Malin Akerman says it is time to get ambitious and tell the sad, sordid story of porn star Linda Lovelace.
"I think it is time to step up," Akerman tells QMI Agency about her more relaxed career path so far, in contrast to the burden that will be shooting Matthew Wilder's Inferno: A Linda Lovelace Story. "It is an amazing opportunity and such a big challenge. Any time you're scared of something, then I think you should do it. And that is exactly my feeling with this: I'm terrified, in an exhilarating kind of way!"
Akerman is the 32-year-old Swedish-Canadian singer and actress from films as varied as Watchmen and The Romantics. Now based in Los Angeles and married to Italian-born musician Roberto Zincone, Akerman is often part of ensembles, as she is both of those films. But Inferno will depend almost entirely on how she performs in the lead.
Akerman, a feisty blond who says she has no problems with nudity in good films, stepped into the Linda Lovelace role after human train wreck Lindsay Lohan exited.
Inferno will delve in the tragedy that was Linda Susan Boreman's life as her infamous alter ego, Linda Lovelace. Deep Throat is the most influential porn of all time and helped kick-start a sexual revolution. But, behind the scenes, her husband and manager Chuck Traynor beat her senseless, pimped her in a prostitution ring and forced her into degrading porns. Among them was Deep Throat. Even worse was a bestiality film.
Boreman-Lovelace, who died in 2002, became a symbol of the anti-pornography movement after Deep Throat established itself as a sleazy legend. But many of her allegations were contradictory and sometimes refuted. Nevertheless, the accusations of savage violence by Traynor have been substantiated. Akerman says that Inferno will not be an exploitation film and will emphasize the human drama over the sensational sex.
"You might think twice about watching Deep Throat again," Akerman advises. "But it's important to tell some of these stories and see the truth of someone who is -- or was -- in the public eye. And to know the reality behind it, or at least our version of the reality, what the writer has interpreted. So I think we should do it."
Inferno is scheduled to start shooting in early April in Los Angeles. Other cast members include Paz de la Huerta and Harold Perrineau, the latter playing Sammy Davis Jr.
Akerman strips down in ‘Romantics’
Blond, beautiful and whiplash bright: Malin Akerman has the whole package and shows off a lot of it in The Romantics.
Including in scenes stripped down to her underwear, scenes that lend The Romantics a cheeky sensuality. "You know," Akerman says with a giddy laugh, "I've never been very self-conscious in that regard." So she will do nude or partially nude scenes -- if it makes sense in the story. She will dress in sexy fetish outfits, as she did in Watchmen, because her dual character called for it.
"My big question every time I read a script like this is whether those kinds of scenes are gratuitous, because then that's a weird feeling."
Akerman says it was never weird in The Romantics, which is new to DVD (but, strangely, not to Blu-ray). In one scene, Akerman and her girlfriends are in their underwear making themselves up for an event. In another sequence, Akerman, Paquin, Holmes and all -- including the guys -- strip down and plunge into the icy waters off Long Island. Characters have make-out sessions, not always with their spouses.
"Hopefully it feels that you're right there with them,' Akerman says about showing this group of thirtysomething friends who get together in Long Island for a wedding. "Everything is so intimate in this film."
Co-stars include Katie Holmes and Anna Paquin, both of whom have their eye on the hunk male played by Josh Duhamel. He is marrying Paquin but still pines for Holmes, his former lover. Other key roles are played by Dianna Agron, Rebecca Lawrence, Adam Brody, Jeremy Strong and -- in a comi-tragic turn as a drunk -- Elijah Wood.
Akerman says the ensemble was a blast to be around on Long Island, which was almost deserted for the winter shoot under writer-director and novelist Galt Niederhoffer. "Everyone did such a great job, really shining in what they did. And that was the gift that Galt gave us in her script."
Cast and crew were based in Greenport, an historic seaport village. Akerman says there were few problems involving paparazzi and Katie Holmes.
"It wasn't so crazy. The only time there was craziness was when you went to the one Starbucks. That was the morning coffee joint and there would be maybe five or six of them outside. It was all pretty calm, and maybe it was because we were in such a secluded area."
More Artists
