It really isn't a good idea to refer to a woman as handsome. You see, I was told one time that telling a woman she is handsome is really an insult. This is because the word handsome applies to women who may once have been beautiful but are now past their prime. But Guy Pearce who already could be described as handsome would probably make a beautiful woman and proved that by playing Felicia Jollygoodfellow in "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert."

In "The Hard Word," released about a month ago, Pearce goes to great lengths to hide his angular features and achieves a look that is just scruffy and dirty. It works for the role of Dale Twentyman, a bank robber who heads a group of slick customers operating from an Australian prison. Pearce is an actor who can effectively transform himself both on the outside and within. He spoke with me by telephone.

Einsiders.com: Your new film "The Hard Word" is very "Sexy Beast" but in a much different vein.

Laughter from Guy Pearce.

EI: What's with the facial hair in that movie?

Guy Pearce: What do you mean?

EI: In "The Hard Word," the hair on your head and facial hair was various lengths and everything, was it your idea?

GP: Yeah, I mean I get all the thoughts and appearance of the character manifest themselves in my head but are inspired by the script, really. Kind of how I saw the script really.

EI: A lot of viewers might be distracted by the fact that you don't really look like yourself. I mean, your angular features are hidden and muted. But I thought it made you look bristly. Any second thoughts about the way you looked in the film?

GP: Lots of second thoughts about the way I looked in the film but this idea that this perception that audience members want their actors to looking like they do all the time is really a sad thing. Because ultimately I'm interested in portraying a character; I'm not interested in portraying myself up on the screen. So as far as that is concerned, I wouldn't have any second thoughts. On the contrary, I would be into indulging into the character and finding characters that take me to another place.

EI: Like what characters would you imagine yourself playing that you would fathom you could play?

GP: Well, I haven't read them yet, but I will let you know.

EI: So, you don't have a wish list that you would like to let us know about?

GP: No, I don't operate like that.

EI: I gotcha, I gotcha, you know, Gregory Peck passed away.

GP: Yes, and I'm sadden.

EI: Of course, and I'm a public defender by day and I write at night but I have an office in the courthouse. And Peck's Atticus Finch, you would presume was him playing the role, if you know what I'm saying, more of a movie star playing the role. Do you have any thoughts on that, and with regard to this role in the "The Hard Word," who are you playing?

GP: Like I say, I'm not interested in playing myself. And this desire to see movie stars on the screen holds no interest to me whatsoever, and I wouldn't have the kind of confidence that would be required in order to be interested in just putting oneself onto the screen. I'm interested in the other people in the world and investigating their states of mind and journey's I suppose.

EI: But you've gotta admit that you have what they call that radiance that movie stars have albeit in films that are a bit off the beaten path. But you do have that star quality or you wouldn't have worked your way up the ranks and be in the position you are in. Is it important to work on somehow achieving the radiance or is it just a natural thing?

GP: Well, I donno, I think that I have a natural energy. One thing you have to understand is that there is my world, there's my…from the inside of me; there's what my desires are and what I'm interested in and how I see the world and what I need to do and then there's external perception by the audience out there that thinks that I owe them something; and that I should work in a particular way because that is what they want to see. And I'm a pretty selfish actor, really, because I do it for my benefit as a form of expression and as an exploration of life, I suppose, and if for some reason or other people seem to tend to think that I got some sort of star quality then that's great but it isn't something that I feel too conscious about cultivating.

EI: Well, it is undeniable and in talking about the great Gregory Peck who had that star quality, I thought that I would ask you. Now, in "The Hard World" you are in prison, at least in the beginning, of course, and you go back, and that sort of thing. Australian prisons are they like that? Did you visit any of them?

GP: Well that was a real prison that we were in albeit a now closed down prison. I think that they closed it down about a year or two before we shot that. So, I didn't feel the need, I've known some people who have been in prison, and chatted with them in the past about that experience anyway. And I didn't feel the need really to go and, you know, do too much research really.

EI: So, you've never been in prison then?

GP: (Laughter) No, I can't say that I have.

EI: You dealt with a first time director in "The Hard Word." And you worked with Christopher Nolan who had directed just one other film prior to "Memento." What was it like to work with a first time director? And with this film, this has a lot of edges and subplots. Were there a lot of rewrites and did you have any input?

GP: We pretty much stuck to his script. He is a fine writer and expresses himself in the writing of the script. When you come across someone who is a writer/director, you first hope is that they will be able to translate their script up onto the screen. And I think that the two weeks of rehearsals that we did were vital in making sure that we all understood what we were doing and what we're meant to be doing. And I think that during that time the input we had was on two levels: one was just making sure that all the details in the script were not mistakes and that they were going to be followed through and also just making sure that we were able to establish our characters.

I can't recall exactly but we might have had input as far as saying that my character might not have said this right now, but he might have said this instead, you know. But really it might have been only slight things. It was quite an evolutionary process but we all responded to the script because it was so specific and funny in the first place.

EI: It is certainly that, it's funny very darkly, especially the scene with the lava lamp. Were you on site when they did that?

GP: No.

EI: The inventor of the lava lamp who for years was ridiculed would wince, I think, at the use of his invention that way.

GP: (A chuckle.)

EI: So, is director Roberts Australian?

GP: Yes.

EI: Because I know he had done some stuff as far as writing over here (the United States).

GP: Yeah, I think that he has managed to work on a variety of things from home for many years.

EI: What a smart character he created with the attorney? Well, I have a personal beef, because I'm a criminal defense attorney.

GP: Of course.

EI: The attorney character had a keenness about him that I suppose was in the script. But Robert Taylor, who plays this attorney, have you worked with him before?

GP: I hadn't, we had sort of been friends in the past just because through other people we got to know each other only mildly not a great deal. But he worked in Australia for many, many years and has proved to be a quite a strong and interesting actor.

EI: In "The Hard Word" he is so delicious. And Rachel Griffiths because of "Six Feet Under" has some notoriety, and all of you were speaking in your native accent?

GP: Absolutely, but I think that we were a little extreme than we normally speak. My Australian accent in that film ["The Hard Word"] was obviously a little stronger than it is normally.

EI: What was the butcher talk that the three thieves use in the film?

GP: It is a thing that, in all honesty I cannot recall, Scott obviously knew about this and it comes from butchers. It is a kinda faux language that was made up in the butcher industry just for I guess for novelty sake.

EI: Kinda like Esperanto, or something?

GP: Kinda of like a Pig Latin, you know, and really it is about just flipping the words backwards. But I'm not sure if it is butchers only or exactly where it came from. But I did know, I've just forgotten.

EI: Well, it was fascinating to me because it added another layer to what the actors had to handle. Speaking of other movies that fit into this genre, if I can pidgeon hole it, I guess this is the crime/caper movie genre.

GP: I guess so. It's funny, I always find it hard because I work from just inside the character, and I honestly get a feel for the tone of the film that I'm working on. But for some reason I feel that I don't totally understand genres.

EI: Well, they are constantly changing.

GP: They are changing and I find it hard to be that general about films styles I suppose.

EI: Well, I guess there is an attempt to pidgeon hole a film in the video store or whatever.

GP: Exactly, what fits this category or that category.

EI: What I was going to ask you about was Michael Mann's "Thief." Have you seen that film?

GP: No.

EI: It's got James Caan in it and it's the one that I often compare other serious caper/crime film to.

GP: Okay.

EI: But this film that you are in, "The Hard Word" is less a caper film and more of a personality conflict among a number of characters.

GP: Yeah, that is how I saw it. The whole crime thing as a sort of setting, a backdrop and also a backdrop that then enables a dynamic. You've got this sort of serious backdrop and then you've got this odd sense of humor that the guys maintain throughout.

EI: And they're enlightened. You play a very enlightened criminal mastermind of two other very clever thieves. One thing that I put in my review was how were these guys ever captured in the first place?

GP: (Laughter)

EI: Not that they were geniuses or anything, mind you, but they were hip to things, street savvy.

GP: Well, that's the thing, they were used. You know, they have been the best robbers in the past, and the police, they can be smart when they want to be. The guys basically got plucked and thrown into prison. And they were told that we're going to put you in jail and every now and then we are going to let you out for a job, and meanwhile we'll split up all the cash. And obviously, we see at the beginning of the film, we see that's not quite the case.

EI: There are many different levels to the film. The bit about the Melbourne Stakes or what was it?

GP: The Melbourne Cup, the horse race?

EI: What's with that, are these illegal bookies or what?

GP: No, no, they are perfectly legal.

EI: It was strange to me that they would be partying with this cash strapped to their bodies.

GP: Yes, I think that a bit of license may have been taken. This is one of the things that I kept asking, and apparently, it is a traditional thing that these guys will go to this holding room first, hence, that is why there is so much security in the building. And these guys don't want to let go of their cash. And the thing is that that robbery actually occurred exactly like that.

EI: Wow!

GP: And there was a huge weak link in the chain, you know, all this money is collected and all these guys end up getting together and there they are all together having a couple of glasses of Champaign. And what it takes is getting somebody in there. And if you can get in and you can get out then you have access to it. The idea is that there is so much security that you shouldn't even be able to get in.

EI: And the getting out, the big run that you guys do.

GP: Very exhausting, I assure you.

EI: Yeah, you did it, I mean, there wasn't a stunt double to make the run.

GP: We did all of that. That's the great thing about doing Australian films, you really do it all. (Laughter)

EI: The jump on the train, that was done carefully, I guess.

GP: Right!

EI: Of course, you've seen Michael Mann's movie "Heat."

GP: Of course!

EI: Was there any discussion on the set about that scene from "Heat" where they run with the money?

GP: There was a minor discussion, I don't know if you have the notes there, but one of the one of the things was that our producer says it is "Heat" done through the eyes of the Cohen Brothers.

EI: Great description of the film.

GP: Yeah, yeah.

EI: Rachel Griffiths is going to be sultry no matter whether she adopts an American accent or Aussie one. What was it like working with her?

GP: She is extraordinary. I mean, she is a very powerful and intelligent woman and, you know consequently, she leaves no stone unturned when it comes to the script as well as being a very electric woman. And as soon as you start working with her, she just comes to life. So, she is very exiting to work with.

EI: Electric is right. There is that one scene where the two of you come together in the end and, I'm not giving anything away. It is where there is a good lusty embrace. How many takes did it take to get that intensity?

GP: We did two of those. And that was it.

EI: Well, was it the first one used?

GP: I did know, but I can't remember. I think that it was the first one.

EI: It was good and was needed because that part of the film was a little flat. You know, the six month time passage, I didn't really understand it. And then you guys have that scene because finally the two of you show a good chemistry that I did not see before. What kind of discussions did you have with her to achieve that level of intensity?

GP: I don't think that it was about discussion. I think that we both really understood the very powerful pull that these two characters had for one another. They are very much the same animal. And as much as she did the wrong thing by him at times, he ultimately realized that she did what she did because she loved him so much. The fact that that embrace preempted by the gun going off, I think that that creates an incredible sense of passion between the two of them.

It certainly does. "The Hard Word" turns out to be less of a caper film and somewhat of a love story--a love story with a sharp, dark edge capable of carving up a Christmas turkey. Seek it out this weekend.

Jonathan W. Hickman