"The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" - December 1999

   

Jay: How are you?
Kate: Fine.
It's nice to see you again.
It's nice to be here.
Oh, yeah, yeah, we always love having you here.
I haven't been here [in Los Angeles] since the last time I was on the show.
Well, that would make sense, yeah.
It's been sort of twenty months, or something. It's been a long time.
Well, it's like you're all over the world. You're in India doing this movie, you're running around.
India, Morocco, England, I've been all over the place.
And you got married.
[Sighs and grins] I got married, I got married. [Audience applauds] Thank you.

Now, didn't you guys just celebrate your anniversary?
We had our first anniversary on Monday last week.
Now, where does one go in England? Did you go in England, or did you go to some romantic restaurant?
We took advantage of the fact that it fell just after the weekend, and we just took the whole weekend. We went down to Cornwall, which is on the coast of England, and we went surfing, is what we did.
Surfing in England!
We went surfing, surfing in England. There's some great surf down in Cornwall. It's quite hard to find, but it's there, it's there.
Was it raining? I mean…
It was freezing, it was absolutely freezing [Jay laughs], but, you know, I'm terribly partial to the cold water, you see.
Oh, well, I guess you'd be used to it.
Of course I am, so…
And I enjoy seeing women in cold water, but it seems… People think…like California, you go, 'ooh, that's a little chilly.' No, it's like freezing freezing. It's like ridiculous cold.
Yeah, it is ridiculous cold. So, you just put on a winter wet suit, and a hat, and gloves, and boots, and the whole thing, and all you can have is your eyes peeking out.
And then you go surfing?
You go suring. That's what we do.
But you don't have like a beach, you just hit craggy rocks, don't you?
No, no no. There's some beautiful, beautiful beaches down there.
Were you the only people there? There was no one else on the beach.
I have to say there were loads of other people in the sea surfing.
Really?
Yeah, lots of other people.
Cause I've been in England. The sun is out for twenty minutes and people go, 'oh!' [Puts hand up to shield his face.] They get burns on their faces.
No, no. It's there, it's there. On our wedding day we had beautiful blue sky and sun shining, but chilly, crisp weather, so…
Now, where did you guys meet? Did you guys meet like on a film?
We met on 'Hideous Kinky', the movie that I did after 'Titanic'.
'Hideous Kinky' - something to tell the children - 'We met on Hideous Kinky.'
Which is the movie that I did after 'Titanic' in Morocco, and that was where we met.
Now, let me ask you - now, you're young, obviously, and just starting your career, although you've been working for a while. Did you go into this thinking… Were you one of these girls - 'I always wanted to get married,' or 'I want to stay single'?
Yeah, but I think we all are, aren't we? I think we all, kind of, are looking for the ideal guy.
Well, I don't know. I know a lot of women that aren't.
Well, I really was. Between the ages of sort of 19 and 20, 21, I was going, 'where is he, where is he?'
So, each guy you went out with, you'd think, 'is this the guy'?
Yeah, you sort of think, 'oh, maybe this is him.' And sitting in cafes by myself, and the door would open, the guy would walk in, and I'd think, 'God, maybe that's the one for me.' It was getting completely ridiculous, and I just thought, 'right, I'm abandoning this whole thing.' Went off to Morocco, did 'Hideous Kinky'. Two weeks later - that was it.
Wow. So, it's when you're not looking for it.
Yeah, just lights flashing, there he was, and I went, 'oh, well, there's no looking back now.'
Whenever I dated, I'd always meet more women in 'Frozen Foods' that I would ever meet in like a singles bar, you know. Cause you go to the supermarket, and, oh, you know, she's squeezing fruit. Oh, that's, you know, that's pretty good. Then, your guard isn't up and it's friendly. It's when you're not looking for it.
I know, it was, it was. It was a case of, you know, I'd made the decision I wasn't going to look anymore, and it smacked me in the face.
Now, is it hard to be away? I mean, your work is…
Well, I have to say, we had a lot of time apart last year when I was doing 'Holy Smoke', cause I was in Australia and India for four months, and that was really, really, really hard. But, in this first year of marriage, we had one night apart.
Oh, just one night apart?
Just one night, and even that was three days before our first anniversary. So, that's pretty good going, I think.
Well, that's pretty good. What is India like? I've never been… It seems incredibly crowded to me. It all seems like there's crowds of people.
Yes, it is, it's very overpopulated, and particularly like places like Dehli, there's just heaps of people, heaps of cars…
But, 'deli', if you like to eat...
Yeah, Indian food is quite amazing.
I'm making a bad joke.
'Dehli belly', you're talking about?
Yeah.
You can get sick in India, very sick in India.
Did you go out into the country?
Yeah, we explored all over the place. We were shooting in lots of different places, and it's really an amazing place, and I would definitely go back. And we stayed in this wonderful hotel, which was an eleventh century palace. I opened the shutters one morning, and there was a tree outside the window, literally two feet away from me, full of blue and green parrots, like mosquitoes, there were so many of them. And then you'd drive down the road, and there's monkeys and elephants. It's just…it's really amazing.
[Turning to guy in band] You know, Kevin, you had a night like that once, after being really stoned. Now, what do you do when you open it and there's parrots [Imitates parrot]
Just sitting there, just sitting in this tree, having the greatest time, sitting in the tree.
Now, had they seen the movie in India? Had they seen 'Titanic'?
'Titanic' had just come out there. It had come out everywhere else about a year before, and it had just come out. So, it was very crazy, and there was lots of, sort of… They wanted to touch my hair and my face, and they couldn't believe it. They couldn't believe that they had a movie star in their country. But, they were so warm about it, there was nothing frightening about it, and I didn't feel threatened, but it was pretty crazy. But, to Indian people, everything is a gift. Life is a gift, so many things are a gift. So, people would come up to me and go, 'oh, thank you, thank you.' And it was just… It was such a wonderfully sort of warm response to the whole thing.
Now, in this film, there's one scene where you're drunk, where you're really drunk.
Yes.
I have a bet going with a friend, I guessed you were really drunk.
I was.
I'm probably insulting you. Oh, I'm not insulting you…
No, I wasn't completely drunk. No, what had happened was I'm meant to be drunk in this scene, and I was practicing my drunk acting at home in the apartment…
[Laughing] How many guys use that excuse?
And I was just the worst actor in the world. I was just awful. I was banging into things, and I'd stop and go, 'I'm just never gonna do this. They're gonna have to change it, this is a disaster.' And I spoke to an actor friend of mine in England, and he said, 'you've got to do it.' And I said, 'what?' And he said, 'you've got to have a couple of drinks.' I said, 'I can't, I'd never drink at work.' And he said, 'Kate, do it.' Three to four vodka and tonics later, and my body was just so perfectly floppy, and, you know, it really did help. [Audience laughs] I have to say, it really did help, though, it really did, because when you are… when you have had a couple of drinks, you just do become all silly and floppy.
Silly and floppy?
And I had become that, I had become that. But, no, it was very interesting, but I had to be careful, cause if it went too much, I just would have passed out and not been able to do it. But, I could still remember my lines, thank goodness.
Now, tell people what this movie is about. Here's what I like, cause you always do different… 'Titanic' is, of course, the big blockbuster, yeah, yeah, and that's cool. But, then you go off and do these different, odd, quirky movies.
Different, odd, quirky movies.
Yeah, and this is a fascinating… Tell people what it's about.
Well, 'Holy Smoke' is really a story about an Australian girl, a young Australian girl, who goes to India traveling, and meets with a guru, and falls in love with him, and falls in love with the whole ashram Indian way, wants to stay there. Her family think that she's joined some terrible cult, and she's brainwashed, and they coerce her…
And her family's nuts.
Her family are completely nuts, very funny nuts, and they coerce her back, and they introduce her to this religious cult exit counselor, which is Harvey Keitel. And they have hired him to deprogram her, and what actually happens is she ends up kind of deprogramming him, and it's very interesting.
And this scene is when you first realize you've been tricked into coming back.
When I first realize I've been tricked into coming home.
Let's take a look. [Clip of 'Holy Smoke'] Well, you're a terrific actress, and a nice person.
Thanks, you're not so bad yourself.

I'm a big fan. Do you like giant kitties?
Do I like what?
Giant kitties. We have a huge…
Love them.
Oh, we have some regular kitties and… It's bigger than both of us. Wait till you see this thing.
Bring 'em on.
Kate Winslet!

After the commercial break, we see Kate and Jay with two tiger cubs.

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