outfit and that bloody green coat! I was going to burn that green coat after this movie because every day I would go into my trailer and there was “the green coat.” I was like ‘We have quite a few other options,’ but Scott was like, ‘No, Kate has one coat and it’s green.’
Aaron, you’ve always seemed like a guy that loved to act but was never really crazy about the movie star thing. Now here we are with this film and Thank You for Smoking is one of the best reviewed films last year. Can you avoid that, can you be an actor that loves to act and yet say I don’t want to do that while everyone else is driving you along?
AE: You could, but I don’t advise it. Because in this day and age it is so difficult to get a movie made and to be in the movies that you want to make that you have to come along with everyone else. I also feel like, as you get older, your tastes change. I was just talking to Gary Oldman about this, I said, ‘Gary, would you do Sid and Nancy again right now?’ and he said, ‘No, I wouldn’t do it because I don’t want to climb that mountain right now.’ I just think there are times in your life where you want to climb certain mountains and as I get older I want to try and make people laugh and feel good coming out of the theater. Thank You for Smoking, when people came out of the theater smiling just made such an impact on me, and this film, I am so happy this film is a family film. It deals with issues of mourning, loss, love, food, happiness, laughter that everybody can go see the movie. I just can’t say enough about that, I am so happy to be a part of it so much more. If it is a romantic comedy and makes people laugh then I am in, and that’s how it changed my life.
No Reservations is a chick flick to the highest extent, and I am sure all the Emeril and Rachel Ray fans out there will have more than their fill of Kate’s saffron sauce once all is said and done. No Reservations hits theaters on July 27, for more information click here.
