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Id never met Al Pacino!
That must have put some wind in your sails!It gave me more confidence.
My first love in this industry was the theater.
I went, Oh my gosh!
And she goes No, tell me, why do I need to know who you are?
So I had to tell her the work Id done.
I wanna see how you move.
I was like, What?
I think at one point he said, What am I seeing?
Saying the most crazy things!
He was a great cheerleader.
He saw in some way that I needed someone in my corner and he became my greatest acting teacher.
Its because Al set the stage for it.
With Al, you cant just show up and be a prop.
Youre not there to be moved around by a director, youre there to contribute.
Were discovering it together, and I learned that from Al.
In a way, I see that as like a victimization.
When people are completely in control of their decisions, that is a really exciting thing.
I love the human form male nudity, female nudity, Im all about it.
I had to get to that place where, for me, it was my decision.
What is that power?
What is that freedom?
The crazy thing I learned in the documentary is that you essentially improvised the dance every night.I was terrified.
I just started working with a lot of dance experts.
With a lot of Eastern dancing, there is, so I worked with people on that.
So I had a beginning and an end but I didnt know what was going to happen in between.
Sometimes the dance would be really long, and sometimes it would be really short.
How am I gonna get there?
Its a very vulnerable thing, but its so important because through that dance, Salome becomes a woman.
Its the first time that shes taking control over her life and taking control of other people.
We go from chastity to necrophilia you cant have a bigger arc than that!
It was about this idea that I didnt have to be a little girl anymore.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
