Jason Bourne joins up with Marie, a down-on-her-luck European woman who gets involved because she gave Bourne a ride home. Marie is shocked by all the violence and even throws up when she sees her first dead body. She later kisses Bourne, but we can assume she'd brushed her teeth in between. German actress Franka Potente plays Marie, Bourne's sidekick and love interest.
Was it your idea to have the character throw up, or was that in the script?
I just wanted her to be a real person. I came up with the vomit reaction, because I said, "We only have a very short amount of time to tell the audience what's going on inside of her and this is what people do. This is what their reactions are." I think it's more interesting and more dangerous, rather than having trained pros running around in an action plot. It was challenging to try and be a civilian, a realistic person that people could identify with in a story that is still a genre film, action thriller. I just loved to smash the cliches of women in action films all the time. I love that there's so many situations where Marie is just "What the f*ck's going on? Are you stupid? Why not just ask for it? Why do all this stuff?" I enjoyed that every day because I'm not so fond in general of action or thrillers, because you always see these characters and they're so professional in every situation. They're saying all these words like this is code B12, like what? I like that there's a character that just says, "I don't understand. What? Talk to me."
You know what? The puke was the best thing because Matt and I had to diet a little bit for the movie, and the stuff that I put in my mouth when I puked it out, it was so tasty. They made it out of corn flakes and vanilla pudding, so Matt was like, "Let me try." And we ate all the puke, so they had to make more puke. They put it in a plastic cup and it was sitting there and right before action I swallowed it to spit it out. It was the best thing, so we got an extra dessert that day because we weren't allowed to eat and stuff, so all the puke was gone. We were like, "Mm, I love the puke." It was really good. It was the most tasty stuff during the whole shooting.
Do you like roles that take advantage of your natural accent?
For me, if I can talk like I talk now, it gives me more freedom. In Blow, I felt very restricted and I don't like to have to think about every pronunciation in every word and having a dialect coach sitting there watching you. It's not nice for the partner as well. So, it was never an issue and I felt very relieved about it and if it was my choice, in American or English-speaking films, I would always love to work with it. I know that sometimes it doesn't work for the character.
Did they only see European actresses for this part?
I don't know really. I know that they were seeing other actresses for Europe, but I heard that they were also seeing American actresses. I didn't really want to know who.
How was Matt's German?
It was good. Really, he is so great with languages. He picked up and he never forgot how to ask me for my lighter and stuff like that. He was really accent free immediately. It was really, really good. I mean, it was only a few sentences, but I think he had to learn Dutch and some French too. He was shy with the French. I said, "Speak louder and it's going to be better."
Do you feel like a Bond girl?
You tell me. What do you think?
I think so, but I hope that doesn't offend you.
Oh no. I don't know. I like the old Bond films because to me, they're more funny. I don't think I've even seen the recent ones. See, I might be PC about it. I think I'm me about it. This whole thing with women, and I don't know how modern Bond girls are these days. I like to watch it but I can't take it seriously. I think it's funny. But I don't think I'm the stereotype of girl they would want to have as a Bond girl. Maybe as a villain or something.
Would you be interested in a Charlie's Angels sort of women's action piece?
If it's smart. It could be fun I guess. Oh God, then I have to go to the gym for half a year and not eat. I don't know. I don't think it's my favorite genre, but if it was really fun and cool.
Was it a coincidence that in Run Lola Run you needed 20,000 dollars and in this, you get 20,000?
I don't know. I haven't looked at it, but that's cool. You're right. Years later I get it. It would be cool if we edited the movies together and Marie would just start running and tossing it to Manni and he'd put it in the plastic bag and that's the ending.
Did you ever see The Simpsons spoof of Run Lola Run?
I heard about it and I think somebody sent it to me, but it was grabbed out of my hands. I heard about it and that sounds cool.
How many hours did you spend in the Minicooper?
In the Minicooper? Hmm, we spent some time in there. It was fun but you know what really sucks? Seriously, whenever you see people driving in cars in films, even if they look really fancy, all film cars suck. Suck, suck, suck. Because they come from these companies and they have been driven by stunt guys, so it's like rental cars. Because it's not their own car, people treat it like shit. So, the steering wheel is stiff and the brakes don't work. There are so many things that don't work, especially with that car. It was a pain in the ass. It was really hard to drive.
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