VirginMega.com Interview (July 3rd, 2001)

Jordana Brewster Comes up Fast

by Steve Baltin

Everyone was all gung-ho about the racing, Jordana Brewster says about her newest film, The Fast and the Furious. And I wanted to balance that out, be a little more sane. So I kind of liked being the mother in terms of being the only dork worrying about everyone's safety. Sitting in the outdoor courtyard of a West Hollywood hotel, it's brought to her attention though that she sure looked like she was enjoying her turn behind the wheel in The Fast and the Furious. Turning almost the same color as the pink t-shirt she is wearing, Brewster laughs and says, Yeah, that was fun. The Rob Cohen-directed flick, about street racing gangs, is a blast, with stunning driving sequences, expensive effects, an explosive soundtrack, and a hot young cast. But The Fast and the Furious is more than just a big-budget, effects-laden fest. It has engrossing plot lines, and in a pleasant surprise, well-developed relationships. Holding it all together is the 21-year-old Brewster. Her co-star, Vin Diesel, says of her, Of everyone in the film, Jordana is going to be the one to break out huge. An exquisite dark-haired beauty with the brains (she is currently enrolled at Yale, where she is an English major) and talent to match, Brewster is one of those people so perfect it'd make you ill if she weren't so damn cool at the same time. Close to her family, self disciplined about school (a devout Ben Harper fan, she regretfully skipped his performance at Yale's Spring Fling because she had exams the next week), and well mannered and polite, the Brazilian native has her vices she smokes and swears. But those only enhance her charm by making her more real, and giving her a gritty sex appeal. To top it off, she has, after only six years in the business (she started on the soap opera As the World Turns at age 15) established herself as an actress who is versatile and willing to take risks. Her impressive oeuvre includes roles as the head cheerleader in director Robert Rodriguez' dark satire The Faculty, a turn in the NBC miniseries The Sixties, a superb performance as Cameron Diaz's younger sister in this year's unjustly neglected art-house film Invisible Circus, and her latest role, in The Fast and the Furious, as Mia. Given the diversity of the parts she tackles, one wonders what motivates her to say yes to a script. I'm 21. My worst nightmare is being 26, having made 20 films, being labeled, and then burning out she says. So that's why I'm so wary of making huge films, or silly movies. But I admire someone like Cameron who can make great movies and fun, big-budget films - I loved Charlie's Angels - and then use that power to make smaller roles where it's more fulfilling in terms of the material. That's the ideal position to be in. For Brewster, the best parts of The Fast and the Furious were the cast she glows talking about how much fun they had making the movie and the finished product. With Fast and Furious the reward is watching the movie, watching the editing, seeing how fast-paced it is, and enjoying now. Like I'm enjoying this part of it the most. Though she is not, by her accounts, an outgoing type, she is also enjoying all of the attention the film is getting from her friends and family. I took my sister, who's 19, and her boyfriend, to get a feel for what they thought. They loved it. The promos are really quick and shiny so when the promos come on now all his friends are like, ‘Oh wow, Jordana's really in a big-budget movie.' It's awesome. I have my TV on BET every day to see the Ja Rule video [from the movie].