A year and a half after it was announced she was taking over the role of former porn star-turned-women’s rights advocate Linda Lovelace from Lindsay Lohan, Malin Akerman says the film’s future is in doubt.
“I don’t know if that’s even going to go,” Akerman told The Hollywood Reporter in a sit-down chat in New York, where she is promoting her new dramedy The Giant Mechanical Man. “Last I heard, which was just before Christmas, we were supposed to start shooting in March, and now it’s April. It’s been one of those doomed films that I absolutely love and totally believe in, I love the script, I think it’s such a well-written script about the behind-the-scenes of a battered woman.”
The issue, she says, has largely been financing.
“It’s a big one to take a chance on because it’s really some heavy content. So I don’t know what’s been going on, I don’t know why it hasn’t gone yet. I would hope and love for it to go, but now this other movie is coming on that Amanda Seyfried did, and I kind of feel like, ‘Shit, we should have been on that, we should have done it,’ ” she said.
Lovelace is a cultural icon and playing her would require great preparation — which has proven to be another difficulty for Akerman amid all the uncertainty.
“I started a little bit, I read her book and started going on the internet, trying to find pictures and interviews with her, but honestly, after the first sort of let down of, ‘Oh, we’re going, now we’re not going.’ I said, ‘Okay, next time they say we’re going, I’ll wait until the money is in escrow and we’re ready to go and then I’ll start prepping,’ ” the actress explained. “I don’t want to wrap myself up again, and then it’s, again, you know it’d be going into a really dark place so I didn’t want to go there a million times and then get the plug pulled.”
At least she isn’t hurting for work.
Akerman already has a 2012 calendar filled with plane trips, premieres and shoots. The Swedish-Canadian actress has a total of eight films that have been or will be released and a TV pilot with Portia De Rossi in contention for a series order.
Malin Akerman just can’t seem to shake nudity in her films!
In her new comedy, “Wanderlust,” Malin and co-stars Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd are surrounded by nudists and in her upcoming project, “Inferno: A Linda Lovelace Story,” the actress will show off plenty of skin chronicling the life of porn star Linda Lovelace.
But just how far will she go?
“I’m sure there will be some nudity [in ‘Inferno’],” the 33-year-old actress told Billy Bush and Kit Hoover on Thursday’s Access Hollywood Live.
Billy asked if she would bare all for the movie if asked to.
“We will have to see,” she explained. “I’m not against it, if it makes sense…that’s a little scary when you say that out loud. But, we’ll have to discuss that.”
And with another project about the adult film star already in the works – “Lovelace” starring Amanda Seyfried – Malin told Billy and Kit that she’s itching to get her project going.
“We’re still waiting on the financing to come in, so hopefully it will come soon. And one is already done. We gotta hurry up,” she said.
When the project does get the go-ahead, Malin will be ready for the challenges of the role.
“I am ready to roll, absolutely,” the actress continued. “It’s a very dark story of her life as an abused woman and it will be a dark place to go into, but I’m looking forward to it.”
“Wanderlust” opens on February 24.
Demi Moore’s exit from “Lovelace” has given a lot of attention to the currently filming biopic of the “Deep Throat” star. But there are more than one Linda Lovelace films in development at the moment. There’s also the Malin Akerman starring “Inferno” to consider — though much like the fiery title, Akerman believes it’s time to light a “fire under” the project, or walk away entirely.
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“Either we have to do it now, or we have to let it go,” she told MTV News at the Sundance Film Festival. “That’s one of the potentials that might be happening within the next month or two. We’ll see.”
Akerman thinks that both “Inferno” and “Lovelace” can coexist, however, due to tremendous differences between the movies.
“They’re very different films, even though they’re about the same [person],” she said. “They’re adapted very, very differently. We’ve had the privilege of seeing the other film, and it’s beautifully written, but it’s really different from the one we’re doing. It’ll be two different versions of her life story.”
Different in what ways, you ask? Take it from Akerman: “It’s very dark. It would be delving into some dark, dark places. It’s very much about an abused woman and what life is like being in that situation.”
Another important thing to note: “I’m not making a porn, I promise. No porn. You can go to the XXX stores for those.”
“Of course it’s a little bit daunting when you have somebody out there already doing [a similar movie], but at the same time, it becomes more of a challenge. It’s exciting,” Akerman said of the “Inferno” process. “This will be a bit darker, and crazy, but beautifully written. I really do hope we have the opportunity to do it.”
Malin Akerman is pumped about tackling her upcoming turn as porn star Linda Lovelace in Inferno…a role that was originally intended for one Lindsay Lohan, who got dropped due to insurance issues.
“I’m really excited to the do the film,” Malin told me last night at the Tribeca Film Fest, where The Bang Bang Club (another one of her films) was premiering. “I think it’s gonna be an amazing journey.”
So how exactly has Malin been preparing to play the Deep Throat actress?
“I’ve been studying a lot about battered women and we all have that big question mark as to why they stay in the relationship and why they don’t leave and it’s so complex,” Malin, who’s also rocking red hair these days, explained. “I’ve been reading a lot on the internet…Google is a fantastic thing.”
Indeed.
Malin was joined last night by Bang Bang costars Ryan Phillippe and Taylor Kitcsh. The movie, about a quartet of photographers covering the final days of Apartheid in war-torn South Africa, seems particuarly relevant in light of this week’s death of Restrepo director Tim Hetherington and a fellow war photographer in Libya. The two were acknowledged in the film’s introduction.
The entire cast attended the afterparty at La Bottega sponsored by Cinema Society following the premiere, and although there was food at the soiree, Ryan apparently couldn’t wait until then to eat.
Before the movie began, he was spotted eating an ice cream bar from the theater’s concession stand.
Inferno, the biopic of ’70s porn icon Linda Lovelace (the star of Deep Throat), has been in the works for some time from writer/director Matthew Wilder (adapting the actress’ autobiography, “Ordeal”). Malin Akerman (Watchmen, 27 Dresses is slated to play the lead and, today, spoke exclusively with ComingSoon.net about the part.
“It’s a really dark place,” explains Akerman of the film’s tone, “It’s not so much about the sexual content… Ultimately, the story is the backstory that takes place over four or five years about her and her husband. She was a battered woman… It’s about how she got forced at gunpoint into prostitution by her own husband.”
Akerman, who next appears in the Women in Trouble sequel Elektra Luxx, is the third actress to become attached to the project after Anna Faris and Lindsay Lohan (the latter of whom was even featured in promotional images last year). Signing on last November, Akerman is gung ho for the project and is currently prepping for the role.
“I’ve been doing a lot of research on battered women and why they stay in those kinds of relationships,” she says, “It’ll be a dark journey, but I’m very excited.”
Wilder will make Inferno his sophomore directing project, following 2008′s Your Name Here, a fictional story inspired by the life of Philip K. Dick.
The biopic “Inferno: A Linda Lovelace Story” has been in and out of pre-production for awhile, mainly having to do with the casting choice of a wayward young actress. Those troubles quickly disappeared the minute they chose Malin Akerman to play the adult film star turned anti-porn advocate in the Matthew Wilder feature.
In the middle of an interview for her upcoming film “Happythankyoumoreplease,” the actress was kind enough to give us a better look on the overall story line for the project.
“I’m very excited to start filming ["Inferno: A Linda Lovelace Story"]. As of right now we’re supposed to be shooting in April.
“The movie is sort of behind-the-scenes on her life with her husband and what the relationship was like. It was pretty torturous, he physically beat her quite a bit and had a gun to her head many times and forced her into prostitution.
“It’s a very emotional journey with the film being very much a biography of her life, or an interpretation of it. We go maybe four years of her life until she becomes an anti-porn advocate. So it’s a really intense and dark movie, for me anyways. It’s a very exciting and nerve-wracking challenge.”
You can watch Malin Akerman shine on the big screen in Josh Radnor’s “Happythankyoumoreplease,” out in limited theaters this Friday.
The upcoming biopic “Inferno: A Linda Lovelace Story” might be about one of the porn industry’s most famous stars, but Malin Akerman said there won’t be any “gratutious” sex in the upcoming film.
The 32-year-old actress stopped by Access Hollywood Live on Tuesday and revealed how far she’ll go in the role that Lindsay Lohan was once set to play.
“I’ll go as far, as long as it’s not gratuitous, if it makes sense for the story,” she told Billy Bush and Kit Hoover. “It’s a lot more about her, she had a very tortuous life. It’s a lot more behind the scenes of her and her husband’s relationship.”
Malin said the story would focus more on the adult actress’ adversities and not about her risqué profession.
“There will be some disturbing moments, but it won’t be very sexual. It will be more disturbing than anything,” she explained.
When it comes to stepping in for Lindsay in the film, Malin told Billy and Kit that she’s had no contact with Lindsay, who was forced to drop out of the project after being sent to rehab.
“I don’t know her personally at all. I hadn’t met her before, so no contact with her,” Malin said. “I think we’re very different people… again, I don’t know her… I’m not really out much in the public eye, other than when I’m here with you guys or, you know, doing a movie.”
For her current movie, “Happythankyoumoreplease,” the actress plays a woman suffering from Alopecia universalis (a condition that causes hair loss), something Malin deeply committed to making authentic by shaving off her eyebrows.
“They’re back!” she said of her formerly buzzed brows. “Actually it’s really great trick for any woman for wants to look like five years younger, shave them off! All of a sudden, you just look fresh… at least that’s what my husband told me.
“I wasn’t brave enough to shave my whole head,” she continued. “[I was] a little nervous, a little nervous, the buzzer of the shaver went on, and I said, ‘Alright, we’re doing this!’”
Having no eyebrows lead the actress to a peculiar discovery.
“It’s amazing because you get in the shower and you realize that you need your eyebrows for the water to not leak into your eyeballs,” she added.
“Happythankyoumoreplease” written, directed and co-starring “How I Met Your Mother’s” Josh Radnor, hits theaters on March 4.