Gabrielle Union

Interview by Tom Johnson
(tomjohnson@thecinemasource.com)

Gabrielle Union’s a no B.S. kind of woman. This is apparent from the first second the 29 year old actress walks into the room, casually dressed with minimum make-up, comfortable with her own natural beauty. She sits down and sends her publicist to the back of the room, making the atmosphere even more laid back as she says hi. Once pleasantries are over, she resumes the mission that’s driven her day thus far: selling her movie. And while she could basically sell it without opening her mouth, it’s clear she’s been working her ass off anyway.

Union has quickly risen to the top of Young Hollywood’s elite, despite the lack of recognition her name brings for many white moviegoers. Union has made her niche playing the lead actress in films like “Deliver Us From Eva”, “The Brothers” and “Two Can Play That Game”, romantic comedies marketed towards African American audiences, and has rarely been more than a supporting player in mainstream work like the cheesy teen cheerleader flick “Bring it On” and the forgettable Katie Holmes thriller, “Abandon”. With this year’s action-fests “Cradle 2 The Grave” and “Bad Boys II”, Union has finally stepped up to the spotlight, breaking onto the scene as a main player. Her newfound success as an action star is hardly enough to pull her away from the films that made her a star in the first place, however. “I prefer the romantic comedies” she says. “The action movies are fun, they’re nice diversions, because I’ve been doing so many small movies, but I wrapped Bad Boys two days before Christmas, I believe, and the day after Christmas I started work on another romantic comedy.” The appeal is simple, she says. “For me, they’re just more intimate. They’re smaller, so it’s a real family environment. Nothing’s exploding, you can get

into your character without worrying about dodging things, cars crashing, etc. I just like watching romantic comedies more too, and I like to work on stuff I would watch.”

Despite her interests, this attitude in no way indicates a meekness around the set of “Bad Boys”. During a five month shoot, Union endured intense car stunts, flying bullets, and director Michael Bay, perhaps the most explosive element of all on the set. “Intense, that’s a good adjective” Union says, chuckling, when describing her relationship with the notorious hot-head. “Luckily, him and I are both perfectionists. He knows what he wants, and I’m the same way, so I ask a bunch of questions before we even shoot. I think he appreciated that. We didn’t have any big problems, he was just very specific, which I appreciated.” One moment of tension between the two that Union didn’t appreciate, however, came when she was told at the last minute of her involvement in the action-packed car chase, where her character fights off a brutal attack from a Haitian drug gang climbing onto her car. The complex stunts involved meant Union had to endure a month and a half shoot. “I didn’t think I’d have to be in any of it, except, you know, the safe parts” she delivers in a self-mocking tone. “Michael Bay doesn’t believe in not using his actors to the fullest, so one day I showed up and was just sitting around, eating Krispy Kreams when he came up to me. He said ‘they’re ready for you’ and I said, ‘oh no, no, no. That’s the stunt girl that’s going to be going down the parking garage’, and of course he said ‘it’s a fucking action movie. This is what you signed up for, get in the car.’” Given the lack of notice, her reaction is understandable. “Immediately I have

the hugest anxiety attack, because I don’t have my glasses, and I don’t drive well in real life, let alone in precision driving, which stuntmen train for, where there’s an expensive camera worth more than my entire paycheck mounted on the hood, a human being on the side trying to punch me, and the whole thing speeding down this twisting ramp. Literally, I was a wreck. And when we wrapped for the first time Michael said ‘all right, that was good, but DEA agents don’t cry normally during car chases, so we’re going to do it again.”

Car trouble aside, Union had a lot of fun playing Sydney. Maybe a little bit too much fun, especially where firing guns was concerned. “My husband has always had weapons, but before I did Cradle 2 the Grave and got training, I was afraid I was going to shoot my thumb off. Once I got comfortable with it, though, you couldn’t take me off the range.” With a devilish look of glee, she mimes aiming a gun in my direction as she shouts ka-ka-ka-ka-ka! before realizing she may have spooked me just a little. “Well luckily” she quickly adds, shifting back to a ladylike persona, “now I know about gun safety, and I only shoot on the range or in a closed environment.” But the evil smile creeps back onto her face as she adds one more thing. “Unless of course, you break into my home, when I’ll kill you.” Despite her laughter, you get the feeling she’s telling the truth. Once again, no B.S.

It’s this unique attitude that’s made Union such a fun actress to watch. She brings her tough but extremely likable persona to every character she plays, no matter how poorly written they may be. “It was written a little damsel-in-distress-ish” she says of Sydney’s dialogue. “And I think that you get,

after meeting me for more than five minutes, that I’m not exactly a shrinking violet. So most of the dialogue that you see onscreen is what I chose to say, with permission, of course. I mean, she’s a DEA agent, for chris-sakes. Michael hooked me up with a real DEA agent who had risked her life undercover. The woman was tough as nails, and there was no way she would say some of the things in there.” Not one to shy away from self-deprecation, Union adds, “of course there was no way she’d cry in a car chase either.” In addition to character work, however, Union had to endure a harsh training schedule as well to fit into the bikinis and tight dresses her character was required to wear. “Michael kept making my outfits shorter and shorter, so I had to keep exercising two hours a day, five days a week. He took me away from my first love. Not my husband, of course. I mean Krispy Kremes.” With the physical sacrifices on her part to get into character, making Sydney that much more realistic from a written perspective seems a perfectly reasonable request. She sums the changes up by saying, “look, this is a woman who knows how to do her job. She doesn’t need anyone to save her every time she goes on a mission. She’s gonna be a little more together than she’s written.”

Of the other additions to roles she’s made over the years, Union says “once I usually sign on to a project, they usually rewrite the part. They add in things that would, you know, make sense coming out of my mouth. Generally, there’s an overhaul.” She’s humble enough to say that the changing of her characters is a group process, but anyone who’s seen her work can instantly tell that

it’s all her up there. And the natural charisma the actress exudes onscreen is what makes her such a hot commodity right now.

I finally ask her the question she must dread in every interview she does, but her reaction is unexpectedly straightforward and heartfelt, as if it’s the first time she’s spoken of it. With Entertainment Weekly proclaiming her an “It Girl”, Premiere touting her as Halle Berry’s successor and damn near every entertainment publication on the planet calling for a promotion to the A-list, I wondered if she felt the pressure to succeed. Slightly grimacing at each of the accolades I mention, she responds with a cautious wisdom by saying “They throw you up to smash you down. It’s like watching Venus Williams throw up a serve. You say ‘there it goes!’ right before the crack!” Just as she did when demonstrating her love of firearms, Union takes glee in performing her analogy for me. “I don’t put a lot on that” she says, simply, of her buzzworthy status. “Because you go from It List to Shit List in 2.5 seconds. So as long as you’re getting more opportunities to do what you love because of being on that short list, then it’s already done it’s job. DOn’t put too much on it.” If she seems cynical, it’s because she already fears being past her prime. She throws out an example of her apparent shark-jumping. “It’s funny, because last year I was on the Maxim Hot 100 List at 50-something and I wasn’t even doing anything. This year, I do three movies in six months and I’ve fallen! I got the invitation to the party and it said I was 80 something. So now I’m wondering, do I need to send in a resume, do I need to audition? What do I need to do to move

up? Basically, they don’t care. No one really cares. Must be all the Krispy Kremes.”

Despite her falling graces with a cheesy men’s magazine aimed at adolescents, the actress’ words hardly measure up to reality. In addition to the new fame “Bad Boys II” has given her, she’s retaining her core audience with the Jamie Foxx romantic comedy “The Break Up Handbook”, which she alluded to, as well as another potential break-out role in the quirky “Neo Ned”, where she plays a psychiatric patient who believes she is possessed by the ghost of Adolf Hitler. She also has a top-secret television role in the upcoming year, which she refuses to say too much on. “It’s a show a lot of people love, and it’s going to be really neat. I don’t think I’m supposed to say anything about it” she says, matter-of-factly. Whatever the future holds for Union, things look bright. In an age of bubbly airheads masquerading as chic tough girls, she’s the real deal. Despite killer looks and a girl-next-door charm, she is, in her own words, no shrinking violet. While that statement might sound corny coming from your average “It Girl”, with Union, you believe it. And if not, you might change your mind once she gleefully threatens to blow you away.

“Bad Boys II” Review