Catherine Zeta-Jones: Woman with a Past

But she hardly went hungry. In 1996 she appeared in a showy, however futile, role in The Phantom. Finally, after she'd booked passage as a heroic beauty on TV's cut-rate Titanic, her break came when Steven Spielberg spotted her in that disaster and deemed her, wittily, "worth rescuing from that ship." He recommended her to director Martin Campbell for The Mask of Zorro. Despite Spielberg's endorsement, Campbell had serious doubts--he later admitted in print his "surprise" at how good Zeta-Jones turned out to be. "My screen test with Antonio Banderas was really bizarre because there were two other girls in the screen test at the same time," says Zeta-Jones. "We'd each improvise with Antonio. Oh, but hell, as long as I was one of the three, I didn't care." Reminded of this, she lets out a merry snort, explaining, "The reason Campbell didn't think I'd be very good was because I hadn't had very good things to do in most movies I'd done before. You can't judge a performer on four scenes in a bad movie." After a moment, she adds, "Well, OK, maybe he was right, but I didn't think I'd been that bad." Then she tosses back her head, mock-theatrically, and bellows into the tape recorder, "You didn't see my thea-tah, Martin, dahhhh-ling!"

"When the tabloids printed unfounded rumors that Melanie Griffith 'fought tooth and claw' to make sure Antonio Banderas and you, his 'sultry costar,' weren't getting along too well, did you say, 'Oh, no, not this bullcrap again?'"

"I went, 'Oh, shit. Give Melanie a break,'" Zeta-Jones replies. "She had just given birth and was down in Mexico on location to be with her husband, exactly as I would be doing. She was lovely and professional, asking if I'd mind if she watched us shoot a sword fight. When I told people how nice she was, they'd still say, 'Well, she had to be nice to you.' I was like, 'Oh, fuck off!'"

Gossip and her director's misgivings aside, Zeta-Jones emerged from Zorro smelling like a rose--even in England, where she wowed them at the royal premiere and got reviews that matched the excitement she generated stateside. "It's astounding the international appeal generated by being in one successful American movie," she marvels. "I don't have to tell you there's a definite hierarchy, a filtration process when it comes to script material. There's not a lot of power to being an actor apart from being able to read material that's going to the big boys and girls. And some of those interesting British directors, the ones who wouldn't even see me before? They've sent projects, too."

How could they not? Here's a girl who's bigger than life and not abashed at showing it, perhaps because she's already won, lost and recaptured major fame. Handling her second dose of stardom--and this time a far bigger helping--she's a poised, seasoned and gracious pro. Even her body language reveals a joy at doing things smarter the second time around. "I love being bold, alive, in the moment," she says. "Those are qualities of the strong, brave stars I grew up loving. I've always thought I was born in the -wrong era. I have a picture of myself of when I was 15 and I look like Natalie Wood. I love those women."

"Is that why, on the rare occasions you're photographed out on the town, you look every inch the old-style movie goddess?"

Zeta-Jones offers a knowing sidelong glance. "I love glamour and glitz, going to premieres dressed up and smiling and waving. What I don't love is being chased in my car by two men on a motorbike--there's a big difference. But in America, I'm free to go anywhere I want. It seems ridiculous to me that people used to look through my garbage. And the quality of the work I'm being offered? All I keep thinking every day is, 'My God, this is great. Enjoy it while it lasts. I'm someone who doesn't take a thing for granted. I feel blessed."

How long all this lasts will depend to some degree on Zeta-Jones's upcoming movie, Entrapment, the big-budget The Thomas Crown Affair-style thriller in which she and Connery play adversarial and, finally, amorous thieves. "They flew me on one of these whistle-stop things to Rome to meet with Sean and see how he and I felt together," she recalls. "I got to the hotel, had my hair done and met Sean in a hotel by the Spanish Steps. He was very honest about how they were seeing a lot of people and the studio wanted a name. Later I did a screen test to see that the age difference wasn't too much." Apparently for Connery, the age difference wasn't a problem. How about for her? "That was right in the front of my mind all the way to Rome," she admits. "I knew I wanted to work with him, but, for the movie to work, we had to look right. There had to be that spark. Well, when I met him, I went--" she breaks off, and laughs, "I -went, 'Oh yes, I think we're going to be just fine.'

"I know people say all the time about movies, 'Older actors, always have to bed the young beauty,'" she continues. "But the relationship between me and Sean really works. His character is a complete bastard and my character is perfectly matched with his. I'm an international art thief who's very alone, very tough, very obsessed with money. Men aren't even in my equation. I want him as a partner because he's an old-fashioned thief who knows everything. When I first meet him, I use my bodily charms to woo him and he knocks me down with, 'What a complete and utter waste of time.' Against great action stuff, there's this wonderful romance they keep denying. And you see them, slowly, softening."

Zeta-Jones is openly proud of being able to keep pace with Connery. "I'd wake up in the morning scared, brushing my teeth in the mirror, thinking, 'I've got to cry on-screen for the next two days.' Then I'd get to the set, look at Sean and feel honored to be sharing an experience with someone like him. And even after shitting myself with fear on the set, I'd go back to my room at night, slip into the tub and go, 'Yeah. I actually did it.' Working with Sean was the best time I've ever had on a movie."

"OK, you guys are two of the planet's sexiest people, but the movie camera is relentless at finding fault, and Connery, icon and sex god though he may be, was 67 to your 28."

"But think of the classic couplings in older movies," she asserts. "Bogie and Bacall, Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant and Grace Kelly, Bogie and Audrey Hepburn--what makes them interesting isn't that the woman is younger, but that she's right on par with the man. That's what I wanted to play here. Sean's character has this superior attitude, but my character's stance is, 'Look, you may be 40 years older than I am, but isn't it unfortunate for you that I know everything you do, only 40 years earlier?' We don't have a love scene, but we do kiss. And I beat the shit out of him, which I love."

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