Paula Garces, "Red Princess Blues" and "Harold & Kumar: Escape From Guantanamo Bay" actress: Mr. Media Interview, Part 2

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BOB ANDELMAN/Mr. MEDIA: I was thinking about the business side of all this, and I kind of guessed where Alex is coming from. He’s got a piece of animation here that sets up the feature, and I’m sure he’s trying to get financing for it. And then, Paula, I look at your side of it, and you’ve done some very high-profile things film-wise, and you’re on the rise and yet I look at this, and I think well, it’s probably worth the risk of getting involved with this because if it happens, if the live-action happens, you’re front-and-center in that. That could be a very big break, I imagine.

PAULA GARCES: Yes. When I go into a project, I don’t think about the future of what’s going to happen with the project. My immediate thought is, “Am I going to have fun doing this? Is this something that’s going to challenge me creatively?” And second, “Are the people involved with the project, am I going to be able to live with them for the next three to six months while the project is in pre-production, production, and then post-production?” You have to talk to these people and sort of live with these people, and I like everything involved with this project. I think it’s a very creative project that touched me personally. Then I liked working both with Dan and with Alex, and it also challenges me not only as an actress, but it also challenges me as a producer because I definitely want to go into the production side of the business. For me, it is right up my alley of what I was planning to do anyway. But to answer your question, did not really think about what the future would hold as far as like for my career in this piece, but you’re absolutely right. If it does take off, I am front-and-center, but then again, it’s a huge risk because if it’s not good, I am front-and center. (Laughs) I just like the challenge of being able to sort of baby the baby from the beginning and watch it grow and grow up and hopefully take on its wings and fly. And that’s what I think this project will do.

ALEX FERRARI: No pressure, thanks. (Laughs)






ANDELMAN: Alex, I want to turn my focus back to Paula in a second and talk about some of her other work, but I want to ask you about Broken. Has anything happened with Broken? I should remind people it was kind of a short horror film you did with a lot of special effects. It was very cool to watch.

FERRARI: Thank you.

ANDELMAN: I’m just wondering. Has anything developed in the six months or so since we last spoke?

FERRARI: Well, Broken pretty much has gone down the wayside. We still sell our DVDs. We have a wonderful community of independent filmmakers who follow the work that we do at my production company, and the DVDs have still been very helpful to a lot of people with a lot of the three hours of how we made it and helping them get their projects off. I get emails everyday of people thanking us for putting the DVD together and helping them out and answering a lot of questions for them.

As far as the project’s concerned, I learned a lot of what not to do on the road with Broken. There were a lot of mistakes made during that little round because I did get a lot of attention from Hollywood and from producers and things like that the first time around. Unfortunately, we didn’t, me and my former partner, didn’t have a lot of our Ps and Qs ready for the attention. Basically, the lesson learned is when you’re hot, you better move quickly because you have a very, very short window of opportunity.

So with this project, I decided to write the feature script first, then do a short, and then when the attention came on, not only would we have a short, but now we have a star attached. We also have pre-production. We also have concept paintings and a full animated movie. There is a video game trailer in the works as well that we’ve been working on for the last few months. So we have a nice package, and we’re not just presenting a script. We’re presenting a full property that can spawn off into other ways of trying to market the film and get the movie made. So that is what I learned with Broken, but right now as it is, Broken, other than we did release a book called The Art of Broken, which is also available at whatisbroken.com, which is about all the concept paintings that we do for the feature that will never be made and the short film and all that stuff. So that’s where we’ve been going with Broken.




ANDELMAN: And for Red Princess Blues, I’m guessing that you’re out looking for cash right now, and do you want to even say your…

FERRARI: No. Actually, no. I’m on vacation. I think Paula’s not doing a whole heck of a lot with it. No, of course we are. We’re hitting the pavement really hard. We launched the short on Monday on Latino Review and the first day got a quarter of a million views, and a lot of that was industry, which it’s great to put it up on YouTube and get 3 million views, but if none of those people can help you make the movie, it’s a waste of time. So one of the reasons we chose that website is because a lot of the industry does watch it, and we’ve been getting contacted by studios and producers and just interested parties at this point in the game and hopefully some money as well. We have a lot of leads right now. A lot of people are interested in the project, and we’ll see what happens with it. But, yeah, that’s the plan right now. We’re trying to get it done. We’re trying to get it in production prior to June, God willing.

ANDELMAN: Alright. And if you’re interested in helping our good friend, Alex, out with that -- redprincessblues.com or numbrobot.com.

FERRARI: We take food stamps, money, cash, credit, whatever.

ANDELMAN: Now I want to turn my attention back to Paula. So Paula…

GARCES: Yes?

ANDELMAN: Every beautiful girl on the planet wants to go to Hollywood and be on TV or make movies. You’ve done both. How do you manage to stand out in one of the most competitive settings on the planet?

GARCES: Oh my God. I have no idea. (Laughs) That’s the God-honest truth. And now that you put it that way, wow, I’m scared. How the hell am I gonna get my next job?

FERRARI: She’s so scared now. She’s not gonna…

GARCES: I’ve been extremely lucky. Listen, my family and friends will tell you I am relentless. I am extremely persistent. I work really hard, but at the end of the day, actresses are spoiled. The job is incredible. It is an incredible amount of perks to it. I have a lot of fun doing something I really enjoy. It’s basically been my dream since I was a little girl. So, yes, it’s hard work, but it’s work that I really, really enjoy and really love. And I’ve just been really, really lucky to have gotten the jobs that I’ve gotten, and I hope that I’ve done some justice to the material because I’ve really had a great opportunity to work with really great writers who, by the way, I just want to send a message and say that I fully support the strike and hope that it could be resolved really quickly so that the people who are suffering from the strike can move on and make some money and get back to work.

FERRARI: Amen.




GARCES: But other than that, I really have been very lucky to work on TV shows like “Law & Order: SVU” and “The Shield” which, by the way, I filmed the last season of “The Shield.” The first season I was recurring, and the last two seasons I became a series regular thanks to the writers and the producers of the show so I want to thank them as well. And “The Shield,” the last season of “The Shield,” should be out in May. And I’ve just been really, really lucky to be able to do things that I love. I like to do all sorts of material so I go from really serious topics like that they’re touched upon on “The Shield,” and I’m also not afraid to make fun of myself, and that’s why I do movies like Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle.

ANDELMAN: I could not have segued more perfectly myself. I want to ask you about Harold & Kumar. How did you land your role in the original? And while you’re thinking about that, did you ever think when you were filming a movie called Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle that it would live to see a sequel?

GARCES: I really did think…My God-honest truth is the script was sent to my manager. They didn’t know for sure if they wanted to make her a Latino, what they wanted to do with it, but the script that was sent to my manager, and he gave it to me and was like listen, I know the title’s a little out there but just read this. It’s really well written, and it’s really funny, and if you have the sort of sense of humor that I think you have, I think you’re really going to be into it. And I don’t know what it says about me, but I loved it. And I didn’t care that it was a small part. I knew that Maria would touch a lot of people’s hearts, and I knew what the director and the writers of the film wanted to do with the film. And I saw beyond…I saw the film being something more than just a stoner film. I really did see the undertones and the underlying social and economic issues that they were touching cause, believe it or not, if you really pay close attention, they really touch a lot of issues that a lot of comedies don’t really want to delve into, and it just comes out so funny. And I just loved it. I knew that it was going to be huge, and then when I worked with both Kal Penn and John Cho, I knew that they were going to become huge stars and because of the material that they were given and my opportunity with the film, I knew that it was going to be great. I was a little disappointed that it didn’t do so well the first time around, but because of the DVD following and it’s sort of become like this cult film and with this other huge following that it has had, the sequel was able to be made, which I’m thrilled about.

ANDELMAN: Now there’s a whole lot of funny on the screen in the original movie. I wondered if there was any funny behind-the-scenes anything while you’re on the set that may have happened that you’d like to share.

GARCES: The only thing that I can remember is in the original, I did not recognize -- oh God, his name is escaping me! -- and I feel so embarrassed now that I even mentioned it, but he’s the star of “Law & Order:SVU.” His name is Chris Meloni, Christopher Meloni, yes. I did not recognize him although him and I did not work together on a scene together in the original. I did see him on set cause they were doing his stuff separately from mine, and he came up to me and said hello to me because we had worked together prior to Harold & Kumar on an HBO TV series called “Oz.” And I had done two episodes of “Oz,” and Chris and I had met before, and then he came and said hello to me on the set of Harold & Kumar, and I did not recognize him at all cause he was in his get-up. And so I was just really embarrassed cause after that, I got seven episodes of “Law & Order:SVU,” and he was like. “You didn’t even recognize me! I’m like, “Oh, my God.” I can’t believe that sort of just slipped my mind, and I didn’t get that, but that’s how good he was in the first one. And for the sequel, it’s even better. Seriously, I didn’t think the sequel was going to be so great cause, usually, sequels sort of go down a step and maybe they take it down a notch, but they didn’t. They went even further. And I think the reason being is because the writers of the original wrote the sequel and are also directing the sequel. So it’s basically being directed from the writers’ point of view, and if you think that they went there the first one, they go even further in the sequel. So it’s great. And I had a chance to go to Amsterdam, which was wonderful.




ANDELMAN: Is that where they escaped from Guantanamo Bay to?

GARCES: Well, that’s where Maria goes in the first one, as fans remember, Maria goes to Amsterdam at the end of that film.

ANDELMAN: Oh, right. Okay. Right, right.

GARCES: And so the second one picks up right there, and so John and Kal, Harold and Kumar, are trying to get to Maria in Amsterdam, but a lot of stuff happens along the way.

ANDELMAN: So you were kind of the goal of the second movie?

GARCES: It’s kind of like what drives it, but a lot of stuff happens. And there’s still a lot of really cool people appearing, and again, of course, N.P.H., Neil Patrick Harris, is doing his thing as well which, I think, the first one sort of revived him again, sort of made him who he is again.






ANDELMAN: Paula, speaking of the end of the first movie, what I really want to know is this: how many guys see you somewhere, come up to you and say, “Fuck it,” and try to kiss you as Harold…

GARCES: That has not happened yet, thank God.

ANDELMAN: Really? If I saw you, that would be the first thing I would say. I’ve been married for twenty years, but that would be the first thing on my mind if I saw you on the street.

GARCES: Wow. Wow. I appreciate that, but I don’t recommend any guy out there to do that, please.

ANDELMAN: And I would have to follow that by and agreeing that anyone who saw Man of the House, which you were in with Tommy Lee Jones and saw you kick the guy in the bar, probably knows better than to try that.

GARCES: There you go. Thank you. Yes, absolutely. I will kick anybody’s ass if they try to do that to me.

ANDELMAN: I think we need to be clear here. It was not their ass that you kicked.

FERRARI: And after they see Princess, they’ll definitely not want to mess with her.

GARCES: Exactly.

ANDELMAN: Ah, I see. I’m guessing Princess would be kind of a little Jessica Alba in “Dark Angel”?

FERRARI: It’s a revenge movie, and she gets a lot of revenge on a lot of people. That’s all I’m gonna say.

GARCES: I’m hoping I’ll even be an ounce as beautiful as Jessica is on-screen and off-screen. I think she’s a lovely actress and a lovely person as well, but I think I’m going to be a lot meaner.

ANDELMAN: Well, I guess the last thing I’m wondering is obviously, Paula, you’re waiting for Alex to get them to back up a truck of money to make the live-action for Red Princess Blues. What else do you have in the works? What do you have already in the pipeline?

GARCES: Well, like I mentioned before, we just finished the last season of “The Shield.” Really, we finished production like a day before the Writers Guild went on strike so we lucked out there that we finished our season before the strike came on. And it’s the last season of “The Shield,” and it’s really incredible. It’s phenomenal. It picks up right from where the last season left off, and it’s just a ride. It’s action-packed, and it’s really well written. My character just goes through hell and back, and they redeem her really well at the end, and I was very, very happy with how they resolved everyone and how they left off the season, which is the finale. So I have that coming up. Of course, Harold & Kumar is coming out April 25 so I hope that all the fans of Harold & Kumar come out and tell a whole bunch of their friends and so on and so forth. Right now, I’m just taking a much-needed rest and trying not to step over anybody’s shoes, and I’m not crossing any picket lines. I’m staying very low-key back in New York City in my home, which I haven’t been for a very long time. So I’m actually taking a much-needed hiatus with my family.

ANDELMAN: Oh, great.

GARCES: And since I’m also a producer on Red Princess, my work doesn’t stop there. I have to bring as much attention to Red Princess as possible so that we can get all the money that we need.

© 2008 by Bob Andelman. All rights reserved.