Fifteen Stupid Questions for Romola Garai
British Esquire - November 2004
Words by Tim Lewis
Scans were done by SilverHawk
Fifteen Stupid Questions for Romola Garai
British Esquire - November 2004
Words by Tim Lewis
Scans were done by SilverHawk
She looks like a benign cross between Drew
Barrymore and Cameron Diaz, just her came is enough to make you weep because
there are no worlds left to conquer and her new film, the brilliant 'Inside I'm
Dancing', is the funniest movie you will ever see about muscular dystrophy
1. Describe yourself in one sentence.
An annoying, irritating, self-critical, 22-year-old actress.
2. Have you dated an older man, and what did you find out?
I date nothing but older men. I've reached a stage in my life where I've started
to worry whether it's a fetish or not. What did I find out? I suppose that the
only real effect of ageing is deep cynicism - that, and you are maybe a little
more comfortable with yourself.
3. What skill would most like to have?
I would really like to be able to write well. Instead, I write very mediocre,
pathetically autobiographical screenplays about 5ft 8in, blonde, middleclass
actresses.
4. Do you like asparagus?
Yes. What does that say about me? That I like sex or something?
5. Yes. Would you say you've won more fights than you've lost?
Yeah, I'm an argumentative bitch, basically. I take everything way too seriously
- that's probably the worst aspect of my personality.
5b. Prove it. In a fist fight: Bruce Willis or Mel Gibson?
Clearly Bruce Willis. Get serious.
5c. Two words: Lethal Weapon.
Whatever. Die Hard. The guy fell out of a 13-storey window.
5d. Braveheart.
Come on. Mel Gibson's wearing make-up in that film.
6. If you were in the Olympics, what event would you enter?
I do think the Olympics are a curiously male obsession. Who can run the fastest
from here to here? You know what I think? Who gives? Because if you're not
running to catch a bus or running to buy me a bunch of flowers, I don't care.
7. Do you like rollercoasters?
Yeah, I love being scared. The one at the end of Brighton Pier is great because
you go over the sea. There's nothing I love so much as a really scary
rollercoaster or a really scary film. The Shining is a classic, and I was
fucking terrified by The Blair Witch Project.
8. When was the last time you felt truly uncomfortable?
The premiere for Vanity Fair in New York last weekend. It was the first time I'd
ever properly done the red carpet thing and I just looked like a fucking deer in
the headlights. I looked fucking scared, you could tell.
9. What's the next journey you're taking?
I'm going to Australia until Christmas to shoot a drama for ITV. It's about a
woman called Mary Bryant, who was on the first boat of convicts that left
Plymouth for Botany Bay and then escaped to Dutch Timor. It's an interesting
story as long as they don't sex it up too much - she's lying in the boat with
her corset on and saying in a husky voice, "I'm so thirsty... My kids have just
died."
10. What books would recommend to us?
I read all of Margaret Atwood, so I've read Oryx and Crake recently. For Mary
Bryant, I'm reading Robert Hughes' The Fatal Shore, which is about the
transportation of the convicts. On holiday I read a book called House of Day,
House of Night by Olga Tokarczuk, a great collection of anecdotes and vignettes
about life in rural Poland. And I just read Ulysses for the first time. I read
quickly and if you haven't got a job, you can read things in a day. It's not
like I'm competing with a life - this is all I'm doing.
11. Do you have a middle name?
Yeah, Sadie. I think my whole name is slightly pretentious and it's not very
easy to pronounce, which is not that useful in my job.
12. Have you ever owned a pair of Birkenstocks?
No. There are nicer, more comfortable options. I have Converse All Stars and
they are my comfy shoes. You have to replace them every year, so I get the same
pair in cream - the total classic.
13. Do you look more like your father or your mother?
I don't think I look like either of them. Both my parents are really dark. My
dad's family is Jewish Hungarian and my mother has got long dark hair. Garai is
actually the name of a square in Budapest - there was a census in Hungary in the
1860s or 1870s, and a lot of Jews picked place names to be their surnames.
14. Are you mystified by the female anatomy?
Absolutely. The great joy and the great pleasure of the female body is that it
is a mystery, and will always be so because the workings of the female is
internal but the male is slightly presented to you in an obvious way. Without
getting too gynecological about it...
15. Do you have a hope for humanity?
I think it would be great if we were able to see ourselves as others see us.