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How are you holding up?Its a bit of a weird time, no?
Im in L.A. at the moment.
I do love whats happening on your Instagram in quarantine.
Your feed in general is really funny.
Which I didnt realize before following you recently!
Do you get that a lot?[Laughs.]
That was one of the reasons I did it.
A lot of people craft a persona, and I didnt.
It sort of crafted itself, and it was completely inaccurate.
I was afraid [social media] would be a horribly oppressive sea of bullying.
But that hasnt been the case.
Dont bother sending Willow a Dick in a Can.
If people are going to loathe me for something thats not accurate and isnt true, thats infuriating.
But Im perfectly cool with people not liking seeing my mother waving a dildo.
Being a sort of snotty English person who doesnt smile is not who I am.
Is that what you think people believed about you?I think that there was a period of that.
I think people are quite ready to believe a posh English girl might be like that in real life.
I forgive them for that; its a trope for a reason.
It just happens to not be the case in my situation.It was an odd period of time.
And then it pigeon-holed me into thismurdering, leaping-off-building types.
Which is also a stretch.
I did have quite a long period where I was like, This is mad!
I anticipated being fired every day onUnderworld, because it was such a reach for me.
So to become defined by it was weird.
Do you want to do more comedies?Yes, Ive always wanted to.
Its my favorite thing.My dadwas a very well-respected comic actor in England.
I think initially I didnt want to be on his territory.
But in America, hes not known at all.
Ive been a late bloomer in a lot of things.
So I guess well see what happens.
Lets talk aboutSerendipity, which has always been a comfort-food movie of mine.
Its so of its time: the soundtrack, the clothes, the hair.
When was the last time you saw it?Gosh, I havent seen it in a long time.
I dont like watching my own movies.
It makes me cringe.
Not because I dont like the movie its like hearing your voice on a voice message.
You just kind of go, Oh, no, is that really what I sound like?
I think it was about 15 minutes in when she said, Alright, Im off, bye.
I thought I was making a period piece aboutPearl Harbor.[Laughs.]
It was a massive shock, because it was very much not that.
And then the two movies overlapped.
I hadnt seen her dad in about eight months.
He was off doing other things.
I didnt know I needed a nanny.
This is how insane I was.
Can you help me?
So we just did that, and it was extraordinary.
So we had a lot of meetings about it.
you could be like that without being this sort of ghastly supernatural person.
I remember being incredibly hot all of the time.
A classic Christmas movie, and were all pouring sweat.
Wow, you really cant tell that youre sweating!I think that might be the most impressive thing.
It was one of those Augusts in New York where you break down and go, This was hell.
I felt sorry for the guy dressed as Santa.
And he had a bit more trouble, yeah.
It wasnt ice, so it was hard.
He has to be forgiven for that.
So trying to marry those two things without making her a character who seems completely implausible.
you’re free to be a kind of whimsical, positive, open person whos also intelligent.
There was a possibility of her being really irritating and kind of going on about fate.
There was a fine line for me.
Was there anything where you were like, Absolutely not?No, I dont think so.
But there were some lines that were very wafty.
And those things were cut.
And the director [Peter Chelsom] and everyone was pretty deferential about being like, We are men.
So do guide us on this.
Do you personally believe in fate and destiny?I go in and out of it.
Sometimes I do and sometimes I dont.
Paying attention to some of those coincidences is kind of fun, and feels like magic.
But at the same time I do think people make their decisions.
I dont think its all predestined.
We get in there and we can fuck things up.
Do you believe in the idea of a soulmate or soulmates?Im not sure.
I like the idea of it.
I wouldnt say its happened to me.
But I think there are, yeah.
And I dont even just mean romantically.
I think it’s possible for you to find those in friendships and all sorts of different ways.
I dont think theres just one.
Wed all be really lost.
I was enormously pregnant.
And more enormously pregnant than most.
I am the size of a fucking beluga whale.
And they were like, Its fine!
Lots of people work when theyre pregnant.
And I was like, I guarantee you, youre not going to want me in the movie.
I can barely fit through a door or sit in a normal seat.
So I went, and of course, thatwasthe case.
Did he say why he wanted to work with you?I dont know!
I think at that point, Id not doneUnderworld.
And we got on really well.
Have you kept in touch at all?I havent.
Hes a bit mysterious.
But I have run intoMolly [Shannon]a lot.
Shes one of my favorite people to ever exist.
Youre still friends?Oh, yeah.
She came to my birthday, we had a big birthday dinner the year before.
On yourInstagram last year, you posted a video about trying to reenactthe elevator scenefromSerendipity.
And I got to the lift and I said, Ive got a funny feeling.
Did I shoot an interior here?
And I looked it up and it was.
And he was like, Sure.
We were really rushing.
It was horrid lighting.
We did one take.
But it was really fun.
]It was very difficult with him.
How many times did you have to open all of those boxes?A lot of times.
But I have been, actually several times.
Your character is often called insane for the way she follows her heart.
I dont know if thats whimsical or stupid.
That was a long time ago.
Ive done the sort of, flying to very far-flung places to see someone for a day.
Which, in the current climate, seems extraordinary that anyone ever did that.
Theres a line inSerendipitywhere Jeremy Piven says, British women dont age well.
As a British woman, how did you feel about that line?I wasnt happy about that!
My mother is 1,000 years old but looks about 40, with no interventions whatsoever.
She doesnt even get facials.
As the raw face of British aging, I think my mothers doing all too well.
Im partly Asian, so I think Ive got a bit of a leg up there.
But my mom is entirely British!
You appear to be aging backward.I think its because Im happier.
Which Ive always had, since I was in high school, so Im not even bothered.
And I wasnt really prepared.
Not even shooting, but just in terms of saying, This isnt really working.
That was really stressful to me.
I had to learn a really different language about having an opinion palatably.
I found that really shocking, and I still do; its not completely gone away.
There was never a sexual component.
But there was really extreme bullying.
And thats not just Harvey.
And isnt prosecutable, or a crime.
And there isnt really any recourse.
What do you do, call your agent and say, This person shouted at me?
It wouldnt go then or now.
And I do think its incredibly oppressive and worth addressing.
It wasnt like I was like,Oh, hes in jail, now Ill say my thing.
It was very much another conversation I wanted to have, that hasnt been touched at this point.
But no, it wasnt the first and it was part of [many] I had to navigate.
Somebody hauling out their penis you have a bit more of a plan of what to do.
But somebody sort of psychologically torturing you or bullying you, theres still no real plan there.
Youre still expected to suck it up.
And I dont think anyone should men, women, anyone.
Just like with any bully.
It only takes one phone call to go, Dont hire her.
Its not a huge effort.
And Ive literally never worked with any woman ever Ive considered to be difficult.
You hear that about people and you go work with them, and you dont have that experience.
Its a very damaging word.
And Ive never heard a man described as difficult.
And it was a really weird time to release a film.
It was a bad time.We shot the movie and they had to scramble to remove the Twin Towers.
It was very odd.
Did you pay attentionto the reviews?
Did they matter to you?I generally wasnt a big review reader.
But I dont think people were as in love with the movie at the time as they are now.
I think it was a real slow burn.
It was a bit sad.
Its a really sweet movie.
We were possibly at our most cynical when it came out, and its a very uncynical movie.
I think thats why its crept up on people as a funny little favorite that theyve discovered for themselves.
I find that really cool.
When youre making something thats a whimsical rom-com, you think itll skew more toward female audiences.
And it absolutely doesnt.
But I know when a man comes up to me theyre going to talk aboutSerendipity.
From a very young age, I was really obsessed withGrease, like everybody was.
I learned all the dances, and I can still do them.
And she said, ImJeff Conaways girlfriend.
And she said, I want to let you knowSerendipityis his absolute favorite movie.
We watch it on Christmas every year.
My 7-year-old self fell apart.
I think its the best thing anyone has ever said to me.
And again very serendipitous.
