Dina Meyer called my house

It’s always a good day when you answer your telephone and find Dina Meyer on the line. She was very sweet and funny and awesome.

dina-meyer

In October, Dina debuts as Barbara Gordon in The WB’s highly anticipated Batman spin-off, Birds of Prey. In December she’ll grace the big screen as a Romulan commander in Star Trek: Nemesis.

“I’ve always wanted to be in the entertainment industry,” Dina explains. “Initially I wanted to sing and dance on Broadway. I’d rather sing and dance than blow people up. Underneath all this macho exterior, I’m quite the soft girl!”

The New York native studied international business and French but never quite beat the acting bug. “I modeled when I was 9 and did that until I was about 16. When I went to college I decided that I really didn’t want to be in front of a camera anymore, so I studied marketing to get on the other side of the camera. And then when I graduated college, I realized that I kind of wanted to be in front of the camera again.”

Dina couldn’t attend New York’s Neighborhood Playhouse but was able to take lessons from a coach there. “They don’t allow you to audition. They don’t allow you to work. It’s a two-year program, and I didn’t have time to do that. I was already doing commercials and I couldn’t stop because the commercials were paying the bills for my acting lessons!”

Those lessons have had a lasting effect on her life and career. “I learned to be private in public,” she says. “I learned to put the focus on your co-star. Making the person you’re acting with more important, in return, makes you a better actor.”

Her breakout role came as professor Lucinda Nicholson on Beverly Hills 90210. “I auditioned for an Aaron Spelling pilot in New York, and he happened to see the tape,” Dina explains. “When they flew me out to Los Angeles to test for the role, Aaron said there was a chance the show wasn’t going to fly, and he wanted to know if I would consider being on one of his already-existing shows. I met with the producers of 90210 and there happened to be a new character coming on, and that was it. They relocated me out to Los Angeles in September of 1993, and I’ve been working ever since.”

It took Dina a while to adjust. “I honestly felt when I moved to Los Angeles that I’d hit a brick wall. I’m so active and driven that I’ve always had 7,000 tasks in a day, and I needed to get them all done. When I came out to Los Angeles, all of a sudden I had nothing to do. My life became about going to the gym and setting up meetings that revolved around food. I didn’t go on as many auditions because I wasn’t going out for commercials once I moved to Los Angeles. In New York, you can go on five commercial auditions a day. I would skate to the gym, shower there and go off to my first audition. I’d get home at 6 or 7 o’clock at night and feel like I’d had a full day. Then I could go to dinner or meet friends.”

Working on 90210 made up for the culture shock. “I had just gotten out of college and I couldn’t help but think at 7 in the morning when I was rehearsing with Jason Priestly that if those high school girls who couldn’t stand me could see me now … they’d hate me even more!” she laughs.

Dina starred with Keanu Reeves in her movie debut. “Johnny Mnemonic happened a week after I got off 90210,” she says. “I thought it would be loads of fun to play this kick-ass girl role.”

Next up was Dragonheart. “I hadn’t even wrapped Johnny Mnemonic,” she says. “I flew home while we were still filming in Toronto and met Rob Cohen and Dennis Quaid in L.A. I flew back to Canada to finish Johnny Mnemonic, and before I even finished the movie I knew I was cast in Dragonheart.”

She didn’t meet Sean Connery, who voiced the film’s CGI dragon, until the premiere. “He was playing golf in the Bahamas and doing his lines from a sound stage while we were freezing our asses off in Slovakia,” she laughs. “I was reacting to Rob Cohen doing his best impression of Sean Connery playing a dragon.”

The role gave Dina the get chance to get medieval with an ax. “We went through three seasons in Slovakia. They flew us out in June or July. It was so hot! I had to learn how to ride a horse and do all that ax training. It was about two weeks of training in the hot summer sun, and then we shot for five months. It was winter when we were doing all that stuff in the castle at the end of the movie, and it was freezing!”

Dina won the part of Dizzy Flores (and the hearts of generations of sci-fi fans) in Starship Troopers. She was then cast as James Caan’s wife in HBO’s adaptation of Poodle Springs, directed by Bob Rafelson (The Postman Always Rings Twice) and written by Tom Stoppard (Shakespeare in Love, Enigma). “That was really cool,” Dina says, “because I had just played three really tough female roles. There I was thinking, ‘Oh my God, I’m kissing Sonny Corleone!’

“All of a sudden the way I looked at film-making changed,” she adds thoughtfully. “It was no longer about special effects. Now it was about the acting and the words, whereas the first three films I did were primarily about the effects. With every job that I’ve had, I’ve walked away learning something new. You can only be responsible for what you do. And until I start producing and directing, I can only be responsible for the acting.”

Dina is ready for anything. “I think I’d probably produce before I’d direct. But as I get deeper into acting, I find myself being more tuned in to direction, knowing how to set up a shot, knowing how I would give a performance or how I would want another actor to give a performance. I can see myself thinking on another level.”

Nemesis marks her first step into the Star Trek world. “I’m not an avid fan, but I appreciate it and feel fortunate to be part of the franchise. I’m excited about the movie. My scenes were mostly with Tom Hardy and Ron Perlman. We had a great time. I didn’t work with the Next Generation cast. My scenes with Patrick Stewart are on a view screen, so I acted opposite his playback.”

Birds of Prey is a comic book adaptation with a new twist that debuts October 9 on The WB. The show follows the daughters of Batman and Commissioner Gordon, who take over crime-fighting in Gotham City after Batman mysteriously disappears. Dina plays Barbara Gordon, who used to be Batgirl until The Joker’s bullet left her paralyzed from the waist down. She now fights crime as Oracle, whose mastery of computers and information makes her the most dangerous woman on the planet. Ashley Scott and Rachel Skarsten round out the cast.

“I got the script on a Wednesday night,” Dina explains. “My manager called and said sorry, we’ve got this last-minute audition. It’s like cramming for an exam. I had eight pages of dialogue I had to have ready for the following day. They gave me another scene while I was there. By the time I had driven from the audition to my manager’s office, I knew I was testing the following day. I had the job half an hour after the test. Ashley and I read together and they liked the chemistry. We both had a nice reason to go out and celebrate on Friday night!”

Dina will never forget the first time she put on the Batgirl costume. “I felt like Batgirl! I grew up with DC Comics — Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman — so I grew up with these superheroes in my life and never actually thought I’d be playing one. It’s very flattering for me to be part of this.”

As Oracle, Dina shifts gears from ass-kicking babe to wheelchair-bound brain. “That’s where Barbara Gordon and I are very much alike. She was fighting crime physically as Batgirl. I was acting very physically in most of the roles that I was playing, and now I’m not.”

The wheelchair took some getting used to. “There are so many technical things we need to think about as actors when we’re in a scene, like hitting our marks, not blocking your co-star’s light, continuity, etc. You don’t want to be thinking about those things, because you want to be as present in the scene as you can be. The wheelchair, then, is just another technical thing to think about. Is it going to respond when I want it to? Is it going to turn the way I want it to? When we act, when we speak, we gesture. We use our hands. We can walk away. With the wheelchair, I’m limited with my gesturing. When I do want to make a strong gesture, sometimes it doesn’t happen when I want it to!”

For Oracle, the computer is mightier than the Bat-a-rang. “The fact that she can hack into anything and find out anything about anyone or anything is huge.”

Dina has hacked into the considerable buzz already building on the internet. “Bat-fans can very passionate. There’s a certain amount of pressure anyway when you’re launching a show, because you want it to succeed and you want people to respond to it in a positive way. I’m trying to take into consideration what the fans are saying about the characters and how they feel about the changes being made. I’m going to take whatever I can from this research that I’m doing and apply it to the character and the way I play her. I’m not going to become a wimpy, whiny character, because Barbara Gordon is super strong. Her paralysis hasn’t weakened her. It’s actually made her stronger, and in a sense more powerful. It hasn’t stood in the way of her fighting crime. She only fights it differently.”

Batman, Catwoman, and The Joker appear in the pilot, but Dina isn’t sure what other comic book characters might appear in later episodes. “A little birdie told me that Commissioner Gordon might appear,” she teases, “but he won’t know that she’s Oracle.”

Dina promises that fans will see a new side of her in Birds of Prey. “They’re going to see me kicking ass in a new way. Not physically. They will see me in the Batgirl suit on occasion when we do Batgirl flashbacks. But they’re going to see a different kind of strength than what they’re used to seeing from me. This is more of an internal strength. I’ve played girls who are strong, but they’re more tomboyish. Barbara Gordon is all woman. She’s sexy, she’s smart, she’s strong, she’s fit. They’re going to have enough scenes of me working out and training in my own way that fans will see that she has maintained her strength.”

Dina is confident that Bat-fans will be pleased with the show. “Aside from it looking really cool, I think they’re going to dig the relationships and how these superheroes act when they’re not superheroes. You’ll get super-cool bad guys and fight scenes and neat effects. I’m extremely excited.”

She also thinks Barbara Gordon will be one of her most challenging roles. “This is going to be one of the most difficult because of all her internal conflicts. You have to be able to portray someone who was shot, to have that nightmare stuck inside your head, and then to not be able to fight crime the way you were fighting it before. You have to have all of that history inside of you while being Oracle, as opposed to saying, ‘This happened and I’m over it.’ I don’t want to be over it. She’s not over it. I want to make sure I can bring all of that history to the present Barbara Gordon. I want people to see that she’s still being affected by it, but has risen above it. It’s like having the emotion but sitting on it, and letting it come out in very subtle ways. That’s the difference between ‘acting’ and ‘acting out.’ There’s a way to be sad within a scene without actually acting like you’re sad. That’s what’s going to be really challenging.”

The WB has already ordered 13 episodes. “Hopefully before Christmas we’ll get picked up for the back nine. As it stands I’m working until January. I haven’t thought much about what’s happening after that.” If Dina’s previous work is any indication, I’m willing to bet it’ll be something extraordinary.

Movie Review: Minority Report

Tom Cruise and director Steven Spielberg have joined forces for the first time in the hardcore sci-fi thriller Minority Report. The film is based on a short story by Philip K. Dick, whose work previously inspired Blade Runner and Total Recall.

Minority Report is set in Washington, D.C., in the year 2054. Even in the future, the capital of the United States still had the highest murder rate in the nation. But all of that changed six years ago when the Department of Pre-Crime was founded. Since then there hasn’t been a single murder. The keys to the system are the Pre-Cogs, three young humans with the ability to see the future. Their visions are so violently painful that they’re drugged almost to the point of unconsciousness and kept in a nutrient tank that keeps them alive. When they sense that a murder is about to happen, their visions are displayed on monitors that can be manipulated by Pre-Crime detectives to discover the scene of the uncommitted crime and the face of the would-be murderer. Agents are dispatched to arrest the accused before the crime is even committed. The would-be perpetrators are cataloged, warehoused and completely removed from society.

Cruise plays John Anderton, the brightest of the Pre-Crime detectives. Watching him perform his job is fascinating. When the Pre-Cogs are jolted to life by a new vision, Anderton calmly says, “This will be case number 1108.” Random bits of visual data from the upcoming murder flash wildly onto flat glass screens while Anderton’s gloved hands arrange them in a kinetic techno-ballet of movement and imagery. If a detail seems frivolous, he shoves it aside to see something more relevant. After Anderton has pointed the most significant details into place, he and his team are ready to make the arrest. Spielberg and the actors play these scenes perfectly: Minority Report injects more dramatic intensity into stopping a murder that hasn’t even happened yet than most action films can muster from a chase scene packed with explosions and gunfire.

The system has been so effective in Washington, D.C. that the Department of Pre-Crime is ready to expand across the United States. But the Department of Justice isn’t so sure that the system is perfect, so the Attorney General dispatches an ambitious agent named Danny Witwer (Colin Farell) to find any flaw that might shut Pre-Crime down.

The resulting discussions between Anderton and Witwer provide some of the film’s best fireworks. And by giving the Witwer character a theological background, the writers also provide the film with a subtle outlet for ethical objections against a system that punishes people for crimes that haven’t been committed. We’re seeing something similar in the news right now; cloning is finally a reality, but is it right? Other aspects of the Pre-Crime debate have relevance these days. In the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, the U.S. government is going deeper than ever before in its investigations of suspected terror accomplices, often making up the rules as it goes.

In Minority Report, the implications are fascinating. Obviously, the streets are much safer because every murder is prevented. The unspoken by-product, of course, is that people are terrified to even think about murder, much less commit one. “There’s a flaw,” Witmer warns Anderton as he contemplates the right of Pre-Crime to jail a person who technically hasn’t committed the crime. “It’s human. It always is, John.”

John Anderton knows all about human flaws. He still blames himself for the disappearance of his young son, an event that destroyed his marriage and drove him to a drug habit that he still hasn’t shaken. And all that’s left of his world comes crashing down when, during a routine assembly of an upcoming homicide, the face of the killer turns out to be his own.

The plot description alone is inherently energetic. What happens when a cop who can see the future sees himself murder a person he’s never even met? Can the future be changed? Yoda will tell you that “always in motion is the future,” but Steven Spielberg isn’t George Lucas and Minority Report isn’t Star Wars. We ultimately know where Minority Report has to go. The excitement comes from how Spielberg gets us there.

Anderton is a fugitive from justice the second he sees himself on that screen, but he knows he’s been set up. But has he? The implications are brilliantly played. When one of his Pre-Crime teammates wonders why Anderton doesn’t just turn himself in, Witwer coldly replies, “Because he thinks he’s innocent.” Anderton has to solve a future murder in which he’s the killer, and what he finds will challenge everything he knows about himself and the system he so strongly believes in. All of the film’s mysteries are revealed slowly but effectively, including the meaning of the title.

The look of the film is one of the biggest keys to its success. Production designer Alex McDowell (The Crow, Fight Club) has created a very believable and surprisingly sanitary future for Minority Report. The urban sprawl of Washington D.C., for example, evokes the beautiful architecture of Coruscant rather than the harsh, filthy cityscapes of Blade Runner. The aircraft used by the Department of Pre-Crime are reminiscent of Boba Fett’s Slave I. Hovering above their target, the craft open their rear doors to deploy Pre-Crime agents on jet packs who exit the ship from a revolving Ferris Wheel-type rigging. The film features some incredible car designs, and ingeniously demonstrates how futuristic advertising works without being obtrusive to the storytelling. Cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, who previously photographed A.I., Saving Private Ryan and Schindler’s List for Spielberg, seamlessly incorporates McDowell’s amazing designs into Spielberg’s narrative framework. In Attack of the Clones, the special effects were too obviously computer generated and often detracted from the storytelling. In Minority Report, everything looks natural and realistic.

Minority Report juggles many genres with effortless effectiveness, all while posing big questions. It’s a sci-fi movie, it’s an action thriller and it’s a gritty, film noir murder mystery. Spielberg has always been an innovative action director. Discussing the most clever tricks he uses in Minority Report would give away too many surprises, but rest assured that Spielberg uses the concept to create pursuits and escapes that audiences simply haven’t seen before. There’s also a great deal of purity to the science fiction of Minority Report. The film is not afraid to subject its hero to grotesquely disturbing unpleasantness, and Spielberg can’t resist adding bits of his morbid sense of humour to some truly gross-out moments. (Remember the scene in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom when they ripped that guy’s heart out of his chest? You haven’t seen anything until you’ve seen Minority Report.)

Just like Spielberg, the cast delivers. Cruise, equally capable of physical and emotional intensity, is perfect for something like this. He’s believable in the action scenes but even more impressive in the film’s most emotional moments. The script is often shockingly unforgiving in its treatment of John Anderton and asks a lot of Cruise, who allows Spielberg to guide him through one of his most interesting and accessible performances in years. Colin Farell, who’s playing the villainous Bullseye in the upcoming Daredevil movie, matches Cruise’s intensity with an arrogance that’s easy to despise. Kathryn Morris admirably brings Anderton’s ex-wife, Lara, to life with a sensitive portrayal, and Max Von Sydow is as excellent as ever as Anderton’s mentor. Samantha Morton, as the Pre-Cog called Agatha, creates a courageously vulnerable performance here. Tim Blake Nelson (Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?) and Peter Stormare (Fargo) are memorable in supporting roles.

Mysterious, suspenseful and magnificently thought-provoking, Minority Report marks a welcome return to top form for both Cruise and Spielberg.

Regarding THE BOURNE IDENTITY

Sylvester Stallone was fed up with unfulfilling supporting roles, so he created Rocky Balboa and wrote himself a career. Matt Damon and Ben Affleck did the same thing with GOOD WILL HUNTING, winning Academy Awards for their screenplay and writing a role that scored a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Robin Williams. Damon himself was nominated for Best Actor and deserved it, but ultimately lost to Jack Nicholson (who also deserved it).

Damon gave a strong performance in the excellent card shark drama ROUNDERS in 1998, and Steven Spielberg snagged him for the title role in SAVING PRIVATE RYAN. Voice-over work (TITAN A.E. and SPIRIT: STALLION OF THE CIMMARON) complemented self-deprecating comedic roles in Kevin Smith films. Damon proved himself an interesting leading man (THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY, ALL THE PRETTY HORSES) and a valuable ensemble player (OCEAN’S ELEVEN), but until THE BOURNE IDENTITY this talented actor had never taken the lead in an action film.

Now he has, and he kicks its ass.

As an Italian fishing boat navigates choppy Mediterranean waves, the crew spots a man’s body floating in the water. He is riddled with bullets and barely alive. As the ship’s doctor removes multiple slugs from the stranger’s body, he finds a piece of microfilm containing a Swiss bank account number implanted in his hip. When the man finally awakens, he can’t tell anyone what happened because he doesn’t remember anything. He doesn’t know who he is, who shot him or why he was left for dead.

As he follows the account number to Zurich, he discovers that he can speak and understand multiple languages. His reflexes suggest years of martial arts training. Even bigger surprises are waiting for him in the safety deposit box bearing the account number. Numerous passports bearing his face boast multiple identities and nationalities. He finds a massive wad of cash and a loaded gun. There’s also a name — Jason Bourne — and an address in Paris.

His search for answers quickly spirals into a deadly escape, but he doesn’t know who he’s running from or where he should be running to. Desperate and confused, he makes a deal with a girl called Marie, played by Franka Potente. He’ll give her $10,000 cash if she’ll drive him to Paris, no questions asked. What they find just might get both of them killed.

The U.S. government knows who the man is. Bourne’s superiors think he’s gone rogue, and dispatch several international assassins to take him down. It’s one of the film’s most interesting aspects — Bourne sincerely doesn’t know who he is, and the men who order his death sincerely don’t know that he doesn’t know. Everything is revealed to everyone else as the film builds to an exciting, dramatic and satisfying ending.

Matt Damon owns this film. If someone throws a punch at Bourne, he automatically blocks the punch and delivers a devastating counter-move. He doesn’t even know where these skills are coming from, and Damon plays such surprise at his own abilities perfectly. No one knows less about Jason Bourne than Jason Bourne himself, and Damon sells it like a pro. He’s a strong dramatic actor and a powerful physical presence in a film that requires a lot of both. Damon looks every bit as dangerous as Jason Bourne is.

Franka Potente made a huge impression in RUN LOLA RUN, and she’s wonderful here. She and Damon share a perfectly natural chemistry together, something owed just as much to Damon’s effortless charm as Potente’s earthy allure.

Chris Cooper and veteran character actor Brian Cox are excellent as the men in charge of the covert operation Bourne was involved with. Cooper’s rabid intensity is particularly effective. Clive Owen is the most memorable of the assassins sent to kill Bourne.

Julia Stiles is in it, too, and that makes me happy.

THE BOURNE IDENTITY moves remarkably well thanks to the exciting and efficient storytelling of director Doug Liman, whose credits include SWINGERS and GO. Most young directors tend to put style and flash before storytelling, but this film would have made the late, great John Frankenheimer proud. It features an incredible car chase sequence that could have come right out of RONIN. Liman has crafted an intelligent film that gives equal time to intrigue, action and emotion. He may be just as new to action films as Matt Damon is, but he’s equally capable.

SWINGERS and GO saw Liman acting as his own director of photography, but for BOURNE he hands the cinematography reins to Oliver Wood, who shot DIE HARD 2 and U-571 among many others. The film occurs in winter and was shot largely in Paris and Prague, giving Wood a palette of beautiful European architecture covered by ubiquitous, slowly falling snow. It’s a great looking film.

Writers Tony Gilroy (PROOF OF LIFE) and W. Blake Herron do an excellent job of updating plot and dialogue from the 1980 Robert Ludlum novel on which the film is based. Ludlum, who passed away last year, served as one of the film’s producers. (A made-for-TV movie, starring Richard Chamberlain and Jacalyn Smith, was made in 1988.) Ludlum wrote two more Jason Bourne novels: THE BOURNE SUPREMACY and THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM. And since THE BOURNE IDENTITY has rocketed past the $100 million mark in a summer packed with blockbusters, Universal is already looking to make SUPREMACY a reality. Damon has stated that he’d love to play Bourne again as long as the script is as good as the first one.

The gimmick of THE BOURNE IDENTITY is that Bourne doesn’t know who he is. Now that he’s starting to find that out, future installments will have to make sure the character is interesting for who he is rather than who he thinks he might be. As long as Matt Damon is back in Bourne’s shoes, that’s not going to be a problem.