Amanda Peet Martian Child Interview

AMANDA PEET ON MOTHERHOOD, MARRIAGE AND MARTIAN CHILD.

EXCLUSIVE Interview by Paul Fischer.

Amanda Peet, who won critical acclaim in the short lived Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, admits that despite an extensive career behind her, the actress, next seen opposite John Cusack in Martian Child, finds it consistently challenging to find interesting women to play. "It's getting tougher and tougher, unless you're really an A-list star, so hopefully at some point my husband will write something for me," Amanda Peet says laughingly, referring to husband David Benioff, a successful screenwriter. "That's why I married him and then I've gotten nothing out of it so far." She is pleased at least with her current acting gig, the romantic drama Martian Child, which casts John Cusack as a recently widowed science fiction writer who forms an unlikely family with a close friend (Amanda Peet) and a young boy he adopts that claims to be from Mars. The new couple ignores some sage parenting advice from the widower’s sister (Joan Cusack) and gets more than they bargained for when a series of strange occurrences lead them to believe that the child’s claim may be true. Amanda Peet says she was attracted to Martian Child because "I thought the script was really sweet and charming and I liked the message of the movie. So I just simply wanted to be a part of it and I'm a huge John Cusack fan, so it kind of seemed like a no brainer." Amanda Peet describes her character as being "reluctantly flirting" and says "it's always fun to play that kind of girl." Asked if she is a reluctant girl in her own life, Amanda Peet laughs. "Not when I'm with my husband, then I'm a shameless flirt."

At 35, Amanda Peet gave birth to her first child and admits that balancing motherhood and acting are not as challenging or difficult as she thought. "I feel really lucky. My sister's a doctor, one of my best friends is my lawyer and they don't get to bring their children to work. The truth is that I'm quite lucky because I can be a real diva and demand that she comes to the trailer and hangs out, so I really can't complain." Amanda Peet says she relishes motherhood conceding that she "wanted to be a mom like ten years ago but I had to find the right partner."

Consistently working for over a decade, the actress Amanda Peet is still yearning for the one movie that will place her on that exclusive A-list, in order for her to pick and choose projects. "I think it has quite a lot to do with the role and it's about either doing a brilliant audition where you win a role that just gets into the hearts of people, like Renee Zellweger in Jerry Maguire. That’s why they call it a break out role, because it's just really special and winsome. They're really hard to get, especially if you can only get it through auditioning and if you choke at all, or get nervous, then it's very tough." Amanda Peet doesn’t recall why she wanted to act, but does remember that as a child, "I was a big show off and I always had quite an imagination. Besides, I don't think I would have been able to do a real job."

Amanda Peet says she is trying to use all of her seductive powers to persuade her husband to write for her, "but he just isn't having it. He just doesn't write very many roles for white women." Next up for Amanda Peet is "Real Men Cry, a movie with Mark Ruffalo and Ethan Hawke in Boston. I play Mark's wife." Amanda Peet will next be seen in Five Dollars a Day. with Christopher Walken and Alessandro Nivola. "I just finished that movie in Albuquerque. It's sort of like a father son movie, but I play Alessandro's love interest."

Martian Child

Cast: John Cusack, Joan Cusack, Amanda Peet, Oliver Platt, Sophie Okonedo, Bobby Coleman, David Kaye, Richard Schiff
Director: Menno Meyjes

After decades of playing single men in romantic comedies from the classic SAY ANYTHING to the critical favorite HIGH FIDELITY, the year 2007 marks a change for John Cusack. With roles as fathers in 1408, GRACE IS GONE, and MARTIAN CHILD, the beloved actor grows up and deserves some of the highest praise of his career. In MARTIAN CHILD, David Gordon (Cusack) is a successful science fiction author, plagued by both the death of his wife and writer’s block. When a group home worker (Sophie Okonedo) tries to pair him with a young boy named Dennis (Bobby Coleman), David initially resists. But once David spends time with Dennis, he realizes how special the boy is. The outsider (and sci-fi fan) in David thinks he might just understand Dennis best since the child believes that he’s from Mars and he’ll return there soon. David and Dennis struggle to create the most unconventional of families, as Dennis strives to learn more about being human.