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Catherine Zeta-Jones:Swashbuckling Sirenby Lynn B.
Now, seven years later, Catherine puts on the petticoats of Elena de la Vega again in The Legend of Zorro and we’re happy to report that the character is even more feisty than in the first film. This time, she’s not only fighting for her man but her 10-year-old son. Let’s face it, whether in a TV commercial for a cellphone company or on the big screen, this is one gorgeous woman. For our meeting in Beverly Hills, Catherine, who has a deep tan, wore a totally perfect black Narcisso Rodriguez dress with prim white collar and an a silver art deco necklace. She was sipping on a glass of water and apologizing for her throaty, hot, broken voice. “Excuse me, I sound like a cross between Demi Moore, Kathleen Turner and a truck driver. This is an ongoing kind of allergy thing and I took some medication, thinking it would help and it just dried me up like nothing. I could hardly blink. I thought ‘god, give me back my runny eyes. I'd rather have runny eyes than not being able to blink or swallow’”. After promising we’d go easy on Catherine, we couldn’t wait to hear about the film, her home life and what projects the beautiful actress has lined up. She’s as spunky as ever and actually very funny…. AGW: There is an adorable Latino actor [Adrian Alonso] playing your little son in this film. When you work with a child actor, do your motherly instincts come out? AGW: Yes. For sure. I'm so glad he probably couldn't understand what I was saying, or I would have really like annoyed him. Like: ‘Why don't you tie your shoelaces? Why don't you tuck your shirt in? Be careful up there, Adrian’. AGW: “Mask of Zorro” made you world famous. What did it take to get you to revisit this role again? Catherine: Well, when I used to bump into Antonio [Banderas] and Martin Campbell [the director], it was always in the conversation. ‘Let's do another one. Come on. It's so much fun’. And like you said, for me it was not just professionally important but personally important. Michael saw me in it and — seduced me! (laughter). Hounded me. Followed me around the world until he found me. Look at me now. Two kids later. So we always talked about it. We had a few drafts that were sent that were just not right, and all the elements had to be in place. And we didn't want to do a sequel unless we were going to do one that was as good as or could surpass the original. Some of the scripts I read before just kind of forgot that I had a kid at the end of the [first] movie. When I read this I went ‘you know what? I think this is going to work’. And here we are. And then I had a tear in my eye when I saw Antonio in his Zorro get-up again. It had to be done. AGW: Elena gets even more action in this one. Catherine: I know. I was hoping for it. AGW: “Baddie” Rufus Sewell says you really beat him up in one fight scene. He said it was the toughest kick he’d had from anybody including Antonio. Catherine: Oh my God! I know. I nearly broke his nose! Is he talking about that? God, enough already! I sent him flowers. I went into his trailer three times to make sure he was okay. I felt bad. AGW: You learned fencing for the first film. Did you remember how to do it? Catherine: I had very little time between finishing Oceans 12 and going down to Mexico and they'd been shooting for a few weeks before. I was really kind of nervous because I remembered on the first one we'd had like three weeks of Zorro boot camp. Every day we were practicing, and I thought ‘oh my god, imagine if my sword fight is in the second week of shooting’. But kind of came back. I treated it like choreography, like dancing ‘and a one and a two and a three and a four and a five and turn and down and up’ it kind of came back to me. It's a great exercise. I love it. After the first one I had great expectations of maybe being an Olympian swordswoman (laughter) I saw the medal sitting right there. . . . of course, lazy old me. AGW: But you have an Oscar. Catherine: But, an Olympic medal would be pretty cool though, too. AGW: What do you think of all those gorgeous, big-skirted costumes you have to wear? Is that a fashion you like? Catherine: Visually, I think it's absolutely superb. The reality is I have no idea how the [heck] they got dressed, undressed, in the heat. I'm always for women's lib. Let’s throw off that bra because to do sword fighting in it too is like unbelievable. I constantly squeeze myself into uncomfortable stuff now, but I don't have to wear three petticoats. Why did men create high [heels]? Go figure. Because they wanted to torture us. That's why. AGW: Did you bring your kids to the shoot in Mexico? Catherine: I brought the kids as much as I could, and Michael rented a place here [in L.A.] so it was like two hours or something down there to San Luis Potosi and so I enrolled my son in school here.
Catherine: Yeah, I’m kind of like [brandishing a sword] ‘Okay, you..in the kitchen. All right. Where’s the beef’? Michael is afraid when I'm in the kitchen. That's what really terrifies him. I am a terrible cook. I'm not allowed to go in the kitchen anymore. I nearly burned down the apartment in New York. AGW: Is Michael a better cook? Catherine: No, but he's really good at making dinner reservations, and that's fine by me. AGW: Tell us more about almost burning the apartment down. Catherine: You know, when you first get married it's like [flutters her eyelashes] ‘I'm going to cook’ . . . No I'm not! This is a true story. I did actually burn a pan. It wasn't on fire but it was smoking, and I got a little scared, and right next to our stove was a big old fire extinguisher, you know, easy access. But, no, I run to the other side of the apartment, get Michael and say, ‘we have a problem in the kitchen’. He says, honey, the first thing you learn is like — fire? — Fire extinguisher! Fire extinguisher! Fire! [she makes noise like fire extinguisher]. I just freaked out. That was the first and last time I ever cooked. I can microwave chicken Mcnuggets. The ironic thing is, in my next movie I'm playing a chef in Mostly Martha, so when you see me at the next junket, I'm going to be giving you recipes and my tricks of the trade. AGW: And I could use them. So many movie couples break up. What is your secret to a happy, lasting marriage? Catherine: We love each other. Michael said this, not me, actually, I'm just repeating it, the fact that we're in a 25-year age difference is kind of fantastic. We're at different places in our lives, career-wise and all that stuff. We're not vying for the attention that maybe two actors together around the same age are vying for. There’s no tug of war where one's in Prague for six months and the other one at the same time is in Hawaii for six months. We have two kids, and if I'm working, Michael is with me and the kids and if he's working I'm with him. it just works for us. It balances and it's not ‘I love you honey, I'll see you in six months’. AGW: What is Michael up to? Catherine: No. He's working right now, actually. He's doing a movie in Hawaii, I can't remember the name, with Owen Wilson. (And) he just finished The Sentinel in Toronto. He produces a lot. He doesn't stop. I just wonder where he gets his energy from. If he's not acting he's on the phone producing and all of that stuff. AGW: You two have several homes. Why not one in L.A.? Catherine: I don't like it. People just think we're the Hollywood couple but Michael never really lived here. He grew up on the East Coast with his mom, came down obviously to see his dad [Kirk Douglas] , and then when he was married to his first wife, they lived in Santa Barbara and New York, so he's really like an East Coast person. Bermuda is where we spend most of our time. And for me, I came from Wales. I came here and within a few months I did “Titanic” [the TV movie]. I was in Canada. I got the first Zorro, so I was in Mexico for six months. I came back, bought a house, lived in it for three nights, went to London to shoot Entrapment with Sean [Connery], came back, promoted Zorro, met my husband and sold my house. I never really lived here either, you know. So I haven't got any firm roots here. AGW: Charlotte Church is Welsh like you. She may be going into movies. Any advice for her? Catherine: Fabulous. Voice of an angel. Really pretty amazing singer. Well, she's going to have to disguise her accent, because there's not many movies for Welsh girls. That was one of my biggest problems when I first started wanting to act. It was ‘oh darling you'll have to lose the accent’. When I used to go to auditions, I had a very strong Welsh accent to the point that when I speak to my mother on the phone now, I go back to my strong Welsh accent, Michael thinks I'm speaking Welsh which is a completely different matter. He says: ‘that's a beautiful language, you should speak it’. (I say) I'm speaking English for god's sake. AGW: Young girls and teens want to know. Does someone as beautiful as you ever have insecurities when you look in the mirror? Catherine: Of course! Of course. Come on, hair, makeup, all that stuff, I make the most of myself. You should have seen me this morning. You should see me taking my kids to school. I have a baseball cap on ‘why am I hiding? Nobody's going to recognize me anyway’. AGW: When you filmed the first Zorro, I guess no one in Mexico knew you. Now, it’s got to be a whole different story. Catherine: Yeah, that was one of the biggest differences actually. When I first went down to Mexico City, I used to look at Antonio and Tony Hopkins getting followed around by autograph hunters. I'd usually be standing right next to them, and nobody knew me and I used to go to the museum of archaeology three times a week and walk around and people used to speak to me in Spanish. They thought I was Spanish. and I used to get such great bargains at the market, and, when I go back now, it's a different thing and just trying to keep where I live private was quite hard. But [the town of] San Luis Potosi, they really opened their arms to us. I had my restaurants I used to go to and they used to cook for me and I’d get my driver to pick it up, and it became really great. Catherine: Are you overprotective of your kids? AGW: I'm terrified constantly that they're going to fall, going to trip and my daughter is going to cut her chin, my son's going to knock his teeth out. I just [had to learn] that kids are kids, and they’re not made of glass and they're gonna get cuts and bruises and things like that. AGW: The character of Elena is a great model for young girls in that she’s not a victim and fights beside her man. In light of raising your daughter, was it important for you to play a role like that? Catherine: Oh sure, I can't wait for her to see it. I mean, God knows, I don't like having dolls made of me, but I can't wait to buy her a Zorro and Elena doll. She's been coming with me in the mornings to go swimming here at the hotel. Every time she sees the posters [from the film, set up in the halls] it's ‘Mama! It’s Zorro’! [she makes the whoosh, whoosh, whoosh mark of the “Z” sound]. She wants to go to work. ‘Me work! Zorro’! She’s two and a half. ‘Me, work, you Zorro’. It’s so cute I can’t bear it. AGW: Okay, taking a page from the movie, if the CIA told you you had to divorce your husband to save the country, what would you do? Catherine: Okay. What would I do? [in her Elena accent] I'd go undercover and then save my husband. AGW: If you were a superheroine, would you like to wear a mask? Catherine: Yeah. There's something kinky about wearing a mask. But, I like people who you can believe and not have those super powers. Zorro, you know, he's just a guy, working for the people, to save the people. AGW: What would be your superpower wish? Catherine: That I could fly to the moon. AGW: Favorite movie? Catherine: Breakfast at Tiffany’s. I just love it. I watch it a lot. AGW: After you finish Mostly Martha, you are going to play classic blonde film siren Lana Turner in a movie about her mob boyfriend Johnny Stompanato? Catherine: Yes, whenever we get a script. Keanu Reeves is still signed to do it. It's just a great great role. I put myself on film just to get it in my head that the studio won't turn around halfway through the movie and go ‘she kind of doesn't kind of look like her. Get a blonde’. My father in law [Kirk Douglas who worked with Lana] is going to be my research engine. My google. It’ll be directed by Adrian Lyne.
Pictures courtesy of and copyright Columbia Pictures, 2005 |
 
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In
1998, a gorgeous, feisty, raven-haired young woman wowed audiences as
she hiked up her petticoats and jumped into a swordfight in The Mask
of Zorro. Girls were happy to see a spunky, far from helpless heroine
and guys were just …in love. Catherine Zeta-Jones, now an Oscar
winner for Chicago, so mesmerized actor/producer/director Michael
Douglas that he tracked her down, shamelessly courted her and finally
married her. They have two children. 
AGW:
Are you tougher when you get home at night when you are in your sword
fighting mode?