|
Amanda Peet is having one hot summer.
With a series of fantastic roles under
her belt—and a turn an FBI agent in
this summer’s The X-Files: I Want to
Believe—she’s poised to become a leading lady.
Of course, she’s no stranger to making big-screen
splashes. She’s appeared in films like 2000’s The
Whole Nine Yards (The Whole Ten Yards came
four years later) opposite Bruce Willis, and given
gripping performances in Syriana, Igby Goes
Down, and Something’s Gotta Give (as Jack
Nicholson’s girlfriend). Later this year she’ll star
in Real Men Cry with Ethan Hawke and Mark
Ruffalo, and the Christopher Walken comedy
Five Dollars a Day. She’s also ready to film two
more movies this fall—one opposite John Cusack
and the other with Catherine Keener.
But while Peet is dedicated to her craft, she’s
equally dedicated to 18-month-old Frankie, her
daughter with her husband, writer David Benioff,
who has the same sparkling blue eyes and energy
as her mother. After Frankie’s birth, Peet, 36, took
on causes like advocating vaccinations for children.
Luckily for us, Peet found time to discuss more
intimate details of her life: how her husband’s literary
expertise helped her select better parts, why
she loves living in Tribeca, and how she managed
to pull off the role of a tough agent in The X-Files.
GOTHAM: Where did you grow up?
AMANDA PEET: In New York City! I grew up
on 11th Street and Fifth Avenue. I live in Tribeca
now. I’m a Gotham girl.
G: A true one! Where did you go to school?
AP: Manhattan France—a Quaker school.
G: And your husband, writer David Benioff,
is from here, too. How did you meet?
AP: Blind date. But I looked up a picture of him
first.
G: Of course. Who set you up?
AP: Another writer, who was working on The
Practice—this friend of ours, Peter Blake. But a
year and a half before my first blind date with
him, my manager, who’s also my dear friend,
called me and said—and I was living with another
man at the time—“I met your husband last
night. But he has a girlfriend.” And then a year
later Peter Blake called me and said, “Do you
want to go on a date with this guy David Benioff?”
I remembered what my manager had said. So
when we got married, the rabbi told the story.
G: How fortuitous.
AP: I think my manager just got lucky.
G: Where did you get married?
AP: At the Quaker Meeting House where I went
to school on 16th Street and Rutherford Avenue.
We had a Jewish wedding in a Quaker meeting
house, so that’s one of my favorite buildings.
G: Tell us about the work you’re doing with
vaccines.
AP: My sister is a physician and my brother-inlaw
is at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
He works in infectious diseases and his mentor is
[infectious-disease specialist] Dr. Paul Offit. Our
plan is to try to clarify and dispel some of the
misinformation about the dangers of vaccines
and the association between autism and vaccines.
They’ve been coming out with studies for the last
40 years, and none of them show any association
between autism and vaccines.
G: And you’re championing the cause?
AP: Yes. The idea is that by the age of two, every
child should be vaccinated—the organization is
called Every Child by Two. I think there’s a
feeling, especially in Hollywood, that it’s cool to
be really skeptical of pharmaceutical companies.
I think that we’re so used to being skeptical that
sometimes we take it too far. It leads to what can
be really dangerous misinformation.
G: It’s great that you’re so informed as a new
mom. You take it very seriously.
AP: I wanted to be a mom. I wanted a baby for
so long, and as soon as I met David I knew that I
wanted him to be the father of my children.
G: Did you tell him that on the first date?
AP: Hell, no! And [after I gave birth] I had a
fairly serious postpartum depression. I think it
was because I had a really euphoric pregnancy.
G: So, the hormones had been working in
your favor.
AP: Yes. I was like a princess and I was just
euphoric and productive and I felt really sexy.
But it all came crashing down the second she was
born. And I was sleep-deprived beyond belief.
G: You were expecting to feel good?
AP: Fulfilled, yes. And now I want to be honest
about it because I think there’s still so much
shame when you have mixed feelings about
being a mom instead of feeling this sort of “bliss.”
I think a lot of people still really struggle with that,
but it’s hard to find other people who are willing
to talk about it…. In a weird way, the thing that’s
been the most extraordinary about being a mom
is the craving that I have for her—it’s strange
because I’m in love with David, but then I’m also
in love with this other person.
G: Tell us about your new film The X-Files: I
Want to Believe.
AP: I play an FBI agent. I enlist Mulder [David
Duchovny] to help me determine whether this
psychic is for real or not. During the shoot it was
like 30 below, and we were doing night shoots in
the middle of snow fields around Vancouver.
The conditions were absolutely miserable.
David really kept me afloat, singing dirty songs.
We’d pick a song and then see who could make
up the dirtiest lyrics.
G: What did you think of the screenplay?
AP: I love the script. It’s really smart, and [writer
and X-Files creator] Chris Carter’s great. I must
have been in a really wimpy “mom” mode,
though, because he was constantly like, “You’re
in charge of seven men—don’t forget.” Anytime I
did a take, even if I was just saying one line in an
office, he’d be like, “You’re in charge of seven
men! You’re in charge of seven men!”
G: What’s up next?
AP: I’ve been shooting in Boston with Mark
Ruffalo and Ethan Hawke, doing this movie
called Real Men Cry. We went back and forth
three times from Boston to Vancouver, shooting
from nights to days and days to nights. It’s an
indie movie. But we’re going back to do another
film there—a disaster movie directed by Roland
Emmerich called 2012, with John Cusack,
Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Thandie Newton. It starts
shooting August 22.
G: Do you pick different roles now that
you’re a mom?
AP: No. I still feel really competitive and ambitious—
and sad and hurt if someone doesn’t like me.
G: Do you think that winning an award
could change that?
AP: I think if you’ve gotten an Academy Award,
maybe you feel you’re really incredibly lucky,
and that you’ve been nominated, you’ve been
anointed. Maybe you feel like it’s easier to leave
the party. I think I’ve found that kind of peacefulness...
but it came more when I met David, I
think, and probably partly because he’s a writer
and started reading my scripts.
G: He gave you some guidance in making
the right choices?
AP: He helped me. And just when I hit my early
30s, I started to have feelings that there’s room for
everybody and I don’t have to be—nor could I
be—Meryl Streep. I can forge my own path and
make it interesting for me. Hopefully, for others,
too, who are in the audience. [G]
| The complete article appears on page 94 in the July/August 2008 issue of Gotham. SUBSCRIBE NOW and get Gotham delivered direct. |
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
|
