If there's one thing about Evan Rachel Wood it's that she knows what she wants.
"I don't talk about politics," she tells one journalist, who is left startled. Considering her latest role is playing a girl immersed in American politics you can kind of understand her confusion.
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A conversation with the confident 24-year-old is a bit like being in an interview for a job you haven't prepared for.
Wood answers questions with little hesitation — clear, concise and straight to the point. She finishes a sentence, knowing you want more, but equally satisfied she has done everything that was required.
Before you know it, her cropped blonde hair surfaces as her eyes dart from her feet to directly meet mine and there's a flash of awkwardness as you stumble around for something else to throw.
Luckily for me, Wood, by her own admission, is the same in most aspects of her life. "I love competition," she said. "I like to do what people ask and move on."
Life on the set of her latest movie, The Ides of March, which featured at this year's Abu Dhabi Film Festival, with her heart-throb co-star Ryan Gosling, was no different.
"Sometimes it felt like a tennis match between us," she said as her eyes made it completely clear she perhaps wasn't telling the whole story. "I think we were trying to intimidate one another and trying to serve it up as best we could. You can't ask for a better leading man."
Compliments
Competitive it may have been but Wood had nothing but compliments for the Notebook star. "It was difficult to concentrate," she said, with a giggle. "Ryan's incredible — he's everything that you would hope. He's smart, he's cool, he's funny, he's really creative and really loves what he does."
Wood broke off an engagement with Marilyn Manson, announced she didn't only like boys, stripped nude for HBO, and now plays a frisky intern in The Ides of March, a movie directed by George Clooney.
There was little need to ask how Clooney spotted Wood.
"I got a phone call from George and I picked up the handset and was like ‘Who is this, really?' But it was him and we just started talking and it was like we'd known each other for years. Then he asked me to do the movie and it was a no-brainer, you know. I'd never met him before but the writing is incredible, the acting is really amazing."
A political thriller, The Ides of March sees Wood take on the character of a young intern whose actions during a heavily contested Ohio presidential primary sets in motion a dramatic and devastating series of events.
"It's a bunch of brilliant actors at the top of their game," she said. "It's based in the political world but it's not necessarily about politics. It's more about people and what they will do to win. Whether they're going to compromise who they are and their integrity to get what they want. So no matter where you're from or what you believe in, everybody will be able to relate to it, I think. It's just a good, solid film."
The best
Since breaking out with her performance in the hard-to-watch drama Thirteen, Wood has established herself as one of the best young actresses in the business today — from drama The Wrestler to comedy Whatever Works. But it was her performance in the Beatles-inspired Across the Universe which caught Clooney's eye.
"A lot of people who are asking me to do their movies are big fans of Across the Universe, they'd seen me in that," she said. "George was a big fan of that movie, it's one of his favourite movies. So that's what made him ask me."
While Wood said she would have never turned the movie down, she also said it was one of her best experiences so far, partly due to the laughs on set.
"He's [Clooney] a total prankster. We never worked past 6pm, which is unheard of," she said, laughing.
"The best one was this one time he was having this really serious conversation with Ryan [Gosling] and he had this mister and Ryan couldn't feel it. So he was talking to him and misting Ryan's crotch so he'd go and do the scene and Ryan would have this huge wet spot on his pants. It was hilarious, so funny. When you're doing a movie that's so serious and then in between scenes you're getting hit with nerve guns and getting sprayed with water, you know, just waiting for some crazy prank to come.
"He knows when he's got what he wants and needs, you never feel like you're beating a dead horse," she added. "He knows what he wants."
Like actor, like director.
Wood on...
Clothes: "I'm a big fan of fashion and clothes but not a big fan of shopping. I buy most of my stuff online and on eBay because I'm just such a terrible shopper. I know it goes against everything that I am as a girl but, hah.
"I love Dolce & Gabbana. I just love what they're doing with menswear for women. That's kinda my favourite thing right now. I'm a huge fan of this whole high street shopper thing. I love Target. The majority of the time when I get compliments, like when people think it's designer, it's actually from Target. Brilliant."
Make up: "I like to give my skin a break and since I have to wear make-up so much for my work I really like to let it breathe when I get the chance, every now and then. So when I don't have to, I really try not to. But it's so weird when you wanna wake up in the morning and just go get coffee and there's like paparazzi outside your house and you're like ‘I don't get a break'. I find myself almost wanting to explain to them why I haven't got make-up on. You feel like you've always gotta make yourself up, it's so silly."
Music: "Right now I'm listening to Foster the People, The Cult, The Naked and Famous, I think are my top three right now. Prince was the last concert I went to and all I can say is that guy has still got it. He is so good. Once he gets on stage in that gold, glitter tuxedo it's just incredible."
