Pop diva Mariah Carey and Oscar winning actress Mira Sorvino teamed up at the Sundance Film Festival Monday (January 14, 2002) to talk about their film "Wise Girls," which had its premiere at the Robert Redford-fronted festival of independent film.
Robert Redford's Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah isn't a place you'd expect to see pop songstress Mariah, nor would you think you'd find her on a couch next to Oscar winning actress Mira Sorvino, much less, next to Sorvino on the big screen. But all of that happened Monday, when the two got together to premiere their film "Wise Girls" and talk about working together.
"Wise Girls" is the story of three waitresses (Mariah Carey, Mira Sorvino, and Melora Walters) who work at a restaurant run by the Mafia and end up getting involved in their bosses' business. Carey plays a drug-dealing waitress named Rachel from Staten Island who, by befriending Sorvino's character, lures her into the restaurant biz, where the plat du jour is drugs.
It's Carey's second stab at the big screen after her recent flop, "Glitter." Her first film was expected to earn Carey a spot on many red carpets to come and the album, to put her on top of the charts. Both plans seemed to have failed miserably, as the film got worse than bad reviews and the album sold a measly 2 million copies worldwide. In fact, after the dismal results, it has been rumoured that EMI, the parent company of Virgin Records, offered to buy out Carey's contract, rumoured to be valued at $100 million (USD).
Though EMI execs deny the buyout offer, it's no question Carey's career has been in a slump since she suffered an emotional breakdown after a series of highly-publicized gaffes was admitted to a Connecticut hospital in July for what was called a "mental and physical breakdown." Carey cited an overly hectic work schedule for the collapse. Rumours circulated that her work on "Wise Girls" contributed to the breakdown, when reports said Carey and Sorvino didn't get along on the set and that the two even came to blows at one point.
When asked about the rumours, both firmly denied ever fighting with the other, in fact, the two said they're the best of friends.
"2001 was chock full of rumours, so why even address it, it's nonsense," Carey told Reuters.
"You can't fake that and you can't fake this. I mean, we're both so totally psyched to be here and so proud of each other. Yesterday we were sitting there watching each other and going, look at that watch how great you are there and listen to them laughing at that," said Sorvino.
Carey said it was her co-stars Sorvino and Melora Walters ("Magnolia") that helped her get through her second film.
"This experience was so great and just to have these two amazing actresses working with me and David Anspaugh [director] creating an environment that allowed me to create a character and to allow me to go deep into myself and to do something different and explore a different side of my creativity and I would love to try to continue to do projects that are unexpected like this. Nobody's expecting this,"
Carey told Reuters.
And Sorvino had nothing but good words for Carey and her performance.
"You're both a natural, which means you have great instincts, but you also built a terrific character there. I mean, that wasn't just playing herself. That was great,"
Sorvino said to Carey.
These "Wise Girls" are clever when it comes to charming the media and they're hoping their movie will do the same.
"Wise Girls" is currently scheduled for cinema release in the United States this summer.