When we chatted with very blonde, petite actress Mena Suvari recently, she was a pretty hot chick much like her call girl character in the new Nic Cage-directed film Sonny a movie about two young people caught in the prostitution game in 1980's New Orleans. The American Beauty star came to our interview in a black jacket, jeans and high spike leopard-print heels. She spoke about her co-stars, Nic as a director, carefully choosing her roles and...her favorite make-up. Note: Sonny is an R-rated film about young people caught in a brutal lifestyle. It might not be appropriate for younger teens.

Mena got the role of Carol the call girl in a hurry. "They came to me very quickly and right before the holidays, like around this time, and it was pretty much, 'Here it is, read it and let us know tomorrow what you think,' and I was like, 'Okay.' Then, I found myself going to New Orleans on the third of January". The actress has a process that helps her build her character. "I had a few weeks here to work with a dialect coach on an Arkansas accent. Working with the speech coach is really important and meeting with the costume designer and just seeing kind of what paths they wanted to take with the character, and then, just going to New Orleans and seeing the sets and the city and there's something that just kind of happens for me".