I realize that The Jonathan Ross shows premieres on Saturday and that we filmed it on Monday, I'M A BUSY GIRL! Quit yer emails.
JONATHAN
ROSS
Our other
guest is of course the star of Saturday Night Live but now she's moved on to
movies and such, it's the wonderful, Christina Essenelle! (the crowd cheers
as CHRISTINA leaves the room and is greeting by JONATHAN, he takes her hand and
kisses both of her cheeks) You look fabulous, Christina.
CHRISTINA
Why, thank
you!
JONATHAN
Lovely to
see you again, come and sit down. (CHRISTINA sits on the couch while
JONATHAN goes back to his desk) That's a wonderful outfit, is that leather
that dress?
CHRISTINA
It is
leather! It's a blue leather dress, with slits to make me all sexy and what
not.
JONATHAN
Oh well
congratulations on a job well done (both CHRISTINA and the audience laugh)
Um, last time I saw you, you left my booth at The Big Fat Quiz of the Year 2011
for that vampire of a human being Noel Fielding.
CHRISTINA
(laughing)
Oh leave poor Noel alone, I'm actually staying with him while in London!
JONATHAN
Oh well I
wouldn't doubt it, you two were like little puppies just pushing and biting one
another.
CHRISTINA
Ha ha!
Very funny, you're just mad because I left you with Russel Brand, and he
himself is essentially chaos. (the audience laughs)
JONATHAN
(stares
at the audience intently) It was quite frightening.
CHRISTINA
But I'm
back! And I've missed you Jonathan, I really have. (the audience awes)
JONATHAN
Yeah well,
who wouldn't miss this devilish charm (he runs his hand through his hair,
CHRISTINA and the audience laugh) But in all seriousness you are back, and
you've got quite a big thing to talk about.
CHRISTINA
Yes
indeed.
JONATHAN
Nightwing.
First movie, were you nervous filming for the big screen this time?
CHRISTINA
Oh God
yes, I've always loved the Batman trilogy and really everything Christopher
Nolan has done so I was so intimidated to be working with him and people like
Gary Oldman.
JONATHAN
But, I
assume you got over it.
CHRISTINA
Oh yes, I
think the moment I realized that I trusted Chris 100% was when I fainted from
exhaustion on set and I was sent to our little medical tent and Chris had
stayed with me the entire time, filming was stopped for the day, and he bought
dinner and watched stupid TV with me.
JONATHAN
Stupid TV?
CHRISTINA
Yeah I
don't know if you have Toddlers and Tiaras here in BBC land but in America
there's a show that goes into child pagaentry and it's just hilarious, but I
call it stupid TV because it's just so...
JONATHAN
Stupid!
CHRISTINA
(she and the audience laugh) Exactly!
JONATHAN
I’m
surprised at how positively British you are, I mean two BBC shows, a British
director, and a British father in the film…do you have an obsession with us?
CHRISTINA
(laughter) No not quite, I do nail the
accent though.
JONATHAN
You
do it pretty well, there’s a few key words you’re missing but otherwise good,
why do you do that by the way?
CHRISTINA
Speak
with an accent in England?
JONATHAN
Yeah,
because most actors that come from the States speak with an American accent.
CHRISTINA
Well,
when I was younger, as most of you know I was an orphan and I noticed that
beggars who went to China and Korea Town wouldn’t get any food if they didn’t
know the language, so I use to know how to ask in Chinese and Korean “please
give me some food I am poor”, anyways point of the story is that when you make
an effort to even slightly resemble their culture people appreciate it, so here
I sit, speaking as though I were British, because I care.
JONATHAN
(the audience claps) And it is very generous,
and we do appreciate it.
CHRISTINA
I
try.
JONATHAN
Let’s
talk about this movie you’re in, big, big film. Can you tell us a little about
it?
CHRISTINA
Why
of course! I’m going to assume the people watching this have already seen the
first three films, or any of those 3 films. I play Barbara Gordon, Lieutenant
Gordon’s daughter, and I go and help Nightwing, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt,
solve this weird pattern of murders that were caused by Javier Bardem’s
character. That’s basically what’s going on.
JONATHAN
Ah
yes Joseph Gordon-Levitt, he’s quite the handsome man isn’t he?
CHRISTINA
Ha
ha, I don’t think I’ll ever view him like that, we’ve got more of a
brother-sister relationship going on.
JONATHAN
Now,
I’ve seen the movie but I know it doesn’t come out till December 1st,
but I really just wanted to say-without giving anything away-that you were
absolutely amazing.
CHRISTINA
Oh
thank you-
JONATHAN
No
really, Christina. I know I’m a talk show host and I have to say how wonderful
and fabulous you are but I mean this from the bottom of my heart, your movie
touched me in a way I wish I could explain to the audience. I cried!
CHRISTINA
You
did? At something I did?
JONATHAN
Well,
yeah! Oh I sat in that screener with my wife and she lost it and couldn’t even
console her because I was just covering my mouth in awe with tears streaming
down my face, you are a truly phenomenal actress Christina, and I’ll be damned
if you don’t win every award out there for that movie. (the audience claps and cheers loudly while CHRISTINA blushes and covers
her face she shakes her head in
disbelief for a while and then she puts her hands down and she’s tear-y eyed)
Oh no, don’t cry!
CHRISTINA
(laughs and wipes her eyes) I value your
opinion so much Jonathan, you have no idea. As someone who is known for comedy
it was such a battle for me to take this job. I want to be seen as a versatile
actress, but when I would tell people about this opportunity they would say “how
could you do a dramatic role, you’re a comedian on SNL who does goofy
characters”, but I did it any way, no one believed I could do it except for
those who were on set with me. I remember after we finished filming the climax
scene, the one I assume you cried during, and Chris came up to me a week later
and showed me the scene and when it ended he just looked at me, also teary eyed
and said “You’re truly talented Christina, you’re going to go so far in this
business, and I thank God I was the first one to get to see it”
JONATHAN
(she wipes her eyes again and JONATHAN takes
her hand) You alright?
CHRISTINA
I’m
so sorry, this is my first interview for the film where my interviewer actually
saw the movie, ugh I’m a mess.
JONATHAN
I
saw your blog, don’t you have about 20 more interviews to do?
CHRISTINA
OH
GOD. (the audience laughs loudly)
JONATHAN
Well I think we have a clip for the audience while you calm yourself down (she laughs and the lights dim and the clip plays, it's about 30 seconds long. The audience applaudes when the clip ends and the lights come back on)
CHRISTINA
Alright so from here on out, no more crying.
JONATHAN
I
don’t think I've ever had someone cry on my show, it’s kind of surreal seeing
an actress actually be herself.
CHRISTINA
Ha
ha, what a commodity.
JONATHAN
No I know, but from my stand point this is an actual commodity, actors are very closed off and sheltered but I've never got the impression that that's something you're about.
CHRISTINA
No, it really isn't. It's funny, my assistant will send over a list of things that he thinks I don't want to talk about and that's really not the case, I'm an open book and always have been, I mean how many celebrities do you know out there that have a blog that explicitly tells them what's happening on there day-to-day?
JONATHAN
No many that's for sure!
CHRISTINA
I somewhat understand it and don't at the same time.
JONATHAN
Have you ever been close friends or intimate with someone who has that mindset of sort of "don't ask, don't tell"?
CHRISTINA
Oh of course! I mean, I'm in a movie with Christopher Nolan as the director, and if you remember for the last three Batman films everyone was very hush hush about the film as a whole, and I had to as well which killed me. All I wanted to do was to tell people what was happening and what not but I couldn't! I found out I was in the film several months before I could even say anything about it.
JONATHAN
Oh so you did sort of close yourself off?
CHRISTINA
Absolutely, well I had to!
JONATHAN
Don't want to give anything away, I understand. Well and there really is a lot to give away in just one interview, if you know what I mean.
CHRISTINA
No, what do you mean?
JONATHAN
Well there are certain scenes that I don't think you'd want your fans to know about before the movie comes out.
CHRISTINA
Oh yeah of course! I'm actually really excited to see what people think of it as a whole, I know everyone I go to class with is going to go see it. At least my teachers are that is.
JONATHAN
That's right you go to Columbia in New York for psychology!
CHRISTINA
(the audience claps) Thank you, it's a lot of fun, lot of work though. But my teachers have always been a little angry with me because last year for my freshman year I had to miss class all the time to film so I would skype in and listen to lectures whenever I could, but I did manage to get a 3.0 my first semester, a 3.7 my second semester and hopefully the same or better this semester.
JONATHAN
(the audience cheers as does JONATHAN) Wow! Now why did you choose psychology?
CHRISTINA
When I was in high school I was always obsessed with insane asylums and mad houses and that's when I really started getting into comics, and I adored the villains!
JONATHAN
The villains?
CHRISTINA
Yes! The Joker was always my favorite, because he was just...insane, I loved it, I wish he was real because I would absolutely love to give him some therapy.
JONATHAN
Well hopefully you wouldn't end up like Harley Quinn, the therapist he made fall in love with him.
CHRISTINA
Ha ha, I wouldn't be surprised if I fell in love. I just think the mind of a killer is so interesting, which I know for someone like me is a little disturbing (the audience laughs)
JONATHAN
Well then I've got a question for you, the man who stabbed and shot at you back in December of 2010, would you like to speak with him?
CHRISTINA
(she looks at him very plainly for a moment) He's dead.
JONATHAN
Oh, well then, maybe not. (the audience laughs)
CHRISTINA
What an interview this is shaping up to be, let's get some jokes going! (everyone laughs)
JONATHAN
I know I feel like I've opened up Pandora's Box!
CHRISTINA
That's what happens when you put me in front of a camera for 13 minutes, the craziest of things.
JONATHAN
Now you said you were a big fan of the Batman comics, would you say you know a decent amount about them?
CHRISTINA
See the things is, I'd like to think I know a decent amount, but then in about five seconds you're going to quiz me on that amount and I'm going to embarrass myself on this stage so, no I'm an idiot.
JONATHAN
(laughs) Oh come on, you were in the movie you should know a lot about it.
CHRISTINA
Oh lord, alright.
JONATHAN
I've got some quiz questions here, it's called Nightquiz (the audience laughs) and we're gonna see how much you can remember, if that's ok.
CHRISTINA
Let's do it!
JONATHAN
Alright (the lights dim so that it's just a blue light and then some voice say loudly NIGHTQUIZ and everyone laughs), question 1, who played the character of Barbara Gordon in the film Nightwing, just kidding, question 2 how many different Robins are there to Batman?
CHRISTINA
Oh, oh, okay there's Tim Drake, Damian, um, um, oh come on,
JONATHAN
Need a little-
CHRISTINA
Shut your mouth I've got this (the audience laughs) Stephanie, Jason Todd, why can I not remember the original Robin's name...the movie made up a name for Robin so I get all confused. AGH, oh my God.
JONATHAN
10 seconds.
CHRISTINA
(after a few seconds of looking down) DICK GRAYSON! (there's a buzz for an incorrect answer)
JONATHAN
You were so close! You forgot Carrie Kelly.
CHRISTINA
Oh come on!
JONATHAN
Next question, what is Batman's butler's full name?
CHRISTINA
Alfred Pennyworth.
JONATHAN
That was an easy one. According to the Batman video game Arkham City what is the name of the fictional city that Gotham City was built on top of?
CHRISTINA
Just beat that game about a month ago, Wonder City.
JONATHAN
Correct! List three of Batman's love interests.
CHRISTINA
Oh um, well Rachel Dawes.
JONATHAN
According to the comic books.
CHRISTINA
So Rachel Dawes doesn't count?
JONATHAN
No she does not.
CHRISTINA
Oh geez uh, Catwoman slash Selina Kyle?
JONATHAN
That's one.
CHRISTINA
Um...oh Talia Al Ghul!
JONATHAN
That's two!
CHRISTINA
Uhhh...I'm sure he eventually fell in love with me right. (there is a ding for a correct answer)
JONATHAN
Correct!
CHRISTINA
What!!
JONATHAN
Congratulations, you do know your stuff.
CHRISTINA
What did I win?
JONATHAN
Nothing! (the audience laughs)
CHRISTINA
Ha ha, yay!
JONATHAN
Well Christina you are just a delight and I really hope everyone goes and sees this phenomenal movie. Christina, I'm watching history in the making and I can't wait to cheer you on at your first BAFTA and Oscars. Christina Essenelle everyone! Nightwing comes out in theaters December 1st.
