Malin Akerman most often is in romantic comedies like “27 Dresses” and “The Heartbreak Kid.” That’s easy to understand. The blond, ultra blue-eyed Stockholm native has the kind of looks that steals hearts.
As first glance, it might seem strange that she was cast as the “Watchmen” crime fighter Silk Spectre II. Her character must be able to kick the rear ends of criminals while also turning the heads of her fellow superheroes.
She does both with ease in her first action film. And she wasn’t even aware of “Watchmen” until she read the script.
“I really was blown away by it. I ran out and bought ‘Watchmen’ and was just amazed,” Akerman says. “I had always imagined comic books and graphic novels sort like ‘Batman’ with the ‘pow” and the ‘bang.’ This was some real adult content.”
Akerman had no problem wearing a tight plastic yellow-and-black outfit that looks like it was painted on her. She just needed some coaching for the fight scenes.
“Two months before filming, I started training with a former Navy SEAL, which is no less than boot camp. It was excruciating and amazing,” Akerman says during an interview at the Beverly Hilton. “I don’t have a career in crime fighting, so it was a challenge on its own terms. It was quite nice they wanted us to do the fight sequences because it helped you get into character.”
At times the training left Akerman frustrated. She described it as feeling “like a ballerina trying to do fight moves.” She would attempt to mimic what the stunt men were doing, but struggled to match their moves.
She didn’t give up. Even after filming started, Akerman continued training. It all paid off as the action sequences got easier with each passing day.
Despite the physical challenges, Akerman’s main interest was what was going on with Silk Spectre beneath the costume. She never saw the character as some abstract superhero, but as a real woman.
“It was not very difficult to get into this character. She’s vulnerable, sort of sheltered with a stage mom pushing her around. She’s going through a breakup and finding the real essence of life,” Akerman says. “She has a career. It’s just a very unusual career.
“I loved all of the emotions she got to go through. Then added on top of that, I got to live vicariously and be the femme fatale.”
That meant she got to play a scene that has never been seen in a mainstream comic book movie. Silk Spectre II and Nite Owl share a very naked and very intimate moment.
Akerman found that scene as technically difficult as any fight sequence. Each movement was choreographed for the cameras. Still, it was awkward.
“In the end, there is not much that is romantic about being in that moment. There are people around you. The Owl Ship is not a bedroom. It is an awkward thing to do a sex scene and be half naked with someone who is not your husband,” Akerman says.
“Watchmen” opens March 6.
The hero: Silk Spectre II. Secret identity: Laura Jupiter. Daughter of the original Silk Spectre.
The actor: Malin Akerman. Her credits include “The Comeback,” “The Brothers Solomon,” “The Heartbreak Kid,” “27 Dresses.”
From the Merced Sun-Star
Former model Malin Akerman, who plays the Silk Spectre in Zack Snyder’s film “Watchmen,” said her form-fitting costume, while easy on the eyes, wasn’t exactly easy to wear.
“It was so uncomfortable,” Akerman said. “I am not going to develop a latex fetish at all. It was beautiful, and the design was incredible. But if I were a superhero, I’d wear sweats and a T-shirt.”
Before filming, Akerman had two months of training with an ex-Navy SEAL to take the role of the Silk Spectre, a second-generation superhero in this film based on the graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. While she called that training excruciating, she also had to have a full-body cast made for costuming purposes.
“It’s a strange thing to have straws up your nose and try to breathe through that,” she said. “And also I had to do it in heels.”
“It started weighing down, and I said, ‘Guys, we have to take it off.’ I endured it as long as possible. But luckily it’s not an everyday thing. … But it’s not the most comfortable process.”
Even love was rough on Akerman in “Watchmen.” To play Dr. Manhattan, the superpowered scientist, Billy Crudup was covered in light-emitting diodes that would later be covered with special effects. In the love scene, Crudup had to keep a distance.
“That love scene was really interesting, because he couldn’t actually touch me,” Akerman said. “Because you had all these LED lights that are scratchy, they’d scrape you.”
Akerman says the end result was worth it, and she’s proud of the final product in “Watchmen.” Also, director Snyder was constantly keeping the actors motivated.
“When we were all dying down in the 16th hour, he was ready to go … and getting you into it,” Akerman said. “He was this monster machine. It couldn’t have been any other director.”
From News OK
You might have seen the colorful graphic novel cover with the big yellow smiley face….with drops of blood on it! This is the logo for “Watchmen”, one of the most popular and award-winning graphic novels of all time. Set in an alternate 1980′s timeline in which the U.S. is still on the brink of war with the Russians, a group of ousted, masked heroes have “retired” from crime fighting but return when one of their number is murdered.
Now, the popular novels hit the big screen as Watchmen the movie is released on March 6th. Playing costumed heroes Nite Owl and Silk Spectre 2, are Patrick Wilson (of Phantom of the Opera) and Malin Akerman (of 27 Dresses). In the Watchmen film, “Owl” and “Spectre” are old pals headed for a romantic hook-up while they solve a friend’s murder and battle adversaries.
In Beverly Hills, we captured the dynamic duo to find out what acting and fighting was like in their superhero costumes (Malin is fighting in boots with 5-inch heels!), how they approached their hot love scene, their efforts to please fans and how much did they know about the “Watchmen” craze before getting the roles? Picture Malin (a brunette in the film) with long blonde hair and in a cute black sleeveless tunic by Thomas Wylde with beaded yoke over pants and Patrick in pale lavender shirt and light grey suit. We had to note that both actors have beautiful piercing pale blue eyes.
TeenHollywood: Okay, let’s get this over with right away. You two had some hot love scenes in this film. How did you approach doing those? [both actors grin].
Patrick: We talked with [director] Zack [Synder of 300] about how he wanted to shoot it. It’s great we got along so well. It’s always uncomfortable no matter what the situation is but I felt like we knew the story we wanted to tell and it’s so important for these characters. Someone told us they wanted to cheer at the end of the scene!
TeenHollywood: You do root for them to get together.
Patrick: Yeah. When I saw the movie and my wife was there, we both sort of high-fived at the end of the scene, because (she’d) never seen a scene like that in a superhero movie. That’s what you wanted. You wanted all this passion, the weird fetishness, every bit of that was intentional, on purpose and we knew… when you have those parameters of what you set out to do, then it gives you a freedom to just go for it. It’s a great scene.
Malin: We were so lucky because it was sort of towards the end of the shoot and so we’d been together for six or seven months and I’d gotten to know his wife and kids. So it’s kind of the comfort level was there and the respect and it was definitely a closed set and there were the minimal amount of people.
Patrick: We also were in the Owl ship so there wasn’t a lot of room anyway. Maybe Zack in there, a camera guy and a microphone.
Malin: Right, and you can’t really fit too many in there. Exactly. Just two or three people or so.
Malin Akerman, who filmgoers may recognize from her breakout role as Ben Stiller’s eccentric (if not straight-out nutty) wife in “The Heartbreak Kid,” or as Katherine Heigl’s self-absorbed man-stealing younger sister in “27 Dresses,” takes on a whole new kind of role in the dark adaptation of the graphic novel “Watchmen.”
Malin recently told Access Hollywood’s Scott Mantz and Dish of Salt, Laura Saltman, that working long hours on a film set in the form-fitting super heroine costume of the second-generation Silk Spectre was anything but smooth.
“I’m not gonna develop a fetish for latex,” she said. “It was an interesting process, let’s just put it that way.”
Malin discovered the hard way that typical garb for a costumed crime fighter in the colorful pages of a comic book does not always translate to a comfortable fit for the actors who have to conform to their real-life constrictions.
“It’s literally like pulling an elastic band over your whole body,” Akerman said, describing how her skimpy yellow and black latex costume breaks away from the thick leather jumpsuit style of the “X-Men” films or the colorful spandex seen in “Spider Man.” “Then you let go and let it snap and then you gotta wear it for 16 hours.”
“Throw a corset on top of that and some high heel shoes and you’re ready to fight, right?” she laughed. “I mean, it definitely looks phenomenal and fierce, but it’s not.”
Malin not only logged daily long hours on the “Watchmen” shoot in her costume, she also had intense sequences that required her to fight, walk through flaming sets, and perform various stunts as the Silk Spectre.
So if she were a true-life superhero, Malin’s outfit of choice to fight crime in would be far different.
“I’d be wearing sweats and running shoes, not high heels and latex,” she added.
“I actually have to say having to put that on, by the third month, I would rather have walked around naked.”
From Access Hollywood
MoviesOnline sat down with Patrick Wilson and Malin Akerman to talk about their new film, “Watchmen,” the big screen adaptation of the most celebrated graphic novel of all time, brought to life for the first time by visionary director Zack Snyder. A complex, multi-layered mystery adventure, “Watchmen” is set in an alternate 1985 America, a world darkened by fear and paranoia where regular human beings who once donned masks to fight crime now hide from their identifies and where the ultimate weapon–an all-powerful superbeing–has tilted the global balance of power, pushing the world implacably closer to nuclear midnight.
Malin Akerman plays Laurie Jupiter, aka Silk Spectre II, the one human being with a genuine connection to Dr. Manhattan. As he grows more and more distant, there’s nothing left for her in the relationship. His work comes before her in her eyes. She feels him falling out of love with her and the more he drifts away, the more she loses her identity. After the murder of The Comedian, Laurie reconnects with Dan Dreiberg/Nite Owl II (Wilson), who shares her inchoate sense of loss. Reconnecting with Dan gives Laurie back her sense of being a woman and reignites the fire that used to be there as Silk Spectre, the need for the adrenaline rush. In turn, Laurie opens Dan up to putting the suit on again. It’s the thing that he’s most terrified of and the thing he wants more than anything.
Patrick Wilson is an award-winning theatre actor who has also become well-known for his work on the screen. He next stars in the title role of the independent comedy “Barry Munday,” due out later this year. In 2008, Wilson starred in three very different films: Neil LaBute’s thriller “Lakeview Terrace,” with Samuel L. Jackson and Kerry Washington; the mystery drama “Passengers,” opposite Anne Hathaway; and the independent film “Life in Flight,” which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Wilson previously received praise for his work in the critically acclaimed drama “Little Children,” in which he starred with Kate Winslet and Jackie Earle Haley under the direction of Todd Field. His motion picture work also includes the indie films “Evening,” with Meryl Streep, Glenn Close, Claire Danes and Vanessa Redgrave; “Purple Violets,” directed by Edward Burns; “Running with Scissors”; and “Hard Candy,” opposite Ellen Page. He also starred as Raoul in Joel Schumacher’s big-screen adaptation of “The Phantom of the Opera,” showcasing his musical talents.
Malin Akerman is fast becoming one of the industry’s busiest young actresses. Last year, she starred in the hit romantic comedy “27 Dresses,” with Katherine Heigl, James Marsden and Edward Burns, under the direction of Anne Fletcher. Akerman recently reunited with Fletcher to star with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds in the upcoming romantic comedy “The Proposal,” due out this summer. Also in 2009, she will star in the Peter Billingsley-directed comedy “Couples Retreat,” with Vince Vaughn, Jason Bateman and Jon Favreau. In 2007, Akerman starred with Ben Stiller in the romantic comedy “The Heartbreak Kid,” directed by the Farrelly brothers. Her other film credits include the independent releases “Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle” and “The Brothers Solomon.”
Patrick Wilson and Malin Akerman are fabulous people and we really appreciated their time. Here’s what they had to tell us:
Q: Were you familiar with the source material before you got the script?
Wilson: Well –
Akerman: You can speak for me, too. You know the story.
Wilson: No. I had heard of it, but I did not know the comic at all. Both of us sort of came into it knowing the script. Certainly, we had the same sort of visceral reaction of, ‘What the hell is this? It’s amazing. It’s great, crazy -’ and nothing like you had expected. I called my friend who’s a huge comic fan. I always call him with whatever comic book script it is and I said, ‘”Watchmen”?’ He just goes, ‘Oh, God.’ I sort of gauged the interest and fear of the ‘Watchmen’ fan right there because he’s a very big fan of the comic. So I knew going into it that it was a very sort of special thing, treading on hallowed ground. Then I went out and got the graphic novel and was so blown away by it. Even though I didn’t grow up reading a lot of comics, I always had a great respect for it and I just felt like this was everything that they could be which was almost Greek in its importance, I think, to literature, if that’s being too deep.
Akerman: No. It was the same for me. The first contact that I had to do with anything having to do with ‘Watchmen’ was the script which was amazing. I went, ‘Wow. There’s source material for this and I have to get my hands on it.’ I went and got the book and I think anyone who reads ‘Watchmen’, there’s no way that you can’t become a fan. I was shocked because I always had the idea in my head, having watched superhero films and my cousins would read these comics and seeing ‘Batman’ with the ‘pow’ and the ‘pop,’ but this was something completely different. It was amazing to finally read it and understand why people are so in love with this amazing graphic novel. It’s well worth the pedestal it’s been put on. I think we all became huge fans from this and we’ve read it over millions of times over.
Swedish-born actress Malin Akerman has had quite a busy few years. She starred in numerous character-based romantic comedies such as 27 Dresses and The Heartbreak Kid. In Watchmen, Akerman turns up the heat taking on the role of superhero Laurie Jupiter, a.k.a. Silk Spectre. Watchmen is undoubtedly one of the most anticipated movies of 2009; directed by Zack Snyder, it also stars Billy Crudup, Carla Gugino, Matthew Goode, and Patrick Wilson. “All the characters have real human qualities,” says Akerman. “We’re not superhuman. We’re just people trying to figure out within ourselves good vs. evil.”
Tell me about your character in Watchmen.
I approached Laurie like a woman who had a stage mom who pushed her into a career that wasn’t really her own choice. When we first start this movie, we come into Laurie’s life where she is sort of breaking free because she had been this sheltered woman. She hasn’t really had her own identity or her own choice in life. She just followed and did what she had been told.
All in all, I think Laurie’s just a regular woman on a journey with these crazy circumstances around her in a really unusual job that she does. I love her because you can relate to her in so many ways.
Did you read the Watchmen graphic novel before you read the script?
I read the script first. I loved it. It took me a while though. Already on page one, it was so dense. When I finally read it, it blew me away and I couldn’t put it down. It was amazing. Then I ran out and got the actual graphic novel. That blew me away even more. I wasn’t well-versed in the comic book world, so I didn’t really know what to expect. And it was well beyond my expectations. It was so well-written and complex.
If you’re attracted to women, you’ve no doubt stared slack-jawed at the black-and-yellow latex-clad images of Malin Akerman as Silk Spectre II in Watchmen. Though she spends much of the movie as her civilian identity, Laurie Juspeczyk, the fanboys will be most looking forward to when she finally dons her dominatrix-like superhero costume to unleash much whoop-ass on the criminal denizens of Manhattan. I know I was. As part of my ongoing series of interviews with the cast and filmmakers behind the big-screen adaptation of the greatest comic book series of all time –- that’s Watchmen for those of you not keeping track –- I discussed with Akerman how she gave dimension to an underdeveloped character on the page, latex fetishes, and her soon-to-be-infamous four-way with three Billy Crudups.
Cole Haddon: You’ve seen the movie in its entirety now, rather than as a bunch of unfinished scenes. What do you think?
Malin Akerman: It was so beyond my expectations. I was breathless for the rest of the day. I’ve never actually felt like this because, most of the time when you shoot a film, you know what it’s going to look like. But this was great because it was such a surprise. You got to see [director] Zack [Snyder's] vision, everything he’d been imagining in his head. This guy is unbelievable. Watchmen is the thing I’m most proud of in my career, to date.