Kate Bosworth talks ‘disgusting’ role in ‘The Devil Has a Name,’ and excitement to play ‘delicious villain’
Playing a slick scoundrel was a devilishly good time for Kate Bosworth.
In “The Devil Has a Name,” out now in select theaters and video on demand, Bosworth plays a ruthless oil honcho whose company is slapped with a hefty lawsuit by an almond farmer whose land it knowingly polluted for years.
“I don’t often get the chance to play this ... delicious villain,” Bosworth laughed on a call with the Daily News this week. “I was excited to bring more of a gunslinger-type female exec to the table.
“In our industry, we have so many stereotypes and we’re constantly having to fight against that,” said the 37-year-old “Blue Crush” star. “And I thought, I’d love this dialogue to feel either male or female, you know? I’d really love for that to be somewhat neutral in that sense, but to be a powerful and successful and smart and yes, greedy and flawed, and disgusting human being.”
The film, which never blatantly identifies its real-life inspiration, draws from the 2001 lawsuit California farmer Fred Starrh filed against Aera Energy LLC. Though the Starrh family eventually won $7 million, they originally sought $3 billion to $4 billion — about $2 billion of which would have reportedly been used for cleanup.
“The script seemed like such a timely story to be telling right now, with all of our concurrent ecological disasters and just a total lack of regulation of heavy industry from the government,” said Haley Joel Osment, who costars as Gigi’s lackey who turns against her.
“This is right in my wheelhouse. I remember writing letters to Bill Clinton about the whales when I was in elementary school. For all the good that did," laughed the “Sixth Sense” star, 32.
Despite the heavy subject matter, “The Devil Has a Name” is a dark comedy as directed by Edward James Olmos.
“I think Eddie has said in interviews, if you just did it straight up realism, it would be too depressing to work as a movie,” Osment said. “It’s important to show these struggles that regular people have, the rare times that they’re able to score victories against the colossus of industry.”
The film also afforded Bosworth the opportunity to play an integral part in the development of her character.
The actress said the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements both “opened the doors for more voice" from her and other females in the entertainment biz.
“I’ve been in this industry over 20 years and it has been predominantly male-focused and male-led,” she said. “If I had the amount of ideas that I had on this film with another group, with another filmmaker, with other producers, it would be sort of recoiled at. ... Their response would be either a pat on the head, like, ‘Oh that’s cute. Yeah, we’ll take that into consideration,’ sort of, rip up the notes and toss them out.”
Prior to the movements, which shined a light on sexual harassment and called for the uplifting of women’s voices, the “Superman Returns” star said she would see her male counterparts be “fawned over” for their ideas.
“It was very much implied that there was very little value to us [women]," she said. “Now, if I raise my voice in rooms that probably would’ve shut the door prior ... it might not be that they want to listen — I’m being super honest — but they have to. And so if that’s the first move of the dial, I’ll take it, because hopefully the next move of the dial is that they want to.”
