Rachel Nichols talks Tamara

The colossal legend that is CONAN THE BARBARIAN is back this Summer. Having thrived and evolved for eight decades in the public imagination – in prose and graphics, on the big screen and small – Conan’s exploits in the Hyborian Age now come alive like never before.

Shot in 3D, the reimagining of one man’s mythical battle for revenge is finally here in this Epic action-adventure film. Directed By Marcus Nispel, starring Jason Momoa as Conan, plus Rachel Nichols, Stephen Lang, Rose McGowan, Said Taghmaoui and Ron Perlman.

Rachel Nichols sat down for an interview to talk about her role of Tamara in the Marcus Nispel remake…

 

 

Can you describe Tamara for me and explain why she is so important to the story?

You’re introduced to this monk in a monastery, and there’s a veil and lots of white flowing fabric. And when I was reading the script, I thought, ‘Ok, this is the character I’m reading for—who is she?’ The truth of the matter is if she doesn’t know who she is until about five minutes in. After her introduction she’s stripping an enemy of a sword and threatening him with it. She’s got this innate instinct and you’re not quite sure where it comes from. Tamara is the lynch pin of the whole story because Khalar Zym, the bad guy, is in search of me because my pure line of blood. He needs to  sacrifice me to get his dead wife back. Conan the Barbarian wants Khalar because Khalar killed Conan’s father – and so it’s this thing where everybody wants me. Conan wants me because he wants Khalar and Khalar wants me because he wants his wife back.  I’m the centrepiece of the battle of good versus evil, if you will. By no means the damsel in distress – it was quite fun, to be action oriented. She’s the tie that binds.

 

In the olden days, she would have been your archetypal damsel in distress. Was it nice to be a surprisingly modern woman?

Absolutely, it’s one of the things that I spoke about with Marcus Nispel in the beginning. It was one of the things that came out in the script. In the olden days, they would have been tied up with tissue paper and they can’t get out and there’s furry bikini involved. They are swooning and fainting and I went, ‘That’s not her at all, never going to be.’ And that’s what so fun about it. In action and horror genres a lot recently, if you got a female as your lead character she’s kicking ass and taking names.

 

What do you think is the appeal of this version of Conan? Besides the fact that Jason is quite easy on the eyes?

I was going to say have you seen Jason’s abs? And for those who don’t know, you get to see his butt too. Aside from that, even if he was covered the entire movie the appeal is: Conan the Barbarian came out about 30 years ago. It’s ready for a bit of a modernization and a re-telling. I give a lot of credit to Jason because his Conan is fantastic, he’s fantastic as Conan. And Arnold is fantastic as Conan. And they’re totally different. So, it will be ok. People can like them both, they’re never going to have to choose. And I think for women, because it is a very ‘Conan testosterone pound on my chest and eat lamb shanks and drink Meade all the time.’ But for women, there are very strong women. Even Marique who is a bad girl, she’s still very strong and there’s a girl fight, and there is girl power as well. I think women will have fun with it. It’s very bloody, but I think it’s pretty cool that it’s so bloody.

 

You’ve worked on all sorts of different things, but nothing quite like this. What was the most fun part for you?

There were a lot of really fun parts. The single most gratifying moment was, I had to learn how to do sword play, it was new for me, despite all of the action I’ve done, sword play was new. I had this one take where I’m fighting on the pirate ship and I’m slicing through a guy and there was a blood bag taped to his chest and the sword went right through it and blood went everywhere. And that’s just awesome. It’s the single most gratifying thing. That and learning how to ride a horse. That was awesome.

 

 

And what was the worst part?

Bulgaria’s tough. The people were lovely. It’s hard to go to a country for three months and where you can’t even read the street signs because it was a different alphabet. It makes ordering food a challenge—it can be kind of scary. I got a lot of bruises but I happen to think bruises are awesome, so that couldn’t be the worst part either. It’s tough to be away and be in a country like that – it was perfect for the film – but kind of tough to live there for three months.  But any time you do that with a large group of people you end up coming together like summer camp. There was one Mexican restaurant that we all went to and by the time we left they had named a drink after us. It was on the menu.

 

What was it called?

It was called the Conan fish bowl. What the fish bowls is, because they had fish bowls when we got there, it was a gigantic margarita in a fishbowl and with the Conan fishbowl you added a Corona to it.

 

How does someone who’s so smart end up being a model? Because it clearly wouldn’t be an obvious career choice for you?

Well, I was born and raised in Augusta, Maine, went to Columbia University in New York. I was from one of those middle class families, too rich for financial aid and too poor to really be afford that kind of education. My parents had saved from a very young age and said wherever you get in and wherever you want to go we’ll find a way to do it. But, if you want to do more schooling after your undergraduate you’re paying for it yourself, lady. And I went ok fine. I worked at Abercrombie and Fitch, I met modelling agents, photographers and I ended up starting to model. I took a semester off from Columbia and I moved to Paris for nine months and I saved money. And then it led to commercials and then I went back to school and while I was still at school I got a movie and I started acting a little bit. And then I graduated and got my diploma. And then my parents said if you want to go do this acting thing you should really do it now because you can get your job at the bank later, or never as it’s going to turn out. But it was one of those things where I really wanted to save money. I do have a bank account that has enough money for me to go back to Columbia and get a graduate degree should I ever decide to do it.

 

 

Conan the Barbarian in 3D Film Page | Rachel Nichols Profile | Conan 3D Facebook page

Lionsgate presents CONAN THE BARBARIAN at UK cinemas Wednesday 24th August 2011