Kate Bosworth: going with the flow. Finding your own way. Shirtless, jobless and happy as a clam. Surfing is bigger than ever - Interview

Michelle Rodriguez

Due in theaters next month, Blue Crush, the first surf movie of the new century, couldn't have better timing. Across America, from coast to coast and the heartland in between, surfing's enjoying a new wave of popularity, embraced as much for its spirit as for its speed. Freedom, independence, individuality, community, passion, persistence, style, communion with nature and momentary control of an uncontrollable force are what surfing is all about. This month, as we celebrate Independence Day, and in light of what's happening in the world right now, those principles seem ever more important, regardless of our ability to rip, cut-back or ride the tube.

If surfing is the sport for the summer of 2002, Kate Bosworth, Blue Crush's 19-year-old star, is its poster child. Five years ago she rode in on her horse and piqued the interest of movie insiders with a small role in Robert Redford's The Horse Whisperer [1998]. After taking nearly two years off and then working only part-time in order to graduate with, as she puts it, "a 'normal' high school experience" in suburban Boston, she deferred admission at Princeton University (writing to the dean of admissions and explaining that in life, timing is everything) and headed out to Hollywood in the summer of 2001. There she made little more than a pit stop, finding herself on the North Shore of Oahu the following winter, filming Blue Crush for director John Stockwell (Crazy/Beautiful) and producer Brian Grazer (A Beautiful Mind). Now, the tsunami: In her first lead, she's graceful, athletic and inspiring, an all American actress in the guise of the girl next door. Here she talks to Michelle Rodriguez, her fellow wave-r ider in this summer's splashy new movie. Plus, two experts take a look back at some of the greatest surf music and movies of all time.

Scott Lyle Cohen

MICHELLE RODRIGUEZ: What's up, Kate?

KATE BOSWORTH: Hi, Michelle!

MR: How you livin', woman?

KB: Good. Are we being recorded?

MR: Yeah.

KB: OK. So we have to be good. [both laugh]

MR: Are you in Hawaii?

KB: No, I'm in L.A. Where are you?

MR: I'm in [New] Jersey. Actually, I'm in the process of buying a house here.

KB: That's awesome. Good for you. I just deferred from Princeton for another year, you know. I was supposed to go this fall.

MR: Why? What happened?

KB: It's been kind of crazy for me recently--this was not the best time to go to school.

MR: Because you want to make moves, right?

KB: Yeah. You know how it is when you're doing well and are happy with your life; you don't want to change it. They were nice enough to grant me another postponement.

MR: Gosh, you're going to come to school here in Jersey--that'll be awesome!

KB: I'll get to see your new house!

MR: Totally! And spring break will be off the hook--we'll go to Miami and party. [laughs] So, were you always interested in acting or did it fall into your lap?

KB: I think it was 1995--I was about 13--and I heard about an open casting call for this movie The Horse Whisperer that required horseback riding. I was an equestrian and my main love was horses, so I was like, Oh, that'd be fun." So I auditioned for the casting director and she showed my tape to Mr. [Robert] Redford. Then I had to audition about four or five times, but eventually, I got it. And that, as a result, spurred my love for acting.

Oh, and this is a funny story, you know when you go in to audition how they tell you to bring a head shot?

MR: Yeah.

KB: They told me to bring one in and I'm like, "OK, whatever."

MR: So you brought a graduation picture or something? [laughs]

KB: I was 13; I didn't have a graduation picture. I brought in a Christmas card. And I'm an only child, so it's just me sitting there, like Duh! [Rodriguez laughs] And I heard that he [Redford] saw it and was like, What is this?" [both laugh]

MR: I want to know how the hell it feels to go from being a 13-year-old horseback rider to the lead in one of Hollywood's hottest new movies.

KB: [laughs] Those are definitely not your words.

MR: I'm acting like a journalist. I am an actress, you know.

KB: [laughs] OK. I feel very lucky. When something falls into your lap at the right time, it's amazing. Every day I'm like, "I'm so lucky to do something I love."

MR: Can I tell you, Kate, you kick ass, and I really think you're going to be America's next sweetheart. [Bosworth laughs) You're one of those human chicks, and they are the ones that hit it big. Me, I'm in a different category.

KB: What, you're the badass one and I'm the sweetheart one?

MR: Exactly. [both laugh) I'm sure you're bound to hit the bad girl sooner or later. What do you do

KB: I work, that's all I do. I'm a Capricorn [laughs] and the Hollywood scene can be so superficial to me sometimes.

MR: So what are you taking up at Princeton--when you go?

KB: I love to write, so I'll take some writing courses, and I love psychology--I took a course in high school and found it really interesting--so I'll probably do that, too. I'm not really the math or science type, so I'll try to steer clear of that.

MR: Aren't you scared that exploring the human brain might change your relationships with people?

KB: Now that's your type of question. [Rodriguez laughs] I think it's interesting to find out what makes people tick and why they do the things they do. I'd rather go into that than learn the square root of some number.

MR: I know what struck me about surfing and the females in the surf world, and lots of people have probably asked you this already, but when we went to Hawaii, what was it about the whole scene that attracted you?

KB: What I identified with the most reading the script--because I hadn't surfed before--was how strong and independent my character, Anne Marie, was. And that's a priceless thing, to be able to play a person like that and show that kind of example to the world. And then when I got to Hawaii and I met the real surf girls, like you did, it just reaffirmed how incredibly strong and independent they are.

MR: And what about the guys--weren't their bodies hot?

KB: [laughs] That was definitely a plus, too. But to be able to show those women to the world is amazing. Hopefully it'll strike a chord in people.

MR: I'm sure it will. It better, damn it.

KB: But talking girlie, I remember walking down the street and seeing all those guys and I was like, "Let's move to Hawaii!"

MB: And there are all kinds of guys. There are ones who are into rap music, ones who are into heavy metal, ones who drink and ones who sing about God.

KB: I know. And they're all perfectly cut! [laughs] MR: You know what I heard in an interview recently? This interviewer was telling me that there's this new surf culture and that these people in the Midwest, where there isn't even water to surf, are wearing surf gear and getting the whole look.

KB: I heard that too. It's funny. Everyone in the Midwest is wearing board shorts.

MB: It's crazy. Hey, are those scars on your feet gone by now?

KB: No. I have one that's all the way up my ankle, from the [surfboard] leash cutting me.

MB: There's this thing called ScarGuard you put on old scars, and then you put some vitamin E and cocoa butter on it, and it should be gone in a couple months. So do you know what you're doing next?

KB: It's still up in the air. I've been doing some reshoots on the movie and I want to get this one done before I start another adventure.

MB: In two or three years I'm leaving [acting].

KB: You're going to be writing and directing, right?

KB: I know. Never satisfied--that's us!

MB: Yeah, I'm going to jump into that full-time. But right now I want to sit on my ass for a couple of months and just think. [in a sarcastic voice) I want to be normal! But then when you're normal you're like, "My life is boring!"

RELATED ARTICLE: 5 GREAT SURF MOVIES

By LYNDA OBST

After consulting with some of my surfer pais, I've come up with this report, straight from the horses (sea creatures') mouths, on the five all-time bests from the surf movie genre.

It must first be noted, there are three types of surf movies:

The old-school pioneer surf flicks, driven by pure adrenaline, shot in 16mm, 8mm or Super 8, were the first documentation of a true American subculture, as rich in its own style, language and behavioral norms as the Beat generation. These movies were generally screened in beach community auditoriums, to the howling reception of the local surfing gentry. The soundtracks came direct from the filmmaker's own libraries or that of his friends, and almost never ever had the permission of the artist. There was often only one print in existence, so many of the coolest films are lost to us now, or only exist in fragments. The very early surfing scene of the North Shore of Oahu was documented on these reels, bringing the sport of Hawaiian kings to white, middle-class Southern California, and beachcombing baby boomers, thirsty for tropical climes and exotic environs, caught the wave. In essence, the old-school pioneers were able to capture everything Hollywood later got wrong with the surf movie.

The Hollywood surf movie featured empty-headed bronzed boys and girls running around the beach, singing and dancing around bonfires and behaving in a fashion that would embarrass any serious surfer (the Frankie and Annette Beach Blanket Bizarreness movies are of this ilk). Gidget (1959) was clearly the most famous of the bunch, and was marginally accurate--Gidget and Moondoggie were based on local SoCal surfer gods--but to the actual surf community, all it did was attract to the beach the exact kind of lame brain the movie erroneously portrayed. More recent movies like Point Break (1991) do little better. While the plot of the movie is less frivolous (not a romantic comedy, but a sort of action movie), the portrayal of surfers as nonworking, party-hopping, drug-addicted, do-anything-to-surf (including robbing banks) vagabonds is offensive to many.

The final category is that of the hard-core surf flick. Hyped-up energy, pure testosterone-laced entertainment, for many a young surfer, these movies are better than porn. Here, the action is the star-not only do the waves have to be spectacular, but the surfers must continually push the envelope. The locations must be the most exotic reaches, where kids from Cocoa Beach will only dream of going. References to learning something new, gaining some cultural experience, speaking a foreign tongue (although poorly), eating weird food and witnessing some tribal bizarreness are all important. And the music must be inspiring, whether it be a metal-driven frenzy to get you pumped, or some melodic mood-setter to watch a picturesque sunset by. Of course, this particular brand of movie must also include sections of the goofy things surfers do when there are no waves.

Now, for the list:

1. THE ENDLESS SUMMER (1966) Director Bruce Brown flawlessly crafts the story of two SoCal surfers traversing the globe in search of waves and sunshine. Featuring great surfing sequences, cultural exchanges, days of no waves and the hassles of traveling with boards, narrated with soothing certainty by Brown himself, this is the benchmark docu-surf movie.

2. FIVE SUMMER STORIES (1972) A compilation of surfing adventures in Hawaii and California with performances that were revolutionary at the time. This, coupled with the wonderful soundtrack by Honk and a stellar sequence at Rincon, makes it one of the genres most memorable movies.

3. BIG WEDNESDAY (1978) Per surfers, Hollywood's only credible version of the surf movie. (This is more than likely due to the fact that John Milius, the director, was a surfer.) The picture's ability to record the solace of a session (William Katt's pre-departure to Vietnam sequence), the depiction of the surf clique at The Point and the Baja madness trip make this a classic. * I am putting in a chick's vote for Gidget at number 3 1/2, because it first recruited girls to the beach with boards of their own, where they are now a force to be reckoned with.

4. FREE RIDE (1976) Groundbreaking for its in-the-tube photography of South African world champion Shaun Tomson doing some of the most insane tube riding ever recorded.

5. MOMENTUM (1992) The definitive hard-core surf flick from the guy who's radically redefining the genre. Taylor Steele documents and delivers to video the most outlandish and unbelievable surfing moves as they are created--before you see any of the hot guys at your local beach doing them.

Footnote: People are buzzing about Step Into Liquid, an upcoming release from Dana Brown, son of Endless Summer director Bruce Brown. Traveling around the world from the mountainous waves of the Cortez Bank (100 miles off the coast of San Diego) to Hawaii to document "tow-in surfing"--the latest craze in surfing monster waves--his flick promises to be the newest surf classic.

Lynda Obst Is a producer at Paramount Pictures and the author of Hello, He Lied (Broadway Books).

10 GREAT SONGS BY GREIL MARCUS

1. "PIPELINE," the Chantays (1963)

2. "I'M THE OCEAN," Neil Young (1995)

The pipeline is what surfers used to call the space under the curl of a wave before it breaks; to ride it is to be simultaneously inside the water and suspended in the air. This instrumental, little more than a pulse, went to that spot and never left. But with an expanding whirlpool of a sound--in a song about the O. J. Simpson case, among other things--Young went farther, deeper, convincing you he'd never come back.

3. "WEINERSCHNITZEL," Descendents (1981)

But when you do come back, you're hungry. Really hungry. Which is why this song is over and done with in just 11 seconds.

4. "SURF CITY," Jan & Dean (1963)

Utopia. The touch of the sun, the kiss of the water was all very well, but against two girls for every boy," forget it.

5. "SURFIN' BIRD," the Trashmen (1963)

From Minneapolis: They didn't have waves in the Midwest, so people rode this instead. All the way to California, down to Texas, over to Boston, back to the Land of 10,000 Lakes.

6. "SURFER GIRL," the Beach Boys (1963)

7. "SURFER GIRL," David Thomas and Two Pale Boys (1997)

As a surf band, the Beach Boys were always a better car group. (Which would you rather hear, "Surfin' USA" or "I Get Around"?) This song, though, was touching, catching what happened on the beach when the waves went down with the sun. In Thomas' version the feeling is desperate, as if inside the 20th-century reverie is the 19th-century folk ballad "Down on the Banks of the Ohio."

8. "SURFIN' ON HEROIN," Forgotten Rebels (1983).

"I'm swimming in a sea of puke," says punk Mickey De Sadist. He wasn't the first.

9. "WIPE OUT," the Surfaris (1962)

10. "SURFER JOE AND MOE THE SLEAZE," Neil Young (1981)

Guitars toss a surfer into the air and pound him under; by the numbers in the first two choruses, a cataclysm in the third. Flipside: A ditty about a hot dog named "Surfer Joe"--who turned up again nearly 20 years later, smuggling dope, beyond caring, inspiring both Young's most laconic vocal and his most physical guitar playing--which is saying something. You'll never hear it on the radio, but it's the best thing here.

Greil Marcus is Interview's Music Writer at Large.

10 MORE QUESTIONS FOR SURFING'S NEXT SCREEN SIREN

INTERVIEW: What was the biggest challenge for you in making Blue Crush?

KATE BOSWORTH: Learning a new skill--surfing. I had never been on a surfboard before and my character, Anne Marie, has the potential to be a professional surfer, so it was sort of far-fetched for me. But I love Anne Marie and all of her qualities and I really wanted to play her, so I trained for a couple of months before the movie started principal photography. It was the most difficult thing I've ever had to do.

I: What about the challenge of playing your first lead?

KB: That was a big challenge. I've never been the lead in a movie before and when you have a first in something that big, you have self-doubt about what you can and cannot do. The bar [I set] for my achievements is pretty high. I expect a lot of myself and dealing with that expectation is pretty hard. The whole experience together, that and the surfing, was one of the biggest challenges I've ever had in my life--but I'm only 19, so I have many more to go.

I: What does surfing represent to you?

KB: A lot of people start surfing when they're little kids, so they don't really remember what it's like when they first stand up or that sort of thing. But for me, especially because I'm a newcomer, it represents individuality, strength and independence. Everybody has their own style in surfing and you can't really learn a style, so that represents your individuality, your uniqueness. And strength, well, you have to be incredibly strong, physically and mentally, to take off on a wave.

Surfing represents America--it's a classic American thing. And I also think it represents freedom, because surfers say that when you surf, it's the closest thing to flying, and when I think of flying I think of freedom. When you're just gliding along, you become one with nature that you can't control but only complement, and it becomes very spiritual. It's unlike anything I've ever experienced.

I: Did you grow up near the sea?

KB: Yes. I've always lived near the ocean. Originally, I was born in the L.A. area, but I've lived in a town called Cohasset in Massachusetts for the last six years. It's a seaside village.

I: After your first movie role, in The Horse Whisperer, you made a conscious--and bold--decision to go back to Cohasset, graduate from high school and then really go for an acting career full-time. Tell me about that.

KB: Well, I got my start when I was about 13, sort of by a freak accident, you could say. I fell in love with it, but I was really set on being "normal," so I took almost two years off to go to high school, and then I started acting again [in Remember the Titans, 2000, and on television's short-lived WB network show Young Americans], but not full-time because I really wanted a normal high school experience.

I: Were you able to have a "normal" experience? Did the kids look at you and go. "Hey, what's Denzel like?" or was it more a combination of that and "Hey, what answer did you get for number three on the math test?"

KB: [laughs] Yeah. That's definitely more what it was like.

I: You're weeks away from the premiere of your first lead role in a major movie, opposite Michelle Rodriguez, Matt Davis and some other great young actors and actresses. Princeton's on hold for now, but awaits you in the near future. What's this moment like for you, when anything's possible?

KB: It feels like the world is my oyster. It's so surreal. I believe that what you put into the world is what you get out. People have luck and hot streaks and that sort of thing, but I think if you work hard and you're a good person, then you'll get what you deserve in the end. But at this moment I feel blessed and I am so much more excited than nervous.

I: Are you scared?

KB: Oh, definitely. I would be lying if I said I wasn't. I have a hundred insecurities and a hundred fears. My greatest fear is living up to what I expect of myself. I mentioned it earlier, but my standards are really high, so my fear is that I'll fail in my own eyes--rather than anyone else's. The other thing I truly believe is that everything that happens happens for a reason, so if people don't like the movie, or if they love it, that's what was meant to be. That's how I stay sane.

I: What do your friends and family think about all that's going on for you right now?

KB: My family has been really supportive. My mom used to work with [producer] Jerry Bruckheimer [as his assistant] before I was born, so she knows the business a little bit. And that's helpful, because she can give me advice. My dad is the one who keeps me grounded; if he ever saw any flicker of ego or anything like that, he would rip me out of the business so fast I can't even tell you. [both laugh]

I: How do you feel about the possibility of being embraced as a major new talent?

KB: Wow. Well, if so, my arms are open.

Actress Michelle Rodriguez was most recently seen in Resident Evil.

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