PRESS ARCHIVE
Entertainment Tonight - May 5th, 1999
CALISTA FLOCKHART sat down with ET to talk about the sometimes messy, yet enchanting experience of recreating Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream.'

ET: First of all, with the Shakespearean verse, you were just right on it! Is that all of the theatre training you have?

Calista Flockhart: I don't know, maybe. Thank you! I've done a couple of Shakespeare plays on the stage, so yeah, I'm sure that helps but Shakespeare is a bit intimidating, rhyming couplets…

ET: Yeah, I would think so! What did you most identify with Helena, in what way could you relate to her the most?

Calista: I think we've all been in situations where we've loved somebody or had a crush on someone who didn't really love us back.

ET: I can't imagine that happening to you. You're telling me you've been dumped?

Calista: Oh, please! Of course I've been dumped. What I really like about Helena is that she strips away her ego, her pride and her dignity and she's willing to go very far to get her man.

ET: Tell me you didn't have any accidents on that bicycle!

Calista: Well, I had a couple that I was supposed to have, but I had these two really big, burly, really nice prop guys who would carry the bikes around for all of us all over the place. But I did have a lot of bruises and scratches on my ankles from the pedals.

ET: But it was a great obstacle to work with…

Calista: For me it ended up being great, it became part of Helena's whole character.

ET: At the turning point of the movie, you have these two handsome men fighting over you. That had to be pretty fun.

Calista: Yeah, it was fun. Except Helena is really smart and clever and knows that there's some weird thing going on, she immediately thinks they're mocking her. Or she's insecure and feels unworthy of this love, that this would never happen.

ET: She was a great character, and we've all felt that way at times. Also, that was some mud fight, that had to be grueling to shoot!

Calista: We were actually all looking forward to it! We thought, oh it's a day at the spa, we'll be in the spa mud bath. It was warm, but it didn't smell very good. There were these little rocks and they sort of got stuck in our corsets.

ET: How long were you in the mud?

Calista: Well, we only fell in once, because once you were muddy you couldn't clean up very easily. We'd get out of the mud, and would stand there and be cold. We'd get the mud out of our eyes and our ears and then they'd say, "Get back in!" That was pretty torturous.

ET: This is a wonderful lover's romp. Do you think we all go a little insane when we first fall in love?

Calista: I think so, I think love makes you do crazy things. When you fall in love everything is kind of heightened. Joy is more joyous and sadness is more sad, and things are funnier.

ET: What's the craziest thing you've ever done for love?

Calista: I have done the telephone thing. Guys just don't understand this. You call them up and they say "hello" and then you hang up! And then you dial again, and they go "hello" and you hang up. What is that about?

ET: I don't know, I've done it too!

Calista: What, is it hearing their voice? No. Finding out that there home? Maybe!

ET: If you had a love potion, how would you use it?

Calista: Wow! Maybe we could sprinkle a little love potion in Kosovo.

ET: That's a good idea. There's some love potion needed over there for sure! Was it liberating being naked in the forest?

Calista: Liberating, no! It was uncomfortable. Whenever you take off your clothes in front of about 100 strangers, it's weird. I did have the petals and the hair was very specifically placed. Thank God I had a lot of hair!

ET: How did you deal with all those hair extensions?

Calista: The hair experience was really interesting. I've never had them before. The first day I was really excited about it. For six weeks, I didn't take them out. I had to pin curl my hair every night and wear a scarf around my head. I remember one night a couple of my friends came over to Italy to visit me. My hair person had misplaced my scarf, but I had a little silk nightgown, so I tied the nightgown around my head and walked around Italy with this nightgown on my head!

ET: That was a gorgeous wedding scene. Was that fun to be a part of?

Calista: Yeah, it was.

ET: Would you want a big wedding?

Calista: No. My first instinct would be Vegas, small, something really cheesy, and small!

ET: What was the best part of filming in Italy?

Calista: I walked around Rome so much. Just the history and the art and the cafes and the chaos of that city. It's very romantic. I liked Tuscany because there were big beautiful fields of flowers.

ET: It must've been nice also because not a lot of people knew who you were over there.

Calista: Yeah, it was a bit freeing. I had anonymity, and it was nice.

ET: Congratulations!

Calista: Thank you!
Date of this item added :
2007-09-02