Perhaps best known for her much-publicized relationship with Goth icon Marilyn Manson and most recently for her notable performance in the Oscar-nominated Mickey Rourke vehicle The Wrestler (2008), Evan Rachel Wood now turns her attention to playing a sweet and naïve blonde teenage runaway in Woody Allen’s Whatever Works.

Dumb as a box of hair and as radiant as a ball of sunshine, Melody (Wood) upends Boris' (Larry David) dingy existence in the romantic comedy, which opened in limited release today. Boris is a self-confessed misanthropic genius who has abandoned his fancy uptown apartment and beautiful wife in favor of the simple life in downtown Manhattan. But even Larry’s prickly personality and depressive cynicism cannot withstand the softening charm of Melody’s glowing optimism and kind heart.

Here, Evan Rachel Wood chats about being ushered into the small Woody Allen club of female protagonists and finding her character’s Southern charm in her stepmother.

CinemaSpy: Woody Allen and Larry David have praised you for your performance. What does it mean to you to hear that praise from him?  

Evan Rachel Wood: That’s great. They are both pretty shy. They don’t say that to me! [Laughs]. That’s means a lot. I respect them both. God, if they only knew how nervous I was on the first day of shooting I was. I was sweating and thought I would be fired. Before, I kind of knew Woody’s style and it can be kind of nerve-wracking if you don’t understand his way of working. He does give you direction and does get in there but he likes to keep his distance because he doesn’t want to mess with what you are doing. He doesn’t want you to think about it too much. He wants it to be as real as possible. But if you don’t know that you get scared.

CinemaSpy: He is pretty secretive with his script as well.

Evan Rachel Wood: Yeah. I didn’t understand [that]. He wrote me a letter and somebody brought the script over for me to read and then immediately took it back, waiting in the lobby while I read the script. I have heard that he only gives you the scenes that you are in—you don’t get the whole script but I did because I am in the whole movie. [Laughs]. So that is when I went "Oh, this must be a good part! I get the whole thing!" I was still thinking about it a few days later and did have a craving to read it again.  But I was ready to say "yes" to [the film] before I even read it.

CinemaSpy: Why did you want to work with Woody Allen?

      My mother is a big feminist and most of her favorite characters were Woody characters. She emailed me before the premiere and wrote 'Remember when we used to watch Woody when you were little? I was 15 when I saw one of his movies for the first time and you are in such a small club of women now who have gotten to play one of his girls.'       

Evan Rachel Wood: He is legendary. My parents are big film nuts and actor geeks so I grew up with Annie Hall, especially with the female [protagonists]. My mother is a big feminist and most of her favorite characters were Woody characters. She emailed me before the premiere and wrote "Remember when we used to watch Woody when you were little? I was 15 when I saw one of his movies for the first time and you are in such a small club of women now who have gotten to play one of his girls." And I was "Right! Thank you!" [Laughs]. I made sure to grab his hand at the premiere when it all kind of hit me and just say “Thank you so much for giving me this part.” I loved the movie and it was an honor.”

CinemaSpy: Can you talk about how you created Melody and took on her Mississippi accent?

Evan Rachel Wood: I grew up in North Carolina so I kind of grew up with women like that, although much smarter than Melody. They just see the good in everything, they are just loving and caring and nurturing and take care of everything with big personalities. So I kind of based it on my stepmother actually—Southern-wise not IQ-wise. But I made sure she knew. She got it.

CinemaSpy: Was it hard to play someone so dumb? Did you ever want to just shake her at all?

Evan Rachel Wood: It was. There is such a fine line between being endearing and annoying. It is not everybody’s sense of humor. I am sure some people won’t be able to stand her but she is very charming and sweet so I was hoping I made that work and won’t have people thinking "Oh my God, you are so dumb! Shut up! Stop talking!" But she makes you laugh because she is so just naïve.  So [the response is]: "Ahhh, you poor thing!’

CinemaSpy: Does Woody laugh on set?

Evan Rachel Wood: Yeah, every now and then definitely. He keeps his distance but we did make him laugh quite a few times. But I would ask him "How did the scene go?" and he would [answer] "Fine." "What does that mean?" But that means 'good'! I just figured it out. I didn’t want to talk to other people [who’d worked with Allen] because everyone has had a different experience with him. I just wanted to see what happens.

CinemaSpy: Did you know the work of Larry David before?

Evan Rachel Wood: I did. I watched Curb Your Enthusiasm all the time, and when I read the script, I remember thinking "Who is going to play this except for Woody Allen? It has got to be Woody Allen. It is Woody Allen!" And then they said that is Larry David and I though he is probably the only other person that can do it. I think he did such a good job of not doing a Woody Allen impression. He really made it his own. It is still very much him.