I play Jane Callahan, a manipulative American who arrives in Russia to assist an engineer - played by Richard Harris - in his obsession with building a machine to harvest the forests of Siberia. She's cynical about life. She arrives with prejudices about Russia and its people, but her curiosity and her passion for life and having fun draws her towards them.
Basically, she's a con-woman who has this notion that for her own survival, she will just deceive in whatever way she needs to fulfil her contract. That's what she gets trapped with, because she continues on that path.
For me, it was about a foreigner going to Russia and discovering the Russian soul. The people seem like caricatures when you arrive - your first impressions conform to pre-conceived ideas. But when Jane gets involved with them, those first impressions are broadened and she makes a connection with people.
You don't get a proper view of Russians from most of the movies we've seen in the West - they're like the cowboys and Indians films we used to have. The Indians were always the savages. The same thing has happened with Russians in movies - they're always the baddies - except in something like Failsafe, which had a different take.
It's hard for us as story-tellers to divorce ourselves from our nationality. How do we express ourselves culturally? Nikita Mikhalkov [the director] has given Russians something very positive to be proud of. That's the feedback I've got.
