Though we cast her as a strong candidate for Robert Pattinson's next love interest, Brit Marling is the antithesis of a woman ready to play the role of girlfriend — or any accessory to a man. Probably due to the fact that Marling is a total babe, when she started acting, she was only offered roles that were all sauce and no substance. So, to defy the typecast, she taught herself to write for film, and after her first effort, nailed it. Since writing and starring in Another Earth, Marling continues her sci-fi career with The East, in which she goes undercover in an anarchist group. And because Marling joins Alexander Skarsgård of vampire fame and Ellen Page of the X-Men , we had to find out if Marling was prepared to take on a nerd-following. So, we caught up with Marling at the New York screening of The East, sponsored by Piaget, to find out.
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You've had a heavy hand in science fiction, and we wanna know: Do you consider yourself a geek?
"I'm a total geek. I love the geeks! I would hope that the geeks consider me one of them. I think people that are curious and interested in the world and like to read and talk about ideas are cool people."
Do you have any nerdy crushes on a superhero or fictional character?
"Yeah! Don't you think The Princess Bride is kind of a geeky movie to love? I'm obsessed with that movie. I want to marry Inigo Montoya. 'You killed my father. Prepare to die.' That guy had a lot of integrity. And I love a guy with integrity."
The East premieres May 31.
Photo: Dave Allocca