In 1983, Betty Anne Waters’ brother, Kenny, was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. So, Betty Anne did what any sister would do, she put herself through law school, became a lawyer and, with the assistance of the Innocence Project and newly-instituted DNA testing, finally got her brother exonerated after serving 18 years. Betty Anne knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Kenny was innocent and never gave up hope that he would finally be freed. And she was right, DNA testing proved that none of the blood found at the murder scene was his. Betty Anne’s remarkable story has been turned into an inspiring and profound motion picture called Conviction.

Two key sequences in the film involve Roseanna Perry as played by award winning actress Juliette Lewis. At the trial of Kenny Waters, Perry testifies that Kenny confessed to being a murderer, which helped to convict him. Years later, she was the first to admit that she was coerced into saying what she said on the stand. That second scene was one of the most powerful in the film and I relayed that to Lewis. “Thank you. Yeah, this was one of those things that I didn’t know how I was going to pull off. And those are the best things in art you could want for, is something that makes you a little bit nervous and scared. It’s the same performing on stage because it’s got twists and turns, and that’s a vivid memory for her, that really happened.”

“The majority of my dialogue, 98% of it, is taken from interviews this woman gave,” Lewis continued. “That’s the language she used and that’s the way she described things, but she was coerced by Nancy Taylor, she was given alcohol. She’s also a destructive personality, and she’s also vindictive, and self preserving, and conniving, and all those things. It was amazing to play that knot of contradiction. That’s something I’d never done before in this type of extreme fashion. I didn’t care how big or small the role was, I was happy to be involved with such a profound movie and a character that was so intense. It’s probably the most intense work I’ve done in the last 10 years. Also, ’cause 5 of those years I took off just making records and touring deliberately. So this is my re-emergence into film again.”

An accomplished actress, Juliette Lewis is also a serious musician, having released one album and several tracks to various film soundtracks. Sidetracking briefly, we got an update on her musical career. “I was writing just a few months ago while on the road. Sort of assembled what songs I want to make, starting to think about the next record. And I’ll probably do that in the winter months when I have a moment off. It’s one of the pleasures of being an independent musician, I can sort of make it up as I go. There’s no big machine behind me. I really worked diligently the last 5 years to find my audience, the people that were going to stick it out with me.”

Returning to talk about the movie, Ed asked what work went into playing Perry in two different time periods. Lewis obviously put a tremendous amount of work into portraying a woman who’s emotions and mental stability were all over the place, most especially in the later scene. “Basically I just wanted to be present,” she told us. “Without getting too esoteric, it’s an energy thing. It’s sort of like ‘What’s the energy of her at 25?’ on the witness stand, and seeing the seeds of that lying nature and sort of self-preserving woman, who’s also living on the outskirts of mainstream living. But it’s also the 80s, so you’ve got the acid wash skirt and the look and she’s young. But she’s lying there. She got coerced into believing a memory that didn’t happen.”

Getting further into how she submerged herself into the role, Lewis said, “Basically, it’s how to deaden your own joy behind your eyes, because people have different energy, or different vibes. There’s that scene when you first meet her, and you see an essence of what she could potentially become if she keeps at it. So then 18 years later, that was my favorite thing. They come into her world, they come into her trailer. If I just played an alcoholic who never left her trailer, that would be interesting, but I’m playing somebody who is faced with the person they’ve done the most wrong to. They’re disconnected from reality, but at the same time their past is coming to get them. They have to face the truth. And there are many different truths. So that’s why she sort of bounces off the walls.”

I noted that she plays Perry and sort of this rambling person, but at one point a change comes over her and the audience realizes she is now telling the truth. Lewis replied, “That was all taken directly from transcripts and actual real events. But then you make that – how does that person express all that? That’s where you get into drinking the 3 dollar wine in the afternoon, everyday, for the last decade. Also, there’s little colors in there, I don’t know if you pick up on it or not, but she doesn’t normally get guests. So there’s a little bit of ‘I’m sitting down and socializing.’ That’s, at least in my mind, the insanity of it.”

Ed suggested that it was possible that Perry was enjoying the attention she was getting, even years later, to which Lewis agreed. “I head that from Betty Anne a great deal after the fact, because she wasn’t there when I was there, that this character did like the attention. You find elements of people you’ve known in your life. There’s people who tell stories for attention, they create drama, they’re destructive people. So you take that element, and then you blow it up times 20 or 30 times or something. This is how you piece together a personality. Anyway, it’s been really amazing that people are getting it [and] they’re seeing it. You know, so often in this business you think things, and you don’t expect to be appreciated necessarily and sometimes you make movies that no one even sees. So it’s really gratifying that people are noticing the work.”

And then our time with Juliette Lewis and the Conviction press tour was finished. It was amazing talking to Betty Anne Waters, Tony Goldwyn and Juliette Lewis and to see how passionate they all were about this film. Check your local theaters for show times for Conviction as I urge you to see it as soon as possible. It tells a story you won’t soon forget.

Juliette went to 2 new events a few days ago. I’ve added the pictures in the gallery.

Gallery Links
PUBLIC APPEARANCES > 2010 > October 12 – The Cinema Society Screening Of “Conviction”
PUBLIC APPEARANCES > 2010 > October 13 – “Conviction” New York Screening

After being detained in Europe for carrying a bullet in her bag, a frightening hit-and-run accident and a few films due out in the next few weeks (‘Conviction,’ ‘Due Date’), Juliette Lewis’ rollercoaster year should provide some interesting fodder for the follow-up to her 2009 album ‘Terra Incognita.’ As Lewis tells Spinner, she already fleshing out new material, which should surface sometime in 2011.

“‘Terra Incognita’ was my avant-garde record,” she says. “My next album, just because it’s where I’m at, it’s much more catchy: Catchy choruses, simple riffs. I want to stack electronic sounds onto natural drumming. It’ll still be rock music. There’s a song called ‘Rockaway’ that we’ve been playing live. That song’s been killing it. It has a real simple ‘ooh ooh’ chorus. There’s another song called ‘Kick Drum Song,’ which is called that because I play kick drum on it. That’s all weird and contagious.”

“I always have contrasts,” she adds. “I may write something that’s really simple and catchy, and then write something the opposite of that.”

There’s no word yet regarding who Lewis plans on working with. For ‘Terra,’ she teamed with Mars Volta prog-head Omar Rodriquez-Lopez, but our conversation revealed that these days, she’s committed to her live show more than ever, where she feels liberated more than on a film set.

“People have to dig your live show. That was my first objective before selling CDs,” she explains. “I wanted that connection. I started music to feel less alone. I always felt like an outsider and alienated. Working in movies and getting famous very young only exacerbated that feeling of alienation. Doing rock ‘n’ roll, I wanted to get off that pedestal that someone else put me on. I have an audience from film who will show up initially. I’m good for a 100 tickets but that’s not what’s going to keep them. It’s a kick-ass live show and the music.”

Source

“Conviction” tells the true story of siblings Betty Anne (Hilary Swank) and Kenny (Sam Rockwell) Walters, and the quest of Betty Anne to free her brother from a prison sentence for murder. Oscar nominee Juliette Lewis lends her talent as key prosecution witness Roseanna Perry, and the film is directed by Tony Goldwyn.

Featured star Lewis and Director Goldwyn were in Chicago recently to promote the film. HollywoodChicago.com sat down for interviews with both of them, talking about the general themes of Conviction and their expansive careers.

Juliette Lewis is a familiar presence in the Hollywood canon of the last twenty years. Beginning her career as a teenager in the 1980s, she had a transcendent breakthrough as Danielle Bowden in Martin Scorsese’s remake of “Cape Fear” (1991). From that point to the end of the decade, Lewis worked with directors as diverse as Woody Allen (”Husbands and Wives”), Lasse Hallstrom (”What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?”) and Oliver Stone (unforgettable as Mallory in “Natural Born Killers”).

Recently, Lewis has also become a working rock musician, first with her band Juliette and the Licks, and then as a solo artist. She has released four albums.

HollywoodChicago.com: You’ve always been a character actor, even when you were younger. What attracts you to playing different types of character humanity, and what attracted you to the challenge of playing the character you play in Conviction?

Juliette Lewis: As I get older, as I process things differently, I’m very much my father’s daughter, and he’s a character actor [Geoffrey Lewis]. I think what he passed down to me was the belief that I could play it all. I could be a princess or a bag lady or a wacky cousin or best friend. It lives in my blood, I love diversity. I didn’t get into film to play one type or be limited by desirability.
I started a completely different career about six years ago, with my band. And I meant it. I set out on a journey similar to my film life, but to make records and tour the world. And it started happening, as an independent musician I was making a living. That’s been my bread and butter, and I didn’t make movies during that time.

In the last year, there has been a reemergence in film for me and this role has been has been the most intense, complex thing I’ve done in the last ten years, dramatically speaking. And even though it’s small, it’s about serving the story, and as a character it gave me the opportunity to completely lose myself. I wanted you to see this person, and not see me at all in it. That complexity of energy was really exciting to me, to make it real.

HC: What motivates your character in Conviction, in your estimation and after having played her, and why do you think she was so manipulated by the situation? What do you admire about her?

JL: She’s the kind of person that lived so many lies and had destructive behavior, that she justified by lies upon lies. You mix that with drugs and alcohol, that can destroy your benevolent energy. It’s like a spiritual thing – how do you know when you see a person walking down the street, that you intuitively know to move to the other side of the walk? That person’s energy is rattled, damaged and unpredictable. I wanted to give off that in the character.

READ THE REST OF THE INTERVIEW HERE

Juliette Lewis enjoys being treated like Elvis Presley.

The 37-year-old actress admits the passion of her fans sometimes brings tears to her eyes, and reminds her of the fervour shown towards the American singing legend. Juliette believes she has such a large fan base due to her ability to emotionally tap into her audience.

“I have this connection with my audience that has been so powerful over the years. I run into people in airports and on the streets and they treat me like I’m Elvis,” she told the Chicago Sun-Times. “It brings me to tears because all I ever wanted to do in life is move people emotionally. If I can serve as a catalyst in some little way by playing these parts, then that’s exciting for me.”

Juliette, who is also a solo singer, is currently recovering after a car accident last week left her with bruising and pain in her back and neck.

She is now enjoying spending some time at home, which is the place she loves the most.

“I’m an L.A. girl, born and raised there, but now I live in an uncool part of town with beautiful trees,” she admitted. “I love suburbia because it’s quiet. I don’t even get cell phone reception and I love it. All I want to do is live a quiet, peaceful life with my family in California.”

In her new film Conviction, Juliette plays a woman who gets her former boyfriend sent to jail.

Source

Juliette Lewis was lucky to escape a hit-and-run crash in California with minor injuries, according to police. The Cape Fear actress and singer was in the back of her car when a driver went through a red light and smashed into the vehicle. The damage caused was enough to see the car written off.

Lewis has since been discharged from hospital following complaints of pain in her head, back and neck.

Her spokesman described Lewis as being a “bit banged-up and sore, but otherwise thankfully OK”.

Police are still searching for the other driver.

Lewis was on her way home after promoting her forthcoming movie Conviction at an event.

Suurce

Soon, in the next following days I will catch up with the rest of the 2010 events.

Gallery Links
PUBLIC APPEARANCES > 2010 > October 4 – Film Independent’s Screening Series Conviction
PUBLIC APPEARANCES > 2010 > October 5 – Conviction Press Conference
PUBLIC APPEARANCES > 2010 > October 5 – The Conviction premiere in Los Angeles