Eva Green on the Girl Power of '300: Rise of an Empire'

I'm here with the beautiful Eva Green. She's beautiful, stunning, makes my job so much easier when it's a beautiful woman on this sofa. Well, mean, more enjoyable anyway. Um, but you're, uh, you're very much more, not, not that you're not beautiful, quite scary, Rise of an Empire. They look scary now. You don't look scary now. No, which is, which is great because I read, I read a quote this morning that said, I got this lovely photo of you and it said, she has sold her soul to death himself. She's going to bring all of hell with her. Thankfully, it was a movie, a quote from a movie and it wasn't talking about you coming to this sofa. It was your character. Um, how, Rise of an Empire, amazing new movie.

Yeah, I mean, she and what is really cool is that she is a strong woman in an action film. You know, we don't have that many, you know, much often. So, she is like, she kicks some ass. She is strong, um, you know, completely irreverent.

Right.

Yeah, so she's, she's a very, yeah, bossy. She's a man in a woman's body. Right. You know. So, it's, I mean

And that's what you wanted, wasn't it? Am I right in saying that you'd just, just before you got this role, you said that you, you saw a Gladiator on TV and you said I want to play a role like that. Yes. Is this true? Russell Crowe with a wig on.

Yeah. Uh, yeah, it's a fantasy. I think a lot of women just, you know, would like to be a man just for one day or something or have the strength.

No, no, you wanted to play a love interest. You wanted to play a, uh,

Yeah, like, you know, have some balls and, you know, and just be as strong as a man and, you know, I mean it's, you know, I mean she's a woman, you know, she still, you know, sex appeal and all that. But she, yeah, she's, you know, all, all her men are quite scared of her because she, she can't tolerate, you know, lazy people, morons, just, it's off with his head straight away.

Right. We are commander.

Yeah, just, yeah, she, she has no patience. She's quite evil.

The training for this role was quite intensive, right? Like physically.

Yeah. It was like, uh, yeah, two months of intense training, like four hours in the morning. Like, yeah, two hours of burpees and lunges and lots of fun stuff. And then, uh, and then sword fighting that I loved, really cool. You know, I felt like I was in a kind of in an Asian film or something. It was very graceful and like a dance, it was really cool.

Nice. And you got your abs.

Very, yeah. Oh, not like the men, though.

Well, I mean not many of us have got abs like the men. That's one thing I will say, when you watch this movie, if you're a guy, you suddenly put the popcorn down, you're like, I shouldn't be eating this, I need to get to the gym immediately.

Yeah. They are insanely in shape. Insane. Yeah, they're, they're, yeah. It's not CGI either, it's real. Oh, totally real. They worked so hard. And, you know, just like, you also, but just before take, because I don't know how come, I don't know, you have to do that as a man, it just pops out. I don't know. I have a lack of knowledge in that department.

Funnily enough. Yeah, six pack definitely isn't my demographic. You'll be surprised but yeah, that is, that is a truth.

But yeah, they, uh, they, they just keep in shape and they're very, uh,

Yes.

Very handsome men as well. Surrounded by many.

Yes, you can't complain, really, you know. Right. Only women surrounded by knockouts. Right. It's not a prequel or a sequel, it's an equal. Because it's happening around the same time.

Yeah, exactly. This, this one is happening at sea, uh, and then while Leonidas, Gerard Butler's character is, is fighting the Persians on land.

And your, your character's in the, in the movie, your, your family have been killed by the Greeks and then you've, you're seeking revenge with the Persian army.

Yes, she was, she's Greek by birth and she was raised by the, the king of the Persian Empire. And, um, yeah, but she's force, she's completely driven by vengeance. And, um, it's kind of lovely to have that backstory because that kind of explains why she is such a bitch, you know. Understandably. You know, but it's, it's like, you know, she kind of built that strong armor in order to to survive and, you know, so she's just kind of completely, she's a maniac. It's just obsessed with vengeance. It's, yeah, she's quite crazy.

Penny Dreadful, the TV show that you've been shooting. How's, can you tell us much about that? Well

Is it top secret? I mean, it's coming out in May. It's kind of top secret. It's a showtime, um, show. Uh, it's, um, we're still shooting it. I have to go back straight to Ireland tomorrow to finish. Uh, and it's really kind of, um, my character is so cool and and extremely complex, full of secrets. And, um, kind of very smooth on the surface and she has all these demons lurking inside her. Uh, so that's, that was a

You like the darker roles, don't you? I can see that you said with the passion.

Yeah. Yeah. That's good. A complex, you know, kind of, um, not obvious straight away kind of you discover little by little, you know, what's going on. Mysterious.

And that's with Josh Hartnett, isn't it? The another

Yes, he's in it and Harry Treadaway and Timothy Dalton.

Yeah. There's lots of females very jealous of your, uh, your life, isn't there? All the men around surrounding you. All so handsome.

Yeah, I'm very lucky.

You are very lucky. Lucky woman. I'd even swap places with you. You have to watch this lady and 300, Rise of an Empire. It's really girl power in this movie, isn't it? The first one was very male dominated and this is girl power.

Yeah. Yeah, and I think girls are going to like it, you know? I mean, they're going to go with the boyfriend going, oh my God, it's an action film. I think that they're going to like it.

Which is great because the first one probably more was for the men.

Yes. For the men and you're going to.

It's for men and women. Men and women. So you're going to do twice, this movie will do twice as good as the first 300 because it appeals to both demographics. We can now watch it, men and women, females out there. Go support your fellow females. Yes. Girl power around the world. Rise of an Empire. The female empire.