Star Talk with Mira Sorvino - 1999

A few things most people don't know about Mira Sorvino: She graduated from Harvard with a degree in East Asian Studies, lived in Beijing for a year and speaks fluent Mandarin. If that's not sufficiently impressive, consider her Academy Award for Mighty Aphrodite, her romances with director Quentin Tarantino and French heartthrob Oliver Martinez, and her film résumé — which includes a steady stream of roles in comedies, dramas and thrillers. All that, plus the 31-year-old actress (and daughter of character actor Paul Sorvino) can sing, salsa dance and ice skate. Her latest achievement? The romantic lead opposite Val Kilmer in At First Sight, a fact-based story of a love affair between a disillusioned architect (Sorvino) and a blind masseur (Kilmer), and a sight-restoring operation, based on the book by Oliver Sacks (Awakenings). Listen to the mighty Mira talk about Val, vision, the human heart, her career and hair color in TVGEN's photo-packed audio interview and slide show.

How did you prepare for your role in At First Sight? Do you have any experience with blindness in your own life?

I think I knew what the average person knows from reading Helen Keller or watching movies. And so I don't think I had too many preset notions. I mean, I knew, of course, that they're as full people as everyone else, just without this certain sense that we rely so heavily on. I actually did have a blind masseur come to my apartment to give me a massage. And he was somebody who Val worked with, too. And that was really fascinating, because he was a very brilliant person, extremely well educated. And I was very impressed with his independence. And yet I had to think for him visually, because if it's an unknown territory for him, I have to explain to him, "There's a chair there. Watch out." And, "Oh, I can help you get this." As much as he was completely independent in a certain way, it taught me how much I take the ability to see things for granted. So that was very interesting. I didn't want to spend too much time surrounded by blind people just because I wanted my character to be sort of a novice at it. I didn't want her to be an expert because she's learning as she goes with [Val's] character.

The film is based on a true story. How did that affect your interpretation of your character?

I think I always felt responsibility, because in the script there's a very fine line to tread where perhaps my character could become really unlikable if she just pushed without having a heart. And you have to show her rationale for doing everything she does as coming from a very normal human place. She thinks it would be a great thing if this guy could see. And it's not eventually for herself. I mean, he believes she won't love him if he can't see. But that's not really true. It's just that when she sees the possibility for him to have vision — I think like anyone in the audience, if they had a blind friend or relative and some revolutionary surgery came around, they would think it would be a great thing for that person. At least, I think that's the case. And so it was trying to keep that understandability to her behavior and show her flaws, which I hope worked out.

What are your impressions of costar Val Kilmer?

Val is a really intelligent actor and I think comes up with very unexpected, interesting ideas and never goes the conventional route in terms of the way of interpreting the script or the character. He's very personable, funny. The choices he made in portraying the blindness I think were really effective, because I don't think he played the blind card too much. He didn't make it so much about being blind. He was a person who was blind. You don't ever catch him and say, "Ah, he can see." But you don't think so much about him being blind, either. And yet when I'm playing with him, his eyes really don't have any life in them in those scenes. They really didn't look like they could see me back. So I'd be looking into his eyes, talking to him. And he looked like he was hearing me. And his face would respond to me like somebody who's listening and can understand. But his eyes, even though they were looking right in my direction, never flickered with a kind of a connection — which was great for me, because if you watch the scenes where he's blind, and I'm playing with him, my behavior's really different. And I think that's the beauty of the early love story — that these two people are just listening to each other and feeling each other rather than, you know, this tactical game of how much they're going to give away. And how much they protect and hide.

What's your advice for aspiring actors?

I think I used to make [choices] more randomly in a way. I mean, when I was starting off, I didn't have much choice. The projects chose me. I never did anything that I hated. I never did anything that would make me ashamed or that I didn't like. But, you know, when you're a young working actor, you really have to take every opportunity and turn it into a chance to show what you can do. You can't say, "Well, huh!" You know, you say, "OK, it's not such a great part, but I'm going to take that scene and play it for all it's worth." You know, each one is a gift. Every time you win a role, you go and you compete. When you get it you don't say, "Well, I don't know if I want it." You don't go in for things you absolutely don't want. But then in the sort of interim period, I just took things that I really felt like doing at the time, flexing my muscles in different directions. And now I am more focused on building a body of work that I'm really going to be able to live with and feel suits my goals long-term as an actress, the actress I wanted to be. So I'm a little bit more focused on just trying to play interesting women and lay off of the dumb blondes for a while. Because, although they're very fun, people tend to think, "Well, that's you; you're Romy [from Romy & Michelle's High School Reunion]." So, it's a case-by-case basis, because it really depends on who is making what, what's out there, what you just did.

Did you always want to be an actress?

Well, it's interesting because people were asking me the other day, "Did you watch the movies when you were a kid and think, 'I want to be like that actress. I want to be this.' " And actually, I wanted to be a stage actress. That's where I imagined myself being, because I was always in plays as a kid, and I thought that I would end up onstage and that would be my career. So it's totally different because I haven't done a play in about four or five years. I'm looking for a great new play. They're really hard to come by. But I hopefully will do something onstage within the next year and a half. It's been more than I ever expected, the film career that I have. Because I didn't expect at all movie stardom. I just expected to be an actress. And I have slowly become something akin to a movie star. I don't know whether I would call myself a movie star, but certainly with all the publicity and iconography of posters and things like that, and it's strange. It really wasn't what I expected. Maybe because I grew up watching my father's career, which was the very serious acting career, not that much glitz but a lot of substance. And that's sort of what I thought my career would be. I'm happy. I'm always looking to challenge myself. And there is a dearth of great women's roles, and there are a lot of terrific young leading ladies. And we all want the same great roles. And they're not really there. So that's been a little bit frustrating. But I think it's getting better, and I'm excited about what's going on right now.

Do you miss being a blonde?

Well, I feel more like myself. This is the color of hair I've had for most of my life. This is my hair that grows out of my head. Blondeness is fun. There is something fun about it. And I have an offer for a role right now which would either require me to wear a wig or be blonde again. And part of me thinks, "Oh, I want to keep my hair. It's finally grown out and it's brown and it's nice, and I like it." And the other part's like, "I get to be blonde again. Maybe I should go for it. Maybe I should dye it again." So, I don't know.