Evan Rachel Wood: "Ryan (Gosling) is Such a Great Partner!"

Beautiful, 24-year-old Evan Rachel Wood is one of the best actors of her generation. No wonder she can stand toe-to-toe with another young acting icon Ryan Gosling in their new intrigue/thriller The Ides of March. Ryan told us “I don’t think she was ever really a kid” and “That girl has a mind like a hard drive. She remembers everything”.

Evan has always seemed older than her years and, here in Beverly Hills at our interview, she admits that she made up for not really having “normal” teen years by raising a little hell in her late teens and earlier 20’s.  That might explain her match up with rocker Marilyn Manson.

Now, Evan is ready to focus on her craft and playing a young intern working on a Presidential campaign, she serves up hot seduction and confidence combined with innocent vulnerability like it was 2^nd nature to her.

She looks amazing today in a silk, high-necked burgundy blouse with a burgundy and gray sweater over gray pants. Her very short, blonde-streaked hair completes a look that says “sexy business professional”.

TeenHollywood: I love your hair. Is that just for you (or for a role)?

Evan: Yeah, just for me. Thanks. It’s just for variety. I’ve been wanting to chop all my hair off for a really long time. It’s kind of terrifying at first. I’ve had such long hair for so long. It’s kind of a risk but, once it was gone, it was just like “ahhhh. Such a relief”.  It’s so much easier and I feel so much more like me so I love it.

TeenHollywood: Emma Watson said kinda the same thing. Did the fact that your character Molly was a go getter in both her career and personal life make you really want to play her?

Evan: Yeah, definitely. I loved how confident she was and I thought it was cool to play this girl that was really young but she’s grown up in this world so she’s really used to it and she’s not intimidated by it so she’s just throwing all these guys off their game. It’s awesome and so much fun to do. Yeah, I loved that about her.

TeenHollywood: The vulnerability part kind of showed that she might have a weakness (for hot guys).

Evan: I think she was really just a young girl who was having fun and living in the moment and just got herself in a terrible situation and she’s just terrified. I think she’s one of the few honest people in the movie. She’s very direct about what she was after and I think she was actually good-hearted. She just made some bad choices.

TeenHollywood: Ryan Gosling is sort of the thinking girl’s “hottie”. Did anything about working with Ryan surprise you?

Evan: No, well, I guess, when you’re going to work with someone like that you hear that they’re amazing and talented and beautiful and you’re like “Okay, whatever”. Then, you get around them and you’re like “God dammit! You’re so good!”  It makes you mad because he’s such a great actor but he’s also just a really cool guy and interesting and creative. He’s a great partner. You know that you can go toe to toe and it’s going to be a tennis match and that’s fun.

TeenHollywood: He had a lot of flattering things to say about you too.

Evan: (smiles) Oh, did he now?

TeenHollywood: That you have a great memory for starters.

Evan: Oh yeah. He calls me a hard drive (laughter) because he’d always try to stump me on movie quotes and I’d always know exactly what movie it was and I could quote it and he’d be like “God. How do you do that?”

TeenHollywood: Your transition from child actor to adult actor seemed very seamless for you. What was it for you that made it easier than for some people?

Evan: I feel like it’s because I never did, young, cutesy roles. I always did kind of adult material so I think it was easier for me to have an in to that world. I always felt like I was playing older than I was so I think that’s what helped.

TeenHollywood: Several people have said “She’s never been a child”. No dolls? Was it, “Give me the heels and hose. I’m five!”?

Evan: (laughs) That’s not far off. I did sacrifice my childhood in certain aspects. I’m still, definitely having fun but yeah, I think I’ve been acting and working since I was five. I think that’s why, for a few years, I went “Okay, I’m going to go be as crazy as possible right now because I didn’t have an adolescence. I didn’t have a childhood. If I’m going to get really serious about this career then I wanna have my fun”. So I did some sight-seeing and it was crazy and awesome and I got to know myself really well and now I’m really ready to commit and to work hard and so it’s kinda cool.

TeenHollywood: When shooting, did you guys have a lot of fans watching?

Evan: There were there for George and Ryan. I had it easy. I could just walk on the set but we always knew when Ryan was there or when he was arriving because you would hear this wave of screams and we’d be like “Okay, I guess it’s time to shoot. Ryan’s here.”  It’s a little weird but I think I got off pretty easy on that.

TeenHollywood: Was there some little thing that you brought to your character that wasn’t in the script?

Evan: The writing is so good but I guess a lot of the humor (was mine). Just little moments that Ryan and I played around with. The whole tie thing (her trying to tie his tie) was improvised and that was just me trying to screw with Ryan and tie his tie as badly as possible (laughs).

TeenHollywood: Do you have a favorite scene?

Evan: I think that’s one of my favorite scenes and I like the bar scene too. I think it’s so great that it’s so subtle and the tension is so good and it’s funny, it’s sexy. I think it’s cool to see a really subtle seduction like that. It’s kind of nice.

TeenHollywood: What was it that spoke to you the most about this story as a whole?

Evan: I liked that there’s no hero and no villain. It just leaves you with a lot of questions and makes you question yourself. And the fact that it’s not really about politics. It’s about people and these weird games and moral dilemmas and whether or not you’re going to compromise yourself for what you believe is the greater good and what the best way of going about that is. It’s a weird thing.

TeenHollywood: How was working with George Clooney (who directed the film as well as playing the Presidential hopeful)?

Evan: Everyone in this movie was so awesome that I feel like I sound fake when people ask me what it was like to work with them. “They were great. They were amazing and that person rocked!”  But it’s true. George was amazing because he’s an actor so he knows how to work with you and talk with you. He sympathizes with what you have to do so he makes it really fun.  I think George knows that if he has a happy cast and crew that he’s gonna have really good work and he’s smart. He knows what he wants so things get done quickly but they’re done really well. That’s an ideal situation.

TeenHollywood: He’s quite the big prankster on sets. Did he shoot you with his Nerf gun?

Evan: Yes!

TeenHollywood: What were you doing when he shot you?

Evan: Nothing. He just does it. I think I hijacked that Nerf gun a couple of times, actually and I was shooting people. I think it got passed around.

TeenHollywood: You don’t picture that on this type of a serious movie.

Evan: I know but that’s what kind of needed to happen. It’s what I wish more people would do. When you have to do something so serious, you need something light between (shots) to get out of it.

TeenHollywood: Any other good practical jokes that George concocted?

Evan: He didn’t pull any on me. I think the worst joke that he pulled on me was having the reputation of being a prankster so I was so paranoid every day on set. I was constantly like “When’s it gonna happen?” But, with Ryan, he’d be giving him direction while very subtly just shooting a slight mist on his crotch with water so Ryan couldn’t feel it. They’d be having this deep discussion and George would be giving Ryan this big wet spot and he’d go do the scene and we’d be like “Oh my God. He has no idea that’s there.” It was amazing.

TeenHollywood: So silly!  You’re young but you’ve done so much. You were on a hit TV show (“True Blood”), you’re in a movie with all these Oscar winners and nominees. Are you like, “Well, I’m here. I can be really demanding now”?

Evan: No! I’m like “Well, I’m here. I’d better be really well-behaved so I can say here.” But, it’s been such a great year and I feel really ready to embrace this as my life choice. I’m really focused on it and committed to this whole idea now. Now, I’m just having fun and I feel lucky. I feel like I’ve worked really hard to be here so it’s kind of nice.

TeenHollywood: As a young person, are you involved in the political process or has this movie made you want to be more involved?

Evan: I try and stay informed as much as possible but as far as getting involved, I just get too upset and emotional about it. I’m the person when there’s a big political debate in a room, I’ve gotta leave because I just can’t go there. People ask me if I would get behind a certain candidate and I don’t think I’d ever really be able to do that because it’s not about the candidates anymore. I don’t think it matters who you elect at this point, it’s the system. It’s like “Okay, we’ve really got to start rethinking these things.”

TeenHollywood: What would you be doing if you weren’t acting? Did you have a fallback plan?

Evan: I thought about that. I took time off to get to know myself and figure out if this is what I really wanted to do and not just what I was good at. This is a weird business. It can be here today and gone tomorrow so what else would I do? I’ve been doing this my whole life so the only thing I could think of and the only thing I was really passionate about was psychology because that’s kind of what I do. I analyze and pick people apart and I have to get inside people’s heads. I’d still really love to go back to school and study it. I’d be a shrink, totally.

TeenHollywood: You’ve done costume pictures, drama and an upcoming comedy, what is left? Do you want to be a superhero?

Evan: I do! I would totally be a superhero. I really would actually. I would want to be a Ripley or a Sarah Connor. That I would love to do but there are so few parts like that.  I never get offered superheroes or comedies because they have an idea of who I am as an actor I guess.

TeenHollywood: So you are open for kicking butt?

Evan: Totally! I have a black belt in Tae Kwan Do. I can kick butt. I wasn’t good at ballet and I was a fighter I guess so I just needed that. I did it for years until I got my black belt.

TeenHollywood: Speaking of Ripley, aren’t you doing It Is What It Is with Sigourney Weaver?

Evan: Yeah, that might be happening and it’s a comedy which I’m really excited about because I really, really have been looking forward to doing a fun comedy like that.

TeenHollywood: Can you tell us a little bit more about your character in It Is What It Is?

Evan: She’s a smart, artistic person who is a witty, kind of fun girl. She’s a normal 24-year-old really but she’s slightly tougher and has big dreams. I think it’s hard for her to find a relationship or a person that can match her in a weird way. That’s one of the ways to describe her. Very strong-willed.

TeenHollywood: What is going on with your music?

Evan: I’m singing. I’ve been singing a lot recently for fun and sharing it. It’s something I’ve done privately. I’ve put three videos now and I sang at the afterparty for The Ides of March and I’ve been collaborating with a few people just lending my voice to certain things and it’s been fun. I don’t know if it’s something I’d want to do fulltime but I would do another musical but it is really hard to top The Beatles (Evan sang in Across the Universe). I don’t know how to do that.

TeenHollywood: Who are you into musically now?

Evan: I really love Foster for the People. I’ve been listening to them a lot recently and The Cults. That’s the new stuff. I listen to a lot of old music though. It’s hard for me to find good new stuff. I listen to (Janis) Joplin and Peggy Lee and Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday and the old jazzy lounge singers, I really love. But, Janis bigtime!

TeenHollywood: Being around someone who is a director and actor like George Clooney, does that inspire you to do that somewhere down the road?

Evan: I’d love to do it. I’m just now kind of using these opportunities I have to learn because I’ve worked with some of the best directors out there now so I’m trying to listen and ask questions and learn so that maybe, one day, I can put it into play. It’s like I’m getting the best education on it right now so, why not?