Filed in Press

I’ve no complaints about love scenes

from Now / by Garth Pearce

British actress Sophia reckons it was no great hardship being paid to go to bed with Johnny Depp

She may be a vicar’s daughter from Middlesex, but Sophia Myles is delighted that Hollywood is starting to view her as a sexy vixen

Sophia Myles will never forget her sex scene as Johnny Depp’s wife in the 2001 thriller From Hell. He would take a regular pause between passion sessions and listen to classical music from a tiny piece of hi-tech equipment, fitted deep inside his ear.

‘When I asked him about it,’ recalls Sophia, ‘he said; “Oh, don’t you start.” Apparently Juliette Binoche had become really offended during their key scenes in Chocolat. She’d said: “Am I not good enough for you, then?” But I didn’t mind in the slightest and told him so. He said: “You should get one yourself.” I asked: “How much?” He said: “About “$60,00,” which is around

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The Dark Ages in Britain – Via Prague

from Screen International / by Jeremy Kay

Ridley Scott first sent director Kevin Reynolds a script for the medieval love story four years ago, but it took until earlier this year for finance to fall into place Jeremy Kay reports.

Filming on Scott Free’s epic romantic tragedy Tristan & Isolde recently started in Prague , where the Czech Republic location is doubling for England and Ireland in the Dark Ages. Directed by Kevin Reynolds (Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves, 187), the latest telling of this British myth pairs hot young British star Sophia Myles with on-the-rise US heart-throb James Franco.

The story is set shortly after the fall of the Roman Empire as the Irish king Donnchadh’s subjugation of English tribes inspires an orphan, Tristan, to lead a spirited resistance. He then meets Irish princess Isolde and their fates intertwine as the war gathers pace.

The production has moved from north-west Ireland to the outlying forests of Prague, where the crew
has erected pre-medieval buildings for several weeks of exterior shots before relocating to the city’s CKD Studio until early December. “We’ve picked some beautiful locations and have a very tight schedule, but we’ve got some very nice stuff from Ireland and Prague,” Reynolds reveals. “The technicians here are world class and their level of skill is as good as anywhere else.”

Executive producer Ridley Scott sent Reynolds a script for the film four years ago but it was put on hold until the financing fell into place. The Czech- German-UK co- production is being funded through Germany’s Apollo Media, the Czech Republic’s Stil- Iking, Sycamore Productions in Ireland and Matrix in the UK, with 20th Century Fox handling the US and Franchise serving as interna- tional sales agent.
“I was honoured he sent it to me,” Reynolds adds. “This is a great script and it’s an exciting challenge to realise it effectively on the screen. Sophia and James have been doing very well. We are sort of getting to the meatier scenes now, so it will be interesting to see how they go.”

One of the biggest challenges has been recreating an era that, to a large extent has been shrouded in mystery. “The world we are creating is one that is very obscure in terms of docu- mentation,” says Scott Free’s Jim Lemley, who serves as executive producer and worked previously with Reynolds on 187. “There is very little that tells you what it must have been like to live at that time because it was after the Roman Empire had receded. Ridley has been unbeliev- ably supportive and enthusiastic as executive producer and he has been our creative force. ” Scott is no stranger to recreating ancient worlds. Memorably, Gladiator began with down and dirty battle scenes between the Roman army and the German barbarian hordes, and the director has now embarked on Kingdom Of Heaven, a Crusades-era epic set in the 12th Century which he intends to shoot in Morocco.

Lemley, who executive produced We Were Soldiers, last visited Prague as production manager on Immortal Beloved in 1994 and is stunned by the way it has developed its services: “It’s a first class city that benefits from its present cost base. It’s well located in Europe and they have a rich history of film-makers and artisans, and a tremendously motivated workforc. In a few weeks we’ll go to the studio”6 a converted industrial site ‘that hosted Blade 2 and Hellboy.” Tiistan & Isolde is due to be released next year.

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May Fair Lady

from Dreamwatch, September 2003 / by David Bassom

Thanks to her role as Lady Penelope in the new film adaptation of Thunderbirds, Sophia Myles is set to become one
of Britain’s biggest young stars. David Bassom quizzes Myles about International Rescue’s live-action debut, and learns about her contrasting outing as a vicious vampire in the new monster movie, UNDERWORLD

Sophia Myles is about to be unveiled as Britain’s Ieading Lady. When the live-action film adaptation of the classic 1960s’ puppet series Thunderbirds hits the big screen next summer, Myles will rocket to worldwide stardom as the flesh-and-blood incarnation of the show’s beloved heroine, Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward. It’s a daunting yet thrilling prospect for the 23-year-old British actress, who finished filming the special effects-laden blockbuster in June and now faces a long wait until its release.

“I don’t know what to expect next year at all,” says the charming and lively Myles in her classy Lady Penelope-esque tones. “I’m frightened about Thunderbirds coming out, but excited at the same time. I have no idea how it’s going to do. It’s a gamble when you’re remaking something – Thunderbirds runs through the blood of British people and it’s such an institution in this country. I just hope the film does well und people like it.

“We had such fun making it, and if that shows on screen then the audience will love it. The film is so rich and there are so many different colours and characters, and you can’t really pinpoint a genre to it – it’s comedy, action, science fiction and adventure. It’s just fun – und there are not enough films that are really good fun at the moment, so it’s nice to be a part of that.

“Making Thunderbirds was an amazing experience,” she adds. “I still am in awe about it. I haven’t got over it yet. “

Pretty in Pink
Directed by Star Trek: First Contact’s Jonathan Frakes, the big-screen adaptation of Thunderbirds sees Lady Penelope, her loyal chauffeur/butler Parker (Ron Cook) and the rest of the regular International Rescue team fighting to save the world from the evil criminal mastermind, The Hood (Sir Ben Kingsley). Myles had never watched the original Thunderbirds TV show prior to auditioning for the role of Lady Penelope in its film spin-off, and was instead initially drawn to the project by the chance to star in a movie made by Working Title Films (of Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill and Bridget Jones’ Diary fame). The virtually unknown actress was also well aware that she faced exceptionally tough competition for the coveted role, and readily acknowledges that she never really believed she would win the keys to Lady Penelope’s legendary FAB-1.

“When I went to the first audition for Thunderbirds, I just thought there wasn’t a chance in Hell I was going to get the job,” she recalls. I didn’t even read the script, I just read the pages at the audition, and then Jonathan Frakes said, ‘That was fantastic! Will you come back So then I went for a screen test.
“They had about five other girls there at the screen test – I don’t know who the other girls were – and it was in full costume and full make-up and hair. Again, when I did that, I just thought. ‘There’s no way l’m going to get it’, and I just had fun with it. And then by some miracle I got the job. I was just honoured and really flattered to be offered the role.”

Once she had signed up for the project, Myles drew on several different sources of inspiration to bring Lady Penelope to life. “I watched [the original] Thunderbirds on DVD und I talked to Jonathan about the character. Ron und I also really bounced off each other, because our characters don’t really exist as individuals – it’s always Lady P. and Parker. Obviously we want to be loyal to the original, but at the same time we want to bring it forward into the future and make it appeal to a young audience of today.

“Ron und I were fortunate enough that Richard Curtis came in and wrote all of our dialogue for the tilm,” adds Myles, referring to the celebrated Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill scribe. “It’s pretty easy when you’ve got a genius like him writing for you.”

So, how would Myles describe the live-action Lady Penelope?

“I think she’s the archetypal female. Lady Penelope is not only a very strong, confident woman who can kick some serious butt, but she’s also very kind and funny as well. She’s just a really lovely role model. She never wears revealing clothes, she’s strong. she’s sexy and – even though she’s always dressed in pink – she’s in no way ditzy or stupid.

“She’s just a lovely character.”

Although the exact nature of Lady Penelope’s relationship with Parker in the TV series has been a great source of debate over the years, Myles reports that there is no romantic tension whatsover between the two characters in the movie. Instead, she guesses. Lady Penelope would be more likely to find love with International Rescue’s widowed founder, Jeff Tracy (Bill Paxton).

“Lady Penelope und Jeff Tracy definitely have an attraction to each other, although we don’t know whether it’s sexual ot purely because they have respect for cach other,” she reveals. “The producers Ieft it ambiguous. ‘They wanted to keep the script very open, so that they can go any way they like in the sequels, which we’re already locked into.”

A World Apart
Before Thunderbirds or any of its planned sequels land on the big screen, cinemagoers will get a much more immediate opportunity to see Sophia Myles in action with the release of Underworld. A fantasy-actioner which revolves around a centuries-long secret war between vampires and werewolves, the film was shot just prior to Thunderbirds, and gave Myles her first chance to really branch out in her career, following her earlier work in the likes of The Prince and the Pauper, Nicholas Nickleby, Abduction Club and From Hell.

“Underworld was really good fun,” she states. “I play a vampire called Erika. She’s basically the personal assistant to the head vampire in the house, Kraven, und she’s a feisty little minx. She’s a tomboy, she has no loyalty to anyone, and she’s on a mission to take over the whole house. I really enjoyed playing her. It was great fun and a really nice team of people to work with.

“The film really gave me the chance to do something totally different and be a bit more rock ‘n’ roll than anything I’d done in the past. I thought it would be quite cool to do an action film, because I’d never done anything like that before. I’m just up for trying different things all the time.”

While Myles happily admits that she has no particular interest in horror movies or vampire flicks, she makes it clear that she’s genuinely excited about what first-time filmmaker Len Wiseman has done with the $21 million slice of monster mayhem. “The movie looks fantastic. It’s very sleek and I think people are going to be shocked by what Len has done for the budget we were working under. I mean, they even make me look cool – which is incredible!” she laughs.

Following Underworld and Thunderbirds, Sophia Myles will change genres once agein for her next project – Tristan & Isolde, a romantic-drama set in Medieval times. The movie will complete a momentous year for her life and career.

“It’s been a really great 12 months for me,” she declares. “It was so nice for me to get out of the corset for a bit, because I’d done a lot of period drama, so to play a vampire and then Lady Penelope was pretty cool! Now I feel like I’m on this rollercoaster and it won’t stop, but I’m loving the ride. It’s really great. So much is happening, but it’s all good stuff. I’m really happy.”

Thunderbirds is released worldwide in the summer of 2004. Underworld opens in the US & UK on 19 September

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The Lady-In-Waiting

Those Tracy boys can tit about in their souped-up transports all they like, but Sophia Myles is the one who’ll really make the Thunderbirds fly. Every British actress worth her salt (and Sophie Dahl) was mooted for the key role of Lady Penelope in Jonathan Frakes’ forthcoming blockbuster, but Myles – whose movie CV includes a brief appearance in From Hell – stole their Thunder. It’s easy to see why: blonde, poised, achingly attractive and slightly upper-class (her dad’s a minister), she was to the manor born. “It’s been overwhelming,” she says of her Thunderbirds experience. “It doesn’t get much better.”

Oh but it might yet, for Myles is Hollywood-bound. “I haven’t had a shit time in LA yet!” When she gets there, she’ll be up against a clutch of English actresses, including her good friend, Keira Knightley. “We played sisters in Oliver Twist (1999) and it was lovely, because neither of us could get a job. We were like, ‘Why are we unemployed? Are we mingers?’ We even toyed with writing something for ourselves.” Not that Myles needs her own Good Will Hunting anymore. “I’m too busy! But I’m very prepared for whatever happens after this film, and I hope it continues, because I love my job so much. Love it!”

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Hollywood breakthrough began as spell on the school stage

from Richmond and Twickenham Times / by Alex Brown

THE EX-DRAMA teacher of a Vicar’s daughter from Isleworth who is set to break into the top ranks of Hollywood’s finest has revealed how his pupil got her first break appearing in a school play at her local girls school.

Sophia Myles, 23, is appearing as a vampire alongside ex-Chiswick resident Kate Beckinsale in the horror blockbuster ‘Underworld’ out next month. She is also playing Lady Penelope in the

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