Exclusive Q & A with Bourne Ultimatum's Joan Allen

11 April 2012
The Weekender

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Star of the hugely successful adrenaline fuelled Bourne Ultimatum, realeased on 10 December, actress Joan Allen reveals what happened when she met Matt Damon's mother, how she juggles her acting career with bringing up her teenage daughter and possible plans for a fourth film.

Is it true that on a previous set Matt Damon's mother came up to you and asked you, "What do you do?"

It's not quite like that, but it's pretty close. I saw Matt, and his mother is so fantastic, I love her, and I don't know if I had met her before. After Bourne Supremacy came out I was at an Off Broadway opening of a play and we had a mutual friend and Matt was there with his mom.

He was saying, "Mom, this is Joan Allen, blah blah blah," and she said, "Hi, and what do you do?" And Matt said, "Mom, she was in the Bourne Supremacy with me."

Actually I took it as a great compliment because later she said to me "You project in life such a different vibe than Pamela Landy and you didn't even look the same to me!"

Really, it was very funny. I was actually complimented as an actor that she didn't recognise me.

Do you have anything in common with Pamela?

Yeah, I think I have a strong work ethic, I believe, and I think I have a strong sense of responsibility and duty to myself and to other people. I think I share those qualities. I think I have a certain amount of confidence that you need to do that kind of work. I don't think I could ever be quite as dynamic as she is, ordering people around knowing that people's lives are at stake based on decisions that you make.

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Joan Allen plays no-nonsense Pamela in The Bourne Ultimatum

Joan Allen plays no-nonsense Pamela in The Bourne Ultimatum

Are you good at winning arguments?

No, I don't like to argue very much. Sometimes I can, my daughter likes to argue and sometimes I want her just to drop it. She's a teenager now so she's not going to be dropping much of anything for the next few years (laughs), I don't think, so I better get used to that idea. I don't like arguing, I like collaboration. I do better when people are cooperating rather than competing in stuff like that.

Was there any improvisation?

The script was changing a lot and they were rewriting scenes often the morning we were shooting. So we'd get the scenes in our trailer and look them over. Maybe there was a scene with David (Strathairm) and I and we would talk about it over makeup and then Paul (Greengrass) would come in and sometimes Paul would have just seen the scene because it was just sent to him. We would talk about it, we would wonder if it would work and what if it didn't and how we would change it and we could tweak it.

How about when you shouted at them?

That's kind of new (laughs). We just were kind of going with the flow and some of it was set and some of it was in flux as they were trying to decide how the film would ultimately end up.

Why do you think the action genre has smartened up in the last decade?

I think things have waves or periods of popularity that are sometimes difficult to explain. Like why was the Western so popular for so many years? There are still animated films coming out now, but for a few years there was that wave where it was really like happening.

I don't know, public tastes change and morph. What's going on in our world reflects that and what the current zeitgeist is and what people hook into.

I don't know if there will be more of these made by different directors from other fields. I haven't seen the Bond film, but I understand it was a different feel from the other ones. He was more vulnerable or something, he fell in love with a girl or something, I understood (laughs). And I understand there were critics at the time who were comparing that to The Bourne Supremacy.

Are you signed on for Bourne 4?

It doesn't exist yet. If they do it I would be there, hopefully somehow.

Do you have an idea of how they would do it?

I was talking about it this morning and wondering, what would it be? What would a fourth Bourne be it's hard to conceive of what he reallyPam Landy comes and fishes him out of the water and takes him back to headquarters and he breaks out? (laughs).

What fired up your desire to be an actress?

I think it was this feeling, wanting to express myself in a way that explored what my personality was, what my background was. I felt like I could do it better in a pretend way. Once I fell into what I wanted to do, and I feel really grateful that I was that clear. Because I think a lot of people and certainly I see my daughter and her friends, and I love listening to them talk about what they want to do. Most of them are unsure, which is natural. So it's kind of a rarity when you know at a really young age that this is what I want to do.

Was there a play or movie that inspired you?

Once I started doing plays in high school, I do remember loving it and feeling like I was at home, and then becoming more aware of what films were out there.

I do remember being in high school at one point and seeing Long Day's Journey Into Night with Katharine Hepburn and thinking I can't even believe what this is, this is so amazing. Seeing A Streetcar Named Desire.

I didn't go to movies all that much as a child. I certainly didn't get to go to plays very much. We'd go into Chicago to see a musical with my high school drama club once a year. And I do remember being a junior and a well to do family, from my hometown, would take a minibus load of students to a college in the middle of the state of Illinois that had a very good theatre department.

I remember being taken by this family when I was in a production of The Little Foxes, Lillian Hellman's play. I thought, "Wow, that is about the coolest thing I have ever seen in my life! These are people with big problems and they have all this stuff going on." I remember that production very well.

The Bourne Ultimatum is released 10 December 2007

The Bourne Ultimatum is released 10 December 2007

What is your favorite way to pamper yourself?

Probably to go to the gym, that I do quite a bit. I definitely feel that that's my time for me to do what I want.

Do you lead a healthy lifestyle?

Pretty healthy, yeah. I also like to eat what I want to eat so going to the gym is kind of the tradeoff. I remember Martina Navratilova, she recently came out with, I think, some sort of tips on how to live your life and I actually admire her quite a bit.

She was being interviewed and she said, "I do all these sports things now because I like to eat and I want to eat what I want and if I do the sports in addition I can eat."

I like to live a full life and I like that philosophy - I connect with that.

How tough is it being a mother to a teenage girl in this time and age?

It's getting challenging (laughs). She's always been a challenging kid in a very good way. Temperamentally we are quite different, she has a very, very strong personality. I go on more of a slow burn if something bothers me, but if something bothers her she's very intense and kind of out there. But then she's over it and she moves on, which has taught me quite a bit. But it's a new time.

The current book that I'm reading is Yes, Your Teenager is Crazy, that's written by a psychologist. It is a whole take on, that recent studies have shown that there is brain development that happens in teenagers, that they don't get it when they are fighting you etc.

There is sort of a physical reason why that is happening as well and I thought that was interesting. Sometimes when they are tough I can take it very personally and it's good to sort of try to separate myself from that so I can be the most effective parent that I can be. If she's igniting me and back and forth it's not really helpful to anybody so I'm trying to educate myself.

Is it easier to shoot in a contained place like in the office than traveling to a location?

The office is actually shot in London so I did have to travel. I went to London three or four times and travel is just more exhausting with these days of security measures. I wish they could just get me to the seat on the plane. It's that in-between part. I don't actually mind the flight itself. Then I shot most of the other stuff in New York, where I live. I like traveling, it has its upside and its downside and it's hard to be away from my daughter. Everything has a trade off.

Where would you like to go?

I've done some recent traveling and I would like to go to China, Australia and New Zealand. I'd like to go to South Africa. There are so many great places. Then the list just goes on and on and on. It's a great thing.

What is the best part of working with Paul Greengrass?

The best part about it is he is such a good human being, I felt like I would want to do just anything that he asked me. Not that he would ask me to do anything, because he is so considerate of other people. A great director who is cruel or egotistical or petty or something, would be very hard for me to work with. That I see as something that's changing in me over time.

I'm learning a bit more about human behavior and stuff. So Paul is just an incredibly smart, kind director. He treats the crew so well. He loves actors and he's got a fantastic sense of humour, which really on a long shoot where you are working very long hours and there is confusion and you don't always know what you are shooting.

I think the sense of humour is really, really key. But in the midst of all those great human qualities he has a great eye, a great sense of drama, a great sense of story and style. So he's kind of a home run on all those.

How was it working with David Strathairn off camera since your scenes together were so intense?

He is so gentle and kind. We are both New York actors and he is so low key and sweet and unassuming. It's fun as actors to get to pretend you are having all this conflict, but after they say, "cut!" we say we had such a good time (laughs). So it's fun, it's not a bad way to make a living. There are a lot of worse ways.

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