Liv Tyler

Interview By: Rocco Passafuime
RoccoPassafuime@TheCinemaSource.com

When most people think of Liv Tyler, the words 'Aerosmith video hottie' and more tellingly, Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler's daughter would come to mind. But such a limited view of her is so ten years ago and much has changed since then.

In that period, Tyler has more than proven she's more than merely a pretty face with her acting career. She's attained notable roles in films like Empire Records, Stealing Beauty, That Thing You Do!, Armageddon, Inventing The Abbots, and The Lord Of The Rings trilogy.

Now at the age of 31, Liv continues to defy expectations with roles in two big movies this summer. The first is as Kristen McCay in the movie The Strangers and the second is as Bruce Banner's love interest in the long-awaited The Incredible Hulk.

The Strangers stars her alongside Scott Speedman, best known from the TV drama Felicity. Tyler first explained to us what made this particular horror film stand apart from many others.

'We both read this script and fell in love with it and that was a really well-written story about a couple,' Liv says, 'It's really a drama. It's really a story about a couple going through a not-perfect situation and they just so happen to be happened upon by these three very bad people.'

'That's what's so real about this movie,' she adds, 'We all have been in bed at night and trying to relax and all of a sudden, you hear like a'(knocks) What was that and are you brave enough to go and check or not and Bryan used to always say that to us. Imagine you got up and looked and there was nothing ever there' Your girlfriend's in bed and suddenly, one day, you go out and look and there's a person with a mask on and standing outside with a butcher knife in the living room (chuckling).'

Unlike most actors who are rather embarrassed by doing horror movies as they tend to be too cheap and creatively limited most of the time, the actress says she fully embraced the notion of doing a horror film.

'When I was a kid, I was pretty obsessed with horror movies,' Tyler claims, 'It was my favorite thing to watch and I remember seeing Texas Chainsaw Massacre for the first time and that was like, 'OK! I'm done with the horror movie genre (laughing)', because it really scared me so much.'

She also notes how deeply realistic the approach of The Strangers, as Tyler alludes to an eerily similar story involving members of her own family.

'I remember there was a story right at that time that was quite similar,' she recalls, 'My stepfather Todd Rundgren used to live in Woodstock, NY. Two people broke into his house there in the 1970's and tied he and Bean, his girlfriend, who was pregnant with my brother Rex at the time, to a chair.'

'They pistol-whipped Todd, which was horrible and I don't know what they did, I don't really remember,' Liv continues, 'There was nothing really stolen. There was no reason, but things like that happen a lot and often, they are very random and sometimes, there are family members.'

Directing the film is first-timer Bryan Bertino. Tyler recalls how the director's approach with her and Speedman, which managed to be both specific and flexible.

'Bryan really gave and showed us things and an environment he created for us, an environment that was really specific to what we wanted,' Liv recalls, 'He would give us music, he would show us photographs, and that house was the house he dreamt of in his mind. He was really clear about that and talked us through about it extensively. I think he kind of let us go and if there was anything, there was moments when he was cautious and not wanting to interfere.'

'He would see us so upset and so disturbed and I think he didn't want us to always get involved with,' she adds, 'I think he created everything for us and just stood back and watched in a way. He would make tweaks and things, but it was sort of up to us, but he made it clear that it was not to be campy or humorous in any way. It was supposed to be very real and bleak and absolutely terrifying.'

However, Liv claims that despite how well she worked with her co-star and the crew, the filming was often a harrowing experience for everyone involved.

'This was just Scott and I and Bryan and our small little crew,' she recalls, 'It was really a very intimate and very small experience for all of us and it was just really emotional for everybody. There was not one scene where we weren't going through that. There wasn't ever a light day where it was like, 'Oh!''

'Even for the crew, it was emotional as well,' Tyler continues, 'There was times when we'd shoot different things and I'd come outside and my poor hair and makeup people would either be like with tears in their eyes or shocked. It was emotional to just stand and listen to it all the time. It was not so pretty.'

Tyler, however, was quick to deny any rumors of she and her co-star being unhappy with a supposedly paltry salary given to them to do the film.

'God, that's so untrue,' Liv says, 'That's not true at all. That's a huge lie. The lower the budget, the lower the salary, that's how it works. But it's not about that. It's an amazing, wild, wacky collaboration with a bunch of gypsies, making a movie. No matter how big or small.'

'I just did The [Incredible] Hulk,' she continues, 'That was the same, but there was a lot more stuff to blow up and more time to take doing it. But actually, I wouldn't say that the catering was any better, frankly, whatever. We were in Toronto, just kidding (laughing). But it's the same experience. I guess it depends on how you see it, but to me, you just feel like no matter how big or small, it's great.'

Liv also notes that she's deeply excited about finally seeing the movie, claiming the movie had been in delay since last year.

'The movie was actually possibly going to come out a year ago,' she says, 'The last time I saw it was about a year ago in a screening room with [executive producer] Sonny [Mallhi], none of the sound editing was done. I'm waiting to go see it with my sister Mia in a theatre with an audience.'

Another film the actress is deeply excited about is the long-awaited The Incredible Hulk. However, in 2003, Hollywood had made their first attempt at an adaptation with a film titled simply Hulk which was helmed by Brokeback Mountain director Ang Lee, only to become a commercial and critical disappointment. Tyler explains to us the premise of this new film.

'I play the same person, Ms. Betty Ross,' she states, 'The story's completely different. There's nothing similar about the story or really the characters in a lot of ways. Edward Norton wrote the screenplay and actually I was very happy, because I was offered the part and had to decide if I was going to be in the movie before I ever read the script. The script was very well-written and he wrote a really great part for me. I'm a scientist, which I know is unbelievable, but, no I'm kidding, I had a lot of good things to do, which I was excited about.'

Liv also explains to us the interesting and popular source with which she researched the role.

'I mostly went back and watched the television show, which is one of my favorite things,' Liv recalls, 'My mom and I used to watch it all the time. I would say that the essence of that image of the lone figure of Bruce Banner walking down the street alone with his little backpack hitchhiking, the whole misunderstood hero having to move on to another town kind of thing was more the overall feeling of the film, but the story is completely different. I don't think she's in the show.'

We asked Liv whether she had greater artistic freedom doing a high-profile, big-budget effort like The Hulk or in a much smaller, lower-budget work like The Strangers.

'I actually had a lot of input in The [Incredible] Hulk, too, in the collaboration,' she claims, 'The Hulk was big. It really depends on who you're working with, but that's also a collaboration.'

Tyler makes this point further as she repels rumors that there were creative clashes between Norton and the film's producers.

'Edward wrote the screenplay and everyone agreed to his story and he was very involved, as were we all,' Liv claims, ' It was a real collaboration the whole time. I think if any misunderstandings happened at all, it was in the editing. Edward released a statement talking about it. I can't speak for them.'

'I don't really know, but I think basically, at a certain point, Marvel just decided to put together and edit the movie that they wanted to,' she continues, 'I think possibly Edward disagreed with some of those things, but I can't speak for them. It's not really a big deal. It's the same movie. There's nothing crazily different about it. I'm not really sure why that happened to be honest, I don't know.'

Tyler says one thing she regretted missing out on during filming was a chance to meet Lou Ferrigno, who played the titular character in the TV series.

'He came to set one day and I believe it was one of the only days in the three to four months that I had half-a-day off somehow, because I was working constantly,' Liv recounts, 'I didn't get to stay to meet him and I really wanted to.'

We took the opportunity to ask the model-turned-video-star-turned-actress if there's anything she has not tackled that she would want to do in the future.

'Well, I would love to do a musical,' she claims, 'That like the dream of my whole life, I always wanted to be a singer or get to sing in some kind of capacity and I would say that. I haven't been able to do that and I would love to do that. I'd like to do the old Hollywood singing and dancing, that whole kind of something so theatrical and fabulous about that.'

'I also recorded a song actually with my friend Evan Dando,' Tyler adds, 'I don't know if it will ever come out. He asked me to sing a Leonard Cohen song called 'Hey, That's The Way To Say Goodbye'. It's fun. I have a very musical family and I love to sing.

Until then, Tyler says that after doing three movies in a row, she's deeply excited about what her next acting role may be.

'I did these three movies in a row,' Liv notes, 'I finished The Hulk in November. I took a little break because I was a little bit exhausted and now I'm excited to see what happens next. I also did something called Smother with Diane Keaton and Dax Shepard. I'm not sure if it's ever going to be released, but I think it was released in Taiwan a couple of weeks ago. It's actually funny why it's not being released. It's actually a sweet romantic comedy about a mother and a son. I play Dax's wife.'

When asked about whether she'd do another horror movie, Liv says that like everything else in her varied and unpredictable career, she follows what she is most passionate about.

'Of course, but life really doesn't work like that,' Tyler says, 'Hopefully, you'll get to find things that you feel passionately about. Really, this was a tremendous experience for me. I loved it and I would be thrilled to have another experience as equally as good, if not better, again.'