interview
Catherine
Catherine Zeta-Jones, Mission Hills Hainan, October 2010
Zeta-Jones HK Golfer meets the Oscar-winning and golf club-wielding actress at the Mission Hills Star Trophy, a pro-celebrity event on China's Hainan Island PHOTOGRAPHY BY VICTOR FRAILE/GETTY IMAGES
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atherine Zeta-Jones's presence in Haikou, northern Hainan, is a little perplexing. Her husband, Hollywood grandee Michael Douglas, was diagnosed with throat cancer in August and she hasn't made a public appearance since the Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor w here, as a proud Welshwoman, she was heavily involved in the pre-event festivities. You have to think that turning up to compete in a pro-celebrity golf tournament on the other side of the planet would not be high on her list of priorities. But here she is and, without trying to sound too much like a fawning little toad, she is utterly delightful and engaging. As far as fame goes, Zeta-Jones sits right up there with Tinseltown's biggest and brightest stars. An Oscar winner thanks to her role in the universally acclaimed 2000 film adaption of the musical Chicago, Zeta-Jones recently picked up another award – a Tony – for her portrayal of Desiree in the Broadway hit, A Little Night Music. Now 41, the surprisingly petite but still ridiculously beautiful star of Intolerable Cruelty and The Mask of Zorro has entered the interview room to talk about golf, a game that she says provides a "wonderful solace." While it is made clear to us, a small group of journalists, beforehand that she'd rather not answer any questions about her husband's health, a British tabloid hack sneaks one in anyway, and Zeta-Jones responds by saying, in her slightly odd Welsh-American twang, that it is "business as usual" in her family. It is a potentially awkward moment but, just like all the questions she fields over the next 15 minutes, she handles it with aplomb. Given what has been going on in your life lately, have you been using the golf course as a place to escape? There’s nothing better than having nothing to focus on than a still white ball. And nobody’s looking. I find it very therapeutic. Even if you can’t hit the ball on that particular day, there is a privacy and a Zen quality to golf that I love. What is it specifically that you get out of the game? There’s a reason a lot of actors carry golf clubs along with their script when they go to work on a movie, because there are days when you have time off and 68
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it’s not easy to walk around sightseeing when people recognise you. There’s a wonderful solace from being out there on a beautiful course, wherever you are in the world. Let’s turn to your work and your recent success. How was the experience of such a long run on Broadway? It was extraordinary. It had been 20 years since I had done a run like that. I’d done onenight concerts and Chicago but nothing like that. When I started rehearsals and started to work it was like, “Why has it taken me so long to do this?” It’s a great experience, and then I won a Tony award and it really was unexpected. But it was great. How does that sort of reaction – and the reaction when you won your Oscar – really affect the options for an actor? Well, after I did Chicago the movie, I had every week on my desk another offer to do a musical as a film. And musicals are great to do as a film. But when they are good, they are good, and when they are bad they are horrid. What about Xanadu? But I was lucky to be part of something really magic on celluloid. Everyone thought those days were gone after the black-and-white era, and some of the musicals that have come since should have been left in the black-and-white era. But now, after my stint on Broadway, every revival of a musical is coming my way, so now if I went back to Broadway I think I would have to do straight drama. HKGOLFER.COM
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What do you most like about these world travels? What I do find when I travel around the world is that people want to take you to the most extraordinary places. I’m not just saying this because I’m sitting here in Mission Hills, this is something that I find extraordinary – it blows my mind to see something like this facility. And the chance to see these things is just something in my life that is wonderful. And of course it’s golf that has brought you here today. Are you nervous about competing in an actual event? This is t he f irst real tournament I’ve played in. I’ve played in my husband’s charity event and I’ve played a few holes as a celebrity. But it’s a wonderful camaraderie, which is what I find one of the attractions of the game.
So what sort of productions are you now actively working on or chasing? I am open to all mediums of the business. I bought a book a few years ago, from an Australian author [Pulitzer Prize winner Geraldine Brooks] called People of the Book, which I’m producing as a mini-series, and I’m starring in that, so that will be a first for me. And the movie industry is in a very strange time at the moment. Unless you’re making X-Men 71 or whatever number they’re up to, or Spiderman 51, it’s really hard to find backing. But what opportunities does that leave you to explore? I like those little pieces, what I call grown-up movies. Low-budget films, where people talk. But it’s very hard to get them made, and I think that economically the movie industry has been hit like everything else. I think it’s a strange time, so that’s why I’m using this time to get my golf good and I’m also starting to write a onewoman show with music and dance, so that’s something I need to put my head around. Would this be something you’d keep small or do you have plans for world domination? Well it’ll be on stage but it can expand and, who knows, maybe they can put it on film. It’s 70
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nameless at the moment so it’s just putting ideas into a melting pot and seeing how it goes. It would probably start in small venues around New York and America. The last time you appeared in public was at the Ryder Cup in Wales. How big an event was that for you? It was really important for Wales as a country, to put it on the map on a different level. Then to have a win, in Wales, was terrific. I did the opening speech and it was really wonderfully done – I was really proud of Wales. It’s like anything, like when Beijing had the Olympics, the whole world is watching and you always have to live up to what has come before, and it’s a strain for a small country like Wales. So I was really proud of how they pulled it all off. You’ve been in China for a week, coming here to Hainan from Shanghai. Where to next? I’ll from here go to Beijing for four days and I’ve been last week in Shanghai. It’s a bit like doing London in half a day – “Look! There’s Buckingham Palace!” – you can’t do everything you want to. But I came here and I wanted to feast and see as much of it as I could in the time that I had.
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Yes! I’ve wanted to do just that. I’ve thought about rolling my bag into a lake. Sean Connery actually did that, you know. He threw his clubs away. I played with Sean when we were doing the movie Entrapment and then I saw him and said “How’s your golf game going, Sean?” And he said “I don’t play golf!” And he’d done just that, thrown his clubs away. But I haven’t quite gone to that stage yet – we’ll wait and see.—As told to Alex Jenkins
Proud partner: ZetaJones has worn the Welsh dragon on her golf spikes ever since it was announced that Wales would host the 2010 Ryder Cup (left); with eventual Mission Hills Star Trophy winner Lorena Ochoa.
You mentioned earlier that you play a lot with Michael [Douglas]. Does he ease up on you or is it all-out war? You know, he’s never even given me a shot, not one stroke. He’s much better than I am, but I’m a dancer so I can see what’s right or wrong with a person’s body and where they are putting their weight. I can’t actually do what’s right myself but I can see what’s wrong in another person! So what made you actually pick up the clubs and learn how to play golf? I was doing a movie called The Phantom, it was my first A merica n movie, but t he movie was shot in America and Thailand and Australia on the Gold Coast. And when I couldn’t go back to Wales when I had time off, I thought I’d just buy myself some cheap clubs and whack the day away. But my husband is a great golfer so we would play and I just love it. But anyone who has played knows the game can be utterly frustrating. Have you ever wanted to throw your clubs in a lake? HKGOLFER.COM
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