Interview - September 2007

(Note from Jack: Thanks to Gina for typing it all up!)

Recently I had the opportunity to interview Amelia Warner in Toronto, while she was in the city filming “The Echo”. I first wanted to thank Jack for arranging for this meeting. It was an amazing experience and I can’t thank you enough Jack. Also thank you to Amelia for agreeing to the interview and for taking the time out of her busy filming schedule . You were everything I expected you to be, beautiful , smart , funny and really really cool. I’m sure it was obvious that I could have talked to you for weeks, but even the short amount of time we had was really awesome. Thank you again.

We arranged to meet up at Amelia’s hotel and over a couple of soy lattes, that were brought to us by a rude waitress, we talked about traveling, filming, cooking, and …….mice.

How are you enjoying filming “The Echo”?

I’m really enjoying it a lot. It’s been a really quick one though. It’s almost done. We’re just shooting the ending at the moment, which is quite complicated, but it’s been really nice. I did “The Dark is Rising” before and it was quite different. In “The Dark is Rising” we would film half a page in like two days with six cameras and so much coverage. It was really slow which I’m just not used to because I’m used to working on movies that don’t have any money. So this has been at a speed I’m used to , it’s quick like five pages a day, one or two takes, but you’re always like, “I hope we got the shot” , where as in “The Dark is Rising” it was always, “we got it”.

What’s it like filming a horror movie?

It’s all about the scare; it’s about making the moment real. It’s quite weird because you don’t know how you would react really if you do see something frightening. I don’t know what I would do, I think I would just freeze which is probably not very interesting. I lot of it is guess work, its using imagination.

You should just freeze during a scene.

No, no he would yell, “scream!” Yam would be like “what is she doing?” I think it’s going to be really scary and it’s good because it’s not scary in a horror kind of way, there’s no murderer or slasher. It’s just really creepy, and it’s horrific in a sad way.

Is it like the original movie “Sigaw”?

It’s actually really different. The script has changed, the ending has changed. We filmed the very end on Friday and it’s just really dark.

I can’t sleep when I see creepy movies.

Do you know what I saw that scared me, “Dark water”. That scared me so much and again there is nothing in it, it’s just a patch of water. It reminds me of what we’re shooting now.

Your director seems to have a lot of energy.

Yeah he gets up a 6 in the morning and goes for a run. I keep saying, “what’s wrong with you”, it’s crazy. After our first week of shooting he was so tired and I asked him, “so what are you going to do this weekend?”, and he said “sleep and run, sleep and run, sleep and run” .

Do you stay in touch with everyone from the set after you’re finished filming?

I would, after each job, stay in touch with 1 or 2 people, actors and crew. You always plan to stay in touch with more people but it never happens. I think if I look back I’ve probably made a friend on each job. One of my best friends Kate, who was a production assistant on “Love’s Brother”, she is so cool. She is in Australia so we email each other, and my make-up artist Leslie, I love her. She comes to London quite a lot so I get to see her. I stayed in touch with quite a lot of people from “winter passing” The director Adam Rapp, I usually see him in NY, and Erin and Jen the producer.

Have you seen any of the sights here in Toronto?

I was here last year so I kind of did a lot then. I went to Niagara and I went to the zoo, so this year I’ve just been around.

Have you gone shopping in any of the vintage shops here?

I did, I went through them quite thoroughly I went to Cabaret and to Kensington market.

Did you get anything?

I found a little jacket. It’s quite grandma-esque. I like old things; it looks like a Chanel jacket.

How is your Grandma?

She’s not alive anymore. She died when I was 16, but I got to know her and we were very close.

Have you been to any of the art galleries or the museums? They just redesigned the museum from an old beautiful building to an ugly modern one.

Yeah that’s one thing I find frustrating about Toronto. Every now and again you find and old brownstone and it‘s cool. All around the streets between Little Italy and Queen Street they have cool little houses and everyone is sitting outside but down here it’s all identical buildings. Glass buildings, all looking the same.

Did you go to Sgt. Splatter’s?

No, what‘s that?

Paintball.

Oh I’ve heard of that. I heard it hurts, I don’t’ really want to do it. I use to, when I was a kid, play with quasar guns. With the lasers, yeah those were cool.

Do you travel a lot?

I do, I think the longest I’ve been home is about 2 weeks. Also my boyfriend is a director so we try and when he’s working I’ll go with him and If I’m working he’ll come with me. I’m a little home sick right now. I just want to be home.

Where have you traveled to?

I was in Greece in July. We went to see Liverpool and Milan play in the Champion’s League in Athens, and we went to Santorini afterwards. We got there in the morning, we lost the game so we got really drunk and then we left.

Paris was amazing. I really want to live there for a couple of months and do a French film.

You should.

I would need to learn French first.

Also I went to NY for five days. I absolutely love it there.

Last time I was in NY I stayed in a really long narrow room. Every time we opened the door it would hit the bed.

I stayed in one in Amsterdam with my friend Erin. She was traveling around Europe and she was budgeting so we ended up staying in this room and it was so narrow. There were two bunk beds and a little sink. You couldn’t stand up at the same time, so she would get up and get dressed and then I would squeeze around and get dressed. It was hilarious.

You bought a new flat. Have you started decorating it yet?

I did, I bought a flat. I didn’t have to do much, it’s really simple. White floor boards, loads of pine and wood shutters. So it really doesn’t need doing.

Did you get rid of the mice?

I think they’re gone. I don’t know, they go and then we see then again. My mum got a cat and the cat stayed with me for a week and we haven’t seen them since. It’s weird, because at first I when I had mice I kinda thought it was funny, but after like, a year it’s grated away at my sanity. I’ve lost all humor about it and I’m genuinely frightened of them now.

We were filming something in China Town the other day and there were rats everywhere., and I was like, Aagghhh. It’s developed into a full on phobia. It’s not so much the mouse, when I see it I’m like “fine it’s a mouse”. It’s that they make you jump. They suddenly run across the floor and it gives you a shock. I haven’t seen one for six months so it’s good.

It’s really funny actually because I live in a flat, there are three other people in the house. I went downstairs where there is an old man that lives below me to have a Christmas drink. I sat where you are and he sat on the couch and behind him I see this mouse and the man has a dog and the dog food is on the floor and this mouse is just taking chunks of food and running away and then coming back. It was hard to talk to him because I was watching this mouse. It was so funny and the man kept going on about how we don’t have mice.

Any shows in the UK or America that you would like to appear on?

At the moment all I watch and I’m obsessed about is the food network. I love Gordon Ramsey’s kitchen nightmares, restaurant makeover and iron chef. I would be a judge on iron chef in a minute.

Are you a good cook?

Yeah I cook. I like cooking; I could be a judge, definitely. I’m like the most amazing chef in my head because I’ve watched so many cooking programs. I actually know how to make lots of things, in my head but I’ve never made them. But I could, because I’ve seen it done so many times.

Didn’t you bake something one time that made someone choke?

No, not me.

You baked something at Christmas time.

Oh yeah, my really dry chocolate cake. Yeah that was bad; I’m not like that any more. I’m much better now. Actually that was Adam Rapp, the director. He was over for Christmas one year and everyone was chewing the cake for ages and he said, ‘I’m just going to get some water”. Yeah maybe I shouldn’t be a judge.

I don’t really watch television very much, apart from documentary type things. I did really love watching Sex and the City.

My friend has the whole series on DVD.

Yeah, me too. But do you know what, It’s weird, I loved it when it was coming out but I watched it recently and it’s quite dated. It doesn’t play as well.

I heard you were interested in working with Greenpeace?

My friend, Yan, use to work for this company called “Peace for a day” which is basically a charity, and they’re kind of rallying for a day of amnesty, a day of peace. They are working towards having one day of no fighting, complete cease fire for a day, so that aid can get in to the people who need it. They were going to do some work with Greenpeace and arrange a trip to the Amazon, but It never happened and I was working.

When I heard that you went to Mozambique I assume it was with Greenpeace.

Yeah I did go but that was just a holiday.

You’re kidding. I don’t really think of Mozambique as a vacation destination.

Yeah I know, you should, though. It’s just stunning. It’s quite beautiful. We stayed on a island off the coast, called Ibo. It’s an old colonial island which was colonized but the Portuguese, so the architecture is Portuguese and everyone talks Portuguese. There was amazing fish and food. There are around 200 islands, tiny islands. We stayed there and it was like a little resort. There aren’t that many resorts there but I’m sure in five years there will be. There are these amazing rock formations everywhere.

Did you get a chance to do the backpacking thing like you had hoped?

No I haven’t. What I really want to do now is travel around Africa more because going to Mozambique was so amazing. We were kind of talking about [it] and there is this music festival that I want to go to in Marley, which is Northern Africa. It’s an amazing music festival in the dessert. We were thinking about going there and spending like a month just traveling around, or going to Asia because I’ve never been there.

What’s the most amazing place you have ever filmed?

The outback in Australia for “Gone”. Breathtaking, unbelievable. I’ve never seen anything like it. It was one of those places where, as I was leaving, I was like, “I’ll probably never come back here again”. It’s extreme and it’s quite hot, it’s unbearable hot and there were bones everywhere. But then the sunsets were so beautiful and it was so desolate, it was quite emotional as a place.

What are you doing for the rest of the day?

My boyfriend and I are going to hire a car and go driving.