Desperately seeking Katie...
Softly spoken and with a lot of hesitation before every answer, she and her very aggressive PR flak deflect every single question, even the most innocuous, by talking about her character in the movie. It makes for a long and rather awkward hour together.
Dressed in a cream chiffon blouse from her own label, Holmes and Young, over a brick coloured bell shaped skirt, her long brown hair falls loosely below her shoulders. But she sits very stiffly throughout the interview, barely moving her head, as though trying not to muss her hair. Katie Holmes (32) does not look or seem to be anything close to relaxed and this barely changes, even as the time passes.
Currently starring in a remake of the 1970’s horror movie, Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, directed by Guillermo del Toro, it’s been several years since Holmes has starred in a hit movie. The media and the public tend to show more interest in her marriage to Tom Cruise and their fashionsita daughter Suri than they do in her acting career, making her a very wary interview subject indeed. Allow me to illustrate with some examples of what happens when the most anodyne questions are put to Katie Holmes.
Patricia Danaher: “The world can be a scary place. As a mother, how do you try to protect your child from danger and from things that scare her?”
Katie Holmes: “What I love about this movie, when I first read the script, I was very scared. It just jumped off the page. But I like seeing strong female characters on screen, so that was fun to portray.”
PD: “But what about your fears?”
KH: “Hmmm…… I don’t fear that many things. I don’t particularly love spiders, mosquitos or raccoons. But I’m hoping that goes away. In general, I think the thing that’s most scary in this movie is when the family looks normal and suddenly their world is interrupted by something very scary. Then, I feel, oh my god, that could happen to anyone. And that’s the thing that’s creepy and hard to take in. To me, that’s the scariest part of a horror movie — when I recognise the normalcy of their home.”
PD: “I have to interrupt you there Katie. What are your own fears?”
KH: “I think that, you know, again what works about this movie is when you care about people and the thought of something happening to them, that’s scary. And that’s what works about this movie. My personal fears are losing the ones I love, which I think is very similar to the characters in this movie.”
PD: “Let’s talk about faith then. What do you believe in?”
KH: “I love that question, because that’s something that’s so important for a movie like this. If you want to create fear for an audience, you have to have them believe in the story, so when the monsters come you’re thinking about …”
PD: “But Katie, please tell us, what are your beliefs?”
At this point the publicist leaps from her seat at the back of the room and charges towards where we are sitting. “If we can just keep it about the film. Thank you so much. I appreciate it,” she says, making it very clear by the look on her face and in not so many words, that this is not a request.
KH: “I believe in myself. And I, you know, I believe in my family. And I believe in my dreams. When I set out to do any project, I kind of dream it and then I believe it. And then I do it. And it’s kind of how I go about it. That’s what I’m doing.”
Holmes has been either modelling or acting since she was 14 when her mother started taking her to classes and talent shows in her home town in Toledo, Ohio. A visit to a modelling convention in New York led to the tall teenager getting signed by an agent and a short time later, while still a teenager, she was cast in Ang Lee’s The Ice Storm. She and her mother then moved to Los Angeles, where she did the rounds of auditions for television pilots, before getting cast as Joey Potter in Dawson’s Creek.
Her approachable girl-next-door looks combined with a naturalistic acting style landed her a series of soft roles, but it wasn’t until she starred in the movie that really launched Colin Farrell in the US, Phone Booth, that she showed some serious range and depth. The role marked a radical departure from the wholesome image associated with her in Dawson’s Creek.
Off screen, she was involved with actor Chris Klein, who seemed to share many of her Midwestern wholesome sensibilities. They announced their engagement in 2005 after five years of dating, but Holmes suddenly called it off and within a very short space of time she was involved with Tom Cruise. His very public declarations of love for Holmes are the stuff of pop culture history by now and within a matter of months, Holmes was pregnant, engaged to Cruise and taking a lot of Scientology classes.
Today, she makes frequent references to family, even if it’s often times shielded behind talking about the character she’s playing on screen.
“I’m usually always busy. And working on a lot of different things, but you know, when there is downtime, I like to be with my family and do a lot of Mom things. We do a lot of crafting projects. There’s always something to do. Which is fun. There’s glitter everywhere in our house,” she says, laughing for the first and only time in our meeting.
Her daughter Suri is already Hollywood royalty with her own paparazzi following and countless column inches devoted to reporting on “who” the tot is wearing.
“Suri is quite magical. She creates her look all by herself and she just amazes me,” she says.
Having recently played style icon Jackie Kennedy on tv, Holmes took great pleasure not only in the fashion she got to wear, but also in playing a mature woman on screen.
“I really love fashion. It’s such an opportunity to be creative when you get dressed. I have three sisters and I’m the youngest in a family of five, so we were never without an opportunity to swop clothing. It’s a privilege and it’s also part of being girly. It was a great honour playing Jackie Kennedy. Her style reflected her intelligence and the elegance she had in every aspect of her life. The more I learned about her, the more my respect grew.
“I like seeing strong female characters on screen and it was fun to play such an icon.”
I know that the interview is now over because the publicist is on her feet and pacing within a foot of where we are sitting. It hasn’t gotten any easier, and Holmes begins to look relieved when she realises things are coming to an end. Before she leaves, I ask her an easy one — any beauty secrets she’d like to share?
“A beauty secret? A lot of water, yes. A lot of water.”
And then she’s gone.
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