The Verge: Alice Eve

You're writing some scripts yourself. Is that part of your bid to change what you portray?

I do believe that practice makes perfect. I'd been acting a long time, and with writing, that format is new to me. I suspect that [author] Malcolm Gladwell is right, that it takes ten thousand hours to master something. I'm still learning about the process, but maybe someday I'll come through with something good.

What kind of stories interest you?

I've always wanted to tell stories that I like to watch, and I like to watch romantic comedies, I like Sex and the City. Those are the things I like to make, things I can relax to.

And now you're in the Sex and the City sequel. I know you play Charlotte's Irish nanny...can you tell me anything else about the role?

I do wish I could, but I really can't, because they'll throw me in jail.

Do they make you sign your life away when you take a role in that sort of movie?

Pretty much!

I had read an interview you did with the National Post a while back where you said, "I have a problem with Sex and the City in that it perpetuates a level of judgment between women." Have you come around on that, or was there more context to that quote?

I don't remember saying that. I don't have a problem with Sex and the City! It may have been a misquote. I was probably referencing them as women who dress for each other, that there's a competition that exists between women. But I've never...I've watched it since I was a teenager!

Is that something you see a lot in Hollywood, that women are portrayed as competitive with each other?

Only in lazy Hollywood. When great people are at the helm, then the characters are three-dimensional. Then there are the lazy movies that are made, and I don't think they help either sex.

Did you feel like you could bring extra dimensions to Molly in She's Out of My League?

The thing that I liked about her when I got the script was that she was like a male lead, almost. She had it all, she had the power, and she had the desire. That was empowering in itself; she wasn't a bitch, and she didn't have to have anything wrong with her to make it work. That was kind of amazing, and beyond that, I brought a lot of myself to it, just in the honesty and openness that women can rarely have without a level of coyness or apology to their personality. She was very forward and just able to exist in a male world as a woman with passion.

That's interesting. You think that women sometimes have to undercut their honesty with some sort of apologetic manner?

I think that in films, women are often asked to not be direct. Just the existence of a woman isn't enough, there has to be another dimension to her, whereas a male can just exist. I think that in this movie, she's allowed to just exist.

[Photo Credit: Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images]

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