Emilie de Ravin Interview

This Saturday at 9 pm/ET, Lifetime presents its latest adaptation of a Nora Roberts novel. High Noon stars Aussie beauty Emilie de Ravin as Lieutenant Phoebe McNamara, a hostage negotiator who struggles to juggle her intense job with the demands of raising a daughter and tending to her agoraphobic mother (played by Cybill Shepherd). Then, a handsome man (Charmed's Ivan Sergei) and a psychopath enter her orbit, making life all the more complicated.

De Ravin spoke with TVGuide.com about the TV movie, as well as the many other star-studded projects (Depp! Bale! Jackman!) keeping her busy.

TVGuide.com: Did you go into High Noon familiar at all with the Nora Roberts novels?
Emilie de Ravin: No, actually, and I've been fascinated ever since. I had a really great time researching the novel to find our more character traits. She's a wonderful writer with a great insight into female characters — and in a strong way, not in an insipid way.

TVGuide.com: Did you do anything special to get into the mindset of an expert hostage negotiator?
De Ravin: I did a lot of research and some on-set training, as far as weapon-handling and how things work. I'm the kind of person who likes to get familiar with the reality of a situation.

TVGuide.com: Hostage negotiators are almost like psychologists, the way they have to get into a person's mind.
De Ravin: And yet they have to be very gentle when negotiating, or all hell's going to break loose.

TVGuide.com: What's the saying, "Make them feel as if every decision is their idea"?
De Ravin: Yes, and make them feel that even if they are doing the wrong thing that they're not, because you want to get the hostages out of the situation. It's a catch-22.

TVGuide.com: Cybill Shepherd is so good as Phoebe's agoraphobic mother.
De Ravin: She's a great lady and a great actress. Ivan [Sergei] was amazing, too, and the little girl who played my daughter was just.... Oh my god, it broke my heart when we had to say goodbye.

TVGuide.com: Speaking of keeping good company, you have Public Enemies — the John Dillinger pic with Johnny "I can do anything" Depp and Christian "I'm Batman" Bale — coming out in July.
De Ravin: It was a great experience, and a very unique one for me. I've worked quite a lot, but never in a situation where there's such an enormous budget and such a huge cast. And you know, people don't need to be famous to be talented. But [Depp and Bale] are both. They're amazing people, not tainted at all.

TVGuide.com: Now help me out with Rogue's Gallery, which almost seems like a tongue-in-cheek take on a genre.
De Ravin: I would best describe it as an action-comedy about government assassins working for a top-secret facility. That was a fun, fun film to work on, because I haven't explored much comedy. But I'm always trying to challenge myself in different ways.

TVGuide.com: And what's the skinny on The Chameleon?
De Ravin: It's based on a true story that was detailed in this amazing article in The New Yorker last August, and it's just mind-blowing the things this guy did. He started by calling his mother as someone else and reporting himself dead, and by 2005 he had assumed the identity of, like, 39 teenage boys — all false identities, and not for any malicious reason. He just did not want to be himself.

TVGuide.com: You've also voiced your first animated film, Guardians of Ga'Hoole.
De Ravin: And I had the most fun time. Zack Snyder (300) directed, and the cast had Hugh Jackman, Hugo Weaving, Geoffrey Rush, David Wenham....

TVGuide.com: What a tease, since you all probably showed up for recording sessions at different times.
De Ravin: Of course, of course! You never get to meet anyone. But for me, it's something that's creative in a different way, using just your voice.

Source: TVGuide