  Liev Schreiber stars as Ted Winter in the contemporary action thriller Salt.
|
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Spies never surrender their cool. Then again, they don't have to work with Angelina Jolie.
So, really, can you blame Liev Schreiber for being intimidated on the set of the espionage thriller, Salt?
"I get uncomfortable and nervous around beautiful women and famous people, so Angelina presented kind of a problem for me," he admits during interviews at a Georgetown hotel.
"But we bonded very quickly over kids. Because we both have small children. That was great because it allowed me to relax and all the sexual tension melted away. Suddenly she was a person I could relate to and work with. I was really relieved when I was able to hit it off with her."
Has he told his partner and the mother of his two children -- actress Naomi Watts, speaking of beautiful women -- how anxious he was at first around Jolie?
"No, I didn't. But I'm sure you will."
In Salt, opening Friday, Schreiber portrays the supervisor and friend of Jolie's Evelyn Salt, a CIA operative accused of being a Russian mole. When she goes on the run, he clashes with a counter-intelligence specialist (Chiwetel Ejiofor) who's convinced of her guilt.
Although the cast and filmmakers consulted with actual former spies, Schreiber had a unique advantage. While he was researching the role, Watts was preparing to star in the political drama Fair Game, about Valerie Plame, the CIA agent famously outed by Bush administration officials.
"Valerie was around a lot and I got to hang out with her," Schreiber remembers. "And I had met a lot of CIA consultants, none under the conditions I had met Valerie in. Valerie was particularly interesting to me because usually you meet a consultant, they're happy to be on a film, that they're working on a movie and meeting movie stars. But Valerie was someone different. She was someone who had been fingered by her own government and exposed. So she had an interesting relationship to the CIA. And what I got from Valerie, which was of value to me, was the patriotism ... That woman is truly an American patriot. That was always her motivation until she was exposed. And I think that was devastating for her. You could see that in her. Emotionally, it was something that hurt her very much. And you think about it -- they don't get a tremendous amount of money, so who does that and why do they do that? That's to me why (spies) are such wonderful characters."
First and foremost, however, Salt is an entertainment -- and a physically intense one. For Schreiber, it marks another action-heavy role in a career seemingly divided between high-profile films (X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Defiance) and acclaimed theatre work (2005's Glengarry Glen Ross, for which he won a Tony). Is he enjoying that duality?
"It's funny. I only notice it when I come to talk to you guys. People are saying, 'How about all these action movies you're doing?' and I think, 'Oh yeah.' From an actor's perspective, you think 'This is great, I've got all this access, I'm doing these big studio movies.' That's what actors say to each other: 'Wow, dude, you got the comic-book franchise.' It's been really fun. I'm a fan of the genre when it's done well, particularly spy thrillers, but action movies as well. It really appeals to the boy in me, shooting guns and chasing people."
kevin.williamson@sunmedia.ca
More Artists
