Kristin, who appears in Robert’s latest kid-flick The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl (opening in Manila theaters on Oct. 19), came in a red floral summer dress with a cardigan top. It was a chilly June afternoon but thanks to a colleague, who closed the windows, the temperature turned manageable.
Kristin took off her cardigan when she noticed the temperature, but not without a warning. Another writer jokingly warned her that "questions might get chilly."
"Oh my gosh! Please be nice," she playfully begged.
Kristin gained international fame via her Emmy and Golden Globe-nominated role as the sweet, innocent Charlotte York in Sex & the City. The show ended its successful six-season run a year ago but people still haven’t completely forgotten Charlotte.
"We went to Oprah and she was like, ‘You don’t seem to be really dealing with this?’ But, you know, everyday, every person I meet talks to me about the show, so I am dealing with it everyday," she says.
During the show’s final season, talk was high that a movie adaptation would be made. "Oh, I wanted that movie to happen, really, really badly," Kristin excitedly relates. "I think we believed it was going to happen and Michael Patrick, our writer, believed it was going to happen. And HBO really, really wanted it to happen. I think there were a couple of issues, Kim (Catrall, who portrays the promiscuous Samantha) said publicly she didn’t want to do it – and she has her own personal reasons for that – and that we were all exhausted and wanted a break."
"Now, when I look back, I can see that with the way they had it structured, it was important that we start almost right away because they wanted to release the movie the following summer so people won’t forget – like it was gonna be almost a continuation of the series," Kristin recalls. "But that created an unbelievable amount of pressure. HBO didn’t want to share with Warner Bros. and it hasn’t produced a big-budget film so it was like "re-inventing the wheel" – I don’t mean that in a bad way – so, when I look back, I think, what got in the way was the ambition of it all."
After the show ended, Kristin started working on pilots for several TV shows and did several movie projects, among which is Robert’s new fantasy adventure set in 3D.
"Oh, it’s so cool!" Kristin says when asked about the 3D process. "The Austin set was amazing. We had to wear these crazy outfits because we were the Cookie Giants and we were supposed to stand over our house, which were really very small. Focus is important, so we had to follow all the elaborate directions."
The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl is a fantasy based on the intergalactic journey and superhero stories created by Robert’s seven-year old son Racer Max. In the film, a young Boy, Max, gets lost in his own fantasy in an attempt to escape the everyday worries of dealing with parents, school bullies, and no-fun summer vacations. He dreams of Shark Boy and Lava Girl and before long realizes he has the powers to make all his dreams come true.
Kristin isn’t much of a dreamer herself. "I don’t always remember my dreams. I had dreams where my hair all fell down, you know, all anxiety-related dreams," she confides.
She denies rumors that she once called Teri Hatcher to tell her she wants to join the cast of Desperate Housewives.
"The story is I called my friend Teri, to help me get into the show – it’s not true! I support them. I wish them well but I don’t know why I want to get on another show that… you know what I mean?" she clarifies.
Her nightmares were not uncommon after Sex & the City ended. "I felt a lot less in control, because the thing that was great about the show was we were together for so long and we kind of almost grew up together. At the beginning of the show, I wasn’t really that successful. After the show started getting big and HBO gave us tremendous support and respect, I felt safe and protected, like I was understood. It was really unusual and being out of that safe world with a new director and a humongous-budget movie, I was like, ‘Oh my Gosh, I hope I am doing what they wanted me to do. And even though they were sweet and nice to me, I didn’t know them, so I felt scared."
Kristin started acting when she was 10 in South Carolina. She concedes that it partly channeled her daydreams. "
Actors are allowed or encouraged to daydream that you are other people," she reveals. "Another thing I love about the movies is even for children – and for adults –you need to remember you are creating and you know your dreams and fantasies. Your creativity is an important part of how you are living and you can make them come true."
She admits living her greatest dream at the moment. "As a kid, my greatest dream is to get to act as a job. I didn’t know anybody who did it professionally and my parents were intellectuals working at a university and they were saying like, ‘That’s a hobby. That’s the kind of thing you do on the side,’ and I was like, ‘No, I want to do it!’
"My biggest dream at the time, because I didn’t dream in a really big way, was to go to NY and be in a play," she continues. "So whatever’s happening in my life right now is so much bigger than I ever dreamed of and I just want to keep doing it."
"What I love about my job is I get to work with the best talents. I love Robert. I am a huge admirer of Robert,"says Kristin who works with Robert for the first time. "I am so happy to be a part of this movie because it is not a movie that’s patronizing to kids, it’s not a movie that’s saccharine-sweet like some kid’s movie. These characters – the parents and the kids – are great and they are all trying to work something out."
Kristin has no qualms about playing a mother role in the movie. "As the mom, I’m too practical at the beginning. I’m screaming, ‘You have to go make friends at school. You go get a job and stop dreaming!’ because all the dad does is dream and he doesn’t have a job."
Through her experience working with Robert and his producer-wife Elizabeth, Kristin realized one great value. "When I talked to Robert and Elizabeth, Robert said, if he hadn’t met Elizabeth, he’d still be sitting at his office at home, drawing. He wouldn’t have made a movie. But some people just dream and as an adult you say, ‘I can go out and make it happen’," Kristin says.
She agrees with a line in the movie that says, "Dreams don’t come true on their own. You have to make them come true."
Declares Kristin, "You can’t just dream and you can’t just work, work and work. You need them both."