Press Conference With

Jim Caviezel - Edmond Dantes
Dagmara Dominczyk - Mercedes
Kevin Reynolds - Director

Jim Caviezel: I guess there's a little dark, a little light, a little of everything, a good range. And, you know, the first time I'm going to be the star of my own film.

Q: Guy has the juicy villainous role in this take if the film. In many previous Monte Cristo's these two roles have almost had equal screen time, however this is very much your picture. Was that part of the appeal?

Jim Caviezel: I never saw any of the other Count of Monte Cristos, I didn't want to take anything from any of the others, as the basis for my acting. So I just based it really on the book, the script and what Kevin and I talked about.

Q: Dagmara, we last saw you in Rock Star. Here you are a mother, what was appealing to you about this role?

Dagmara Dominczyk: Right, when I was 15, so I took away with it a lot less than I was able to when I got the script later on. Well, what appealed to me was, when I was doing Rock Star and playing a transvestite, you know, I thought this would be fabulous to go from that to playing an almost ideal, perfect portrayal of a woman, you now, caught between two men, and a wife and a mother, and - just a stretch for me acting-wise, and I also like the character of Mercedes, that she is imperfect, that she has made, you know, difficult choices, and she's told lies and kept secrets. And the journey from when she's naive to 13 years later when she's kind of been in her own little prison - though you don't get to see that - living her life with this man who turned out to be a horrible husband and a horrible father. It was just a very complex character; I loved her vulnerability and I loved her strength. I thought to work with Jim Caviezel and Guy Pearce, and Kevin, and go to Ireland and Malta, and wear the costumes, and try my hand at this great character,

Kevin Reynolds: Well, yeah I guess initially there was a bit of hesitation in that it was not a project that I initiated; it was something that Disney was going to make. But I've always kind of had a soft spot for the classic literature, and when I heard they were going to make it, you know, I sat down and said, well, somebody's going to have to direct it; it's going to exist. So why shouldn't that person be me.

Q: As a received piece how much input were you allowed to have into it?

Kevin Reynolds: Well, once I decided to take it on, I realised that there were so many previous versions that we were going to have to do something to make it fresh, to make it new. And I watched two of the previous versions - the 1934 version with Robert Donat and the seventies version with Richard Chamberlain. But after that, I felt that each one of those was very much of its own time, and I realised we were going to have to do something that would be of this time. I Also felt that, having read the book, which is incredibly verbose and dense and full of - it's probably got 50 characters and dozens of sub-plots, and you can't possibly incorporate into a picture, that while it made a really interesting read, it wasn't very cinematic. And we needed to do something radical with it in order to make it a movie.
So relying on the fact that probably 98% of the public had not read the book, despite what they say, we took a lot of liberties with the material and simply tried to stay true to the theme of it.

Q: Jim, you look pretty accomplished with a sword. Was this a chance to live out any childhood fantasies and what paces were you put through by Bill Hobbs?

Jim Caviezel: I think I'm playing my whole childhood fantasy out being an actor and taking different kinds of roles. When I was a kid, I wanted to be a pilot and I wanted to be a doctor at once point; I wanted to be a pro baseball player. Being an actor affords you the opportunity to play all of those different people. Bill Hobbs - very thorough, taught us a lot, especially about safety. You know, I learnt fencing, I think the big thing is Guy and I both have athletic backgrounds, and I remember telling him, you know, let's do something with this - let's take it to the place that hasn't been. And I don't want it cut away, have Kevin put someone else in there because we were not good enough, you can ask him, everything we did there was us. We has stunt guys there to work with us all the time. And Guy has an excellent work ethic. I think one thing about me - my talent is just work ethic. I want to work hard and Guy equally had the same work ethic. And so elevated the fencing.