Skip to playerSkip to main content
  • 2 minutes ago
Catherine Zeta-Jones is back in action in new revenge thriller series Kill Jackie on Prime Video. She sat down to chat to Melissa Nathoo speak about using her Welsh accent on screen for the first time and what a career change would look like for her. Report by Nathoom. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
Transcript
00:00Going home to Swansea was wonderful to shoot because even though I've never shot in Wales, let alone ever, and
00:07I've been doing this for many years.
00:10Catherine, it's so lovely to see you. I love seeing you in action because you do it so well, but
00:15I cannot believe that we've not heard you doing your own accent on screen before and playing a character from
00:20Swansea.
00:22How much does it mean to you and kind of what comfort does it bring you just getting to be
00:27almost yourself? Obviously not yourself, you're not killing people, but you know.
00:30Yeah, it's one of the best things and it was my choice to make Jackie Welsh. Even the name Jackie
00:38Price, it sounds Welsh. Jonathan Price, Jackie Price.
00:44It's liberating, it really is, because it's just physically, every scene, close-up, wide shot, you're always thinking about how
00:52you do that accent or did that, I missed it, it didn't sound Welsh, came through in an American accent.
00:58And I think it just, it grounded this character, you know, it made me feel, I know, I don't know
01:06international drug dealers or dodgy art dealers, but I know who Jackie Price is.
01:13I know where she comes from and who she is and her warts and all. I know Jackie Price.
01:20So it was wonderful and going home to Swansea was wonderful to shoot, because even though I've never shot in
01:28Wales, let alone ever, and I've been doing this for many years, many years.
01:35But it was, it was great and I just love it. I can push the humour, the nuances, the body
01:42language, the way, you know, the sing-song-ness, something really bad be happening and I, it sounds pretty.
01:51You did, you looked very comfortable in that skin.
01:54Yeah, I felt comfortable because I, it was, I felt rooted to her, I know her.
01:59You've played a lot of these very capable women like Elena in Zorro and Morticia in Wednesday and then you've
02:07got now Jackie as well.
02:08Do you find kind of this like comfort in playing these women who are dangerous in a way, but very
02:15capable?
02:15Yeah, I do. I like to see, well, I like to get the opportunity to play women who are multifaceted
02:24in, as we all are.
02:26I mean, we're not one cookie cut thing, you know, and, but I think the through thread is that I
02:33always want to show a vulnerability and I want the characters, even doing bad things, that you kind of root
02:42for the character, as we should.
02:45But, yeah, if you look at all of those characters I played, like Elena in Traffic, Elena in Zorro, both
02:52Elenas, you get to see a vulnerability, a vulnerable side.
02:57But I certainly get, I certainly pushed for that on Jackie, so that she wasn't just this badass, you know,
03:04kicking, little sociopathic, little off woman.
03:12But you saw her as, when there's real poignant moments in the show that, yeah.
03:19I saw episode two, I was like, oh, she has got, she's got a heart in there, which is nice,
03:23it's nice to see that all sides of it.
03:25But obviously you're an exec as well, like set producer on this.
03:28How much do you have a hand in stuff behind the scenes, like behind the camera?
03:33Yeah, I have quite a bit, actually, on the creativeness, because when I made her Welsh, you know, there were
03:38certain things that were never in a book that was written for an American man.
03:42The Price You Pay, which is an amazing book, was written for a male character in America.
03:47And then to flip it to a woman's character, I had, my writers were men, and so all the input
03:56they needed from me.
03:58And then when I made her Welsh, there was more of a creative input, because we made this episode where
04:04we go to Wales and, but for me, it's totally on creative work.
04:13I don't timekeep, bookkeep, pull the plug when we're running over time.
04:18No, it's all, I'm always like, can we go another 25 minutes?
04:22And so I had, they gave me, you know, full lead on that, and that was wonderful.
04:30And they looked after me, too, you know, because I meant it a lot, and say a lot.
04:35I say a lot with a Welsh accent very fast.
04:39And so there was a lot of dialogue every day, I was in dialogue, I was doing, we were doing
04:44blocks, so I was doing, like, the opening scene, and then we were doing, we were doing a scene from
04:48episode four, then flipping back to episode three.
04:52And so it was a bit like juggling it all, and, and, you know, the hours are always long on
04:57a film set, but I always, I had the ability to say, hey, a time out.
05:02I need, I need, you know, I need a little one more take, and then I'm out.
05:06And then my producer, my Australian producer, Peter, I'm a golfer, and, you know, he'd like to go on the
05:13other weekends, like, he'd go for a pint, you know, the one Aussie bar in Spain, for example.
05:19But you can guarantee he'd make his 7 a.m. tea time with me on a Saturday.
05:24Like, he would be there.
05:25I know.
05:26A little, a little weary-eyed, but he would be there for teeing off at 7, so.
05:31I am always so impressed at the amount of script, like, as I got older, my memory is terrible.
05:35I'm like, I don't know how you do it, but it's very impressive, very impressive.
05:39And obviously, Jackie has changed careers, I guess, from what she was doing previously to what she then does.
05:47So I'm, I'm curious for you, if you had to now change your career at this point in your life,
05:51what do you think you would end up doing?
05:53Interior designer architect.
05:55Do you do it a little bit anyway?
05:56My place is where we live, I, I do it, and I'm, I love it.
06:01I'm just not good with numbers, so the architecture, you know, when you, the measuring is always a bit hard
06:06for me, can't keep track.
06:08Especially, like, in America, it's inches, right, and yards, and then I come home here and I figure, I was
06:14taught, I was taught centimeters and meters, okay?
06:19I was taught that.
06:20Went to America, inches and yards, you know, it's feet and all that.
06:25Anyway, so.
06:26Stay true to yourself.
06:27I'm just not a numbers girl.
06:29Creatively, I can do it, but, you know, for sure, I would, I would, I would really love to do
06:34that.
06:34Well, listen, you don't have to, because you've still got a great career in front of you, ahead of you.
06:39And, yes, it's always lovely to see you.
06:40So nice to meet you.
06:41Nice to meet you.
06:41Yeah, thanks so much.

Recommended