CHRIS NEUMER: Pulling off the short hair style is such a rare commodity, you’d think it’d be more in demand.
NORA ZEHETNER: You’d think, right?
CHRIS NEUMER: Intriguing. Have you found that as your career has progressed and you’ve met with greater degrees of success that it has in anyway affected your personal relationships?
NORA ZEHETNER: No, I don’t think I’ve met with the amount of success necessary for that to happen.
CHRIS NEUMER: Really? You’d be surprised. I don’t say that like an all-knowing sage, but there are people who’ve gotten guest roles on America’s Most Wanted who’ve had it screw up some of their relationships. I spoke to another woman for this article who mentioned that when she was cast in a guest starring role on Law & Order way back in the day that her boyfriend had a lot of trouble dealing with it.
NORA ZEHETNER: Well, that’s different.
CHRIS NEUMER: She felt honestly bad about getting the role because of the stink that her boyfriend was causing. And she was the daughter of the victim who had a line. You got the female lead in Brick. You’re not Julia Roberts yet, but that’s a prominent role that hundreds if not thousands of actresses would kill to get.
NORA ZEHETNER: My boyfriend now isn’t an actor. My last one was an actor and that was more difficult, because it can be a little competitive. I remember one time in one of the films I did, I had a love scene and my ex-boyfriend flipped over it. It was constant fighting for a few weeks. My boyfriend now isn’t an actor and he’s very supportive.
CHRIS NEUMER: He just raises a curious eyebrow at some of the things you do now.
NORA ZEHETNER: Yeah, I was gone for a couple of months working and he was here and it was fine. We didn’t have any problems and he didn’t get jealous and think that I’d end up sleeping with one of my co-stars or anything, so that was good.
CHRIS NEUMER: It’s fascinating to me to think that housewives in Iowa–you know, people who know nothing about the industry–see two people making out on screen and think that it would be so great to do that. I tell them, "You don’t have the first clue!" Even if I personally had a scene with, let’s say Natalie Portman, and I was really into Natalie Portman, it would still be really horrible.
NORA ZEHETNER: It wouldn’t be much fun.
CHRIS NEUMER: I think I might argue that if I was into my co-star, it would be worse.
NORA ZEHETNER: Right.
CHRIS NEUMER: I’ve tried to argue this with people who aren’t attached to the entertainment industry and they just don’t get it. Have there been any boundaries that you’ve set about what you will and will not do? No nudity, no talking babies, nothing with Eric Roberts… things like that?
NORA ZEHETNER: (laughs) No, there aren’t any real boundaries that I’ve set. It all depends on what it is.
CHRIS NEUMER: Nothing in the back of your mind that you’re not interested in, road trip movies involving strippers or American Pie 6?
NORA ZEHETNER: Probably no on those, but you never know, they might be funny. I don’t know… I think… I would never say never to anything at this point in time. There are definitely things that I want to do and things that I don’t. I love cheesy movies, but I don’t really want to be in cheesy movies, you know? I like–I don’t know. You never know how things are going to turn out, it might be brilliant, it might be crap, you just don’t know.
CHRIS NEUMER: I don’t know if it was Sid Sheinberg or not, but whoever greenlit ET said that the movies he didn’t greenlight would have made just as much money, if not more, than the ones he did greenlight. You’ve mentioned a number of times that there are specific things you want to do. If we were to craft a role specifically for you that you would love to sink your teeth into, what kind of character traits, locations or director styles would it entail?
NORA ZEHETNER: I don’t know. I would love to do a big sweeping epic period piece. I’d also love to be a princess, that would be great.
CHRIS NEUMER: What is the appeal of an epic period piece?
NORA ZEHETNER: I don’t know. I used to hate them, now I love them. I don’t know, the costumes? The properness of it.
CHRIS NEUMER: I’ve never thought of this before, but, as a journalist I write what I would like to read, but it seems like as an actor this isn’t always the case. Natalie Wood had come up earlier, do you have any desire to play a real life person on screen?
NORA ZEHETNER: Not that much, honestly. It actually doesn’t because it seems like so much pressure to emulate them perfectly. You have to get their speech patterns down and their voice and their manners and all that. It sounds like an interesting challenge, but it’s not on the top of my list of things to do.
CHRIS NEUMER: Do you think that emulating a real person would be a different kind of acting?
NORA ZEHETNER: Yeah. Absolutely. Not any better or anything, for me it would probably be more difficult, it would take away some of your choices. You don’t get to look at the character and say, "This is what I think she is and this is how she moves." You’re a little boxed in in that area. But when it’s done well, it’s amazing. Cate Blanchett as Katherine Hepburn was amazing. I couldn’t do that.
CHRIS NEUMER: You have done a lot of work thus far and you’ve been acting for a number of years, has there been anything that has surprised you about the nature of your career thus far?
NORA ZEHETNER: Yeah, absolutely. In the beginning, I used to read a lot of things that said that seven years was the lucky number, so many people’d be like, "After seven years of trying to act I finally got my big movie." I was like, "I don’t want to wait seven years. I quit before then." But now I’ve almost been doing it for seven years and I don’t even have a huge hit, I have Brick which is amazing, but nothing like super big. When I look back it doesn’t seem that long, I can’t believe that it’s been that long. It’s kind of, you know, work and don’t work and try and get a job and… I don’t know.
CHRIS NEUMER: Do you look back at yourself six years ago, four years, two years and the goals you had at the time and think, "My God, what was wrong me? Nora, what the hell were you thinking?"
NORA ZEHETNER: I think I’ve made some–I haven’t always made the smartest decisions, but I haven’t now either. I’ve been lazy at times too. I wouldn’t take back anything though, I couldn’t imagine how it would be different with me now, so…
CHRIS NEUMER: Have their been lessons that you’ve picked up from not making the smartest decisions at the time?
NORA ZEHETNER: No. Not really. It’s pretty straightforward to me; it is what it is. I wish I knew a great trick or lesson. Do you have any for me?
CHRIS NEUMER: Be good? Be witty and charming and good?
NORA ZEHETNER: That’s the thing, there aren’t any tricks.
CHRIS NEUMER: Working hard and talent, I think those are the two biggest things. I always bump into these people who want to be stand-up comedians and they say, "I want to be like Steven Wright or Chris Rock." I ask them to give me some material and they look at me like, "What?" I ask again and they tell me that they have to prepare.
NORA ZEHETNER: I have a friend who is getting into stand-up and there’s so much time she spends writing.
CHRIS NEUMER: It follows that old Robert Evans quote, luck is where preparation meets opportunity.
NORA ZEHETNER: Right.
CHRIS NEUMER: It’s the only inspirational statement that I happen to believe in. You alluded to some of the things that you did weren’t necessarily the smartest decisions. I’m not looking for dirt–unless you’ve got a great Mary Kate and Ashley story–I just want you to expand on that a little bit. What were those things?
NORA ZEHETNER: They were a couple of things that I passed on when, now, I don’t think I should have passed on them. There are definitely things that I’ve done that turned out to be awful, but you can’t say, "God I wish I hadn’t done that," because it’s a learning experience.
CHRIS NEUMER: Can you put a name to these things?
NORA ZEHETNER: No. They weren’t life changing things like the lead in Lord of the Rings or anything, just supporting roles in big movies and things like that. You do something like that and other things, you know what I mean.
CHRIS NEUMER: Except, as we covered earlier in the conversation, I stay up late worrying about these decisions and you can write them off and move forward.
NORA ZEHETNER: If I wanted to do that and go that route there are so many things I could lose sleep about. I still stress out about certain things. When Brick came out I was there on my Blackberry 24/7, my boyfriend wanted to kill me, I was just looking up reviews. It was a horrible thing to do. I’d read good ones and then I’d read really bad ones, mean ones about me and it would then make me feel horrible.
CHRIS NEUMER: I feel you. But I’m telling you, I’m envious. I look at you like I look at drummers: I wish I could do what you do, but there’s just no way. I’m not wired that way. It goes from envy to jealousy to hate. Really, it’s a good thing I’m not in a George Lucas movie. So in three weeks, I’ll be entering my extreme hatred phrase.
NORA ZEHETNER: Great…
CHRIS NEUMER: Something to look forward to.
NORA ZEHETNER: Just as you’re starting to write your article on me.
CHRIS NEUMER: Something like that. Anything else you want to add or throw in?
NORA ZEHETNER: No. I’m really tired this morning so this has probably been a really boring interview for you.
CHRIS NEUMER: No, no. You don’t know what boring interviews are.
NORA ZEHETNER: I’ll trust you on that. I know that there are a lot of people who don’t have a ton going on upstairs.
CHRIS NEUMER: You know, I’m not sure if that’s entirely it. There have been some incredibly stupid people who I’ve had really good interviews with and, conversely, some really smart people who just can’t string two thoughts together.
NORA ZEHETNER: A couple years from now, you’re going to be saying, "God, that Nora Zehetner was boring. She wasn’t stupid, but was she boring. Wow!"
CHRIS NEUMER: Not boring, painfully average.
NORA ZEHETNER: What?
CHRIS NEUMER: I’m kidding. No, this has been decent.
NORA ZEHETNER: Decent? That’s worse. "Nora Zehetner… she’s decent!"
CHRIS NEUMER: Yeah, but not boring. That’s the point.
NORA ZEHETNER: I think I’m getting sick. I went to bed early, so I don’t really have much of an excuse, my glands are getting swollen. It’s like, Blahhhh.
CHRIS NEUMER: That’s going to be a pull quote. I’m highlighting that in yellow.
NORA ZEHETNER: That’s really sexy, right?
CHRIS NEUMER: Absolutely. I’m sure we can combine that quote with something else really out of context and make it one doozy of a quote.
NORA ZEHETNER: Great.
CHRIS NEUMER: Something else to look forward to. Does that happen to you often where people misquote you?
NORA ZEHETNER: It’s funny, I’ve definitely read things that I’ve supposedly said and nothing’s been so horribly taken out of context or changed that I’m going to call anyone about it, but there are just little things. My boyfriend read one the other day where someone asked me if I had anyone to keep me company in LA and I was like, "My two dogs." My boyfriend said, "What about me?" He was upset and gave me the hardest time about it. There was another article that had me saying "Yikes" about something. Now, I don’t think I’ve ever said the word ‘yikes’ in my life. It was a complete misquote. They then strung together two other things I’d said on different topics to create one big statement that I never really said.
CHRIS NEUMER: That is interesting. I don’t know how you can get used to that. Either you stop reading it or you stop caring about it.
NORA ZEHETNER: You stop caring about it.
CHRIS NEUMER: You just explain to your boyfriend, "Honey, I’m going to get interviewed by a fat idiot in sweatpants who smells like McDonald’s, and I’m not going to insult you, so if you see something negative, I didn’t say it."
NORA ZEHETNER: Are you wearing sweatpants?
CHRIS NEUMER: No, I’m in shorts. I’m not fat either. Nor do I smell like McDonald’s. I just tend to think of all other film critics as fat, sweatpant wearing, McDonald’s smelling idiots.
NORA ZEHETNER: Hmmm.
CHRIS NEUMER: I don’t show up on press days in cutoffs and a T-shirt with a bad beard. It’s about respect. I’ll be wearing nice clothes.
NORA ZEHETNER: We get dressed up, why shouldn’t you?
CHRIS NEUMER: That’s what I’m saying.
NORA ZEHETNER: Although I am wearing sweatpants right now.
