ON THE EVE OF FAME
‘Star Trek’ stunner tackles drama and depth in new Labute movie
Writer-director Neil LaBute wanted to explore female complex it y in “Some Velvet Morning,” opening Friday. His best move? Casting Alice Eve, most recently onscreen locking phasers with Chris Pine’s Capt. Kirk in this past summer’s “Star Trek Into Darkness.”
The 31-year-old Londonborn, California-raised actress has earned praise for a halfdozen years, thanks to the Brit rom-com “Starter for 10,” playing an Aussie in “Crossing Over” and providing the fantasy evoked by the title “She’s Out of My League.”
Meaty roles in small movies led to small roles in big Hollywood franchise films like “Men in Black 3” and “Sex & the City 2.” That led to her breakout role on “Into Darkness,” though her success had to do more with underwear than outer space.
Her character, brainy scientist Carol Marcus, opened plenty of hailing frequencies during a short scene featuring her in a bra and panties.
Starfleet goes Victoria’s Secret? Eve still seems baffled by the response.
“It was strange — it really caused a kind of disruption! I don’t think I’ll ever know why,” she says with a laugh.
“Maybe it was [fanboys’] anger over the fact that Carol Marcus and Capt. Kirk never actually had sex.”
She has plenty of sex in LaBute’s film — but that’s besides the point.
“LaBute’s come to a point where he’s willing to talk about a woman’s [perspective], investigate women in a way he hasn’t before — the gray areas of being a woman,” Eve says, referring to prior LaBute works such as “In the Company of Men,” “Your Friends & Neighbors” and Broadway’s “Fat Pig.”
“We’re sexual, complex, coy creatures — and interested in power and dynamics and the same sort of stuff men play in.”
In the two-person “Some Velvet Morning” — shot entirely in a brownstone in P Park Slope — Eve and Stanlley Tucci play lovers working t through issues during a taut, a and fraught, visit.
He confesses he’s left his w wife, but Velvet has to keep h him at a distance — for her own r reasons.
The subterfuge is classic L LaBute, but the film has tricks u up its sleeve. Eve was pleased t they are there.
“I didn’t know there would b be twists in the story!” she says. ““I’m glad there are — it helps you feel like you’ve given time to something worthwhile. “It's great as an actor to go through it, though afterwards you do feel a bit shook up!” she says.