Sherlock Holmes and the Gypsy

After the successful Sherlock Holmes movie in 2009, Robert Downey Jr. [Ironman), with Jude Law as his sidekick Watson, returns this month in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, a film full of cool action and a fun mystery plot.

Hot Swedish actress Noomie Rapace who starred as Lisbeth Salander The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo in the original trio of Swedish films based on the popular crime novels, plays a feisty gypsy girl named Sim who goes with the detective duo on their quest to stop the evil crime genius Moriarty (Jared Harris). This involves some wild gypsy dances and even more extreme stunts.

We’re at a posh hotel in Beverly Hills sitting down with Noomi and the very frank and always funny acting genius that is Robert Downey Jr.

TeenHollywood: In 2009, Robert, you took on the Sherlock character and brought out his physical side. This was a popular choice. So what do you keep in mind to mix the classic Sherlock with your new interpretation?

Robert: Well, you just keep [Sir Arthur Conan] Doyle [original Sherlock Holmes author] in mind. Because I just respect the guy more and more. And I think the other thing is that oftentimes what's required, particularly if you're in any central position is you just have to let go. You have to let go of the things that are darling to you. You have to take the focus off yourself and put it on the shape of the scene and the intention of whatever everyone else needs. You have to give people something to actually write music to so you're not just running your mouth all the time.

Noomi: But it was also quite incredible how [the producers] kind of kept like an eye over everything. And, sometimes when we kind of flew away and wanted to do great ideas, they  kind of navigated us back to [the story].

Robert: [joking] They hovered.

Noomi: Yeah. But, no it felt like they had the whole story inside them and knew the books and everything and it felt like amazing teamwork, right?

Robert: Yeah, it was a democracy in the truest and most frustrating and most rewarding sense of the word. I mean anybody [was allowed] to come in and say, 'You know, I'm just not cool with that.' It would be like, 'Who's that?' 'Oh, I'm just cleaning the trailer, sir.' And we'd just listen. It was nuts.

TeenHollywood: Robert, do you have any interest in any of the other many portrayals done of Holmes over the years?

Robert: Yeah, I mean I just kind of like everybody. Whenever I watch someone doing something even if it doesn't turn out so great I at least admire their intentions and stuff. And I know that there are some kind of quintessential performances that have happened out there. I've heard more about the TV series than I've seen. But I'm intrigued by it. We're all part of the same collective of honoring this great writer and his stories.

TeenHollywood: Noomie, who did your outfit today [long black dress with a 1940’s style top]?

Noomi: Lisa Ho and then Giuseppe Zanotti shoes. I love them.

TeenHollywood: Tell us about getting the part of Sim the gypsy girl. She’s pretty cool.

Noomi: Okay, yeah. Well, for most movies I had done before, I've done a lot of preparation. And I've known about them long before and I've prepped and I've changed my body and I've done research. But on this one I met Robert and [his wife, producer] Susan [Downey] maybe six weeks, seven weeks before we started to shoot. It was a good, quick meeting in LA. And we didn't really talk about 'Sherlock Holmes' but we talked about movies, and dreams and I remember Robert asking me, 'How do you want to work?' And, 'What movies do you want to make?' And it was really super intense.

TeenHollywood: But you liked them?

Noomi: I walked out of that meeting and called my manager and was like, 'Wow. Those two are amazing. I would love to work with them.' And then Warner Brothers wanted to send me over to London to meet [director] Guy Ritchie. I was there for an hour and we talked. And it was really also very intense. I came out of that meeting and was like, 'Whoa, I would love to work with those people.' But I didn't expect anything.

I think like a week later, or two weeks later, they wanted me to do this role. And then we started to shoot like three weeks later. So I just kind of jumped into it. And it was super intense. And so much fun. And I was really nervous before. It was my first English-speaking movie. I didn't speak English like three years ago. So I didn't really know how to deal with it and how it would be for me but they were all very open. And it was very playful and easy and creative. So it felt like they embraced my ideas. And it felt like we kind of created my character together, in a way so it was fantastic.

TeenHollywood: Robert, you and Jude seem so funny and natural together as Holmes and Watson. Did you do a lot of ad-libbing and playing with each scene?

Robert: You know, I think the goal is to make a well-written scene seem like it's improvised. Or to come up with things that you find in the room to use that you couldn't have known until you get into the real situation. Just try to improve things as you go along. Jude, by the way, would have been here but his son had a soccer game. [We think he’s kidding].

TeenHollywood: Noomi, this role is a great start to your Hollywood career. You are also in director Ridley Scott’s film Prometheus about a team of space explorers. Is this all a dream come true?

Noomi: Well, I think I'm really spoiled now. This was the first American or English spoken movie I did. It felt like we went through things together. And it felt like you [to Robert] and me and Jude came closer and closer as a group. And it was really fantastic. I was extremely happy. And then I went, amazingly enough, to prep Prometheus straight after. And I was in that movie for five, six months. So it was a really intense year. And now I'm here. I'm really grateful for all those people that they believed in me and gave me the chance and invited me on this journey. And so I'm extremely grateful and proud.

TeenHollywood: Was there a tough scene in “Game of Shadows” for you either physically or emotionally?

Noomi: I like doing like fight scenes and those more physical scenes. I always enjoy that and I try to do as much as they allow me to do of the stunt stuff and the more complicated things. And so I think that's always quite easy. You just have to kind of crack on and do it. And, of course, you're bruised and your body is aching and you hurt yourself a lot sometimes. But that's kind of a part of it. And I've done fight scenes and stuff like that before. I always find it quite amusing.

The emotional scenes, in the end when I lose a person that I really love and that I feel kind of guilty for letting down [her brother in the movie], that was quite complicated because it's like you need to really get into that situation [in your head] and it was a room full of people with everybody watching. You feel like, in a way, you just want to hide and do it really private. I think it's always the emotional situations that are more tricky to nail and to get into.

I don't like to pretend. I try to use things in me and translate them into the situation and the character. So it always needs to run through my own veins in a way. And so it was emotional scenes that were more difficult. I’m really self-critical as well.  

TeenHollywood: Robert, you had some great scenes with “bad guy” Professor Moriarty played by Jared Harris. Did you guys actually have fun?

Robert: He would come in and we'd have a scene that he's shooting in two days. And he'd be like, 'Is this going to pretty much stay like this?' I was like, 'Not a word of it.' 'Can I have something that I can study the night before?' I was like, 'I'm going to venture a no on the possibility of yes.' And it would be like that. And the stakes were so high in every scene. And then there's complicated camera shots and stuff like this. So it's pretty terrifying.

Everything Jared Harris did in the course of making this movie was essentially thrown at him with very little time to prepare. It was also an exercise in trial by fire for him. And he was really quite nice. Once in awhile he would say, 'I really just beg of you. If I could even have a semblance of knowing what I might say I guarantee you I could do a better job with it. And I wouldn't be like you, Robert, wearing an Earwig where someone's telling you what to say in the other room. But I would actually know what I was going to say.' And I'd be like, 'Interesting. Yeah, everyone has their own process.' [Director] Guy Ritchie told him to go home and come back singing a German aria the next day. Nobody learns a German aria overnight except Jared Harris.

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