Have an old 29 page Word document that was the only thing saved by my Tech person when my computer "crashed" about 10 years ago. Have shared the document with some friends recently and will be posting a few of the many interviews for the Chatters. May have posted some before and the posts may or may not be familiar.

To Be or Not to Be "Mimic's" Jeremy Northam **
Who's that guy playing the deputy Director of the Center for Disease Control in "Mimic"? He certainly looks familiar. What probably has you thrown is Britisher Jeremy Northam's American accent. For better or worse, he sounds like one of us. He certainly didn't as the evil Jack Devlin opposite Sandra Bullock in "The Net" or the wooing Mr. Knightley opposite Gwyneth Paltrow in "Emma." But now he does, as takes his newly acquired box office pull to star opposite giant bugs and Mira Sorvino in "Mimic."
A respected stage presence in his home country and winner of the Olivier Award, he lets down his charming cover to reminisce about how he got where he is. . . . . .
What did you think when you saw "Mimic" the other night with a New York crowd?
NORTHAM: It was as much fun to see the reaction of the audience as everything else. It was fun because it was the first time I had seen the film with an audience.
So what did you think of their reactions?
NORTHAM: It was great. It's lovely to be part of that. We had people leaping out of their seats.
So, Jeremy, what was the attraction to go from a movie like "Emma" to a major scare film?
NORTHAM: Variety. I've always looked for variety and challenges in different ways, and I don't want to be typecast ever. When I did "The Net," I didn't want to immediately play a villain again. When I played in "Emma," I didn't want another period costume immediately. I shot a small independent British movie after "Emma" called "The Tribe" where I had a wonderful part. And when "Mimic" came along, I thought it very interesting and odd and idiosyncratic and sort of worked within several genres all at the same time. At the same time, it tinkered with those genres, and mixed a sort of European art house sensibility with a mainstream Hollywood sensibility. Things don't quite appear as they seem in the movie, and relationships aren't quite as they might be. The characters are strange and individual, and all of that was intriguing to me. I suppose the main thing. . . was, personally, to play a male protagonist in an action-style movie who wasn't I hope cliched. I wanted to show someone who's fallible and fearful and unequipped for the tasks that lay ahead of him.

Somebody who is by nature rather cerebral and intellectual at the start of the movie. Rather complacent at times. At times not likable, and yet somebody who gains our sympathy maybe as the movie progresses through, seeing his weaker sides and the less attractive side of his nature. Seeing him also in a relationship with Susan (Mira Sorvino), who's desperate for a child for over 3 years and unable to conceive -- that creates its own tensions and difficulties. All of these are sort of attractive to me and interesting textures. Yet there's nothing that will sally against the accepted grain of the conventional hero these movies should be showcasing. I find all of that intriguing as an actor and thought it was in the spirit of the whole enterprise.
One time awhile back in England, Daniel Day Lewis had a nervous breakdown while playing Hamlet, and you went on for him at the last minute. Did you recall that experience when you had to drum up the fear you had to display when fighting the "Mimic" bugs?

NORTHAM: I didn't recall that experience. That fear was engendered by the taking over of that "Hamlet" half an hour into the show -- when you're rehearsing Laertes by day and playing Osric by night, as well as playing another non-Shakespearean part at the National Theater in front of 1300 people -- and you've have had no prospect of going on to perform that night, when you've not rehearsed "Hamlet" for four months, is a totally different kind of fear. Why? Because you have a fairly good idea of what's going to happen.
Which is?
NORTHAM: You're going to spend the next 3-1/2 hours racking your mind for the next line. And when you do, trying to fit it into your mouth.
How did it work out actually?
NORTHAM: It was all right. I take my hat off to the audience for staying.
Did they know Mr. Lewis had a breakdown?

NORTHAM: No, they made an announcement that he was unable to continue. They didn't know that I was having a breakdown too. But they brought me out, and the stage manager held my hand in the wings so I wouldn't fall down. I took myself out on to the stage and my first line was "O all you host of Heaven! O earth! What else?" A more apt line there couldn't have been. I always thought that the audience, although they were deeply sympathetic and very kind, also must have had a very cruel streak, sort of like the crowd that might watch a rather one-sided boxing match. It was me against the text, and I, by Act IV, was coming on second best, I think, probably. I was pinned up against the ropes, and the referee wasn't going to stop it. I had been down at least 5 times and always got up at the count of eight. It was an experience I wouldn't have missed for the world. The cast was great. Most of them came out with eyes like lighthouses, not quite knowing what to expect next. I've been in the same situation, the other way around. I don't know which is more terrifying, because you don't know if someone's going to suddenly skip a whole page of dialogue. It was great fun. A couple of nights later, I started to get a grip on it really. So that was fun.
One of the things you do that breaks the mold for your character, Dr. Peter Mann, is to play him as vulnerable. Someone who's not afraid to show his fear. Do you think that is by nature something American film actors don't do?
NORTHAM: I don't know. I see American actors portraying fear. Maybe I just do it differently . . . Maybe I'm just more over the top. I don't know.
How did "Emma" change your life?
NORTHAM: I'm not sure if it has my changed my life. I still live in the same place, and I guess it has made me a bit more known. I suppose it got me away from just being considered capable of playing villains after "The Net." I hope it's enabled me to . . . This, "Mimic," is an opportunity that came I suppose in a funny way out of "Emma" as is the film I'm shooting at the moment.
What film?
NORTHAM: A thing called "The Misadventures of Margaret" which is a romantic comedy with Parker Posey and Brooke Shields, Corbin Bernsen and Elizabeth McGovern. It's an English/French co-production with a small budget filming in London at the moment.
Brooke Shields? Who do you play? Margaret?
NORTHAM: No, I'm not Margaret. I'm Margaret's husband.
And who is Margaret?
NORTHAM: Parker. It's a very small novel called "Rameau's Niece" by Cathleen Schine, and it's being directed by first time writer/director Brian Skeet, an English guy, and it's been great fun. Something different again. I also just did a few days on "Amistad," Steven Spielberg's movie, which I suppose is sort of again a direct thing from "Emma." So it's helped. I can't say it's changed my life.
By the way, in "Mimic," what was that goo, that terrible goo, you had to rub all over your body so the insects wouldn't rip you apart?
NORTHAM: We used Neutrogena actually. Neutrogena gel and golden syrup.
(C) Copyright Critics Inc. 1997, Brandon Judell, Critics Inc.