Gina Gershon - Brief Article - Interview

Interview, June, 2000 by Lenny Kravitz

BOUND FOR A KNOCKOUT

LENNY KRAVITZ: What's up, sweetie?

GINA GERSHON: Not much, baby. I'm here in New York doing off-Broadway for a couple of weeks--The Vagina Monologues. It's been a long time since I did theater. You don't get much rehearsal--you just go up and do it.

LE: How's Mr. Kitty?

GG: Good, except that he's a little mad at me because I took him away from his nice life in L.A. and now he's living in my New York loft. And he misses his girlfriend.

LK: Gina, you know one thing people probably don't know about you is your interest in music.

GG: Yeah, you know Bob Dylan once asked me to play my Jew's harp with him on stage, and I never made it because I was filming Bound [1996] and couldn't get off work that night. I kept saying to the producers "No, you don't understand, I have a gig with Bob Dylan," and they were looking at me like "Oh, there's an excuse we've never heard before." Of course, I was a professional and stayed and did the scene.

LK: How did you meet Dylan. anyway?

GG: After doing Showgirls [1995], I needed to bulk up to get ready for Bound, so I decided to start boxing. My trainer said I needed to start sparring with someone, and I was like, "I don't know; I don't really want to get hit in the face." But one day I got there, and he said, "OK, Gina, you're getting in the ring today, and this is your sparring partner." And it was Bob Dylan. So every Thursday I'd spar with him.

LK: Kick his ass?

GG: You know, one time he gave me a little jab in the face, and since I'd told him not to do that, of course I went insane and hit him really hard. He did go down, and I almost started to cry, thinking, "Oh my God, I'm the jerk who broke Bob Dylan's jaw." But he had a sense of humor about it. He just said, "Oh no, I need a good woman to kick my ass every now and then."

Lenny Kravitz is currently recording the follow-up to 1998's 5. Gina Gershon, photographed with her cat, Cleohold.