Today, November 6th, is Taryn’s 37th birthday! On behalf of all of her fans from around the world, I would love to wish her an amazing day filled with all her favorite people and things!

Feel free to leave your birthday wishes in the “comments” section of this post…

Thandie is gracing the cover of InStyle magazine in the UK for the December 2009 issue! You can see some photos from the magazine by clicking on the preview above and don’t forget to grab your copy if you’re in the UK! You can find out more about the issue and where to get the magazine at www.instyle.co.uk.

In the right wedges, you can do anything!” says Thandie Newton

Let’s face it, Thandie making a fashion faux pas is about as likely asseeing Posh in a tracksuit.

You might be a 37-year-old mum of two, but you’ve still got a ballet dancer’s figure…
“That’s genetic! And I’m a Jivamukti yoga freak – it’s food for my soul. When I’m not working, I’ll drop Rip off at school and Nico at nursery, then I go to yoga. I also have an amazing personal trainer, who I see whenever I can.”

You’ve co-starred with quite a few dishy men. Did any of them make you think, ‘Ooh, if I wasn’t married…’
[Laughs] “Listen to you! I’ve never dated an actor, just had the odd fling. Isn’t that weird? I don’t flirt with people – a long time ago, I stopped using my sexuality to have a relationship with people. I don’t think you really get a sense of me, sexually, and that’s why I have really great relationships with straight men.”

The full interview is in this month’s InStyle

I will be working on obtaining a copy to scan for the site, since I’m in the US, it takes about a month longer to get the issue… So I hope the previews are alright!

We’ve already explored the history of 2012 here on Cinematical and what you need to know to see the movie (hint: the world might blow up!), but here’s what 2012 stars John Cusack, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Thandie Newton, and Woody Harrelson and director Roland Emmerich have to say about the end of the world. Do they believe the world will end with a whimper or a bang, T. S. Eliot-style? Will we go out in fire or in ice? Do they even believe the world will end in 2012? Let’s find out.

Thandie Newton: You know, I think that there are dire ecological problems that we are more aware of than we’ve ever been through the media and so on, but there are also problems of a more profound nature – human rights issues, which for me, signify the end of the world. What’s going on in the Congo, what’s happening in the Middle East, where… the law of human rights just don’t seem to exist. And I feel like, in a way, that’s more complex and more painful and more destructive than a tidal wave… I think that at some time it was believed that 2012 was the year that things were going to happen, but the prediction has been disproved. I mean, I don’t know the details of it, I’m afraid. I’m sure it’s in your press pack. [laughs] But that’s my personal opinion. I want to focus more on the things that can be dealt with, the disasters that human beings are responsible for… It’s more problematic and more complex and terrifying the way people treat people.

From Cinematical

THANDIE NEWTON refused to join in boozy celebrations to toast the success of her 1995 movie JEFFERSON IN PARIS – because she was busy revising for her university exams.

The actress studied Archaeology and Anthropology at the U.K.’s prestigious Cambridge University when one of her early films debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in France.

Newton shunned the bar with her castmates at the annual movie event – choosing instead to revise for her degree.

She says, “I was studying for my finals at Cambridge during the Cannes Film Festival. I went to a party on the beach for the film I was in, Jefferson In Paris, but I didn’t get drunk because I knew I had to revise.

“I wasn’t going to the college bar and having fun, so I probably ended up working more than most people. I carried on making films while I was at Cambridge. I don’t regret it because if I hadn’t, maybe I wouldn’t be an actress.”

From the Daily Star

The film has quite a lot of action. What sort of things did you have to do?
I spent a lot of time incredibly wet (laughs). Absolutely soaking wet through – trousers, sweater, my shoes, everything. It was miserable and I’m such a little girl about that sort of thing. I didn’t complain about it, but inside I was thinking ‘oh no, not again’! There’s one sequence where the waves are coming in and I have to scoop up this little girl and save her, which is all great, but inside I was thinking ****** hell! Can this please just be it’! And the little girl was having a great time. In between scenes I’d wrap myself in a towel and she was swimming around and loving it.

What sort of preparation did you do for the film?
I just read the script and made sure my accent was in good shape, because really, no matter who I was playing, the story is about a world in disarray. When something like this happens – and hopefully it never will – when everything is about to be destroyed, you can’t hold on to any idea of who you are or worry about your worldly goods, because it’s all going to be swept away. It’s very fundamental and you end up as a human being – skin, flesh and bones – fighting for your life. So what research can you do to play a character caught up in that? It was more about asking yourself, ‘hell, what would I do in that position?’

Did you pause for thought when you first heard about the Mayan prophecies?
I was a bit nervous to be honest when I first heard about the Mayan prophecies. I’m a bit of an old hippie and I feel like anything’s possible at any time. Reality can be shocking enough and things happen all the time. I think the film is about appreciating the moment and the challenges we face – like, for instance the economic crisis we’ve been going through – hopefully it will make us appreciate the simple things and the value of relationships and the value of the people that we love.

You went straight from filming W, where you played former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, into filming 2012. Did you ever have any feedback from Condoleezza Rice after W came out?
No. But she’s joined my agency, I hear. William Morris.

So who had the best Oval Office? Was it on W or was it on the set for 2012?
That was so funny. I literally finished my last scene in W, which was with Josh Brolin in the Oval Office, and two weeks later I was on a different set for 2012, in Vancouver, on another set for the Oval Office, playing a president’s daughter.

How do you decide what roles to take?
I wouldn’t ever just want to do one kind of thing. When I was starting out, if I did a movie about say, slavery (Jefferson in Paris), I’d then get sent every slavery script going. But that doesn’t happen so much anymore. The way I work and when I work is actually more to do with being a mum than ‘what do I want to do next’? If I’ve worked on a big film, I don’t then want to go and do another big film because of the kids and school. It’s a bit boring, but that determines the job more than anything else.

Do you like watching your own movies?
If they’re good. (laughs)

And so which ones are good?
Oh, I’m not going to answer that (laughs). I mean, there are lots that I really, really like, there are some I feel didn’t work in ways that I’d hoped, but then, you never really know, you have very little control as an actor really. But there are definitely some that I prefer to others – but there are some films I like more than others in general, just not ones I’ve been in.

2012 is out November 12.

From Alive Sydney