Evan Sent

Most teenagers aren’t ready for the world. But Evan Rachel Wood, with her stellar Hollywood career and her contentious relationship with Marilyn Manson, is different. And, learns Lee Wallick, she’s only just getting going. Is the world ready for her?

Home wrecker or hopelessly in love? Lolita or little angel? Machiavelli or major talent? Whatever is to be believed about Evan Rachel Wood, one thing is for sure, at 19-years-old the actress is wise beyond her years. Sure, there’s the shock-rocker boyfriend almost twice her age, the Heart Shaped Glasses video and the series of troubled teen roles from her Golden Globe nominated performance in Thirteen to Pretty Persuasion and Down in the Valley. But when she sits down for tea in a quiet corner of the Hollywood Roosevelt hotel Wood describes her adventures with the airs, graces and understanding that’s fast becoming a rarity.

Hailing from a North Carolina theatre family - her father is an actor, singer, theatre director and playwright while her mother and brother are both actors - Wood’s youth was centered around the stage. Between dipping into the dream dressing-up box of the theatre’s costume department, to her turn as the ultimate good-girl-gone-sexy Sandy Olsson in the school production of Grease, it’s not entirely surprising to see where she is now. There’s the regular afternoon tea parties complete with “yellow cupcakes with pink frosting that are almost too pretty to eat” and taking on the daily persona of Grace Kelly, Alabama Worley and Mia Wallace to name but a few. “Today is 60s Mod a la Faye Dunaway Day,” she says wearing a simple black shift dress from H&M, patent leather Mary Janes and a beret lifted from the photo shoot.

But it’s in Julie Taymor’s musical film Across the Universe, based around Beatles hits, where we see Wood return to her roots and flex her vocal cords to great effect. “I’ve grown up in musical theatre and it was always going to be acting or singing or both, and in the movie I got to combine them,” says the girl who used to act out Into the Woods, Les Miserables and Cabaret when she was little.

“I can’t say enough good things about the whole experience. Everybody was so excited to come to work every day. It was almost overwhelming. There were times when would have to take a moment to tear up in the corner because of the intensity of it all,” she says. “When we re-enacted the 5th Avenue peace march, we were up front singing with 300 people chanting behind us. It was the coolest thing I have ever done in my life.”

Wonderland:In Across the Universe andin many of your films thus far, you do a lot of crying...

Evan Rachel Wood: Yes, Julie did mention that. But funnily enough in this film I didn’t have to think about something, it just happened like in the Let It Be scene, even when it wasn’t in the script. Normally, it depends on what I’m supposed to be upset about in the scene but if need be there’s the never fail Baby Mine from Dumbo. That song kills me.”

WL: What was the last thing that made you cry in real life?

ERW: I’ve cried a lot this year mainly through frustration because of all this crap I’ve been getting because of a relationship. I shouldn’t care but I do. At the end of the day it still hurts, especially when your family worries about you. I’m not going to read everything that’s said about me but my family will. I understand where people are coming from and if I wasn’t me I would probably be wondering some of the same things they are.”

WL: Was the last thing that made you laugh?

ERW: Singing Sexy Back with Manson was pretty damn funny.

WL: You used to go out with Jamie Bell. Would you say you have thing for British men?

ERW: Yes they seem to haunt me but in a good way. English boys’ manners are different, the way they carry themselves. I like their sense of humour - it’s sarcastic and very dead-pan like mine. People either think I’m really weird or really bitchy because of it. It’s funny because when I first went to London to film The Upside of Anger I didn’t like it but the more time I spent there, the more I loved it. Now, it’s one of my favorite places because I don’t have to worry about getting in anywhere. It’s 18 instead of 21 so I can go out and not have to worry about it. But it’s not just about drinking, it’s about being able to go out with your friends.

WL: Do you drink at all?

ERW: No, I don’t. I have but it’s never really been something I enjoyed. It either makes me go to sleep or act like an idiot or I feel like crap and now it doesn’t do anything to me. I don’t know how that’s happened because it’s not like I’ve ever binged. It just doesn’t do it for me.

WL: Any other vices?

ERW: No. Nothing crazy. Nothing harsh.

“My parents have been divorced for years so it was weird enough seeing them together let alone looking to my right and seeing my boyfriend who is Marilyn Manson. We were in the lobby of the hotel I was staying at, my mom’s talking to my step-mom and my dad and Manson were talking about vampires and theatre when my mom leans over and says ‘I’m sorry, are we all on acid? What is going on here?’”

WL: Are you worried about getting type cast as this young innocent girl gone astray?

ERW: Yes, but I don’t see those scripts as much. I get sent them but I feel like it’s something I’ve done. It used to be a lot of Lolita roles and that’s one of the reasons why I wore the Heart Shaped Glasses because it’s always been a funny label that’s been put on me but I embraced it and was making fun of it.

WL: Your boyfriend Marilyn Manson’s been working on Phantasmagoria: The Visions of Lewis Carroll, is this your Alice in Wonderland project?

ERW: Yes, hopefully, but it’s been postponed because he wasn’t planning on making an album and that came right when the movie was supposed to be filming. But also, there was the circus scene with Eddie Izzard as the Mad Hatter type in Across the Universe. I love Eddie Izzard. I made such an ass of myself in front of him. He’s probably in that movie because of me because I can quote his standup routine Dress to Kill beginning to end, and 
I used to do it all the time for Julie and the cast when they were trying to think of who they were going to cast as Mr. Kite. By the time I did meet him it was like, ‘Hi, I’m that girl that loves you’ but by the end we ended up karaokeing until six in the morning, until they shut down the machine and we stayed banging on bongos and singing acappella.

WL: What’s your karaoke song?

ERW: Don’t Stop Believing by Journey is a big one. If I hear the intro I’m scrambling for the mic. But when I sing Living on a Prayer, somebody should stop me.

WL: Would you say Alice in Wonderland is an ideal transition role for you?

ERW: It’s strange because people have called me Alice for a long time and that’s one of the first things Manson and I talked about on the night we met was how I reminded him of Alice. I said ‘that’s really funny because it’s always been a nickname of mine and here I am making a movie about Lewis Carroll’.

WL:  Is there a certain scene that resonates with you?

ERW: Every time she talks to the Cheshire Cat and asks him which way to go. Everybody always says I was a cat in a past life. Cat’s are very curious and that’s how I would describe myself, I’m not innocent but I am curious. I have a lot to learn, which is why I like wandering around and talking to, being amongst mad people. But I think the only difference is I won’t wake up to go home for tea, I’ll probably just stay in Wonderland.

WL: Do you ever get the sense LA is like Wonderland?

ERW: I think it’s more like Disneyland because it’s made out of plastic and everything feels like it’s fake and any second you’re going to walk behind a building and there’s going to be nothing there. It’s just a front. Hollow.

WL: What’s your perfect night in?

ERW: Get a bunch of people over, watch movies and stay up talking all night. Maybe at three in the morning go out for breakfast and then come home again. I’m much happier staying home and playing with iPod playlists. I am a playlist queen. Everybody always comes to me for playlists for parties, road trips, whatever, it’s like: ‘Evan’s making the playlist’.

WL: You are a huge David Bowie fan. What’s your favourite Bowie period?

ERW: Labyrinth, of course. The owl eyes... He’s the only one that can pull off that hair style to this day. Actually, the whole look. He’s got sparkly pants, a tight jacket, floppy long blond hair, cat-like eye make-up and he’s the sexiest thing on the planet.

WL: Is that why you like eyeliner so much?

ERW: That’s where it started. I fell in love with him when I was about five. It’s funny all my heroes wore make-up: Charlie Chaplin, Eddie Izzard, Bowie... Did Gene Wilder wear make-up?

WL: Can you talk us through your tattoos?

ERW: There’s a J on my left ankle for Jamie. He’s got an E. This one is strawberries and diamonds for Strawberry Fields and Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds but I’m going to get it covered. The one in the video was done by this Frenchman who did some of Angelina Jolie’s. It was my Valentine’s Day present. He [Manson] has the logo for the album. It represents mad love but I also wanted a lightning bolt for David Bowie. It could also be a broken heart or broken heart that’s been mended.

WL: How do you avoid the typical antics of some of your contemporaries?

ERW: You can look and see what not to do. I feel I’ve done a pretty good job so far. It kind of pisses me off because I feel like they don’t have to ruin it for everybody. Because I am a teenager and an actress in Hollywood, everyone expects me to go down that path.

WL: Is that behaviour a factor in getting work?

ERW: Not really, that’s just getting famous. I don’t have an interest in being famous because obviously it’s not a hard thing to do. Look at who’s on the cover of People magazine. They haven’t done anything outside of being a drug addict. It’s depressing because it seems we’re in an age where being stupid is a trend and is actually being rewarded because we keep giving all these people attention for absolutely nothing. Even if it comes from a place where it’s, ‘oh my god, these people are train-wrecks’, sometimes it doesn’t translate and people think that’s what you’re supposed to do and be and it’s really kind of horrifying. Do whatever you want. That’s fine, but try to take responsibility for yourself. People talk about what’s wrong with the youth today.Does youth think less emotion and feeling makes it safer? They concentrate on these things that are so empty they think it’s safe because there is nothing to it. I think that’s what’s screwing everybody up because nobody has a feeling about anything. It’s like we don’t want to feel anything and that’s something I can’t be a part of and also one of the reasons why that Heart Shaped Glasses video happened. Even if people hate it or are offended or shocked by it, at least they’re feeling something about it. I watch so many music videos on TV that I don’t have any feeling one way or the other towards them. But I get into debates and conversations about that video and that’s great.

WL: Is Heart Shaped Glasses autobiographical?

ERW: The song is autobiographical but the video is more fantasy.

WL: How do you know whether your relationship is for real or not?

ERW: He started writing me songs and that’s the most special thing. It was huge, especially because I’m such a private person. And I don’t like being in tabloids or dealing with the paparazzi and knowing that the second you’re out, you’re out there in a big way was a big risk.

WL: There are echoes of Jodie Foster in you. What do you admire about her?

ERW: I can’t see a flaw in her career. She’s gone through child, teenager to adult actress so gracefully. I don’t know how it was for her but she’s always been consistent and done interesting roles. It’s hard finding good scripts when you’re a teenager. I’ve been really lucky in that sense. In Bloom, the last film I did, was my saying good bye to playing a teenager. I’m going to do the adult thing now.

WL: Do you feel you had to grow up quickly?

ERW: Yes, but I don’t feel I missed out. I was conscious about it. I wanted to stay a teenager for as long as possible and I’m not sure that will ever really go away. It’s a weird struggle because I have been in this really adult industry since I was five but I also can’t deny my actual age. It’s hard because people expect you to know everything and a lot of times they’ll treat you like you don’t know anything.

WL: Do you have a special security blanket or stuffed animal?

ERW : I had a zebra since I was nine. I thought it would protect me so I would never fly without it. I’ve even missed flights if he wasn’t with me. But then I realized I had to let him go. We had a little moment. I grabbed his little paws... I think we parted when I started flying separately from my mom. She’s really afraid of flying so I gave it to her.

WL: What do your parents think of your boyfriend?

ERW: They were pretty open-minded. My mom dated rock stars and my dad has played Dracula on stage so they get it. They weren’t upset about the relationship, they were just worried about me and how I was going to deal with it. Not only is there an age difference but we look like total opposites. Everything that could possibly be strange to people is there.

WL: Have you introduced your parents to Manson?

ERW: It was the funniest thing. My parents have been divorced for years so it was weird enough seeing them together let alone looking to my right and seeing my boyfriend who is Marilyn Manson. We were in the lobby of the hotel I was staying at, my mom’s talking to my step-mom and my dad and Manson were really getting along, talking about vampires and theatre, when my mom leans over and says ‘I’m sorry, are we all on acid? What is going on here?’. It was so bizarre but we really had a great time.

WL: Is it hard being compared to his ex-wife?

ERW: I don’t want to talk about it and would prefer to stay out of that whole thing. Personally, I think it’s a little silly but whatyagonna do? It’s one of those things.

WL: What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given?

ERW: Not to be afraid to take chances. That’s the theme for my life this year. I was tired of being scared to be myself. I don’t want to live my life for other people, especially people I don’t know or care about. I got caught up for a while trying to be what people expected or wanted me to be: perfect, innocent, shy. I don’t want to change the world - well, I don’t think I’m going to change the world. But I don’t want to be a part of keeping it the same either. Everyone tells me not to talk about my personal life and I don’t usually but because this is such a thing that so many people don’t get, if in any way I can shed light on the situation or break some of the stereotypes people have, then why not?

WL: Would you say you’re comfortable with love scenes?

ERW: Not really. It’s weird if you both have an attraction to one another but can’t do anything about it and then you have to do love scenes. That’s when it gets complicated and screws with your head. As far as the video with Manson goes, it was nice I was with somebody I felt comfortable with and safe with. We had fun. I think other people were more weirded-out by it than we were.

WL: What do you find entertaining?

ERW: Anything out of the ordinary. I get bored easily. I’ll leave the peeing in the ice machine to my boyfriend but I much prefer to be watching everyone else be crazy. People are the most fascinating things on the planet. I’m very happy to wander around thinking, ‘which way should I go? Let’s go talk to this crazy person!’ I like not really knowing where I’m going, seeing where I end up, and who I meet along the way.

WL: The opening lines of Across the Universe are ‘live without rules and love without fear’. Have you taken those on board?

ERW: Yes, that was kind of my New Year’s Resolution. Even before I met Manson that was my goal. I was done with being afraid. I’ve got to do what I’ve got to do. I feel I’m coming into myself and I think that’s what’s freaking people out because I’ve always been very shy and reserved and this year I said I’m done with that. I’m coming out, so to speak.