MORENA Baccarin RUBEN V. NEPALES
LOS ANGELES—Morena Baccarin, who stars as Vanessa in “Deadpool,” is due to give birth any time now. No, the father is not Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds). The dad is also from the comics world—James “Jim” Gordon, the police commissioner of Batman’s beloved Gotham City. In “Gotham,” Jim is played by Ben McKenzie, Morena’s boyfriend in real life and costar in the TV series.
“I am very far along,” said the Brazilian-American actress, blooming in a bright green St. John dress in our interview. “I’m pretty much ready to go. Literally, like in the next few weeks. Hopefully, the baby will wait for another week or so.” That’s to give Morena more time to help in the film’s media promotions push.
“It was a nice pregnancy,” added the stunning brunette who earned a 2013 Emmy best supporting actress in a drama series nomination for her Jessica Brody role in “Homeland” (she was Claire Danes’ classmate in a New York school for performing arts). “But everybody feels ready to have it end. I’m very tired.”
“I do know the sex of the baby,” she admitted, but said with a smile, “I am not revealing. It will be a surprise.”
We are guessing it’s a girl. The Rio de Janeiro native, who moved with her family to New York when she was seven, has a son, Julian, born in 2013, with writer-director Austin Chick. He filed for divorce in 2015.
Morena debuted on TV as Inara Serra in Joss Whedon’s short-lived sci-fi drama, “Firefly,” but has become a fanboy favorite since then. She plays Dr. Leslie Lee Thompkins in “Gotham,” the Fox series developed by Bruno Heller.
The 36-year-old, who also appeared in plays, comes from a Brazilian show biz family—her mother Vera Setta and uncle Ivan Setta were actors, while a great uncle was a noted filmmaker.
What was it like shooting those sex scenes with Ryan Reynolds?
It was definitely scary. Going in, it was definitely intimidating. What was fun about it was we had a lot of conversations. It was a sex montage—we wanted to find creative ways to show who these characters were, who they were to each other and how much fun they had together. We wanted to see them progressively falling in love through these sex montages.
We wanted to find a way to show that they’re not ordinary people. So, we were trying to come up with ways that they would be intimate, that would be different from the ordinary. So that was fun. There was a lot of humor that went with it as you can see from the movie.
It’s never fun to go in that day and know that’s what you’re going to be shooting all day just because it’s very vulnerable and an intimate thing. But once you get going, and we were shooting it all day long, you get used to it.
Ryan is an incredible professional. The director (Tim Miller) and everybody were very careful. We planned out exactly what we were doing. Then, within that structure, you have to find a way to have fun and relax, or you’re going to have really hard 14 hours.
Did you and Ryan come up with your own ideas about some of the sex scenes??
Yeah. The Thanksgiving scene, in particular. We started to play with food. That wasn’t originally in there. I said to the director, “There’s nowhere in this arc where they’ve been having sex that you see like they’re falling in love. Where’s that moment?” He was like, “You’re right.” So, we added Deadpool saying, ‘I love you,’ and my reaction to that. We decided that was necessary to really show the depth of their relationship—and that it wasn’t just sex.
Could you fall in love with a guy like Wade/Deadpool, who talks that much?
(Laughs) I guess it depends on what he is saying. That’s the charm of Deadpool. He’s charmingly annoying, and he’ll be the first to admit that. It would really depend on what is coming out of his mouth. Me personally, I don’t know if I’d fall in love with Deadpool, but Vanessa did.
What did you enjoy about playing Vanessa?
I love the character. It’s rare that this woman gets to be in a superhero movie and not be the victim. It’s a beautiful love story, but it’s rare that you get to have this much oomph, that you get to talk back and have a sense of humor, play comedy and action.
I love that as she’s being rescued, she’s mad at Deadpool. She’s calling him an a**hole. She’s pissed that he left and didn’t tell her what happened. It’s a very real, gritty character—that was what attracted me to the role.
You are in “Gotham” and now, in “Deadpool,” too. Both are based on comics, but to fans, they’re very different. What did you learn from your research, if any, about these two worlds?
“Gotham” was something that just popped up for me. They offered me the role of Leslie. I’m obviously familiar with the Gotham universe, but not very familiar with that character. When I talked to Bruno Heller, the creator of the show, I asked him, “Should I be doing research on her? Are we going to stick to the mythology of this character?” Because I believe that originally, she was a love interest of Alfred (Pennyworth, Bruce Wayne’s butler), not Jim Gordon’s. Bruno said no.
We’re sticking to the “bible” as much as we can, but we’re making some changes. I familiarized myself with the universe of the show, but I didn’t have to do much research.
With “Deadpool,” it’s an origin story. There isn’t much in the comics about their (Deadpool and Vanessa’s) meeting or who they are. I looked at the comics and who he was. I saw their world a little bit just to get a tone for the piece, then the rest was all in the script.
How much do you think being in “Homeland” contributed to the career you are enjoying now?
I’d like to think that every job and every step I’ve taken progressed more and more toward the career that I’ve wanted to have. “Homeland” was a big moment for me. It was nice to get nominated for something. It was wonderful to get recognized for my hard work. It was a wonderful project to work on.
I enjoyed the writing very much. It was fulfilling to create that character and work with the people in that show. The rest was just icing on the cake.
E-mail rvnepales_5585@yahoo.com. Follow him at https://twitter.com/nepalesruben.