Kate Bosworth: "Beyond"

Gorgeous blonde Kate Bosworth first hit films as the riding partner/pal of Scarlett Johansson in The Horse Whisperer. She has impressed us as an athletic surfer girl in the flick Blue Crush a couple of summers ago, and, on the total flipside, as the druggie girlfriend of Val Kilmer in Wonderland. As an average small town girl who wins a date with a movie star crush, Kate represented a lot of our dreams in the romantic romp Win a Date with Tad Hamilton. Her on and off relationship with mega-hottie movie star Orlando Bloom has a lot of us envying her.

Now, Kate takes on a film world icon as she plays Sandra Dee, a movie teen queen of the 1960's in the Bobby Darin tribute pic Beyond the Sea, in which she co-stars with the Oscar-winning actor/director Kevin Spacey. When we spoke in Beverly Hills, the actress looked very fresh and "girly" in a brown dress with beige flowers "It's very comfortable and easy for today". Her gold dangle earrings looked great against her very long blonde hair and her odd but gorgeous eyes (the left is blue/green, the right is brown) were all alert and sparkly as she talked about working with Kevin, fashion choices and the perils of love and war.

TeenHollywood: What was your favorite Sandra Dee outfit?

Kate: The Academy Awards dress was pretty beautiful. That was from real wardrobe archives so that was like 1959 I think. And I loved the ones as well when she was younger like the poofy purple and white checked one. That was really pretty.

TeenHollywood: Did you know anything about Sandra Dee or Bobby Darin?

Kate: I didn't know anything about either of them. I knew the names, especially Sandra Dee from the spoof in 'Grease'. That was pretty much it and I'm sure a lot of my generation, that's all they'll know as well.

TeenHollywood: Did you look at her old films to get an idea of her? Were you worried about playing a real person?

Kate: When I got the role, I rented a few of her films like A Summer Place, and I started watching them and got really nervous because I wanted to imitate or mimic and I got really caught up in it. I went to Kevin [Spacey] and said 'I don't know. I'm trying to move like her exactly and I think I need a movement coach and a speech coach. I need a lot of coaches for this part. I'm not sure'. And he was like 'oh, no, no, no. We're not doing an imitation. That would be really boring. Take it with a grain of salt. We're creating characters from our own hearts as well'. So I starting watching films and started to read a lot. I read 'Dream Lover' which Dodd Darin (Sandra's son with Bobby) wrote. That was the most helpful.

TeenHollywood: Did you get a chance to meet Sandra Dee at all?

Kate: No. She just saw the movie last night which is really exciting, and she loved it. That's good. She's a really private person. She's seeing things in her own time. It must be really weird to have a movie made about you. I can't even imagine.

TeenHollywood: Now that you got a little snippet of what it was like in the 1960's, do you think you would have liked to have lived back then? It was so different.

Kate: It was different. It was an exciting time. For me it was stepping back but it wasn't so far back. It wasn't like playing somebody from the eighteen hundreds where it's like really trying to imagine what it was like. It was just a bit further back for me. It was interesting, a real time of change.

TeenHollywood: What was it like working with a director who is also your co-star? He probably even catered this production.

Kate: (laughs) I know. I feel like his name should be in every slot in the credits. It was incredible. Kevin was so one hundred percent focused and devoted to whatever he was doing in that moment. Then as soon and he'd say 'cut', he'd go straight into director mode and go right behind the cameras and watch playback. He did it incredibly.

TeenHollywood: The Sandra and Bobby relationship was pretty rocky. What kept her so in love when we see how hard it was for her?

Kate: It think it's just love. They're in love. To me love and war can be hand in hand sometimes, especially in their relationship. When they first got married, she said she didn't really know him and he didn't really know her. They just met on this movie and were infatuated and then got married. She was in the situation where she hadn't really thought it out. All of a sudden she was in this house that was Mr. and Mrs. Bobby Darin's house and she freaks. And then they got to know each other during the marriage.

TeenHollywood: What was the big problem with them?

Kate: I think it boiled down to the fact that they wanted two totally different things. Her wanting a family. She liked making movies but didn't really love it. She really just wanted a family, a house, child and a normal life and she never really had that. Bobby wanted to do everything he possibly could in the shortest amount of time because he never really knew how long it would last. So these people really loved each other but were on two different journeys. So it was difficult for them to match up a lot of the time.

TeenHollywood: Sandra had the epitome of a stage mom. Is your own mom the antithesis of that?

Kate: Yeah. She's incredible. She's amazing. She's incredibly supportive but not overbearing. She really is the antithesis of a stage mom. I remember when I first got The Horse Whisperer. That's something that was completely unplanned. I was crying because I didn't want to leave school and my friends and I didn't know what was going to happen to me and I was going to go off for three months and didn't know what I was doing. I was freaking out. She just said 'you have to do this. This is going to be an incredible experience. Even if it's one time and you only do this one movie and never do it again, it doesn't matter. You'll have this moment and you can go 'I did that once and it was amazing''. I was thirteen so I was like [in crying voice] 'Okay, I guess. I don't know'. Of course I loved it and, thankfully to her, I'm still doing it.

TeenHollywood: Sandra seemed a bit of an innocent because she had a protective stage mom. Did you get a chance to talk to Dodd Darin at all about his mom and what she was like?

Kate: I only met Dodd at the premiere. Kevin spoke to him quite a bit. Out of all the people I'd met along the way, it was really Dodd that I was most nervous to meet because he's probably the biggest critic of it and I kind of crept up to him and said [meekly] 'did I do okay?' He was like 'yeah, you did great'. So that was an amazing validation for me. And Steve Blauner (Darin's manager) as well. Both of them said that she was so fragile. She had a lot of darkness as well, but at heart was quite innocent. That's how they described her.

TeenHollywood: You and Kevin really have a knock down argument. Was that fun to shoot or hard?

Kate: It's funny, I guess a lot of us can recall moments like this but when there's so much emotion or anger or sadness, it's almost funny. The Academy Awards scene. I remember Kevin and I doing it and really battling it out and we weren't being funny. We were really going at it like a married couple may and then we were watching and going 'this is hilarious. This is what it must look like when you are really battling it out with somebody you love and all of a sudden you're watching it on video tape and going 'we look like two ridiculous people'.

TeenHollywood: You put your academic life on hold. Do you have plans to go back and finish college?

Kate: As of now, I'm not going to go anytime soon. When I got The Horse Whisperer, I was thirteen, just going into high school and I put it all on hold which is, thinking back, pretty bold considering your moment could come and go like that, I was like 'I'll just put that on hold for a minute, then I can come back to that after', just expecting it to be there. Someone must be watching over me. I really worked hard in high school and did well. And, after I graduated, Princeton sent me a letter saying 'we recommend you defer and go explore that part of your life in terms of acting'. So I did and I haven't really felt comfortable yet to want to go back to school. It's something I want to do in the future because I love it. I really do but I'm just not quite ready yet to focus on that again.

TeenHollywood: Do you think you are missing the social part of it? The parties?

Kate: Like the beer-drinking keg parties? No. I was never really like that. Even in high school, I was never the homecoming queen or the prom queen. I was never on the court even. I wasn't even a princess [laughs]. I was really just kind of friends with everybody. It was never really my thing. I was more serious I guess. I have a good social life now so I don't feel like I'm missing out on much.

TeenHollywood: Sandra Dee was a style icon of the '60's. You've got great style. How did that develop?

Kate: My dad would be so happy you said that because he's in retail. It's funny, it's really from my father that I love fashion because his father was in it. My dad his whole life, has been in retail so I've always been around fashion, clothes and fabrics and everything. He really instilled in me a classic sense. I remember him always saying to me 'don't follow the trends. Don't try to wear the thing that's happening right now. Just go back to the classics'. That's my taste. I'm not somebody who will run out and get like the fur body suit because it looks good this season. It's more about what I think will stand the test of time and I think that's probably what Sandra did as well.

TeenHollywood: What are some of the classic designers in your closet?

Kate: I love Mark Jacobs. I love Armani. I love Oscar de la Renta, Chloe and I like the little ones as well, like Mail, Marnie.

TeenHollywood: What kind of music do you listen to other than Bobby Darin all the time?

Kate: That was playing constantly. But, in my CD player right now is Postal Service, Coldplay, Damian Rice, Eminem. I love Sinatra, I love Rolling Stones and The Beatles. I like everything that has something to say and has a soul.

TeenHollywood: You were pretty buff after Blue Crush. How long were you able to keep that up?

Kate: [laughs]. I was off of that the minute I was off the movie. I was done. Literally, that was the most intense physical experience I have ever gone through, not exaggerating. It was seven hours a day of sheer work out. Took four hours of surfing and an hour of weight training and an hour of either running the beach or running under the water carrying a rock as in the movie. And I remember, at first being really gung ho. 'Yes! I'm going to do this. I want a surfer's body. I want to be able to be exactly like a female surfer. I'm not gonna be this little actress trying to be a surfer. I'm gonna be a surfer'. My body was changing as well so it was really interesting, even the way I walked. It's almost like assuming a character in a way. I was much more muscular. Then by the end I was like 'okay, ready to stop this now. It's been enough'. It was really hard. Also because I was going on to Wonderland after that and I was playing a drug addict, so I kind of had to lose that healthy glow so to speak.

TeenHollywood: You go back and forth from darker characters to girl next door or Sandra Dee, the ultimate goodie two shoes. What kinds of roles do you like to do best?

Kate: It starts with the script for me. I never finish a film and go 'oh, I'd really like to do a horror movie next'. I don't think like that. It's about scripts coming in and reading and going, 'I know that's not the one, next. No, that's not the one, next'. Then there's always just one where I go 'ooo, that's the one I want'. It often comes to me at a point in my life where I need it. Like Blue Crush, I had just moved out of my parents' house and I was on my own and I was really scared. I was in L.A. by myself at eighteen. I really needed that female empowerment and I got that through Blue Crush. After that, I really wanted to explore a darker area and Wonderland came along. It's really about what I want to explore at that time in my life that I'm attracted to.

TeenHollywood: What do you want to explore right now?

Kate: Well, next I'm doing this movie called Awake with Jared Leto and Helen Mirren and it's a psychological thriller.

TeenHollywood: What's your opinion of Bobby Darin now? Do you think you would have been a fan of his?

Kate: Yeah. All the people I listen to that I love, it's really just about a passion and heart and soul. I think some people stand the test of time and he does. He's like Sinatra that way. There's just a classic sense about him and a love for what he does. You can just tell through his music, or seeing him, you know he lives for it.

TeenHollywood: In the '60's a lot of studios were setting up publicity dates. Has that ever happened to you? You're supposed to pretend you are with somebody for a movie premiere or something?

Kate: Yeah, Val Kilmer [laughter]. No, no, no. They've never done that.

TeenHollywood: If your younger self came to visit you now, what do you think would surprise her?

Kate: I think it would be a shock. When I was younger I wasn't sitting there wanting to be an actress. I didn't really know. I wanted to be like a waitress on roller skates I think when I was young. I wanted to be the girl that came up to the cars and gave them food. It would be a bit shocking to see where I am now and what I'm doing.

***

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