Juno Temple on Dirty Girl, Very Busy Schedules and Dark Knight Rises Silence

What was the audition like?

The first time I came in, I was in the room and there were a bunch of girls looking very Cyndi Lauper-esque, with this blond, cute hair and little pink hot pants and platform high heels, blah blah blah. And I was wearing ripped fishnets, a pair of cut-off denim hot pants, a T-shirt that... You know, if you move, you have to wear a bra because it's very inappropriate. And a cut-off biker jacket, and a nose piercing, matted hair, and smudged eyeliner. So I definitely looked very different; it was like Courtney Love meets Cyndi Lauper. I went in, and I thought I nailed it: "Yes! I think I did good? Don't know. God." Then I went home, and I got a call from my agent, who said, "They want you to come back, but take out the nose piercing and brush your hair." Abe said it was because he didn't want to show my tape to producers looking that ragamuffin-y. I got the "dirty" slightly wrong I guess; it was smelly dirty versus slutty dirty. So I went in looking a bit tidier.

Then I got the phone call: "They want you to play Danielle." I wept. I was on my porch. I remember. I cried. She meant a lot to me. She sends a good message; I think the whole movie does, and I think it's so cool we could do that, because high school's a pretty tough place to be.

From a technical point of view, you are a 22-year-old British woman, and this is set in the '80s before you were even born--

'89. Yeah.

It's set between Norman, Oklahoma, and the American open road--

I don't even have a driver's license!

Did you have to learn to drive?

I had to learn to drive, but I still don't have a license.

OK, well, I won't tell anyone. But trying to get in the mindset and the skin of a high-school girl in Norman in 1987--

And that was the first time I'd ever been to a high school, when I stepped on that set. That was the first time I'd ever been to an American high school.

Whoa. So what was your process, even down to the accent?

I talked a lot with Abe about her. The big thing was the wardrobe and the look. I look like a different person in that movie. The accent is obviously key; that makes you change very much instantly. It was also a major thing for me to develop relationships with the people I was working with, like Milla and Jeremy. That was a very important dynamic for me. There's that line in To Kill a Mockingbird that Scout says: "You don't know a man until you've put on his shoes and walked around his front porch." And I think that was thing for me: to put on Danielle's shoes and stomp around. It was a different attitude, a different posture, a different way of holding yourself. And I loved that, because I really wanted to make it a journey for her. She goes from A to B, and there's a huge arc between them. It was really important to me to make that arc flow. And again, I just spent a long time talking to Abe about it; it's loosely based on his childhood, and he just knew this girl so well. He's known a lot of "dirty girls" in his life.

I also watched a few movies. Freeway. That was a great research movie. We also watched things like Breakfast Club, just for that idea of the '80s. A lot of music, too. The music really affects you in that kind of situation. We were given the hopeful soundtrack before we even started shooting the movie. Abe gave us a CD and told us exactly where songs would be playing in the script. That made a huge difference, too.

So you've got The Three Musketeers and The Dark Knight Rises on the way, both obviously very big movies. How are feeling about those, and what's your sense of where you are right now and what's coming next?

Well, I have another movie that was just up at Toronto called Killer Joe that will hopefully come out here at the end of this year or the beginning of next year. It's a movie I'm very proud to be a part of. And I shot two independent films this year -- the Brass Teapot one and this film directed by Jonas Åkerlund called Small Apartments, which was a really cool script, too. So it's a mixture of independent and studio movies. But how am I feeling? [Pauses] It's a whirlwind. I don't really know what to expect, to be honest with you. I don't really sit and think about it. I just kind of take each day as it comes. I guess I'm excited. I'm also nervous; I might never work again if these movies don't take off.

At least you can relax about The Dark Knight Rises. I think that'll do all right.

Definitely a good thing to a part of.

Have you shot that already?

Yeah, I'm finished.

What is your role? The casting announcement said something like, "street-smart Gotham girl."

I'm not allowed to talk about it.

OK!

Sorry. But! What's next is this movie called Magic, Magic with Michael Cera.

Have you followed any of these spoilers coming out about Dark Knight Rises? Anne Hathaway's cat ears? Shooting in Pittsburgh? Do you think viewers should know less than we've been exposed to?

I haven't seen any of it, but absolutely. I don't know jack shit about it, and I want it to be that way. I want to be surprised. I love those films. The whole point is to go and see it and have your mind blown. It's an experience, you know?

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