Now, you're playing a porn star in this movie, but do you feel like you have to give this disclaimer to people? Because you're really not doing anything that porny at all in the movie.
Yeah! I mean, it sounds bad that I'm playing a porn star, but I don't have any nudity and it's actually done in a very fun way. It's more about the business than it is about porn or sex. I'll just warn people, it's not as bad as it sounds. [Laughs]
I mean, I think the boys in The Covenant showed more skin than you do in Middle Men.
Yeah. I mean, I did The Ruins and I showed more in that than I do in this film, and this one is about porn, which doesn't make any sense at all. But I'm very thankful for it.
As an actress, what is it like to play a porn star when we have so many porn stars becoming actresses, like Sasha Grey?
I think for me, I just wanted to understand the business side of it. I get taking your clothes off and doing those sort of things in front of a camera, but I wanted to understand the mindset of the girls. I sat down with a couple who actually do this for a living, and it's so interesting because the main thing they told me was that it's a business. They're actually very savvy women, and they run their own business and take their own pictures and do their own websites, then they go on these little press tours and their fanbase gets to meet them. I could relate to them as an actor -- at the end of the day, we both dress up and put a wardrobe on and go do our jobs, but when I talked to them, they were just regular girls hanging out in sweatpants. So as far as porn stars becoming actresses, good for them! A lot of them are actually very good actresses. [Laughs]
Audrey is all about using the internet to her advantage. Now that actresses can promote themselves via things like Twitter, do you take advantage of the internet at all? I found one Twitter under your name that's promising to learn how to tweet eventually.
Oh, no. Well, there you go, that's the first time someone's told me about that. [Laughs] There's even two people on Facebook pretending to be me. People comment to me, "Hey, I've friended you, and you haven't friended me back!" I'm just like, "Uh, I've never actually been on Facebook." There's also a fanpage on there that somebody made that I haven't done myself.
Do you just stand back and let it happen, or does it concern you at all that people might be impersonating you online?
Well of course, but there's nothing I can really do about it. Unless you know somebody who knows somebody who can take those things away, once they're up there, they're up there. You don't have control. The internet is so big that no one can control anything, really. When it's out, it's out.
You're in Sofia Coppola's next movie Somewhere, which I'm dying to see, and you're playing Sailor Girl. What can you tell me about Sailor Girl?
Well number one, I'm dying to see the film as well. It's a story about a sort of crazy actor who has this lifestyle full of drugs and women, and his 11-year-old daughter comes to visit him and he comes to terms with that. I play one of his girlfriends along the way.
The movie is full of really interesting actors in small parts. How'd you get involved?
I actually auditioned. I went in and read a couple of lines, and I found out the next day that it was offered to me. When I was on set with [Sofia] later, she told me that she had actually seen an episode of Mad Men that I had done, and that she loved the show and she loved that episode. I mean, that was just an honor to have her actually notice me. For me, it was just a dream to say that I had worked with her, because she's kind of a legend in her own way, you know?
So what was that Mad Men experience like? Was it intimidating to come into?
Oh yeah. Number one, the wardrobe, to me, was amazing, and when I got to go into my fitting, it was like a dream. I wish I had owned every dress that I had tried on -- [the costumers are] so ridiculously talented! Working on the show, I mean, I love that era, and Jon Hamm couldn't have been a nicer person. He was a stand-up, humble, amazing man, and still is -- I ran into him the other day. He's just a great guy, and he was so welcoming on the set. Everyone knew everybody already and they'd already established their relationships, so when you come in and do a guest star, it can be a little unnerving. But he showed me around and introduced me to everybody and sort of took me under his wing. He made me feel great and that episode was great because he's such a giving actor.
It's a good thing you weren't intimidated, because you had to go in there and be confident in your scenes with him.
Exactly. But that's the thing about being an actor: You can act like you're not intimidated. [Laughs] It was like walking into someone's home -- at first, you don't really know your way around, but once you feel comfortable, you can lay on the couch.
What was it about that era that you liked?
I mean, I guess the clothes! I loved the little pants that come to the ankle and the knee-length dresses and the perfection of the fingernails that come to a point. The hair is always done in a style. Everyone was so classy at that time, and I guess I miss the idea that when a woman goes out, she wears gloves and dresses up. To me, going to dinner and having that tradition that you dress up and appreciate that you can even go to dinner...that means a lot. I wish sometimes that it was still like that.
[Lead Photo Credit: Alexandra Wyman/Wire Image]