Olivier Martinez, has it been a while since you've been in a church?

Martinez: The only time that I go to churches now is for a wedding, or if someone is dead.Did you like the fact that the werewolves in this weren't doing grotesque transformations, and they weren't all that evil? Was that attractive to you?

Martinez: Yeah. That was one thing that convinced me to do the part, because as an actor you never know how the special effects are going to turn out when you're always wearing makeup. Sometimes it works extremely well, and sometimes it's a bit ridiculous. So at least in this case I was sure that my part would be done by a real wolf, and I thought that was cool.You had a chance to adopt a wolf, I heard?

Martinez: One of the producers adopted a wolf in my name. So there is a wolf running around in America called Olivier. This is in America. In Romania, the wolves are not protected. They don't care about them because there are plenty. In America, you have to take care of them because they will go extinct. I think that it's on a natural reserve in Wyoming. I'm not sure, but it's a big one.Were you scared working with the wolves?

Martinez: No. They smell your fear and then you become potential prey. I'm scared to death of crocodiles, for example, but not with wolves. I go to Australia and I saw them because I'm fascinated with them. I'm so scared by crocodiles that I had to actually go see them in the wild. ... Maybe in another life I was bitten by one. I don't know. But how can you explain it when someone has a phobia of a spider or a snake? When you face a crocodile of 5 or 6 meters, I don't know—the wolves were OK, though.How was it working with a female director?

Martinez: As a man, I'm not dealing with a woman professionally like I'm dealing with a man, because we don't have the same way to communicate. I would say that with a man I can be more straight and tough. With a woman it's a different feeling. I know that we're all human beings, but I believe in differences, and I believe that women are different than men.What made you want to do this movie? It's very different for you.

Martinez: The wolves. Honestly, the wolves. Of course I was very happy to work with the team and the people involved in the film, and I was very happy with the story of the movie and my part, but I think that if I would have had to play a sheep I probably wouldn't have been fascinated. I wouldn't have done that. I like wolves. I have a thing for wolves before even doing the movie.Were they like dogs? Could you pet them?

Martinez: They're not like dogs. You don't pet wolves too much, and if you do—no. It's about respect and no fear and behavior. You cannot mess with them, and that's what I like.Did you know about the loup garoux and all the werewolf legends while growing up?

Martinez: Yeah, it's a mythical way to explain the animal part that's inside of us, which is inside us. It goes back to the time of the Middle Ages in Europe. It was not created or invented in Romania. I think that it comes originally from human beings, and they tried to express their wild side through these kinds of things. It's a very mythological way. Yes, in Europe for a lot of time, wolves had a very negative image because they were competitive with human beings about hunting, because they're great hunters. Did you do a lot of research before doing the film?

Martinez: You better study what you do. Otherwise there is a problem. If I play a biker in a movie and I don't know how to ride a bike, I'm not doing my job properly. That's how I think I have to do my job. If I do a role, it's because I'm going to learn through the role that I'm doing. It's my way to experience things at times. We are very lucky, and it's a gift for an actor because we get to play a bullfighter, sailors, cooks, presidents, and, of course, we're not those things. So that's a way to get the feeling of it, and I love it. I think that I have many lives because of that, even though I don't have two lives. I'm very clear about who I am and what I'm doing in movies, but I think that it's what is interesting. In this case it was about wolves.Your director says she thinks you're like a wolf. What do you think?

Martinez: I take that as a compliment. Honestly, it's difficult for me to picture it myself. The only way that I can see myself is through the eyes of others, as an actor especially, but Katja [von Garnier] said that. I know she did because she told me that. I have a natural feeling for wolves, but I can't explain why Katja said that.What about the animal influence? Does everyone have it, do you think?

Martinez: It comes out from nature, because we're part animal or we're animal. We're bred on this earth, and we decided because we're human beings and we have a great capacity for intelligence and adaptation with civilization to put ourselves above animals. Now when we say that someone is an animal, that's very bad. That's quite contrary when you see that we're the baddest by far, but we don't picture ourselves like that because we have a superiority complex with our breed, and I try to work with humility. So I don't think that I'm more important than a wolf on the earth. We are all important.So you don't see your character as evil?

Martinez: From the point of view of a human being, maybe my character is bad, but from the point of view of a wolf, I think that I'm a kind of hero. You're trying to survive while you're being brought to extinction by another breed. Human beings killed millions of wolves. Wolves didn't kill millions. Probably throughout history wolves have killed thousands of human beings. I think that the balance isn't very equal. See, I'm feeling the character now, but it's true. If I were a wolf you would hate me. I'm kind of like the chief commander of a war, and there are very few. We have to play by the rules or the wolves will be extinct.How did you approach your character as an actor?

Martinez: Well, there are different kinds of approaches to a role, but for that one particularly I had to have a kind of Romanian accent. So I had to hide my little French accent behind my Romanian accent, and then I worked a lot on the wolves' behavior. I was studying them first at home with books, and I have a friend who is a specialist in vampires and werewolves, and they gave me a big help. I went to see him and he gave me descriptions of things about how the werewolf was presented in civilizations and everything. Then I had to learn what you cannot learn in the books, which trying to see the wolf and trying to fight for them and work with them. You try to do as much as you can, but sometimes you cannot do everything that you want, and so you adapt.Do you like comic books and superheroes?

Martinez: Oh, yeah. I don't know why anyone hasn't offered me a superhero. Maybe because I don't speak the language. [Laughs.] We don't have superhero in France. We have super-cook. I love comic books, but they never cast me as a superhero. I would love to do that. I love Marvel.What was it like working with Agnes Bruckner?

Martinez: Oh, what a great experience. She's great, actually, and very young, and her talent is ageless. So you can work with a very young actress and actor and see that they [are] extremely gifted. We were always fighting in the scenes, and we were always nice behind the scenes. I love that also. Actors who stay in their character for all the shooting, that's really annoying. In between scenes there are things to eat and things to bite, so at one point you have to go, "OK, it's just a movie. Take it easy."

Agnes Bruckner, do you have an adopted wolf, too?

Bruckner: I got this gift certificate that I adopted a wolf at the end of the shoot, but there's no continuing communication with it. I hope my wolf is all right.How was it working with the wolves?

Bruckner: It was great working with wolves. It's kind of like weird, but it was fun. The trainer, the guy that owns them, is a Hungarian guy who has a special relationship with them. He would start howling and then they would. They are really wild animals, very bizarre. Very cool.Did you pet them?

Bruckner: I could have pet them, but I chose not to. After all, they are wild. They weren't afraid of us, but they are really skittish.What's it like working with Olivier Martinez?

Bruckner: Olivier Martinez is much different from what you would think. He's not just the sexy guy you expect. He is a sexy guy, of course, but he is different. He is funny, he is nice. And Hugh Dancy and I got along great and made jokes and fun of each other.What made you want to take this role?

Bruckner: It was the idea of playing a werewolf. It is cool, like the legends. It's a kind of fantasy, like being a vampire. When I was a little girl, I wanted to be a witch and I went to what I thought was witchcraft store, but what I bought was a witch cookbook. Me and my cousin did a spell and took a bowl of rice with water and threw it in the air, and it was supposed to rain. When it didn't work, I remember getting really mad, and I didn't want to be a witch anymore.Do you have a favorite werewolf movie?

Bruckner: I like Wolf with Jack Nicholson. I really like that one. Most of the ones I've seen are werewolves more like monsters than anything.What was the hardest part of the shoot?

Bruckner: The hardest thing was being in a cast of my body, and I was in on this cast and put on this caterpillar thing, and my arms were out and it was so painful and exhausting. Flying through the air, that kind of stuff, running and stuff like that is fun, it's like being a kid again.What was it like having a female director?

Bruckner: It was easier to talk to her feelings of love, and the love story is so important. That kind of thing is so important, and a girl knows about love in a different way. She was very cool, passionate and spiritual, but also got the dark side pretty well.

Katja von Garnier, tell us about the werewolf transformation scene.

Von Garnier: It was so important to me that the transformation look smooth and that it seem beautiful and natural. I also wanted to work with wolves; that was a motivating factor. I wanted this to be a werewolf version of Romeo and Juliet. What I saw when I read the script was something that was mythical and mystical, but I wanted to make an anti-genre story, I wanted to do something beautiful, a graceful transformation. Traditionally, werewolves are cursed and have hair growing out of parts of their body. I wanted this graceful leap when they transformed, and that's what we have. It's Romeo and Juliet with wolves.What is this connection you have with wolves?

Von Garnier: The animals are amazing. I have this wolf connection, and I wanted the actors to learn about them. They are much more afraid of us than we are of them. They have a grace and beauty, but they are dangerous.How was it working in Romania?

Von Garnier: Great, my husband shot second unit, and we brought our dog out there. The abandoned and unfinished buildings helped set the scene for us, we used many of those buildings. It gives a sense of a strong old community. The people were warm and wonderful, but it was a hard six-days-a-week schedule.What about Olivier do you see that's so wolflike?

von Garnier: Olivier is very strong and spirited. He has it in the looks of his eyes. He brought a lot of spirit to the film with his ideas. He is hunted by men, and he totally got that in his character. He has the charisma and a strong spirit. You can't tame him, I would think.