Watch Out! – Malin Akerman – Interview

By: Eric Alt
Original Article

Here’s an easy tip for anyone looking to score a free tattoo in Los Angeles: Just walk into a shop, ask to use the restroom, and then casually let slip that you don’t currently have any tattoos but would really love to get something one day. Bingo! Next thing you know you’ll be in the chair, free of charge. Oh, and you should be blond. And Swedish. And drop-dead gorgeous. In other words, it’s probably best to be Malin Akerman.

Of course, for Akerman, seizing opportunities like this is what it’s all about. After her parents moved from Stockholm to Canada when she was a child, Akerman casually pursued modeling and commercial acting as a way of having some fun and making some cash while she competed nationally in figure skating and made plans to attend college as a psychology major. A trip to L.A. later, Akerman found herself getting some serious work that positioned her as both sexy (dropping her top in Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, rounding out a ménage à trois in Entourage) and fearlessly hilarious (terrorizing Ben Stiller in The Heartbreak Kid, infuriating Katherine Heigl in 27 Dresses). But if these roles lit the fuse, her next film should provide the explosion: Akerman will be seen as Silk Spectre in the most hotly anticipated comic book movie this side of Gotham City—an adaptation of Alan Moore’s seminal graphic novel Watchmen helmed by 300 director Zach Snyder. Is it any wonder this woman can weaken the willpower of even the most hardened tattoo artist?

How many tattoos do you have right now? I have two at the moment. But I have to say, were I not in the business that I’m in I would have had sleeves by now.

Really? Yes. I’m a tattoo fanatic.

Do you think full sleeves will ever be a possibility? No, probably not, just because this is hopefully a long-term venture, this career thing. [Laughs.] Hopefully I’ll get to the point Meryl Streep is at. If I can still be doing it at 50 or 60. …

More and more, though, we see actresses sporting highly visible body art. Yeah, Angelina Jolie is a great example. She’s covered and they’re fabulous. She’s got some really cool tattoos. Obviously you can have tattoos, but it just takes that many more hours in the morning to cover them up, and I’m not a morning person. The more sleep I can get, the better. I’ll skip the sleeves, but I’m sure I’ll get another tattoo or two—some little ones around my body.

When did you get your first one, and what was it? The first one I got, five years ago, is on the nape of my neck. It’s a lotus flower and Tibetan Sanskrit that means “to play.” If we’re really going to get deep with it for a second, I grew up Buddhist. My mother was Buddhist, and the lotus flower is a huge representation of Buddhism because it grows without roots. It kind of represents you making your own life with no roots. You make it what you want to be. And the Tibetan Sanskrit “to play” is sort of like, “to play the game of life.” And that’s sort of what my life is, a big game.

What’s the other one? The other one is on the inside of my wrist, and it’s the initial of my husband’s last name: It’s a Z for Zincone.

At least he has a cool initial. Yeah, it’s a great initial! Thank God. I got lucky.

Did you get them done at the same place? Different spots. With the first one, I wasn’t even going out to get a tattoo that day. I needed to go to the bathroom, and I was on Melrose Avenue and I just went upstairs to this tattoo place. The guy and I started talking and he asked, “You don’t have any tattoos?” And I said, “No, but I’d really like one.” So he said, “Today, we’re going to give you a tattoo on the house.” And that was that.

How did you do in the chair? Were you squirmy? You know what? The one on my back was fabulous. I was ready for it to be painful because it’s on the bone and it wasn’t bad at all. I guess because I had heard so many people telling me how painful it was, I was surprised. The one on the inside of my wrist was actually more painful. That one only took about 10 minutes, though. It was a smaller tattoo. So I just bit through it—it’s 10 minutes of your life, you know? Whatever. And it’s worth it.

Which one of your costars do you think would be the least likely to get a tattoo? Katherine Heigl.

Why’s that? I think she’s more of a classic woman. She’s super cool and so much fun, but I think as far as her style goes, she’s definitely more classy and classic. So I don’t think that would be up her alley at all. [Laughs.]

As the frontwoman of the band Petalstones, though, you have an excuse for getting as many tattoos as you want. Do you consider yourself more an actress who sings or a singer who acts? I’ll stick with “actress who sings.” I wish it were the other way around, only because I think music is so fabulous and singers can really touch your soul. But I’m not a fabulous singer.

So how did you end up center stage? That was back in 2003. I had been out here in L.A. for a year trying to do the acting thing, and I did a small indie film and through that met a guitarist who had a band. We started talking and I thought, Wow, how cool—it’s everyone’s fantasy to be a rock star. He said, “I need some help writing lyrics. Would you be interested?” I was like, “I can’t sing but if you’re willing to train me. …” Basically, we wrote our first song together and introduced it to a producer. He liked it, so he decided to make me the frontman of the band, which was crazy. We wrote a whole album and did the L.A. circuit—The Viper Room, House of Blues, The Roxy. We had a blast doing it but no record deal. Finally, we were all broke so I said, “Guys, I’m going to get back and try to do the acting thing, and if that doesn’t work then I’m probably going back to Canada.” Three weeks later I got The Comeback at HBO.

What’s the most rock and roll thing you’ve ever done? Followed a favorite band of mine to Detroit because the drummer asked me to at 3 o’clock in the morning, and ended up spending the weekend with him. That was a real groupie moment. [Laughs.]

Please tell me the name of the band. [Laughs.] We’ll just keep that to ourselves. That’ll be my little secret. I just fall for drummers.

Why’s that? I don’t know. Maybe it’s the fact that they don’t need to be in the spotlight. They just sit back and chill and they’re confident and…they can keep a rhythm! So that’s good.

There’s something on the Petalstones website that describes the band as “One Swedish gal, three Italian boyz.” [Laughs.] Yes, that’s what it is.

How does that mix work out? Great! They take very good care of you. True Italians—they’re quite the gentlemen when they want to be. [Laughs.]

Do you identify more as a Swede or a Canadian? I’m pretty much a mutt. When I’m in Sweden I feel like a Canadian, and when I’m in Canada I feel like a Swede. I don’t belong anywhere—that’s why I came to La-La Land.

How does one “feel like a Swede” exactly? That’s a good question! [Laughs.] It means that you’re different from people when you’re not as prudish about your body. Um…you’re blond? [Laughs.] You eat a lot of fish? It’s a great country. Very liberal people, very open. It’s very easy for a foreigner to go to Sweden because they’re very happy to socialize. I like them. It’s a good group of people.

Is the lack of prudishness why you seem so willing to dive into comedies? You seem pretty comfortable looking ridiculous on film. … I guess. Without blowing smoke up my own ass, I guess I’ve just never been scared of being goofy. You grow up as a woman and there’s a lot of concentration on your looks and hair and makeup, and it’s all sort of exterior. Guys are more about jokes and goofing off. I grew up with a lot of boys, did all that stuff, and it kind of took the pressure off the exterior, you know? And that’s the sort of thing you need in comedy. You can’t think of how you’re looking when you’re peeing on Ben Stiller’s back. It’s not going to be pretty!

Plus, it’s probably just more fun to play the nut job than the heroine, right? Yes, absolutely. It’s hard when you look at leading roles because they’re usually the most normal and all the characters on the side have the real fun parts. I’m not saying I don’t want to be a leading lady—I absolutely do—but usually if you want a fun role it’s going to be the sidekick.

What got you into acting in the first place? Were you the typical hyperactive child? No, I wasn’t planning on becoming an actress as a child. I initially wanted to be an astronaut, and I danced and did figure skating. I did figure skating for 12 years and competed nationally. I thought I would be going to the Olympics. I had also been doing modeling and TV commercials, but that was just on the side because it was good money and it was just fun. But it was never something where I went, “Oh my God, that’s what I’m going to be when I grow up.” It just sort of happened. And I’m glad it did.

You spent a large part of last year making, arguably, one of the most anticipated movies of 2009, Watchmen. How would you describe this movie to the uninitiated? Yeah, that’s a difficult task. It’s so layered and complex. So far I’ve failed at trying to describe it. Every time I say something some fan starts blogging, “She doesn’t know what she’s talking about!” It’s not your typical superhero film. What would it be like if real people, real vigilantes that we call superheroes, lived among us and were just regular people? Watchmen is one of the best novels I’ve ever read. It’s so smart and it’s one of those things you can pick up and read over and over again and always get something new from it. It’s a bit of a thriller and a love story and a conspiracy theory—there’s a little bit for everyone.

Have you had any physical encounters with overzealous fanboys? Not yet. They kept us at a distance from all of them at Comic-Con. You know, I have a friend who is a big comic book geek and he freaked out! All of a sudden, as soon as I got Watchmen, he became a fan instead of a friend. I was like, “It’s still me!” [Laughs.] “I’m not Silk Spectre for real.” It was just amazing to see him get so excited.

Speaking of which, has your husband demanded you bring the latex costume home? I saw in his eyes how much he loved it. He came to the set and I came out in my costume and his eyes popped open—I’ve never seen them as wide as that before. But before he opened his mouth I said, “Listen, it’s never coming home. It won’t be in the bedroom, so just forget about it.”

You know, Jude Law has a Watchmen tattoo—apparently he’s a huge fan. Couldn’t that have scored him a small role? He does? Really?

Yeah, it’s the character Rorschach. Well, then no. If it’s not Silk Spectre, screw it. He doesn’t deserve a scene!