Juliet Lewis on ‘Whip It’, Mark Ruffalo and playing bad

October 5, 2009 by Lance Carter

From Movieline:

You are cast as the baddie in Whip It, but is that how you perceive Iron Maven?
When you approach a part, you have to know what she serves in the story. I am a nemesis of sorts to Ellen Page’s character, but I’m also her hero. So even though you have those traditional story aspects, I, just as Juliette, try to root everything in depth, in something truthful.

So with this character, I’m the captain of my own derby team, and all my girls that I was working with and skating with every single day, they’re all real derby girls. So I’d just check with them. “Did you ever push someone in a locker who’s just trying out?” They’re like, “Yeah!” “Did you ever call her names in the parking lot?” “Yeah!” So they would be my radar of what’s too brash, and it’s sort of anything goes in the spirit of roller derby. I liken it to sort of, Muhammad Ali and Frazier, and all that verbal jousting that comes along with the world of sports.

Plus she’s just sort of a born badass.
She’s a badass. She’s also kind of a hero, and I worked with the wardrobe girl Kat to make her someone you want to look at, and be. I’ve related to girls like that in my life, and maybe I’ve been that to somebody. So I wanted to make sure she was like that — sort of the hero.

There’s a moment when she definitely lays bare why she’s acting the way she’s acting, and why she might be a little harder on Ellen’s character — because she feels that she’s paid her dues, and it’s owed her. And that’s a very legitimate reason.
It’s that scene that sold me on the part. I loved the dynamic between youth and experience. All my history of what I bring to the table, and that Ellen is this incredible, highly intelligent and unique talent, and I just love that relationship between the two characters. You see that it’s a little bit about the young up and comer maybe moving in on her turf and maybe stealing a bit of her glory.

I also found a parallel between Maven and the fact that I started leading my own band at age 30. That that was the dividing line, that was the deciding factor. I find a lot of people find this in their life around 30, and you make some big decisions. I always knew then that I’d be living in a world of regret if I didn’t go for it, if I had played it safe. So that scene had a lot of parallels to my own life.

You just shot Sympathy for Delicious, Mark Ruffalo’s directorial debut. How did that go?
I have to go on record saying he’s my favorite actor of the last decade. It was a very profound experience working with him as an actor and he as my director. It was a part I was scared of.

Why?
Because it’s really dark. It’s riddled with potential cliches. It’s almost like booby traps. You know, because she’s a drug addict, a bass player in a band.

Are you worried that it might be a step backwards from places you wanted to get away from, as far as how people perceive you?
Oh no, not at all. Because I’m a character actor, and every character I do is going to be different. If I’m playing in a dark realm, it’s primal colors and energies — your blacks, your purples, your reds. But she’s not similar to anything else I’ve ever done. So that was really awesome to work with him — a very special experience in a really small film.

Then after that I did a cameo in a Hilary Swank movie called Betty Anne Waters. She was based on a true character that convicted her brother. That was another role that was super dark, super raw. But from there I did The Baster, which was a colorful, broad comedy with Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman. So that’s my style. I like diversity, I’m not big on repetition, and I like characters.