http://www.menasuvarifan.com ============================================== SO GRAHAM NORTON - UK Talk Show Novemeber 27 2003. Promoting 'Spun' Typed by Kimberley for MenaSuvariFan.com ============================================== Transcript is missing the first 2-3 mins. Mena and Graham are talking about Spun... Graham: it was exhausting to watch…. Mena: the movies like that it’s got kind of ups and downs Graham: cause you say you’ve seen it-what-5 times? Mena: (nods) yeah… Graham: I mean, I mean once, and I was like a rag by the end… Mena: yeah (laughs) most people say they wanted to take a shower afterwards, it just makes people really thirsty (laughs again) Graham: oh, I just thought uh-uh-uh (laughs)-now I’m sure everyone who’s interviewed you about this movie has asked you about, that scene… Mena: oh yeah (laughs) Graham: yeah, isn’t that odd? Mena: yeah, I’ve heard that’s pretty popular-potty humour, in England. (Laughs) Graham: hence I’m on five nights a week (holds hands up and smiles) (Mena laughs) Graham: eh no, cause. Well how long is that scene? –Basically, it’s Mena on the toilet! Mena: yeah, well that bit-well it’s not that long, I mean the whole film was kind of inter-cut with everything that was going on, but em, it’s just, it wasn’t as shocking for me to do as I guess everyone thinks it is. It is, I mean it is kind of out there-but I must say, the sound effect in it, is not my own! (Audience burst out laughing and clap) Mena: yeah, that was added in later on (laughs) Graham: and also, I think it’s the first time I’ve ever seen, cause you know, there have been other films, where you know, where people have been on the toilet- but this one actually features the poo itself-were you there for the poo bit? Mena: um actually I was there for the sculpting and moulding of the poo, um, I must say, our prop master was just, you know, phenomenal, he had a Reese’s peanut butter cup… Graham: um oh well… Mena: you know what a Reese’s peanut butter cup is? Graham: hmm do we? (Audience say ‘yeah’ altogether) Mena: ok softened…. (Graham interrupts) Graham: ok some people have obviously travelled; ‘yes we have’-I’m sure we have something like it, yes… Mena: softened and moulded to the most exquisite turd! (Laughs) I must say… Graham: I’ll believe you… Mena: no people kept doing it and I was like honestly thinking-wow that looks really good-that looks really believable (laughs)… So you know that was you know strategically thrown in, it took a lot of craft to get the right aim, to get it in the bowl (laughs)… Graham: yeah so not to have to have it drop too much… Mena: yeah I wasn’t there… Graham: no, but congratulations, it is a fantastic film, its really really good. Mena: thank you, thank you. Graham: now, do you get to travel a lot-you must I guess… Mena: yeah Graham: yeah and when you travel presumably now you’re always in the posh bit of the plane? Mena: the posh bit of the plane? … Oh the posh bit of the plane-the classes? Graham: upfront… Mena: oh yeah, well when you’re making such a long journey its kind of nice Graham: well presumably you’re not paying for it so horary! Mena: (laughs) yea horary! Graham: well here’s the thing, if people are travelling over the holidays this product… (Reaches into a draw of his desk) Mena: oh no! Graham: no, no, there’s nothing bad in here, well actually there is, but I mean nothing for you… Mena: yeah (laughs) Graham: no, now this is a thing, now look at there- you cant get these here, have to get them over the internet from America…(he’s holding a see through plastic bag with two plastic ‘things’)-right-what do you think these are? Very hard to know… Mena: do I dare hold it and look at it? Graham: oh, no, no you can, yeah it’s got nothing to do with human beings Mena: are you sure? Graham: well ‘ish’… (Laughs) what it is, it’s called a knee defender-right-right-a knee defender-and like when you’re sitting in a colony on a plane-and I kind of think this should be illegal… Mena: a knee defender? Graham: yeah, what you do is, you jam it, well you jam them on either side of the seat behind you… Mena: so they cant (Graham interrupts) Graham: so the people behind you can’t recline Mena: oh that’s so mean (bursts out laughing) Graham: isn’t that great? Mena: are you serious? Graham: yep Mena: yeah like ‘woops it’s broken’ kinda thing Graham: yeah (laughs) how annoying…but it’s a good idea (Mena laughs) Graham: Now Mena, you are obviously a 1st class actress, you’re very, very good… Mena: oh thank you Graham: well no, you are - anyway very good. But you must have been asked to perform in many different situations like on the toilet, all sorts, but we wondered how our audience would fare when presented with their own acting challenge - ok so it’s a little game-follow me Mena... (Mena and Graham go and play a game with the audience-meanwhile the interview obviously halts and resumes after the break) (After commercial break) Graham: welcome back - I’m here with the fantastic Mena Suvari - yes I am (Audience claps crazily) Graham: now we are delighted you are here this very special day, because of course it’s Thanksgiving… Mena: yeah-its turkey day… Graham: it is turkey day, have you had any yet? Mena: no Graham: oh-do you not…are you going to have turkey today? Mena: no (pretends to cry) Graham: awww… Mena: it’s ok Graham: ok well Graham to the rescue, because, no cause this is so weird right… Mena: what? (Laughs) Graham: (laughs) I don’t think you’ll be having any. I might, eh basically an American company, obviously conscious of people like your travelling, there not able to get to thanksgiving dinner, they have brought out… Mena: is it a dehydrated meal or something? Graham: oh if only it was that delicious… Mena: (laughs) a dehydrated turkey meal? Graham: no-no it’s a bottle of soda! Mena: is it like Willy Wonker’s - that tastes like… Graham: no-it’s a bottle of soda, Jones, its turkey and gravy soda. (Audience-‘ewww’) Mena: no its not! (Pulls a face and laughs) Graham: it is! Now look I’ll open it-now presumably all this is, is fizzy gravy (He smells it)- no it does smell of turkey and gravy-well mostly of gravy. (Mena smells it-pulls a face and starts reading the ingredients) Graham: I’m game if you are! (He pulls another bottle of turkey soda for himself out of the desk draw) (Audience screams and claps) Mena: No Way! Graham: ok, I’m going for it, here it goes (he pauses and starts giggling) (Audience scream ‘go on, go on’) Graham: hang on, hang on, stop it-I will- (looks at Mena)- are you going to?- go on! They sell it in the shops Mena: um…(pauses and thinks)… do I get paid for this? (Starts laughing) Graham: of course you do- we’ll have a whip around, you can have a um…cardigan… Mena: right… (They take a sip from the bottle - Mena then pretends to gag and then takes a sip of her water) Graham: it’s not that bad! (Then talks to an audience member) try this (the girl takes a sip) Audience member: oh that’s disgusting Graham: it is essentially fizzy gravy, I was kinda right with my original thing (talks to audience member)- oh no pass it on-no em, I don’t want it (Mena starts coughing badly) Graham: oh no, I’ve killed the lovely star (Mena plays along and jokingly puts both her hands around her neck as if she’s about to choke) Graham: oh no-are you all right? Mena: (laughs) I’m joking-I’m ok Graham: oh I feel so bad-suddenly she’s swelling up (laughs) (They both laugh) Graham: em, now I have to say, after reading you’re biography, you’re family did an amazing thing, that I think um, Britney Spears’s family did too for her-unless its not true-that they moved when you were a kid, to kind of help you, cause you were a child model, or a very young model… Mena: um, well I was living in South Carolina at the time, and I was 12 and I started getting into modelling, and then from there, through a modelling agency and going to a modelling convention, I signed to Willemina, I went to New York for the summer and then I went to Los Angeles, um, and they had a commercial division, and I started acting there and my parents moved up with me to Los Angeles Graham: it seems like… was that pressure on a kid? Kind of like oh god the whole families up with me here to watch me do commercials… Mena: um…sometimes it was - you know, but, it was fun, I mean I was just kind of going with it and really enjoying it… Graham: yeah cause, um, what was the first big commercial you got? Mena: oh the first commercial I got was Riceroni - do you know Riceroni? Graham: now I read… (Mena interrupts) Mena: (clicks fingers and adopts a different accent) it’s the San Francisco treat! - You know Riceroni? Graham: I think I’ve had a San Francisco Treat - not sure about Riceroni though… no cause I read it today - talk us through, what is Riceroni? Mena: it’s like this packaged meal kind of thing with rice… (Graham interrupts) Graham: and you mocked my soda… Mena: it’s rice with different flavours and you cook it, eh I’ve never really eaten it, and you know what? -Even in the commercial I didn’t eat it-I was one of the other actors (laughs) Graham: yeah you were there to look pretty - like yeah this is gorgeous Mena: yeah I didn’t even get to eat the Riceroni - can you believe that? Graham: ooh curses - yeah you just got to spend the Riceroni money - horary - yes very good. Eh now, I just want to touch on the experience of you been in American Beauty - because obviously you accept a part in a film, you don’t know what’s going to happen to that film… Mena: yeah… Graham: cause that must have been an amazing ride to be in that film… Mena: yeah, well I mean, yeah working on that film, I was about 18 and eh, I really, I had done American Pie that summer right before working on American Beauty so it was literally back to back, and I mean I just really had no idea, I mean I was still just learning a lot about the business, and for me at the time, I was just really happy to be working, and especially the people I was working with, but I didn’t have the ability to really look at a script and know the quality of it, or to think this could go really far, you know I had no clue, and a lot of us, you know, with the subject matter in it didn’t know if it was really going to appeal to everyone, and not only that but do as well as it did. So it was really shocking for me and then it was just whirlwind at the end, which sort of took off. Then I found myself over here nominated for a Bafta, which was just you know unbelievable, with you know, Judi Dench in the same category, which you know I just couldn’t believe… Graham: yeah and you got to the Oscars… Mena: yeah… Graham: very good, very good… Mena: yeah it was great, you know it was a huge honour and I just feel extremely lucky and grateful to have been given that opportunity to work on that film… Graham: yeah and was it Entertainment Weekly or something that voted you the most patriotic actress of the year or something because you were in American Beauty, American Pie, and American Virginal in one year… Mena; well actually, I did a film called Live Virgin, when I was about 15, and that kind of ended up coming out with American in the title like the other ones…. Graham: hmm isn’t that weird? Odd that-go figure. Um, yeah anyway the whole thing about acting and stuff like that, you know you are a bonified film star, and not everyone gets the chance to do that, so we thought, what we would do is pay homage to Hollywood’s finest moments… Mena: ok (laughs) Graham: or rather our audience’s interpretations of them. Ok so come with me Mena as we play ‘am dram thank you ma’am’ (The interview comes to an end; as for the rest of the show Mena and Graham play a game with the audience.)