Juliette Lewis on Conviction, That Nasty Car Accident and Why She's No Joaquin Phoenix

We could all use a little more Juliette Lewis in our lives, and now, thank goodness, we're getting it. The actress perhaps best known for Natural Born Killers, Kalifornia and her Academy Award-nominated breakthrough in Cape Fear recently returned from an extended rock-and-roll sabbatical to appear in Whip It, The Switch, the upcoming Due Date and a pivotal, scene-stealing role in this weekend's Conviction.

Tony Goldwyn's film recounts the story of Betty Anne Waters (Hilary Swank), a woman who puts herself through law school in order to defend her brother (played by Sam Rockwell) who was wrongfully convicted of murder. Lewis appears briefly but powerfully as Roseanna Perry, the woman whose perjury leads to the imprisonment of an innocent man. I met with Lewis this week in New York to discuss Conviction, her similarities with Joaquin Phoenix and the one-and-out implications of playing Audrey Griswold.

[When I entered her room, Lewis was seated facing away from me, apologizing because she couldn't turn her neck to greet me because of a recent auto accident.]

Oh, yeah, I read about that accident. You were T-boned...

The good thing was that I was leaning. I was returning e-mails, so I was leaning inward. The car went probably 40 miles per hour -- I don't know, very fast -- and smashed right into my side. Nobody else was hurt. It could have been a lot worse, and it was just one of those scary wake up calls.

When I was a freshman in college, a semi truck once ran me off the road when I was trying to pass it, causing the car to flip down a hill.

What?! Whoa!

Yeah, just some stitches on the back of my head, which you can't see because of hair. I got lucky.

That's a lucky one! See, with mine, there was no blood. It was all internal, I felt like I got hit by a baseball bat...

Soft tissue...

Yeah, yeah. The paramedics were like, "No, no, you need to get X-rayed. That's what you do, Miss Lewis." They were really sweet, everyone was so lovely. That's just not really what I'm used to -- paramedics and fire trucks. That was scary! And here we are.

I guess we should talk about the movie.

We should.

Your character got the biggest laughs during the screening.

Weird. So funny.

So you knew that?

Well, she's a colorful character, and I'd like to think people laugh when there's tension. I'm playing one of these people you try to avoid on the street. You know, with that unpredictable energy. And their mask is pretending they're sane. Do you know what I mean? Pretending to feel what they should be feeling. Why I took the role, even though it's small, it's so pivotal and it gave me the chance to so something that I've never done in film before, which is to have that many transitions in one scene -- color of personality. And the fact that she drinks every day -- probably for the last 10 years -- and that she never leaves her house. So, even if you just take that, a person who drinks $3 wine every day for 10 years and never leaves her house... To have a conversation with that person, alone, would be really compelling and interesting.

And she likes to attempt to use big words -- words she usually doesn't get correct.

And on top of that, you have somebody who is lying who has a guilty conscience, who has been lying for years and creating this web of deceit and fiction. That's the part that's so strange. She does feel bad, that did happen. Nancy Taylor [a dirty cop who forced false statements, played by Melissa Leo] did do some really screwy tactics.

Is she a victim, too?

I would never say that. It's all true and it's all not. It was amazing to play, to completely lose myself. I didn't want you to see any of my idiosyncrasies on screen, at all. That's what I live for in acting.

In the movie, the effects make your teeth hard to look at.

Yeah.

I'm glad you're smiling right now and not saying, "What teeth effects?" I'd feel really bad.

Exactly! I've been making jokes to people, like, "What if I turned up, gave a big smile and my teeth were still like that?" That was so fun for me, to be so ugly. I don't know why. I guess some people are scared of it. It's real. That person exists to me more than some gun-toting femme fatale. Because that's more comic-book, to me, than this woman.

Is this person still around? I can't imagine she'd want to participate.

No. The women who did criminal acts in the story are not available to contribute. But their testimony is; their documented behavior and statements are. The scene you saw [features] the exact things she said, consolidated from different interviews that she did.

You mentioned earlier that it's a smaller role. With a smaller role, is your mindset, Okay, with what I have, I'm going to knock this one out of the park?

No. Believe me, I long ago lost this kind of egotistical thought because you suffer enough losses. Early on it teaches you, "Enjoy the process. Enjoy the journey." What I mean by that is when you have expectations, like, "Oh, this is going to do this for me." You can just know, for me, I just relish those kinds of emotional acrobatics. I have to tell you, because I didn't make movies for five years, I was just making records and touring. Believe it or not, it's a whole other thing to be making a living at, a little small miracle which is awesome. That's what I've been doing. So I'm making movies again, and this is me just trying to choose interesting things and be part of a great team.

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