The following is a transcribed interview that appeared in Vanity Fair Magazine on March 5th, 2015 conducted by entertainment writer Darrish Jones with Academy Award winner Jennifer Marks.
Jones: Jennifer, you just won an Academy award for your gripping role in the film “Cancer Tree”. This has been considered to be your breakout role. How did you feel when your name was announced Sunday night?
Marks: It was surreal Darrish. I really can’t describe the feeling of walking up to that stage, taking that little gold man in my hands and looking out at the audience. I really was standing on the shoulders of giants, you know?
Jones: Your role as Marva Lychter in this hard-to-watch saga was really quite amazing. Tell me how you prepared for this undertaking.
Marks: Well, I had to loose a lot of weight. That was tough. And I had to figure out how to walk in 4 inch heels. I’ve never been good with tall shoes before.
Jones: I don’t remember seeing you in heels in the movie. Were those scenes cut from the final version?
Marks: No no. I had to learn to walk in heels for the premiers and openings. This movie was really well received and I had to go to a million showings and screenings. The red carpet walks were always longer than I thought. I really had to focus and stay on my game so I wouldn’t fall over in all those pairs of heels!
Jones: I see. Well, how did you prepare for you role in the movie…in “Cancer Tree”?
Marks: I don’t understand the question. You mean how did I prepare to promote the movie…or to talk about it on TV?
Jones: Uh, no. How did you prepare for your acting. What did you do to get in character every day. How did you become Marva?
Marks: Oh, I wasn’t actually in the movie. They just used stock footage from a data base and spliced it all together to get someone who looked pretty close to me. I’m blond, we all kinda look the same.
Jones: You mean, you were’t actually in the film?
Marks: Well, I was on set everyday. It took about 4 days of solid stand-in filming, for the scenes where I’m walking away or have my back to the camera. We couldn’t find any stock footage of that. So I am in the film, at some points.
Jones: But…what about the footage they showed at the Oscars. It was a clip of the movie they showed right before you won. What was that?
Marks: Oh, that was just stock footage of a blond woman crying into her hands. That’s all that really happens in the movie anyway. Its pretty much just two hours of a blond woman crying into her hands.
Jones: Is this a common practice? Do many movies use stock footage like this?
Marks: Oh yes, in fact, pretty much all of the movie “Transformers” was just old b-roll commercial footage of a woman who looked something like Megan Fox humping a motor cycle. They spliced it in with a few fair-use shots of semi trucks down shifting on the freeway.
Jones: I had no idea.
Marks: Yeah, the old film makers used to actually spend weeks, sometimes even months filming the movies with the same actresses and actors. Can you imagine that?! I really can’t imagine being on set for more than a few days. I have way too much to do with promos, appearances, and paparazzi run-ins. I don’t have time to actually act.
Jones: I guess that would be time consuming. Have all your films been made like this?
Marks: Yeah, pretty much. I did appear in quite a bit of my film “Running With the Donkeys” but I left halfway through filming to go work on a commercial for Rice-a-Roni.
Jones: Well, then. Here’s to many more spliced-in Oscar wins. Best of luck to you in all your future endeavors.
Marks: Thank you Darrish. I have to run now to a Starbucks where I have to pretend to get in a fight with my pretend actor boyfriend. Nice talking to you!
Jones: Likewise.
