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What was it like to shoot for this film?
It was demanding but also very nice, a lot of fun. They put my time kind of chunked together and gave me weekends off and limited my hours so I could be home with my kids. It was fun for me to get back to work. I mean, there’s a side to me that people know that is humanitarian, there’s a side to me that is a mommy, but I think like all women there is a side to me that likes to get down and dirty and have fun and jump around. I’d missed that a little and I think it’s good for me to do that every once in a while.
And that’s an important side to keep in touch with. One day your kids will look at films like Wanted and say ‘hey mom, that was impressive…’
They’ll finally think I’m cool because now I’m not really. My son will ask me to play a video game and I suck at it and he’s like ‘oh mom!’ or there will be some sports thing. His favourite game is Madden which is American football on the computer, he likes that. And both Brad and I are terrible at it. He wins all the time. We don’t even understand it properly. It’s that classic thing of a kid with a computer and we go, ‘What? How did he do that?’ And mom, for them, is the dork who can’t figure out the plugs so one day they’ll see the films and see that mom is not a total dork.
You have tattoos in this film. Was it nice to put some more on instead of having to cover them up?
Yes, it was.
Did you get any injuries while filming?
No. I had one on Tomb Raider, the first one. It was silly but it’s always the dumbest things that gets you. The big, crazy stunts are fine. I had to run and jump over a box (laughs). And the floor was wet and I ran and jumped over the box and I landed and my ankle just snapped. I had such good physical therapy that I don’t feel it now. But I tore the tendons, not completely off but I ripped the tendons and came back two days later with a cane and I think they were trying to rush me off because they were like ‘not great for crew morale, could you please put the cane away.’ But we had to stall some running scenes. I could stand and shoot and do some things. But I had to do physical therapy every morning. But that one healed really well because I had a great therapist.
Are you a bit of an adrenaline junkie?
Yeah, I think so. I’ve actually got a pilot’s licence and so does Brad. But I didn’t want to fly just because of that. I mean, I do love the idea of just being up in the air but I think it’s more of the traveller in me. I just want to go to places that are unmapped. It’s the freedom thing. I mean, from here the two of us could get in the plane and be in Italy for lunch. You know, it’s extraordinary with technology and things like that.
You said before that you ‘lacked purpose, was very unhappy and very unhealthy.’ What gave you purpose? Was it the children?
I think I had to find purpose and balance before I became a mother. I knew that. I wouldn’t have just jumped into being a mom until I knew I was alright and that I could be stable. I think it was travelling with the UN. I had started to learn a lot with work, like with the Tomb Raider films, I would go to Cambodia, I’d go round the world and I started to notice there was so much of the world I didn’t know. And then this idea of being a celebrity makes you sit down and feel like ‘what’s your contribution? Oh, I made a movie and I hope you enjoy it and it’s entertaining...’ And after a while that begins to wear on you because you feel like ‘what am I contributing?’ and ‘people keep asking me questions but I don’t feel I have anything important to talk about or anything that matters to me, I haven’t learned enough as a human being, as an individual...’
So when you travelled you began to be interested in other issues, humanitarian issues?
Yes. I started to become aware of the world and I started finding a voice with politics and humanitarian issues. I felt that there was suddenly more of a purpose to sit down and do an interview, there was more reason behind having a voice and that gave me more focus. When you’ve been raised in Los Angeles and around Hollywood and you suddenly find yourself by yourself with a backpack in a war zone where people are dying and crying because they don’t have enough food for their kids, you quickly realise what actually matters and it makes everything seem very silly and very far away. I’ve known disdain for other parts of the world and I’m happy to be in Cannes. I appreciate all of that and I think there are a lot of nice people here, there are great parents here and all of those wonderful things, but it’s very important to suddenly be smacked in the face and say ‘what are you so upset about? You are 20 something and what are you depressed about? You have your health and you know where your family is, you can get food’ and from that moment on I never lost that focus.
Of the countries you’ve visited which is the one that you love the most?
Cambodia was the first country that made a big impression on me and it’s where my first child is from. We have a millennium village there now and a TB/AIDS clinic. Did you fund that? Yes, Brad and I have done a bunch of things.
Which of the projects that you’ve funded are you the most proud of?
Well, the TB/AIDS clinic we have has been extraordinary because we’ve seen children go through a lot and get better and reverse from being very ill to looking healthy and going to school. The millennium village was a great study for us on how to approach aid work. We wanted to see how it was done and if it was going to make sense, and I think we were the first Asian millennium village and the first to deal with landmines. Five thousand people are in our village and we’re changing everything from the maternal mortality rate to their soil production, so it’s just great.
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