Too old to be a sex symbol: Kathryn

SHE’Sthe first woman to win an Oscar for direction in the Academy of Motion Pictureand Science’s 82-year history, and for helming an action-packed film abouta bomb defusal squad in Iraq, at that. Surely, that would put Kathryn Bigelow inthe same league as Tina Fey, the posterwoman for the thinking man’s sexsymbol.
Or, like Tina, does she believe there’s no suchthing? “I’m too old to be a sex symbol!” laughs 58-year-oldKathryn, adding, “But I think men prefer sensible and intelligent girlsover (their) beautiful but dumb counterparts for long-termrelationships.”
Does the term ‘sensible andintelligent’ also refer to the kind of films that men would prefer womento direct — less chick flick à la Nora Ephron and Nancy Meyers, andmore masculine like Kathryn’s The Hurt Locker? “By masculine, if youmean only action or sci-fi films, then I don’t subscribe to that view.Ilike to make movies I have faith in and in which the story has the potential tobe told in a decent manner. A good film should connect with people on anemotional level,” says Kathryn. So, would she ever make a more‘feminine’ film, like The Weight of Water, which she made in 2000?“If it means a story based on relationships and emotions, I’d loveto make one in the future, provided the plot is appealing,” shesays.
The Hurt Locker has also gone against the grain in its casting, withlesser-known actors in lead roles (Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie and BrianGeraghty), and bigger names like Ralph Fiennes and Guy Pearce in cameos.“There’s a convention that a star doesn’t die until the end ofa film, but that would’ve undermined the suspenseful quality of being in awar, where death can happen anytime, to anyone. I wanted The Hurt Locker to beas tense and real as possible. We had relatively fresh faces so the audiencewouldn’t know who among the three main characters was going to die,”she says.
Next up for Kathryn is the television show, The MiraculousYear, after which she’s teaming up again with The Hurt Locker screenplaywriter Mark Boal for Triple Frontier. Is it true that she was asked to directthe fourth Spider-Man film? “It’s all gossip,” is all thedirector will say.
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