Parker Posey

Interview By: Harry Kaplowitz
HarryKaplowitz@TheCinemaSource.com

Once the reigning queen of the indie scene, Parker Posey, 37, has been fitting herself into a slew of studio pictures in the past few years. In between roles in Christopher Guest films like Best in Show and A Mighty Wind, Posey has appeared in 2002's The Sweetest Thing and 2004's Laws of Attraction and Blade: Trinity and landed herself a three-episode stint on ABC's hit courtroom comedy, Boston Legal.

But this summer, Posey will find herself in the studio picture to end all studio pictures, the could-be blockbuster of the summer, Superman Returns. Playing Kitty Kowalski, girlfriend to supervillain Lex Luthor, Posey had a challenging role ahead of her, one that put the former indie It girl in a world of special effects and ' ahem ' soaring budgets.

'You walk into a set, you go to work on a movie called Superman. It's all kryptonite, it's all black. Or you go and you're on a yacht and every prop has been decided and talked about and designed and spent money on and you're tiny, tiny in a world that is bigger than you are,' Posey said while she recounted her time on set.

'As corny as it sounds, I'm like a method actor and I'm just there to work and to approach my work through the eyes of this character.'

And as for her impression of Luthor, played by Kevin Spacey'

'Kevin was Lex from the moment I saw him.'

Fair enough. Superman Returns, which opens nationwide on Wednesday, has some tough obstacles to tackle, aside from making back its reported $185 million budget. Primary to that is living up to the promise of the original movie, which was released in 1978 ' when Posey was only 10 years old.

'This movie being a movie that's already been done before is an homage to the original movie. And when I saw it, heard the music, I was brought back to that place where I saw it as a kid,' she said.

And according to Posey, Superman Returns, directed by Bryan Singer and co-starring Brandon Routh, Kevin Spacey, Kate Bosworth and James Marsden, recaptures some of the same magic that made Richard Donner's 1978 version a staple in the comic book movie genre.

'I watched the original movie. I'm so glad they got to use the music. I think the music is very important ' it's very grand. It's kind of like, when I saw the film, I think the opening titles and what they could do with the digital effects was very powerful and the angles at which Superman flies are really powerful,' the actress said.

'It has like a peacefulness to it, which I don't think people will expect that much. Though the action scenes are really intense, Superman kind of centers himself to be a hero, so there's a lot to look at.'

Posey also touched on the transcendence of the Superman character, one of the most revered superheroes in comic book and film history.

'There's a lot of warmth to the film that I think people will appreciate and it's got a savior thing ' very Christian aspect to it ' which is needed in a positive way where we need a good savior.'

One thing audiences are sure to notice about Posey's character are her costumes, which Posey said she had a good deal of involvement in picking out.

'She's a comic book character, so I wanted it to look like someone drew her,' Posey commented. 'And I wanted the shoes to be round and not pointed and to be soft and not hard ' not a conscious fill-in, but someone lost or kind of blinded by her love of pretty things like diamonds and things that are soft.'

But Superman Returns isn't really where audiences expect Posey to stay. Moviegoers will see her next in Christopher Guest's For Your Consideration.

The movie, Posey says, revolves around an independent film called Home for Purim and its actors who get swept up in an awards season craze.

'Like all of (Guest's) movies, it's about what happens when people get swept up,' she said.'

The movie, co-written by Guest and Eugene Levy, stars Guest's usual stable of improvisational actors, including Catherine O'Hara, Levy, John Michael Higgins, Fred Willard, Jane Lynch and Bob Balaban.

For Your Consideration will go into limited release on November 17.