Jessica Alba in "The Eye"

Actress and mom-to-be Jessica Alba says she has “always loved horror movies,” especially bone-chilling thrillers like “The Eye,” her newest film project slated to hit theaters Friday Feb. 1.
“The Eye” is a remake of the Pang Brothers Hong Kong film “Jian Gui,” a story about the supernatural world. Alba said she thinks directors David Moreau and Xavier Palud’s version of the story is a little different from the Asian version.

“I thought the original was very good and a little bit more quiet, and I thought the lead character was a bit more stoic,” said Alba to Hollywood Today. “The ghost aspect of the story is more accepted with Eastern culture, while, in the West, it’s not quite as accepted as it is in that culture. Here, it’s more taboo and crazy. Our interpretation was a little more Western in the way we perceived the ghost.”

Alba, 26 (“Good Luck Chuck,” “Dark Angel”), plays Sydney Wells, a young violinist who’s been blind since childhood. However, she now has the opportunity of a lifetime, to receive a miraculous corneal transplant, which will restore her sight. Sydney takes a leap of faith and goes under the knife to regain her vision.

After healing and adjusting to new stimuli created by a world of shapes and colors she suddenly starts seeing frightening visions of ghosts and death that nearly drive her insane. Sydney soon realizes that she must discover whose eyes she’s inherited and find out why the eyes are seeing the images that are terrorizing her daily.

The film centers on the concept of cellular memory, says Alba. “Cellular memory really does exist, I just don’t know if it exists necessarily with corneal transplants, but it does exist with other organ transplants.”

When asked whether she believed in ghosts and the supernatural and how that affects her portrayal of the character, Alba retorted, “It’s pretend, it’s a movie, you have to play everything with conviction regardless of whether you believe it’s totally real or not, if that’s what your character’s going through.”

But based on the interview, it sounds like Alba buys into some of what the film’s about, which is contrary to co-star Nivola’s opinion on the matter.

Handsome co-star Alessandro Nivola (“Face Off,” “Jurassic Park III”) plays Dr. Paul Faulkner, a neural psychologist, who isn’t convinced of the concept of cellular memory.

“My character doesn’t ever believe in it. To the end of the movie, the character is deeply confused and unsettled throughout the course of the movie,” Nivola said. “I don’t believe in ghosts, and therefore it was easy to play that character, because I can count myself among the skeptics.”

But he certainly bought into it for the film project and he clearly identified with character Faulkner.

“It’s a great jumping-off point for a thriller story. People have varying degrees of conviction about how having someone else’s organs in you affects your behavior,” Nivola told HT. “Sometimes your body rejects the organ, etc. and I do think there is enough confusion about having someone else’s organs in you to create a good story.”

Another interesting Nivola related story, is the fact that he and British girlfriend Emily Mortimer (“Trans Siberian”), live next door to bereaved actress Michelle Williams and toddler Matilda, the daughter and ex-fiance’ of recently deceased actor Heath Ledger.

“He and Michelle were our next door neighbors in Brooklyn, and Michelle still is. She is a good friend of mine and Emily’s,” said Nivola. “He, I didn’t know as well as she, although we did cross paths a bunch of times in Brooklyn before he moved into Manhattan, when they separated. He just seemed like a really loving father. I always saw him with Matilda their two-year-old daughter. He was always really sweet to me. I’m a huge fan of his as an actor and it’s horrible, it’s just awful.

The actor and his girlfriend have not had much contact with their distressed neighbor. “Michelle’s only just come home from Sweden, but we’ve sent our condolences.”
As for “The Eye,” Nivola said there wasn’t much room for love scenes with the hot Latin Alba.
“There’s no big sex scene in the movie and you know, much as we all would have liked it, I think everybody felt, what are you gonna do in between some burn victim slamming against the window,” Nivola said rhetorically. “What are you gonna do, jump in the back seat and have a quickie or what?” The actor was really quite charming and humorous.

Neither Alba nor Nivola spoke about their interactions on set, but one thing is clear, they both spent ample hours prepping for their roles.

Alba played a blind concert violinist in the film and worked very hard to look like she had years of experience as a musician.

“That was the toughest, I think, of everything. It took me about six months and I had to play all the notes and the music and I had to play with the rhythm of the songs. It was intense. I spent every lunch on “Fantastic Four” and during this film at every break, practicing violin at night, and on weekends for this film,” Alba said. “It was crazy. I had to do a lot of practice. People who do this for a living practice eight or 12 hours a day. Imagine someone who’s doing this for the first time.”

Alba was required to play the same classical music that a highly trained professional should know.

“The directors had me playing Mozart and Beethoven. I stayed with the rhythm and played the notes, but it did not sound like Beethoven or Mozart. It sounded like something screechy.”
But, what Alba admired most about her role, was the psycho-dramatic aspect of the film.
“The sanity aspect of it was certainly one of my favorite parts of the movie. The psychological thriller and the audience perspective of — Is this really happening? Is this all in her head? I went in and out of thinking…am I really losing my mind or is this something I am seeing and then trying to find a truth,” Alba told HT. “Am I really losing my mind? I think that is the most terrifying thing, is thinking you have lost touch with reality completely. That was an intriguing part of the movie that I thought was different to other horror movies and the reason that I wanted to do this one.”

Alba also found this to be a very technical oriented film, like many she’s done before. Fortunately, she’d done some of the same type of technical work with green screens and such in prior films, but still found the work stressful at times.

“They don’t teach you any of that stuff in acting class. You have to hit your marks and learn seven pages a day and changing dialogue in rehearsal and shooting starts in 45 minutes. Or doing the same performance over and over to get one word,” said Alba, “Yeah, they don’t teach you any of that stuff in acting class. It’s all about work shopping the same scene for a week or two. You have to think on your toes and you have to try to make it as believable as possible, and hopefully pull it off, knowing you are living in a complete fantasy.”

However, the usually hard-bodied and pretty actress admits wholeheartedly that she loves the work, even technically challenging work such as this.

“I like horror movies. I’ve always loved horror movies. I’m less about the gore and more about the ghost stories and that kind of thing. “Nightmare on Elm Street” was one of my first movies I remember vividly that I saw as a kid and kind of stayed in my head since then. I really like Alfred Hitchcock and Stephen King too.”

Most importantly, Alba has another highly anticipated project in the making – a baby on the way. Alba and fiance’ Cash Warren are expecting their first child in Spring 2008, and after working tirelessly for the last two years, she’s ready to take a break and enjoy her pregnancy.
“It’s quite a blessing and it’s something that I’ve always wanted and it’s happening now. It’s a great time in my life. I couldn’t have asked for better timing. I’ve been around kids and I’ve been changing diapers since I was about 5 or 6. Babysitting my cousins and it just came from being around my family. None of that stuff is really new to me. But having my own, and being responsible for someone, having them depend on me completely you definitely can’t be that selfish.”

In the meantime, Alba has another movie coming out called “The Love Guru,” co-starring Mike Meyers and then Robert Rodriquez’s “Sin City 2.”

“I’m not working now,” said a very pregnant Alba. “I’ve been working for two years straight. I’m just taking it easy and seeing what happens with this writers strike and the actors strike in June.”

As for her ever-blooming career and the impending bundle of joy, Alba says “It’s quite a blessing and it’s something I’ve always wanted. It’s a great time in my life.

Alba hopes that the paparazzi and media will give her a little breathing room to relax and have low stress in her final trimester after she’ s done with her promotional interviews.

In regard to leaks about her pregnancy and other private details of her life she says, “That’s annoying for sure, but I can have privacy at home and with friends and stuff. But it is a bit different when you’re in the public eye. Right now there’s a lot of attention because I’m pregnant and have this movie coming out. I’m hoping it’s not always like that.”

Alba added that she and daddy-to-be Warren would like to keep the gender of their baby to themselves at this time.

“The Eye” also features Parker Posey (“Best in Show”) and was produced by Tom Cruise partner Paula Wagner and Jeff Jur. It’s being distributed by Lionsgate and is rated R by the MPAA.

By Stacey Silberman (www.hollywoodtoday.net)