by
Paul Fischer
Catherine Zeta-Jones is no
stranger to an avaricious media. Looking radiant as she meets the 
press
for the first time since her highly publicized wedding to Michael Douglas,
the 31-year old Welsh actress recalls that, before finding Hollywood stardom,
her TV career in Britain "kind of prepared me for what goes on; for
this microscopic, insatiable appetite for any information, truth, lies,
or any plain old gossip." The actress insists that her experience
with British tabloids "certainly gave me a kind of water-off-a-duck's-back
attitude as to what goes on. I'm sure that will all change come 2 years
time when I have to take my son to the park and I have to try and explain
to him why there's 20 people with cameras running after us. I hope that
the frenzy will die down and he will not have to sacrifice any
of the good things in his early years, because these photographs are documented
everywhere he goes or does everything."
It all came to a massive frenzy, when the couple married in New York, but as crazy as it was, Zeta-Jones glows when recalling that memorable event, and the paparazzi be damned. "It was just amazing for me. I remember everything about it, which was one my big concerns, that I would wake up the next day and go: Did we get married? But our wedding was very beautiful, romantic and elegant. It was formal in one way then just a wild party the way we like to have fun with our best friends and family. So it was very homespun in that way, which is exactly what I wanted." For Catherine, she remembers not knowing "whether to burst out laughing or burst out crying, and then I saw other people's faces, and they were smiling, so I burst out laughing."
Before marrying Douglas, Zeta-Jones was already dealing with motherhood
and the birth of 
her
son Dylan. There can be no doubt that motherhood and marriage have changed
Catherine's perspective on life, she says. "Even when I was doing
Traffic and carrying Dylan, a lot of the emotions and instincts
that I used in my character, came from this instinct of the lioness wanting
to protect and nurture my new little life. When he was born it just blew
my mind away that a complete little stranger would fill me with this overwhelming
desire to nurture and protect him, and I would go to such big lengths
to do that. In turn with Michael and our relationship, there will be a
point when everyone will have their knives out, and publicly looking to
photograph or write something that is detrimental to our relationship,
and us or how we feel about each other. And those are things I just have
to deal with, because the spotlight is so focussed on it. But it's changed
my life completely."
The actress knew she was pregnant when director Steven Soderbergh asked her to join his ensemble cast. "I really wanted to do it and work with him, so I suggested playing it pregnant, because it would give the character a vulnerability and would also up the stakes for her." She says that doing the film pregnant grounded her. "It stripped away preconceptions that you start to have yourself, because to make money for the studio you play a certain kind of woman. So I was flattered that Steven wanted me in my 6 months pregnant glory, and wanted me as me. It liberated me as an actor and forced me to go places I'd never had the chance to go before."
Traffic is a patchwork of stories that evokes the high-stakes,
high-risk world of the drug trade, as seen through a series of interrelated
stories, some are highly personal, and some are filled with intrigue and
danger. A Mexican policeman finds himself caught in a web of corruption;
A pair of undercover DEA agents work in the sordid and dangerous world
of San Diego dealers; a wealthy drug baron living in upscale, suburban
America is arrested and learns how quickly his unknowing and pampered
wife (played by Catherine) takes over his business; and the U.S. President's
new anti-drug czar, an Ohio State Supreme Court Justice (Michael Douglas)
must deal with his increasingly drug-addicted teenage 
daughter.
Fans of the actress will be astonished as to the complexity of her work here. The character she plays goes through a subtle but astounding transformation throughout her component of the film. "I loved going to all those emotional places. Looking at the movie now in its entirety, Steven did a great job for my arc and character. It's so rare to be a part of a movie that is so complex, not happy-go-lucky or simply a rollercoaster ride that you don't have to have a brain to watch. Sometimes we get scared by what we want to tell an audience; sometimes we want to insult people's intelligence, because we just want to make sure that everybody knows every plot, journey and arc, and so I thought initially: Oh God, I've lost some of my arc and the audience may not get my transition. Then quickly I realized you don't insult people's intelligence; I think that adds to her character, that the clock is ticking away and she has to do this, and this instinct comes from nowhere or survival, be it morally or her children, husband and her, but on the other hand, completely immoral, the material things that make her life what it is, and that nobody is going to take that away from her."
Asked about her own thoughts on the drug trade, Zeta-Jones says that, as in the film, "you have bad people, who sell 'em, have bad people take 'em and somewhere governments are turning a blind eye as to how it's getting in. What this film has done for me and I hope for everyone who sees it, is puts it all on the table and doesn't define it via a social status or ethnic group. I'd always assumed it happened way down town in that areas that I never go to after dark and it's a nasty problem that doesn't affect my life. But now, as you can see from the movie and what Steven did in telling these different stories, is to show that it's happening in palatial homes, it's happening right next door to you, it's happening to the A-students in the country. Yes, it's happening on the streets of Mexico, yes there's the corruption that gets involved when the politicians start to fight against the established drug culture that we now have."
Working on the film has also given her an added perspective, now that
she is a mother. "I'll be showing this film to my son as soon as
I can. Even the optimist in me looks at what can happen 15 years down
the track and look at my son who I think is a big target for this.
He is the son of a famous mum, dad and grandfather. His self-identity
can be knocked 
constantly,
because he may have to work harder to make a name for himself because
a lot of people will have an attitude of: Oh, he's from that family and
it's an easy ride for him. Just from my history now and working
on this film and finding things out, they're at the most vulnerable when
they're like that. To the outside world, it's like: That kid's mixed up
with that family. He's got everything he wants and what is he, a junkie?
It terrifies me that one of the lines in the movie is: Kids can get drugs
easier than they can get a beer."
Though the film's cast includes Michael Douglas, Zeta-Jones in unphased by the possibility that fans will be disappointed that the couple has no scenes together. "With all the stuff that's gone on, I think they will be really happy to see him on one end of the screen and me on the other. I mean, if they have any sense at all and are true fans, then enough already", she says, though both are hoping to work on screen together in the foreseeable future. "We're trying to find a script right now, though I always find it weird when couples off screen are couples on screen. It seems voyeuristic, but if we can find a specific project; I think it would have to be comedic."
Next up for Zeta-Jones is the ensemble comedy America's Sweethearts, which, ironically, deals with the frenzied world of movie press junkets, a world she knows too well -- not that she always did. "I just remember going to my first press junket, when I had to beg to be interviewed. The only reason I came to LA was to promote The Phantom and my agent had to beg, borrow and steal from Paramount to get me a ticket to go to that junket. I remember nobody had anything to say to me, as if I was invisible. I'd sit there in this round table situation and not one question would come my way." How times have changed, she adds smilingly.
Zeta-Jones may well be entrenched as part of Hollywood royalty, but her Welsh brogue reminds one of her ethnicity. The actress concedes that she is culturally divided. "I'm still a British citizen and there is a part of me that loves both cultures. I came here to be in the movie industry, joining a long line of girls from all over the world who come from similar places to do the same thing. I'm just thrilled that Hollywood opened its arms to me and accepted me, first to play someone who's Spanish, then to play an American, and as a British actor that opened another world up for me. At the same time, I still have strong roots in my home country and I want my son to know those roots. I think there's a European feel to this movie, and I would love nothing more than to do some European movies again."
Life has been like a dream come true from this young lady from Wales. She has a staunchly supportive family, though does recall that her "mother was like dying when she had to walk down the aisle and there were all these film stars in the audience. She nearly had a nervous breakdown." But at least, luminous star as she is, Catherine still has "the ability to talk intimately with my family and they haven't become star struck by it all." Unlike the rest of the world.
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