Macarena Gómez: Devil in a Black Dress
Source: AOL
Posted: 09/14/08 7:41PM
Filed Under: 2008 TIFF Guide
By SORAYA ROBERTS
There's something vaguely devilish about Macarena Gómez. She swishes into our interview room in a tuxedo-style dress (complete with fishnets and a top open just low enough to keep you interested) and huge - "penetrating," as she calls them - eyes. Gómez is the sort of girl who could just as easily be hiding a snake behind her back as she could an apple. “In my normal everyday life I like being a bit crazy,” she says with a grin.
The Spanish actress is at the Toronto International Film Festival to promote the world premiere of Sexykiller. In the bubblegum B-movie she stars as Barbara (aka Sexykiller), a fashion maven with a Catherine Tramellian taste for blood. In between classes, the medical student - at a school where the girls have a penchant for mini skirts and seduction - likes to cut up her fellow classmates.
“I knew it was going to be fun because I got to use weapons - swords and guns - and I needed a personal trainer,” Gómez says of Sexykiller. The fact that the movie fell into the B-movie horror genre was also appealing to the actress, who counts herself a fan of slasher films. “I love gore movies,” she says. “I love all things that have to do with, I dont know, The Hills Have Eyes and those kind of movies.”
Sexykiller is filled to the brim with allusions to every blood-strewn flick from Kill Bill to Scream. Rather than telling Gómez how to play Barbara, director Miguel Marti simply made her watch all the movies he referenced. Her favourite was May, a psychological horror film by Lucky McKee in which a lonely girl (Angela Bettis) goes on a stabbing spree.
Gore is not a passing fancy for Gómez who recalls that one of her favourite movies from childhood was the dark comedy Serial Mom by John Waters. “The mother kills everyone," Gómez says. Then actress gets a mischievous look on her face and adds, "Obviously, I'm not a bad person."
Like her character in Sexykiller, Gómez doesn’t just like gore, she also likes fashion. She and the film's costume designer spent three months prior to shooting designing Barbara's outfits. One of the most startling get-ups in the film is a transparent jumpsuit beneath which Gómez wears only a G-string. “They made it just for me,” the actress says proudly. “I wanted to have my underwear on and my boobs out because I felt very sexy in it.”
This is one of the first times the actress has been allowed to look “nice.” Gómez's first and most famous role in Spain was as a drug addict. As she puts it, drug addicts “don’t look good,” and she has been typecast in the role ever since her first film. "Everytime they want a drug addict they call me," Gómez says. "I am the official Spanish drug addict."
Sexykiller is Gómez’s first film to get a world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. It seems like she is trying to make a move to Hollywood, but when asked if she would like to emulate any Spanish actresses, her hackles go up.
“You want me to say Penelope Cruz, that’s why you are asking,” she says half-angry half-joking. “I think it’s great she made it big here. In Spain you would say, "Olé!" like, well done, good job. I think she’s truly into the Hollywood scene - she knows how to buy into it.”
Not that Gómez would ever suddenly up and date a Hollywood actor. When I mention Cruz has made some mistakes in her career, such as dating Tom Cruise, the Sexykiller star makes a sad face: “Well, poor thing,” she says. “You know when you are in a new place you probably are lost.”
Gómez herself won't be getting lost anytime soon. She is already at work on her next Spanish film, which was penned by the writer of Sexykiller. The full-length feature is adapted from a short the duo made two years ago.
“It has to do a little bit with Almodovar, his first movies with all these people getting into trouble. You have the drug addict, the whore, the police woman and the narcs,” she says. “I would play, as always, the drug addict.” But Gómez says this with a little smile to let us know, when it comes to her career, she's calling the shots.
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