Piper Perabo feels the film is about “pushing the boundaries of love”. Understandable, given that her character, Paulie, is totally uncompromising and unapologetic in her obsession with Tory.
“It’s as if they’re separate halves of each other, so when you take Tory away from Paulie, it’s like taking the ground out from under her feet”, Perabo explains. “Besides being her lover, Tory is her hold on the world.”
Analysing her character, Perabo goes on, “Paulie is intensely passionate. She’s studied and academic, she devours knowledge and is interested in trying it all out. But I don’t think she’s processed it all into real wisdom yet.”
As for what it is she finds attractive in Paulie, Perabo adds, “I like it that she is fighting from the inside out, from this very controlled boarding school where all the girls are in uniform. I like how passionate she is about her education and her love, how she’s constantly going out and jumping off cliffs, so to speak.”
For Perabo it has been helpful having fellow New Yorker Barton on set in Quebec to help alleviate the homesickness. Of her acting, Perabo says, “Mischa is very innocent and expressive, so it’s always heartbreaking to do scenes with her because it’s so amazing what comes out of her eyes.”
The intensity of the subject matter and the passion of the characters are a challenge for each of the actors to sustain. As Perabo puts it, “It’s exhausting to be this intense, but it’s an intensity that refuels itself.
I saw Emporte-moi and it blew my mind”, affirms Perabo. “I thought, ‘If I could ever get to work with Léa, I have to go wherever she is.’. She brings a whole world with her with her to the film and you can’t help but get inside that world with her.”
Piper Perabo’s brief career has already attracted considerable attention as Variety and Talk magazines have recognized her as among the top young actresses to watch. This, on the strength of her performances in the much talked about Coyote Ugly, as well as The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle. Prior to these films, she’d appeared in one other commercial film, White Boys.
While earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts, summa cum laude, in acting from Ohio University, Perabo appeared in several student stage and film productions.
(taken from the Lions Gate Films press kit, 2001)
update from A Tribute to Lost and Delirious, Stef:
Since Lost and Delirious Piper Perabo acted in Slap Her... She's French (2002), Flowers (2002/I) , A Piece of My Heart (2002), Cheaper by the Dozen (2003), The I Inside (2003), George and the Dragon (2003)
The latest movie Piper Perabo acted in is called “Cheaper by the Dozen”, directed by Shawn Levy, was released on 25th December 2003.
In an interview Piper Perabo did with Fred Topel for IGN Entertainment, Inc. (http://filmforce.ign.com/articles/448/448344p1.html) she said: "I had seen Shawn Levy's movie just before, Just Married. And I think when I met him too, he's very smart and together and he's got it together. He really knows what he wants to shoot and how he wants to shoot it. He has such a plan when he comes into shoot. It's not at all about some kind of fabulous artistic [idea]. There's no pretension. He's just really consummate at shooting a movie. And sometimes when you have a big movie like this and you meet someone who can really take that on, especially a young director, I think that's really impressive. And if you can get on the boat with those guys, you'll be happy about it."
Perabo was a
fan of the book on which the film, and its 1950 predecessor, was based. That,
plus a meeting with director Shawn Levy sold her on the film.