Jessica Biel: Taking Aim

The last time you probably saw hot actress Jessica Biel, she was a freaked out traveler cornered by Leatherface in the remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. No more babe in jeopardy for this little lady. Jessica now plays Abigail Whistler, a vampire fighter whose skill with a futuristic bow and arrow has no equal in Blade: Trinity. This is Jessica's first big action heroine role and she was determined to look and feel the part. Now she can give Fantastic Four boyfriend Chris Evans a run for his money.

The actress looked anything but combat ready when we interviewed her in L.A. recently. Dressed in a very soft package (beige slacks, knit shirt, brown seed pearl drop earrings and blonde-streaked hair in a long braid down her back), she looked more ready for a tea party than a vampire hunting slug fest but she was all fired up and ready to tell us all about her extensive "Blade" fight training and the fun and pranks on set...

TeenHollywood: You still look in shape but the training for this film must have been exhausting!

Jessica: I was in the gym six days a week for a couple of hours a day and then an hour of fight training, an hour of archery and a super-strict diet throughout the whole movie. There was heavy weightlifting to bulk up in the beginning. Then once I got to a certain size it was a more maintaining and lots of cardio to kind of lean down. Work to build, then maintain, then lean it out as much as we could.

TeenHollywood: Did it ever cross your mind that you might not be able to do all this physical stuff?

Jessica: No it didn't because I've been working out forever. The gym, for me, is not a chore. It's a stress release. It's something I enjoy a lot. I was getting paid to work out. I couldn't think of a better thing. I think I questioned my choreography sometimes. We planned out all these amazing fight sequences where I kill thirteen guys at once. You just show up and kind of cross your fingers and hope that you can get it done and it looks right and punches look right. It's a weird thing to show a fake punch.

TeenHollywood: You have one laser weapon that doesn't actually do on set what it does with CGI effects on screen. Was that weird?

Jessica: We really did have an issue with that thing because there were two different ones. I would hold it up and then we'd have to stop [filming] and replace it with the big one and then replace it with the small one. Then the CGI would work later, but it was really kind of a pain.

TeenHollywood: How does shooting one of those complicated fight scenes work for you? It seems so fast.

Jessica: My last fight scene, I think that took two days to shoot because we shot it in one long master, basically, and it was 13 guys, one after the other after the other. It worked much better for me to keep doing it in one whole sequence than to chop it up because you lose your momentum coming from one person to the next. I was also working with the best stunt people ever. If I gave kind of a crappy punch they still sold it like I knocked them out so it was really half to our stunt people's credit that it looked so great.

TeenHollywood: But you looked really convincing.

Jessica: Well, they do it for a living and we've only done it for four months. It was 14, 15 hours one day of just fighting all day long and after that day I was just wiped. Every muscle...I almost threw out my back. You get to the point where, 'Holy crap I don't know if I'm going to survive it," but it was awesome, it was so much fun, I had such a good time doing it.

TeenHollywood: Did you have any injuries?

Jessica: No I didn't. Not really. I have kind of a weak back anyway and I got a bit of a chiropractic adjustment, which kind of cleaned me right up so I think it could have been really bad if we hadn't taken care of it right away. I really didn't have any other injuries besides my knees and my shins...I looked like I had been hit by a sledgehammer. I was just bruised up and down. Colliding knees with shins and knees hitting corners. It was just a mess of knees hitting things, but that's it. I was really lucky.

TeenHollywood: Okay, we hear that Wesley Snipes just IS Blade 24/7. Was that strange working with him?

Jessica: That's true. All the time we were on set or in a trailer, he was Blade. I can't describe it any other way. He was just serious and very intense and quiet and not really communicative at all. It was weird, but it really helped our dynamic onscreen. We didn't know each other. We weren't supposed to know each other. We were all awkward onscreen. It was perfect because that is what it was in real life. He didn't cuss at me. He didn't say a whole lot to me.

TeenHollywood: More on the personal Jessica. You were going to Tufts University for a while. Are you finishing your college education out here?

Jessica: I haven't finished it. I don't want to finish it in LA. I don't know when I'm going to do this. I hope it doesn't just go on and on and years and years go by and I'm still going to do it. I'd like to finish it somewhere like NYU or something. I'd love to go to NY and just kind of go for a couple of years because I'd like to live there anyway before I have a family or anything like that. I'd love to do that for me, but I think maybe in the next couple of years if my career comes to a place where I feel comfortable enough to leave LA, then I feel like I could maybe get it done.

TeenHollywood: Why don't you want to finish at Tufts?

Jessica: I would if my friends were all still there. I went for a year, took a year off and went back again and now they've all graduated. So, for me to go back to Medford, Mass, where I don't know anybody anymore, it's like starting as a Freshman all over again. I'd like to choose something else, like go to NYU where I can live in an apartment and not have to be on campus.

TeenHollywood: Abigail in the film listens to her iPod playlist when she goes into battle. Do you have an iPod and what's on your play list?

Jessica: (laughs) I don't even have a play list. I'm a little bit challenged in that area. I do have an iPod. I have a bunch of different stuff; Led Zeppelin, Christina Aguilera, Bob Marley, Damien Rice, Maroon 5.

TeenHollywood: Did anybody ever mention that it would be difficult to hear who you would be fighting with your music blaring in your ear?

Jessica: No, hey, this is comic book land. I've got eyes in the back of my head. She was supposed to fuel her fire with her music, her pump up music. It wasn't even a question, would it be not tactical that she couldn't hear somebody coming from behind.

TeenHollywood: Okay. We buy it. Ryan Reynolds is pretty funny. Was it hard to keep a straight face with him on set?

Jessica: Yes but David Goyer is the prankster. No one's ever played jokes on me except this movie where it was joke after joke after joke. I kill all these SWAT guys and they are all lying on the floor. For weeks and weeks we had all these dummies dressed in SWAT gear on the floor. You just get used to stepping over them...they're everywhere. So of course one of our prop guys gets dressed up and lies down on the floor and I didn't know about it. David calls me over and, at the right moment, the guy on the floor grabbed my leg. I screamed and everyone laughed.

TeenHollywood: Silly but cute. What else?

Jessica: This was his favorite. I'm walking with my flashlight and my gun and I'm looking for Zoe and I have to look in a meat locker. He hid in the meat locker and it's take three and my gun is so heavy and my arms are shaking and I'm looking and I open this meat locker and "Aargh!", he jumps out and it scared the s**t out of me.

TeenHollywood: If this goes on to a sequel film about your vamp fighting unit, would you like to be part of this franchise?

Jessica: Well, yeah. I loved Blade 1 and that's why I was interested in becoming part of this one because I thought it was awesome. Whatever happens..if it's a spin off or whatever...as long as Goyer's involved I'd be interested in being involved.

TeenHollywood: Superhero geek questions. Who would win in a fight between you and Wes (Blade)?

Jessica: Well, Wes would win because he's got supernatural powers.

TeenHollywood: What about Buffy? Did you ever watch it?

Jessica: I never watched Buffy. I wasn't a Buffy freak.

TeenHollywood: How about Abigail vs. Electra?

Jessica: Hummm, I don't know but that would be a good fight.

TeenHollywood: How about you and Chris Evans?

Jessica: Oh he would kick my ass. We've wrestled before and he's very strong.

TeenHollywood: You did Blade: Trinity before he did Fantastic Four. Did you give him any advice or was it different?

Jessica: His is totally different. He's using a lot of wires and stuff and I didn't really use anything. I practiced on wires, but we ended up not using them at all. For me at least. He's doing very different stuff. He's not being trained in martial arts. He's not doing archery or anything. He's in good shape so he's just been in the gym getting pumped up.

TeenHollywood: Does he complain about the wires?

Jessica: I think he's mentioned that his suit is just really tight.

TeenHollywood: Sounds good to us. Did you ever accidentally knock someone out?

Jessica: I punched this kid. He's like 19 so he would kill me for saying that. This kid, Jordan. He plays one of our skate punks, our vampire punks and he's actually a Canadian superstar skateboarder and he's also a BMXer, just actually a crazy athlete. It's the first scene where you see me and I like crush his arm and I throw him on the ground and I'm punching him like this and I just collided with his face and his head hit the concrete. We just looked at each other like [makes a surprised face] "Sorry!"

TeenHollywood: What happened then?

Jessica: I ran to the monitor obviously after asking if he was okay. Then Goyer would just rewind it as I punched him in the face. We just watched it over and over, "Crack, crack, crack" hit the concrete, hit the concrete, hit the concrete every time we'd laugh so hard . And Jordan was such a good sport. I could see him, he was like, "Oh I'm totally fine," [touches mouth and moves it around as if she's just been punched]. He'd turn away and rub his chin.

TeenHollywood: Did playing a role like this give you a feeling of personal power?

Jessica: Yes, absolutely because you don't get to do this. I got to kick guy's butts all day long. But, it kind of gives you a false sense of strength though because I feel like, "Yeah, bring it on.' If I'm on the street? "Bring it on," but then what could I do? My routine on you? Fake punch you? I always joke about that because my dad and my brother are like, "Oh you're good now," and no not really. I have this false sense of security that I could really kick your ass.

TeenHollywood: But you really could shoot an arrow. Didn't you break a camera? Set the scene for us.

Jessica: I did. I busted like a $300,000 lens. David loves this. I'm standing up and Drake (the bad guy) has turned into this gnarly monster and he's got Wesley and he's holding him by the neck. I'm up 40 feet away from the camera and they've put up this plexi-glass to block anybody from getting hurt. They turned down the poundage [on her bow]. If it was turned up to normal pounds I could shoot that arrow straight probably for 100 yards, but since they turned it down, the arrow was going down [in an arc]. They wanted it to come straight next to the camera instead of diving down. My coach said, either turn it up or let her aim for the camera because I was aiming just off. DP said, 'it's OK, aim at the camera'. All the guys were like, "Just aim at it," [ ha, she'll never hit it] and my coach is like "Do it, do it." I mean we had been practicing hardcore target practice and I just aimed and shot that lens right out. First take. It will be in the DVD because I shoot it, you see the camera go [splat] and you hear it. And I'm just laughing and pointing. And our poor camera assistant is like "Oh my god, my lens!" Now he has to call the studio and explain what happened.

TeenHollywood: You have two more movies coming out. What are they?

Jessica: Stealth. I'm a fighter pilot in a black ops squad. It's a futuristic man vs. machine. I do a lot of flying and I end up on the ground at one point and I do have a cool machine gun that I shoot, but it's not hand to hand combat.Elizabethtown I just finished shooting. That was amazing. Now I'm looking at some indies, trying to figure out what to do next.

***

Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.