Sarah Michelle Gellar, with all the success you've had in Hollywood, is it still the indies that let you do what you really want to do?

Gellar: That's an interesting question. I think that to feel really well rounded you kind of have to do them all. I think that I've done that. I've been in big-budget blockbusters, but there's no question that these are the films that are sort of the heart and soul of why we do it.Did it matter to you that it was shot in Mexico City?

Gellar: To be in a cast like this and to have the experience that we had, it wasn't so much just the beauty of the script, but there we were in Mexico City, all of us, in one hotel, and at the end of the night you're sitting at the bar and there's Brendan Fraser and Andy Garcia and Kevin Bacon. You're like, "Is this my life?" And then a story like this, where there's so much emotion and so much trust that has to come between the actors so that there is that camaraderie and those experiences.So, do indies allow you to expand as an actor?

Gellar: There's no question that it's different, and I guess the difference is that everyone there does this because they love it. Nobody was there, I promise you, to earn a paycheck. I think that we all ended up owing money by the time we were through, but you do it because you love it and because of the experience, and this one was definitely unparalleled for me in terms of just the cast and the experience. I'm 10 times the actor I was for having worked with this cast. First of all, I was pretty much the only girl among those guys. You might not appreciate it, but for me that was pretty good. That's a pretty good gig, but just to raise your game to that level, I don't know. I feel very lucky.Could you draw on any experiences of being a celebrity with this character and what she goes through with the fans?

Gellar: There are certain things that I've understood that I've experienced firsthand, but this is based on a real person that Jieho [Lee] knows. So a lot of it was Jieho's experience. What's interesting is to take my firsthand experience and compare it with what Jieho saw as an outsider and then sort of put them together because I'm Sorrow, but it's about what the theater-goers will take away. So we were sort of like the two people together who were making that happen.What about with the press?

Gellar: Unfortunately, I've had plenty of interviews that have gone the wrong way, and I've been in those experiences. It's when you know you're dying. You're sitting there and you're getting hot and you're starting to sweat and you're like, "I know this is not going the way I thought." ... [Inappropriate questions] I've had too, and domestic press. [Laughs.] ... It's so weird, because maybe I've met some of you guys like once or twice in passing, and maybe some of you I've even seen six or seven times, but you guys are coming in with questions that you need answered that are somewhat of a personal nature, and I have to be open enough to be able to answer those. At the same time, you guys have to take an impression away, so that in a very short period of time I have to give you who the essence of me is. It's a very complicated dance that has to be done. Have you ever been in an uncomfortable interview, like Trista in that one scene in the film?

Gellar: Nothing has gone, obviously, as haywire as that one. But you know, you've had nights on a talk show where the audience just isn't feeling your jokes and you just know you're dying, and you start to get hot. And you're just so aware that ... some of these rooms can be tough. If you're one on one, it's four minutes, it's quick. But you can come into some of these rooms sometimes, and if they're not feeling your movie or you, and you're just dying. Like you want them to ask you questions, but at the same time, you're kind of afraid.Is there any Britney Spears in this character?

Gellar: [Laughs.] If you're someone like Trista and you've had no guidance and you're lonely and you don't know who you are, I can't imagine the magnification that that has to add to it. So I think I understand that. I was 18 years old when my show [Buffy the Vampire Slayer] became so big, and I didn't know who I was. I was just trying to figure that, and as an actor you're constantly playing a different character and are always pretending to be someone else, but at the same time you have to keep a handle on who you are, and I think that's where a lot of actresses get lost sometimes, because that's tough. I can only imagine that it has to be the same as a pop star, because you're not just playing a character, you're a persona. When you look at someone like Gene Simmons, he can really walk that balance so well. He knows when he's onstage who he is, but he knows who he is at home too. They're not the same person, and I give him a lot of credit for that, because that's really hard, and I think that's where Trista was learning how to grow. What's so interesting specifically about Trista in this movie, yes, I was Sorrow and that was the emotion that I was there to experience, but at the same time she's the one that grows the most from learning about Pleasure and Happiness and Love. So I sort of had the biggest arc in that sense, at the same time, too.Do you think you've done a lot of small indie films since Buffy deliberately so you wouldn't be in the press, and just be able to act and grow?

Gellar: Certainly, and it's been great. One of the things was that when I was on the show, something that I was very lucky about was that I was always age-appropriate. I wasn't playing high school five years younger. She was in high school and then she went to college and then she became a mother, essentially. She had tragedy in her life. She had happiness, sometimes she didn't. She had all those things, and so as an actor I was always challenged. But the roles that I picked on the side to do were basically because of when my hiatus was. "This is what we have for the hiatus. Can you make it work?" Independents don't fit in that timeframe, because if the money doesn't come in that day it'll push and I can't do it. I only had this window. So when I left or when it was done those things, for the first time, I could take things just because of the experience and because Buffy gave me all those gifts, I've had the time to sort of go, "God, this is a great story." I signed on to this before the other actors, and so I didn't even know that I was going to have a cast like this. Because of those experiences, I think that's how you grow personally and professionally. I made four movies last year, and you can keep working, and you keep have this outside interest that you lose over the course of an eight-year show, which is not to say that it wasn't the most incredible eight years, and I wouldn't change a thing.What are you doing now?

Gellar: I work for CARE. I work for them for a couple of months each year and travel with them and do the field work as well as the work in [Washington] D.C., and I took a month off this year and went to D.C. just to learn about the legislation. That's something that I know nothing about. Most of the time as an actor you're lucky to kind of speak about it, but they're letting me learn the other side of it, which is where the money goes and who chooses where the financing goes and what projects are worthwhile and how to speak up for the projects that you want. It's all political, because who gets the money? Really, who's to determine who's the most needy? So I'm going to Africa. I'm actually going to go. I know a lot of people say they're going to go to Africa. She's actually sitting there right now organizing my flights as we speak. I'm going to Johannesburg, Tanzania to Zanzibar to see the sort of field work. I've done most of my work in South America, which are projects based more on micro-financing and female empowerment and the education of the male caste system. In Africa, you go there and it's reading, writing and clean water. It's the other side of the work that I haven't really seen, as well as the drug testing and sort of that whole side of it.I'm guessing there are no Buffy fans in Africa?

Gellar: You know what, I'm sure there are, actually. That's the funny thing. That show, I mean, I was in Bali and I kid you not, my cab driver called me Buffy. And actually I know it's on in South Africa. Probably not in Tanzania. I'll take a guess, but probably in South Africa and Johannesburg it's on. In Mexico, that's actually how I practice some of my Spanish, by watching the Buffy reruns. My makeup artist came down with me; she was on the show with me for all the years and stuff, and my Spanish—I can understand it really well, but I have trouble communicating. I don't know how to structure the sentences, and so we found that by watching stuff that we knew it was an easier way to work on the language. So we'd turn on the Buffy reruns, and they're on every day, and we would watch and practice on our Spanish, but I sounded pretty good on the show in Spanish. I have to say that. It wasn't me. Fortunately, I'm probably a little more involved in my home state, which is New York. I've done a lot of the breast cancer work, and so I've worked with the different hospitals here [in Los Angeles]. I've worked with Cedars. I've done some work with Children's Hospital, which is an incredible facility. Last year I went there and spent a day in the unit with the babies, and I had never seen little babies like that, and of course what you're really there for is the parents at that point. We went to some of the cancer wings. ... I also work with the Make a Wish Foundation. I know one of your hobbies is collecting books. Is there one that's your favorite, or one you haven't found yet that you're looking for?

Gellar: I love my complete collections. I have a complete first-edition Arthur Rackham, including a Peter Pan number signed. Right now I'm working on a Dr. Seuss collection, and I'm working on having every first-edition Dr. Seuss title. Independent films don't buy your books, though.This role reminded me a little of Southland Tales. What did you like about it?

Gellar: Well, I mean, when anyone's in the public eye, there's a sort of assumption about them. You know, and I think that was something they were both fighting, was perception. So I could sort of see part of that. And the names Krysta and Trista also does not help. [Laughs.] Krysta wanted to be thought of more than just a porn star, and there's Trista trying to find who she is. And so I could see that a little bit. I mean, initially, before even the character, it was the story. You don't really read stories like this. It sort of read like poetry to me—just the idea of emotions telling the story. And Jieho talks a lot about The Wizard of Oz version of it. And I sort of looked at it, when I first read it before I had heard his version, was that the story was just one character, and each of us represented a facet of that character. So I was the sorrowful part, and Brendan was the pleasureful part, and Kevin Bacon was love. And it's only when you get all of us together that you get a whole. Which is, as humans, I think what we are. You don't really know true happiness until you've had the depths of sorrow to understand what that happiness is. And until you've had that great happiness and pleasure, you don't really know how to fight through the sorrowful parts, because you don't know what else is there. And I think those are the experiences that really shape us and define us, so that whole idea that I was fascinated by, in a sense that we were all sort of one person. And I had the fortunate character in the sense of I had probably the fullest arc, because she starts in this place of sorrow, but through knowing happiness, pleasure and love, she finds who she really is, which is the whole being. Jieho may come in and go, "No, that's wrong." But you already saw him, so he can't say that!What was your reaction to the final movie and your arc?

Gellar: I still haven't seen the total, final [film]. Tonight, actually. I'm actually sitting through it tonight. You know, as an actor, I'm always going to nitpick, I'm always going to go, "God, I wish I had done that, I wish I had done that." But as a whole, I am so proud to be a part of this film... . My game was raised by working with these actors—Forest, Brendan, Andy. These are people you hope to get to work with in your life, but you don't think you'd actually get to work with all at once.How hard were some of those intense scenes?

Gellar: You know, tough in some ways and easier than I thought in others. I know Andy [Garcia] personally, like a dad, you know? And so I don't know that scary side of Andy. ... And the hardest scene, without giving away too much, obviously, is the big scene between the three of us. And I actually had to leave at one point, because I could not. Normally, I'm very good about separating the scene from what's reality, but watching Andy beat up Brendan was actually too hard for me. And I actually had left at one point. I really couldn't watch it. But that scene took, God, like19 hours. And Andy had a plane to catch. And it was just one of those tough days.Did you do Trista's singing?

Gellar: No. But unfortunately, I had to do Trista's music video. And I am not the girl that dreamed of being a pop star. I have to tell you, I was not the girl that sang in front of the mirror with a hairbrush. I was petrified. And you add that on top of the fact that Jieho is a music video director and he wanted this to look. We shot the whole music video. Like I'm petrified when this DVD comes out one day, there's going to be a music video on there. It's one thing to do a music video as a porn star called "Teen Horniness Is Not a Crime." It's a little bit easier than doing something that's supposed to be "the next up and coming pop star." [Laughs.] It was like my second day. The scene before was the big interview scene. So I'm crying, emotional. Now I've got to put the leather pants on, get the body makeup, get the lashes, get the hair. And they had closed the set. You know, it was a more closed set than a love scene. Let's put it that way. I was more petrified about the music video. I wouldn't let Brendan anywhere near the set that day. I was petrified. And I'm like, "It's Mexico. Bring me some tequila and let's get this done." And then by the end, I was a little girl in front of the mirror. I was just loving it! But you've done singing before, and you're good at it, so why didn't they have you do it here?Did you sing? You've done some singing before.

Gellar: Did you hear me sing? Thank you, but this was supposed to be a different level. And it was also a recording situation, too. It was a time thing. And they had had a girl who had done it when they were writing the song. So we probably could have gone in in post, and I actually probably could have done this song as well. There was more singing initially. There was a whole ballad, like a very deep ballad. And there was no way, musically, that I could do that. And you're talking about, again, someone like Jieho, that's musically trained from Juilliard. How were the intense scenes with Brendan Fraser?

Gellar: You know, Brendan is a really close friend of mine. And I have to say that my performance would not have been possible without him. To go to the emotional places you had to go, to be able to look into his eyes and see a friend, not to mention the fact that if it wasn't real, he would know. He knows me well enough to know. And I think when you have that trust, it makes the scenes, you know, I guess, that much more real. And I feel like I've been really fortunate, I've had a lot of chemistry with the guys that I've worked with. But this was sort of on a different level. And it is. I'm so used to goofy Brendan, you know? [Laughs.] You know, people forget about Brendan. And that was one of the reasons why I really wanted him to take this job. And I pushed Jieho, and I pushed Brendan, both of them together. Because sometimes we forget Gods and Monsters and we forget School Ties, and we forget the caliber of actor that Brendan is. And we get lost because he's so handsome and he's so big, and he's Mummy and George of the Jungle, and he's goofy, and Dudley Do-Right, that they forget about what Brendan is capable of as an actor. And that's what I love seeing. And Jieho was hard on him. Jieho really, really rode him on this. And it shows, you know? We were both doing stuff that was so far from what we've done recently. We were partners in it all the way through.Brendan Fraser, you've moved very well from going to a big-budget action-packed movie to a small indie like this. Did it feel that way when you were doing it?

Fraser: The less money you have to make a movie, it's like the more liberating it is for a filmmaker, because then you don't have too many cooks in the kitchen. [In] big-budget pictures—I finished one about a month ago [Mummy 3]—if there's a director who's well-heeled, has a big backbone and knows how to navigate the political waters of the studios, then they can have some creative liberty. With Air I Breathe, because it was financed by the brains of a new company from Mexico, it gave Jieho Lee a great deal to work with in terms of the support that you need if you're not working in Los Angeles and turn things around that one would expect to be challenges. Did it matter if it were shot in Los Angeles?

Fraser: If this were this shot in L.A. would it matter? No, I don't think it matters. I think that it's meant to be an imaginary West Coast city. It's a philosophical film in many ways. In that way it's more of a state of mind. It's a character. The work that we did was far removed from what you would see from the studio picture standpoint. Again, that's much more liberating. There's a good reason for me to keep my eyes open for a piece like this to come along because honestly it doesn't come across my radar that frequently. So that opened my eyes. I think that the quality of action packed didn't really necessarily register with me until I saw it. Then I realized that it was really largely due to the cinematography. When you're shooting a movie like that and there's a sequence, like lets say it's a fire or something like that, it always comes off like a slow motion ballet. If you're clumsy and oblong shooting it, some films have that quality what with editing and pacing, saturation of color et cetera. Filmmaking can create something that's not what you imagined it to be. I think it's very good for my tastes anyway.What do you think of psychic visions, or seeing into the future? Has that ever happened to you?

Fraser: You mean, am I psychic? No, but thank you for asking. There are a few down the street if you're interested. [Laughs] I can attest to having the hair stand up on the back of my neck a few times. Haven't we all had hunches? If people feel that they have premonitions then be that as it may. But in the case of the character, this is a work of fiction. It's an attribute that's prescribed to him for a specific reason because of something that he doesn't want necessarily. It's also done to show where he started and where he ended and where we see him as a child, as a kid, which is under tragic circumstances. Then as an adult having that prescient ability, whatever you want to call it, we see that he used it for rather nefarious reasons in a very shady world. What do you think of your character, Pleasure?

Fraser: Pleasure has lost his sense of self-respect because he's so unhappy and he's never had a sense of it. He doesn't know what it is. He wouldn't know what it was if it showed itself to him. So his stoicism is what he exists on. He's slowly killing himself with cigarettes. He doesn't want to be where he is and finds himself at this station in the world. He's looking for a father. He sees that in Fingers. He gave him a job. He relies on him. He stands up to him and defies him, takes something from him that wasn't his to take. It's an interesting relationship. They're diametrically opposed.What did you think of working with Andy Garcia?

Fraser: Personally speaking, if I may, when I found The Untouchables and I saw Andy Garcia onscreen and he was that quiet [guy]. If you recall at the end when they were handing out congratulations and they were saying, "Job well done. Good for you." Remember him? He never missed. He had the quick draw. I wanted to be a part of that, among other things. So when Andy was doing this role he really was a role model for me, as a young actor in high school at that time. What did you think of the story?

Fraser: It's brilliant. You're given the four cornerstones—the philosophical view that Jieho is taking inspiration from—from a principal that our business as human beings is comprised of Happiness, Joy, Sorrow and Pleasure and that you can't have one without the other. What he's done is sort of deconstruct that and created characters who have neither of those things and put them in a world, a universe and we see the film story begin and the journey that those four individuals must take in order to redeem themselves towards those things that the audience only knows. They don't have names, with the exception of Trista. That's a stage name. We don't know her real name. She whispers it to Pleasure in his last gasp. She had a name. I'm not going to tell you what it is. If you ask Jieho maybe he can tell you the reason why you don't know, but I watched the film again recently—last night to refresh my memory—and I like that it's left to your imagination. Andy Garcia, when you first come into the movie, you come on rather strong, how do you maintain that?

Garcia: You have to look at why you are here and where you are coming from. Why are you here? It's a very simple question that you have to ask in any scene. "Why am I here? Where did I come from? What is my purpose in this scene? What is my purpose in life? What is my purpose in this story?" That is one of the early questions you have to ask in any scene. What is the objective of the scene, why am I here, and what do I need?' What am I bringing in when I come in through the door, or where was I, and what motivated me to come? What kind of state of mind am I in? Who am I going to see? Do I know them? Do I not know them? How do I feel about them? All of those questions will give you some indication of what your purpose is, your energy is, and how you feel about the predicament that you are in.What do you think they will think of you in upcoming generations?

Garcia: I don't know. What is my legacy? I have no idea, I don't know. I'm just trying to do the kind of work that has resonance. That could be many of them. I am doing my work and that's all I can do. I just want to be doing it for a long period of time. I want to tell some stories, also as a director, and that is important to me. A lot of people have jobs that are work to them, but I can tell you what is work to me. I take my work very seriously and I don't do it casually. I do it with a lot of enjoyment, and I have a good time doing it, but that dependence I don't know what that means.Your character sort of crosses every emotion. What do you seem him as?

Garcia: I think my character also deals in all those emotions. I think at the pyramid of all those emotions is always Love. I think that Love permeates everything. Passion, Pleasure, Sorrow, Happiness, all of those are offshoots of what your conditions of love are at that moment. Love, if I were to put one emotion at the top of the pyramid, I would put Love.Did Jieho tell you that he thought of his father when writing your character?

Garcia: Sure. He talked to me very specifically about a lot of things, which was one reason why I made the movie. It was a courageous thing for him to open up to, and I knew that there was an underlying passion and reason for this movie to exist. That's a good reason to make a movie and to support someone in making a movie. What are you doing in the next Pink Panther movie?

Garcia: We're done with it, and it will be a very funny film. The premise is that there are four major artifacts stolen. It's the Shroud of Turin, the Magna Carta, a Japanese sword and the Pink Panther diamond. One detective from each one of those countries is assembled into a dream team to try to find the thief that has done all of this. Steve Martin plays the French Clouseau, I play an Italian from Italy, Alfred Molina plays a Frenchman, and Yuki Matsuzaki plays the Japanese man. So this dream team goes out, and obviously Clouseau makes it very difficult for us to function as a team. All at the end is victorious. ... Obviously, we all scream Clouseau, but there are times that we are put into predicaments ourselves. It should be very funny. John Cleese is in it, Jeremy Irons, Lily Tomlin, Emily Mortimer. It will be nice.How do you gauge the gamble of taking on a new director, a first-time director? Someone of your stature doesn't need to necessarily work with newcomers, right?

Garcia: Why not? Some of the old-timers are pretty boring. I look at who is involved. What is his caliber of the individual? What does he have to say as a director? He had other things to show, obviously, visually that I had seen. He's a very passionate, and intelligent guy, and was very ready to direct a film. It really wasn't his first movie and it wasn't a difficult decision. Obviously, you go through a process of getting to know someone because the director is the one thing. "Who is the cast? Who is the DP [director of photography]? How do you like to work? What are your intentions? What do you need? What are you asking me to do? What do you really need from me?" It's simple conversation. We had our meeting and I said, "OK, let's go." It was not a big thing. I'm not scared of young directors. You can convince me if you get a sense. You have to use your instincts. If you get a sense and he is very stimulated by the script, especially if he has written it, you have to look at it and see if it's structurally sound. Then you look at transitions, or whatever, and you assess the whole production. You get a sense of it after many years. I'm not scared of anything. Coming to Los Angeles in 1978, with a brief case, without knowing anybody, that was scary. But making a movie, with a young director, that is not scary.Jieho Lee, it seems that you've really lucked out compiling a cast like this for your first film, eh?

Lee: [Laughs] Yes, there was definitely some luck involved, but it was a lot of hard work, too. Sarah was the first to sign on, and she suggested Brendan. Forest, of course, had not yet won the Oscar [last year for The Last King of Scotland] and Emile hadn't sort of taken off like he has. In fact, I had to fight for those two at the time to get them in the project.These kind of cast ensemble pieces became the rage after Pulp Fiction was nominated for best picture, and then Crash won best picture, and they are sort of told the same kind of way as this. Did you worry about appearing too much like them?

Lee: Well, we wrote this six years ago. The cliché is doing something for no reason. I wanted to have a reason why this was being done. I wanted there to be a reason for each character doing what they were doing. We were filming while we heard that Crash won. That's good. All these movies show how we're all interdependent on each other and that is causing the trend now. So, what was the inspiration then?

Lee: To me, this film was inspired by my journey as an Asian American, and if you're in this country as any minority you are sort of in this bi-modal world. As an American, you're encouraged to be individual, and there is the beauty of the individual, and on the other hand my Asian heritage encourages the beauty of the collective and how one is part of the whole.And then there is the Wizard of Oz aspect of the story?

Lee: Yeah, there's the inspiration of The Wizard of Oz, with Brendan being the Tin Man, Sarah Michelle Gellar as Dorothy, Forest as the Cowardly Lion and Kevin as the Scarecrow. On the other hand you have this Asian proverb that says regardless of who we are we are connected by our emotions. We go out on our journey and find out who we are, and still we're out as individuals, but we come together on our journeys.You wrote Andy Garcia's rather menacing character after your father?

Lee: Andy's character is my favorite because even though he doesn't cut off people's fingers and isn't a gangster, he is the essence of my father. He has a lot of emotions and does not know how to deal with them the right way and that eclipses his humanity.Where does the title come from?

Lee: Air is something is something extremely personal, but belongs to all of us. That's where it comes from. Unfortunately, we couldn't afford the Hollies song of the same name [which became a hit in 1974]. The actual Chinese proverb divides [the emotions] into Happiness, Sorrow, Anger and Pleasure and anger is ambiguous and could mean Passion, so I changed it to Love. The point is that no emotion can stand on its for long, and it comes and goes while you experience others. You cannot experience Sorrow unless you experience Love, that kind of thing ... and these are four individuals who are in the collective and the interplay of that and their emotions is what this story is about.You've said that there are cultural differences when writing this that are very Asian that are of direct contrast ot Western culture. What do you mean by that?

Lee: Well, for example, in Korean, everyone knows their blood type. It's almost a game, "Hey I'm an A negative, what are you?" Also, the Asian music scene is very much involved with gangsters and I know there are shady people involved in the music scene here, but not like that. It's not as pervasive as in Korea, so I was trying to be truthful, but also universal and realistic.And all these people were real, even Brendan's character, who can see the future?

Lee: Yeah, he was a gangster friend I knew who was a shaman and had visions. He could see spirits and see people's futures and would do charts and that kind of thing. He was very low-key about it and wanted to escape, and so he went into the underworld. His mother said he was possessed by a spirit and there was all this craziness in his family. I also knew a pop singer that is like Sarah's character. All these people were based on real events and stories.