Julia Jones Interview

GIANT: Have you always wanted to be an actress?

Pretty much. I started by playing Michael Darling in Peter Pan when I was in second grade.

How’d that go?

Oh, my god. It was the highlight of my life up until then. I got to wear those one-piece pajamas with the feet. Mine was blue, and it had Winnie the Pooh on it.

How did you get cast as a boy?

I really don’t know. I was a big tomboy. I wanted to be one of the Lost Boys for reasons I don’t know. Then I wound up getting the part of Michael Darling. I guess we had more girls than boys, and Peter Pan is, like, all boys.

Where are your people from?

They’re Chickasaw from Northern Mississippi. That’s my dad’s side.

What about your mom?

My mom is from Connecticut. I grew up in Boston.

Talk about Hell Ride and your character in that film.

The movie’s about this biker gang. I play [Cherokee Kissum] the former lover of Larry Bishop’s character, and I get killed by their rival gang a long time ago. They are trying to avenge my death. She’s the emotional driving force of the plot. She’s all in flashbacks, which tell that story of why the characters are doing what they’re doing.

This film is very much like Grindhouse. And there’s so much tits and ass in the film. Are you comfortable with that?

Cherokee Kissum is the only female role besides maybe one other in the film that I would have been comfortable playing. She isn’t just tits and ass. She wasn’t a conquest. She was very important to these people. They respected her. It was important to tell her story because otherwise the movie wouldn’t work.

Who is your character on ER this season?

Kaya Montoya. She’s a medical student. Also, she’s Native American. When she comes in, people underestimate her. She actually has a lot of experience.

You get some great character names.

That’s because I’m an Indian. But Cherokee Kissum is the best name ever. I will never have a better name than that.

Do you get a romance?

I have no idea. They’re so secretive. They don’t tell you anything.

Do you get to make out with John Stamos?

Everyone asks that. He’s involved with Linda Cardellini’s character. So there needs to be some time for that to unravel.

How weird is it to come onto a long-running show for its final season?

There are people who are on that set who have been there every day for pretty much fifteen years. And they can tell you anything that happened, any day, any year. They’re walking almanacs. I’ve never felt so much pressure acting ever before. It’s so demanding saying words with more syllables. You don’t know what they are, and you don’t know what they mean, but you’re cutting someone open at the same time. You’ve gotta act and emote and do something besides just saying your lines properly.

How much do you have to learn?

Everybody I’m sure takes a different amount on themselves about what they actually want to learn about what they’re doing. You could just read your lines. Literally. But it’s such an incredible opportunity having all these doctors on set. It’s just such a great opportunity to ask questions and learn about the human anatomy. The hardest scene that I’ve had was this procedure called preperitoneal packing. You had to cut the woman open at her stomach and literally take these big pieces of gauze and stuff them all the way down into her stomach, up to your elbows. That’s sort of what it looks like. There’s blood everywhere, and you’re saying these incredible lines like, “Super-pubic incision” and “Keep the peritoneal intact.”

What are you doing on the set to make it look real?

You’re totally freaking out. It’s total mayhem. You go through a series of rehearsals, which is actually really helpful. A doctor explains what every word means, what every [tool] you’re using does, how you hold it, where you put it just so you have a sense of what you’re doing, so it makes sense in your head. He does that with each actor one on one. Then all the actors in the scene come in, and he checks you together. That’s like choreography. You pass things to people, and it all happens so fast, and everyone has to be exactly on it. Then you get the words down, and there’s two more rehearsals for the director and for the crew. It’s a very gradual, building-blocks process. Then once you’ve gone through all that, it’s just do or die. Just totally cross your fingers and go. You can’t think about what you’re going to do. You just do it.

Do you get more than one shot at it?

Yeah, but the show moves so fast. One of the hardest things too is lots of times you’ll get a lot of blood on you, so in between the setups it’s so nuts. The setup people and props people are taking everything that’s bloody off and putting new ones on so you can start again. The doctors come up to you saying, “You emphasized the fourth syllable of this seven-syllable word. You should actually be emphasizing the second.” The director comes over saying, “I think you need to pay a little more attention to some aspect of someone else’s performance.” Then the cinematographer is coming over saying, “You gotta stand like two inches to the right and tilt your head up.” It’s overwhelming.

What do you personally keep in mind so that it looks like you know what you’re doing?

You have to go for it in a way that you usually aren’t conscious of having to do with acting. It’s so daunting if you think about all the stuff you have to remember and the things you have to do in a short time. And you don’t get many takes. But you just have to have confidence. You have to believe that you know it all and that you belong there and that you can do this. Because if you second-guess yourself, you’re dead.