Recently Leicester Square’s been flooded with icebergs and penguins, but last night was the first time Empire could remember seeing such nice drifts of snow next to a white carpet. One TV presenter got over excited and started walking on them before getting shouted at by security – naughty.
All this snow is for the premiere of The Holiday, the country-swapping rom-com with Jack Black (sadly absent this evening) and Jude Law as two men who charm the pants off lovelorn home-swappers Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet and give them an inevitable happy ending just before New Year.
Cameron Diaz was quite keen on the idea of a house swap. “I actually just saw the Nestea commercial with Geroge Clooney and immediately thought of his Lake Como villa in Italy and thought that would be a great place to stop in,” she said. Winslet and Diaz spend nearly all the film in separate countries, but this didn’t stop some girly partying when they got the chance. “We didn’t have many scenes together but we did get to meet and we spent every time that we got together. It was a little giddy gals going ons and screaming and (being) excited to see each other and then being told to get back to work!”
Filming in L.A. and England meant hectic run-around for director Nancy Meyers, who also had to fill in for the actresses: “Kate would be on the phone to Cameron and that would be me on the other end,” she said. “Obviously it was a very goofy schedule and we were working at different times of the years so I’d have Cameron at one time and Kate at another but it was great, they’re both deeply talented.”
Jude Law dashed inside to avoid the usual Sienna questioning (didn’t that end three times already?) which left us in the company of the just plain dashing Rufus Sewell. Sewell plays Jaspar, a writer who is about to marry someone else after stringing Winslet’s character Iris along as “friends” for three years.
“At first I thought ‘I don’t want to play this tosser’ but then I thought, ‘Well why not?’” he grinned. “What’s funny about him is he completely thinks he’s misunderstood. He’s genuinely annoyed that she doesn’t understand how complex his situation is which is ridiculous because people in that situation often do find a way of justifying it to themselves - in fact always.”
And finally, before taking a paparazzi walk with her other co-stars in the snow outside, Kate Winslet sang the praises of co-star Jack Black. “He’s a very funny guy, he didn’t play any pranks but he basically just made me laugh, deliberately every single day and it was a great experience. He’s very spontaneous, he was the only one who got away with improvising, who was allowed to improvise because he basically did it better than anyone else. All his improves stayed in the move so lucky old him.”
Unlike Cameron however, Kate is quite happy to stay at home instead of following in the footsteps of her character.
“I wouldn’t (swap homes) I don’t think,” she said. “I mean, if I were to do anything like that I think I’d like to go to a city like Paris or Rome. I’m not kind of into white sandy beaches and all that kind of stuff!”
The Holiday opens on December 8 nationwide.