Thandie Newton has admitted that she forgot how to act.

The actress, who stars alongside John Cusack in the big-budget blockbuster 2012, has said that she became frazzled during the filming of major action scenes.

The 37-year-old told The Mirror: “The only really big action scenes I was involved in were two water sequences – one where I’m in a corridor and this huge tidal wave comes bursting down towards us. It was amazing but I forgot to act because gallons of water were rushing down from floor to ceiling towards me.

“The director had to shout “cut” and all the water went down. I don’t even know where it drained to. Then ten minutes later, we did it again and the water comes rushing round the corner, blasting down the set.”

As for enjoying her time on the film’s set, she added: “On 2012, when I’d finished a scene I’d go back to my trailer and just collapse. There were huge sets, lots of cameras and it was kind of exhausting.”

2012 is currently playing in US and UK cinemas.

From Digital Spy

Thandie Newton’s four-year-old daughter is so fashionable she wears sequinned leggings.

The 37-year-old actress can’t believe her children, Ripley, eight, and four-year-old Nico, are so interested in clothes. She even claims the girls are more concerned with style than she is.

She explained: “Nico is rocking a pair of sequin leggings at the moment, which is hilarious. She’s four! She just likes them because they’re shiny!”

Thandie loves being a mother, but tries not to be too over-protective. She believes it’s important for her kids to experience discomfort and upset as it will shape them into more rounded adults. She tells them pain is just as important as happiness, but is always there to give them encouragement or a cuddle when they are feeling down.

“One of the best things about being a mum us that you can cradle your kids metaphorically when they’re sad, but not eradicate discomfort because it’s invaluable to them,” she told InStyle magazine. “For example, Ripley still can’t ride a bike. I got her and Nico bikes in Los Angeles and when I showed Rip her bike, she burst into tears because her friend Lucas told her she’d fall off. I said, ‘Yes, baby, but you’ll get back on again and it will be sweeter for having fallen off.’ ”

From The Skinny

Film prankster Thandie Newton is known for her practical jokes on movie sets. While shooting Run Fatboy Run, she switched Simon Pegg’s water bottle for vodka and sewed up the neck and sleeves of his T-shirts. However, Thandie had to put aside the joking on the set of her latest movie, the disaster blockbuster 2012, because she was just too tired.

“This movie required a lot of stamina,” says the 37-year-old, London-born actress. “There were huge sets, lots of cameras and it was kind of exhausting. Also, because there were so many people involved, there was less of a family feel to it.

“When I was working on Run Fatboy Run, it was really a tiny crew. We were all hanging out together and much more in each other’s pockets. On 2012, when I’d finished a scene I’d go back to my trailer and just collapse.”

The new $200m extravaganza from director Roland Emmerich uses spectacular computer-generated special effects to depict a global cataclysm that brings the world to an end. Cities crumble and millions die in a series of eye-popping natural disasters while a few survivors struggle to stay alive.

Thandie plays the US President’s daughter who begins a relationship with a geologist, played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, while they are fighting for survival.

“Some of the cast are in the thick of the action, like John Cusack and Amanda Peet who are fighting for their lives,” says Thandie.

“But because I play the president’s daughter I’m kept very safe throughout the movie.

“The only really big action scenes I was involved in were two water sequences – one where I’m in a corridor and this huge tidal wave comes bursting down towards us. It was amazing but I forgot to act because gallons of water were rushing down from floor to ceiling towards me. The director had to shout “cut” and all the water went down. I don’t even know where it drained to. Then 10 minutes later we did it again and the water comes rushing round the corner, blasting down the set.”

As we chat, Thandie looks cool and relaxed in her white minidress in a beachfront suite at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Cancun, Mexico, where many of the 2012 cast had been flown for a party and promotional interviews.

Married for 10 years to English writer-director Oliver Parker, they have two children – nine-year-old Ripley, named after Sigourney Weaver’s character in Alien, and Nico, four, named after the Velvet Underground singer.

Despite her success in films – including Mission Impossible: 2, The Pursuit Of Happyness and W – Thandie maintains she never had any special ambitions to be an actress.

Her parents, a Zambian nurse mother and a laboratory technician father, lived in the African country, but Thandie was born during a trip back to England. The family then returned to Zambia, but moved to Penzance in Cornwall when she was three years old.

“There were very few black people in the town and we were almost a novelty,” Thandie recalls. “I always saw being black as a mysterious element I could use to enrich my personality. Then I went into the arts where difference is celebrated so I’ve never really experienced racial hassle.”

In between her film commitments, the actress has returned to Africa on several occasions and she taught at Oprah Winfrey’s school in South Africa for 10 days in July. But for now she has high hopes that filmgoers will appreciate the ingenuity that has gone into making 2012.

“It’s just extraordinary to be able to create an illusion that takes you on a journey like this,” Thandie smiles. “To have been able to push the boundaries like this is a real achievement.”

2012 is out today.

From the Mirror

A self-confessed “little girl at heart”, Hollywood actor Thandie Newton says that her family life is a huge factor when it comes to deciding the kind of work she takes up.

In an interview with TOI Thandie who’s done films like Mission:Impossible II, The Pursuit of Happyness and Crash, admits that an actor has little control over the way the film shapes up. Excerpts from an interview:

You’ve constantly juggled between small films and bigger movies like Mission: Impossible II. Is it part of a grand design with your career?
Oh there’s no grand plan (laughs). But it’s nice to be able to do a little of both. I wouldn’t ever just want to do one kind of thing. When I was starting out on my career, if I did a movie about say, slavery like Jefferson in Paris, I’d then get sent every slavery script going. But that doesn’t happen so much anymore. Hopefully I’ve established that I can do lots of different things. And you know, the way I work and when I work is actually more to do with being a Mom 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 and that kind of thing. It’s a bit boring, but that determines the job more than anything else.

You played Condoleeza Rice in your last release W. Did you have to research a lot for a role like that?
Yes, absolutely, especially with regards to how she (Condoleeza Rice) was involved. And I read a lot, it was great, I haven’t researched like that for years for a role. And even though the movie was small and my role was fairly small as well, I’d done more work for that than I’d done on anything, practically. I knew that Oliver (Stone) would want to just be spontaneous. When you’re working on real life characters that are so firmly in the public eye, you don’t want to get it wrong as there are also facts that people know about. And also satire isn’t good unless you really mimic bang on. So I wanted it to be high satire.

So have you had any feedback from Condoleeza Rice after the film released?
No. But I hear she’s joined my agency William Morris. You never know what might happen. Maybe I’ll bump into her in the corridor.

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British actress Thandie Newton lets on about what it’s like on the set of the apocalyptic thriller 2012.

IN the upcoming anticipated disaster flick 2012, British screen beauty Thandie Newton plays Laura Wilson, whose daddy Thomas (Danny Glover) happens to be the 45th President of the United States. It seemed that the celluloid US administration loves her.

Just last year, Newton was in cinematic White House to play (former) US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice in Oliver Stone’s controversial bio-pic W.

Known for balancing her roles between that of a big-budgeted commercial mainstream and the more independent British fares, Newton has starred in a string of big films (Mission Impossible 2, The Chronicles of Riddick) and not-so-big ones (Beloved, Run, Fatboy Run, The Truth About Charlie).

A story about the world’s destruction, humanity and survival, 2012, directed by Roland Emmerich also stars John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Oliver Platt and Woody Harrelson.

Here’s an interview with Newton courtesy of Sony Pictures Releasing International. The movie 2012 opens in cinemas here tomorrow.

Question: 2012 is a blockbuster event movie. Do you have to be careful that the effects don’t swamp the story with a film like this?

Newton: Yes, you do, but I knew that wasn’t going to happen when I read the script. Roland really cares about the story and he cares about the characters — it’s actually a very human story. I’m the president’s daughter.

I’m part of the president’s family and suddenly none of that matters. And for all the characters in the film, it’s the same — whatever you thought was important before doesn’t matter anymore.

When the floods and earthquakes start, it’s all about trying to save your life and the lives of other people. It comes down to the fundamentals of being human and it asks what that means and what really matters.

It’s an amazing arc for all the characters and certainly mine. Some, the lucky few, will survive but it’s also about the moral guidelines that the survivors will have.

Because, even with all the panic that ensues there is still this grappling for power — even when everything is being destroyed — and it’s like “look, if we are going to be the survivors of the human race we have to establish moral guidelines.” And that’s really interesting stuff to explore in a big film like this.

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