According to Spacey, Bosworth is anything but withholding, at least while she’s on the job. In Beyond the Sea, he says, “she was completely open, she was trusting, she f---ing delivered. I think she’s going to be around for a long time.”
If there’s a thematic thread in Bosworth’s recent crop of films, it’s the harsher realities of stardom. In Beyond the Sea her Sandra Dee is all perky onscreen, but, having been sexually abused by her father, she’s a box of neuroses. And in the gritty Wonderland Bosworth was cast in her darkest role to date, as Dawn Schiller, the drug-addled girlfriend of the infamous porn star John Holmes who is caught in a murderous, downward spiral. Even in the innocently sardonic comedy Win a Date With Tad Hamilton! Bosworth was depicted as all-smiles supermarket clerk Rosalee Futch, mesmerized by an actor who in real life is not the romantic hero he plays in the movies.
“Hollywood is not a place that’s particularly easy to navigate,” Bosworth offers. “But I don’t think life in general is easy to navigate at 23. And to be in a position where everyone’s watching you live your life is even harder.”
One perception that distresses her is the idea that her role in Superman Returns proves she has finally “made it” in the industry. “The thought of that is so alien to me,” Bosworth says, sipping her mint tea. “Then what? You’re Lois Lane, you’ve made it, where the hell do you go? Or you fail and everyone hates you, so now what?” She still feels she has to work hard to score the roles she wants. “There’s never been a part that people have said, ‘We want you for it.’ It’s always been, I want to be involved, and I’m about to fight for it. And I feel that’s probably how it will be for a long time.” (Even for the role of Lois Lane, Bosworth wasn’t necessarily Singer’s one and only choice: The director also reportedly considered Claire Danes, Keri Russell and Lost‘s Evangeline Lilly.)
Bosworth adds that she’s tired of playing wide-eyed and wholesome. “To be honest, it’s really annoying,” she says of the occasionally milquetoast roles she’s offered. “I hate it. I don’t want to be seen as wholesome. I feel like I’m a good person, but I’m not that.”
John Stockwell, the director of Blue Crush, was initially concerned that the actress looked too flawless for the role of Anne Marie Chadwick, who, at one point in the movie, is referred to as Malibu Barbie. “I thought other girls wouldn’t be able to access Kate, that she’s too unapproachable,” Stockwell says. “But my daughter is mixed race and told me, ‘I want to look like that.’ Every girl wants to be her.”
