Valley Girl

Catherine Zeta-Jones strides over to the table where Empire is seated.

"Where shall I sit?" she inquires before it dawns on her that Antonio Banderas, her leading man, is still holding court. She leaps back into the arms of an embarrassed publicist, laughing with her hand over her face. Zeta-Jones seems very human, girlish even, and slightly snuffly with flu.

The woman who approaches the table five minutes later is a far more sassy creature. Despite her faux pas, she is calm and composed in the instant her petit pin-striped frame is seated. Magically, her nasal passages even seem to have cleared.

The ex-Darling Bud is what your mother might call "chocolate box pretty". Even the Mask of Zorro director Martin Campbell (Goldeneye) dubbed her "annoyingly beautiful". A couple more Hollywood movies, L'Oreal will be begging her to do their "Because I'm Worth It!" hair ads. In reality, she claims to wash her locks in beer. And even though she appeared at the US Zorro premier looking like the fantasy guest at The Court's Ferrero Rocher party (black strapless satin dress and a neck fair strangled with diamonds), you can't help feeling she is the kind of person that would say "Bollocks!" with little prompting. When one particularly sycophantic Italian journalist gushed foolishly about her lustrous beauty she dismissed the compliment with the words: "Don't get too overwhelmed!"

Another journalist eyed Zeta-Jones' strikingly large and ornate crucifix and enquired: "Is that religious or a fashion statement?"

"Both. I'm Catholic," she replied curtly.

"What a beautiful engagement ring on your engagement finger," continued the impertinent hack with a lascivious wink. "Is that significant?"

"No, absolutely meaningless," she replied with sing-song insincerity. "I'm not involved with anyone."

"I don't believe you!" he flirted, insidiously.

"I'm not going to beg you to," she mocked.

Who needs a sword to make a point?

The enthusiastically entertaining Mask Of Zorro sees the five foot six star cut quite a dash. Holding her own in the company of Latino superstar Banderas and fellow countryman superthesp Anthony Hopkins (as young and old Zorros respectively), she is an ebullient mix of feistiness and smoulder. Elena, the long-lost daughter of elder Zorro and object of the vigorous young masked hero's attentions, is a pivotal role, very much deserving of the equal credit she has garnered alongside Messrs. Banderas and Hopkins.

Still scarred from her British tabloid hell nearly ten years ago (involving ex-Blue Peter presenter John Leslie's unfathomable philandering while they were engaged) she has developed a savvy toughness. Welsh Wonderwoman she may be, but Zeta-Jones is not quite on a par with the spirited "I'll fence you in my dressing gown" Elena.

"I'm the kind of person who wakes up at a certain time and goes to bed at a certain time - that's my routine and I like it that way," Zeta-Jones asserts. "We did a month of night shoots for Zorro - dancing at 4am! The TV interviews about my costumes at 6am. I was like, 'I can't believe I'm doing this!"

You almost expect her to shake back her hair and mouth "Because I'm worth it!" on the spot. Thankfully, she refrains.

"We had an hour-and-a-half to get to the location every day and I'm a terrible backseat driver - I just can't relax. Every trip I sat bolt upright going, 'Watch that truck!'. I felt I'd done a whole day's work by the time we got to the set!"

She also did plenty of work before filming began - horse riding, dancing, Spanish dialect and, of course, the fencing lessons.

"We trained with this wonderful 70-year-old ex-Olympian called Bob Anderson. He trained Errol Flynn at one point so we learnt everything properly - it wasn't a case of looking like we could do it from the waist up! With time, Antonio and I got faster and faster once we got the routine down, we moved on to the nuances and seduction of our fight - how he teases me and tests me, the stealing of kisses. . ."

It's an amusing, memorable segment in the film, but not her favourite.

"I really enjoyed my scene brushing down the horses with Anthony Hopkins - just two people standing and talking but it draws you in. Even though I know Tony and he's my best friend and would never be intimidating, at the end of the day you go, "Wow! I'm doing a really emotional scene with an Oscar-winning actor," she sighs. "There's a wonderful karma about him. It was such a calm, relaxed day. I lay in the bathtub that night and went, 'Yeah! I really liked that day . . .'"

Zeta-Jones is in the habit of having a glass of Cristal Champagne in the bath every night (rather more curious, in the morning she rubs herself down with honey and salt in the shower). To such a routine she must now add meetings with industry bigwigs and magazine cover shoots. She seems to have no problem getting noticed.

Catherine Zeta-Jones was born in Swansea on September 25, 1969 ("Why do you want the exact date? Are you going to send me a present?"). By 16, she was the lead in the West End musical 42nd Street.

However, it was six years later, when she starred as Mariette, the buxom daughter of David Jason's wisdom- spouting bumpkin Pop Larkin, in TV's fondly respectful H.E. Bates adaptation, The Darling Buds Of May that this extraordinary Celtic lass was properly introduced to Britain. The show's massive popularity made Zeta-Jones into a star almost overnight, and drew her swiftly into the glamorous world of movies

Misbegotten bit-parts in Christopher Columbus: The Discovery (1992) as bodice popping beatrice, Splitting Heirs (1993), and surf drams Blue Juice (1995) as Sean Pertwee's girlfriend with a spray-cream fetish, led to Hollywood. In the Phantom (1996), with Billy Zane in a purple body stocking, she was the evil Sala, a hideous flop, she was the only one to escape with her self-respect and won a part in a TV mini-series based on the fateful voyage of the Titanic. Then came The mask Of Zorro.

"There's a lot of talk of Zorro being my 'breakout' movie," she laughs, "which it really is because this is the first time I've had more than four scenes in a movie!"

It doesn't do any harm that folk know she was recommended for this role by Steven Spielberg, who saw her in the Titanic mini-series. But she rejects the notion that the role just dropped into her lap without effort.

"the idea that I've been 'discovered', like I've just come off the street . . ." she shakes her head. "It's taken me a lot of time to get here. All my work in Britain will stand me in good stead for what could happen if Zorro is a success."

Indeed, the USA summer success of her "breakout" film, has led to a starring role opposite another wizened member of the acting fraternity: Sean Connery in the cat-burgling romantic-thriller Entrapment, currently shooting at Pinewood. And she's also pegged a role in the Jan De Bont's big budget remake of ghostly classic The Haunting Of Hill House.

Zeta-Jones now lives in LA but still has a house and close family ties in Wales. She is very wary of contracting the Hollywood diva disease.

"You can get whipped up. There is huge competition where people are like cat fighting for a role. Even with all the ambition I had as a little girl, I was never ruthless and I don't intend to get that way. I love my work and I'm very professional but it's not the be all and end all. I just hope I maintain that attitude."

(c) 1998, Empire Magazine, UK.

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