INTERVIEW: Jessica Alba & Kate Hudson On The Killer Inside Me

The Killer Inside Me hits cinemas on Thursday 4 November. To celebrate, not only are we offering you the chance to win the book plus a double pass to see The Killer Inside Me, we also have a interviews with the stars Jessica Alba and Kate Hudson.

Jessica Alba

What was it like working with Jim Thompson?

I think he treats women like women, like they are, complex, flawed human beings. You don’t see a real division between the way the women are written compared to the men in this movie, they’re all pretty multi-faceted.

What did you like best about the story?

For me personally... I loved the tragedy of the story... the fact that she’s the one that’s sort of...ignites the passion and the essence of who he is, which is a killer. She brings that out in him. I thought it was just a really interesting, dark way to approach a love story.

How do you feel about the role of women in the period?

I think in the 50s women didn’t have a whole lot... there weren’t a lot of choices for women... independent, strong women. And I think their options were, you get married and you live happily ever after... and you’re taken care of by a man... or you don’t and you’re a shrew. I think she is just a very progressive woman and this was kind of her only way to get out. She loves a sense of adventure; she likes not having to answer to anyone. You know, there’s such a freedom when you can pop from one town to the next and pretty much write your own ticket. People can say what they want about sexuality and what’s right and what’s wrong but there are a lot of women, still to this day, who use their sexuality in so many ways to be taken care of by a man and I kind of admire the way that she didn’t choose that route.

Kate Hudson

What did you know about the book before filming?

I was told what an influential novel it was for the time and how it’s kind of this remarkable piece of literature.

What did you think of the script?

I read the script and then I met with Michael. I really enjoyed the script, I was definitely taken aback, and it’s dark and gruesome. When I met with Michael, I was like ‘Should I read the book?’ and he was like ‘No, No, No need’. A week before I started I was like ‘I gotta start reading the book’ I started and I didn’t finish it yet, I’d feel guilty if I read the whole thing.

How did you feel about taking the role?

When I read it I thought this is a really interesting example of taking, well for me I think just in terms of how I personally connected to the character when I read it, I believe that she’s quite fragile and she loves huge yet underneath that there’s this girl who’s quite open to abuse and needing something from that type of relationship and for some strange reason I could respond to that. I thought also, in terms of how you perceive somebody like Amy Stanton’s character and what she is, which is a sort of school teacher, cheery, happy, perfect girl, that has everything put together, a good family and underneath all of it is this very desperate woman wanting to be loved by this man.

What was working with Michael Winterbottom like?

I feel like Michael moves things along very quickly, I love how it’s a very, very closed set so you know  there’s not that many people in the room , normally you’ll have, you know, 20 people in the room, here you have four. So it’s nice, it feels really intimate. There’s no script supervisor, the one that keeps continuity and everything in order, he doesn’t have that, so there’s a freedom in what you’re doing, it feels a lot more like doing a play.

Like the interview? Why not enter our competition to win a double pass to see The Killer Inside me plus the book.