>> rose: welcome to the progra the mayor of london, boris johnson. >> if you're a banker, if you're spaced in shanghai and you want to do a deal or you want to do a deal in rio or wherever, on the same day, you're going to need an office in london. and london is the world capital of the brits. so the big growth economy of the 1st century you're seeing firms list in london. >> rose: we conclude this evening with noomi rapace and michael fassbender starting in

the new film "prometheus." >> there are so many layers on it. it's not only a fine fine movie, it's this religious spiritual layer as well so we can end this discussion about the question we're kind of throwing up there. and that's i think that's very much it. >> rose: boris johnson, noom rapace and michael fassbender when we continue.

captioning sponsored by rose communications from our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. >> rose: boris johnson is here. he is among other things the mayor of london. previous jobs include, gets of get this, ted our of the speak tater and conservative member of the parliament for henley. he calls the most significant city of the last 500 years, he's been preparing hard for this summer when the world comes to london for the olympic game. in his spare time he also

writes. his latest book is called johnson's life of london, the people who made the city that made the world. it is filled with the humor that we've come to expect of this mayor, boris johnson usually has something to say and usually an interesting way of saying it. i am pleased to have him at this table for the first time. let's just take a look at this here. these are some of the people. all right tell me who we should know about here from this bus. >> well you've got a brilliant array of constellation of talent. i picked all these people because they came up with something. >> rose: he's in the driver's seat. >> he's there in the driver's seat. you've got charles yerky, he's american and a great robert baron, adventurer of the in common. >> they've got in common that they were brilliant characters who came up with something,

whether it was the idea of mercy or pioneer of elizabethan drama or passing the blues music back to america as keith richards did, or whatever. they came up with something that or dr. johnson who wrote the first dictionary of the english language. they came up with something that was of important cultural or historically for what i think is a programmatic theme. london, whether you like it or not, new york is a great transatlantic mirror of london. >> rose: come on. >> london, i'm proud to be a new yorker by birth. >> rose: that's a very interesting thing. you were born here. how did that happen? >> the details i think will be familiar to most people, but i wanted to be with my mother at the time obvious here. she was here in new york. my parents were students then,

my mother was in columbia university. so i was born -- >> rose: so you're an american. >> i'm an american. >> rose: you have an american passport. >> i have an american passport. i was the possessor of an american pass port. to travel to america i must use an american passport. america is very very quite rightly very jealous of its children. >> rose: can't we argue that like the empire, london was the proud city and the king of the empire. now america and america is a great city is new york and new york now much more than london houses the largest and furthest and deepest extension of culture and fashion and film and finance. >> new york and london are very similar. in population terms london is 7.8 million. every city in you're is gregory. new york is bigger.

there's the financial services industry which you mentioned actually london has more people employed in finance and banking. i think it's a very good case for saying that london is going to intensify and already is the financial capital of the world and will entrench that lead. i'll tell you what, because if you're a banker, if you're based in shanghai and you want to do a deal in -- or you want to do a deal in rio or wherever on the same day, you're going to need an office in london. anlondon is the world capital of the brits. so the big growth economy of the 21st century, you're seeing various firms listing in london, you'll see companies listing in london, you'll see them locate offices in london. >> rose: things are made here in new york and they're just carried out in london. >> i humbly beg to disagree with that. if you look at some of the investments that are being made

over the last, just in my time as mayor by some of the big american finance houses, you can see the huge importance they attach to. >> rose: sometimes you wish it wasn't so. >> sometimes i think that, i think both cities have a remarkable similarity and trajectory over the last hundrd years. new york in the 50's and 60's went through a tough time and the 80's went through a tough time. investments. and crime became a problem. transportation became a problem. and that was certainly true of london. actually you saw population flight from london in the middle of the last century. and the population in london is about nine million in 1911, and about the same number after, before the second world war. the war was a disaster, huge numbers of people moved out of the city. by the, by 1980, i think it was

down to 6.8 million. and then it boomed again and it boomed like new york partly thanks to financial services, desegregation. >> rose: a powerful financial sector and deregulation are the key to the growth of a great city. >> i certainly think that you shouldn't try to solve the present crises by imagining regulation of the finance sector is the only answer. if you look at what's going on in the world now and you look at the problems we've got with the global economy which is affecting america, that's affecting here in new york just as much as as it's affecting europe, the problem is not i think the banking system, the problem is lack of confidence and which is engender by the whole euro zone disaster. >> rose: what do you think is going to happen in terms of the euro zone disaster. >> we've got ourselves into a crazy situation in which we are

exalting the germans and the other european euro zone economies to go full tilt ahead towards a political construction of a fiscal union, with absolutely no democratic counterweight, no accountability to the people of london. our people of europe. it is going to be, i think, it's going to be a potential disaster in order to solve the problem of the sovereign debt crises in some of these euro zone countries. >> rose: like greece. >> like greece, spain and italy is not yet as bad as spain and greece. and you know you've got to wonder whether that is really the right answer because europe is very different from america. it's not easy to great a physical union in that, on that continent and i think we're really compounding the mistake.

that's what we're doing, we're intensifying the political problem rather than solving it. >> rose: 50 years from now will we all be debating is beijing the biggest and greatest city in the world. 50 years from now, could that be the question. >> i think there's every prospect that places like london and new york will have justice flourishing a future, beijing or shanghai of new delhi, mumbai. if you go to beijing it's completely different atmosphere. it's a mono cultural place. london, new york, these are the cities of the future. these are the cities that bring people together and that offer the greatest prospect. most exciting places to live. they are the magnets for talent. why do brilliant young people want to go there. >> rose: they want to go to a

city. >> they want to go a city but they want to go to cities where they can be themselves. that's by the way to drag the subject back to the book. that's the thing we discover. so many of these characters, so many of these characters won't go anywhere near london and they came to london because it is a magnet for talent. and what you have in a place like london and indeed new york is the opportunity to make your name. >> rose: a meritocracy. >> yes. and people if you enough uranium rods you get a blast. >> rose: tell us about the question for cities and the challenge for cities. >> cities is the greatest invention of the human race you could argue. >> rose: because. >> because it's a way for people to live that is most eco

friendly. you have a carbon footprint in the city than you do in the country side. you live longer. you have better healthcare. you have better educational outcomes. you have hypotension for gdp. >> rose: better educational facilities. >> better educational facilities if you live in the city. that's why people are moving to the city. by 2050, you know, a huge population, huge proportion of the world will live in cities. >> rose: which already other people have written about this. >> edmond glazer, brilliant book called the triumph of the city. the key thing is to make sure that these places are pleasant to live in. and that you deal with problems. >> rose: make sure the cities with all the good things that are happening to them and what they represent in terms of the center of culture. >> you fight crime. >> rose: you've got to make

sure -- >> you've got to keep crime coming down. you've got to invest in the transport system so people can move around freely and you got to make the air sweeter and you got to put in bicycles and stuff. people love the idea of a village but you dough want to live in a village. >> rose: you as the mayor what did he do and as a list of top tens they would say he brought bicycles to life in london. >> i'm afraid they will say he flooded the streets with bicycles. i'm a passionate cyclist and i love cycling. >> rose: it's natural in paris and becoming true here. >> i'm delighted. you do incur a lot of hostility from motorrism. you discover, no matter how passionate you are for cycling you can never do will you have

of enough for the cycling lob eyes, they're ensatable. >> rose: you cycle around london. >> i do. >> rose: you don't have a big bently to take you from place to place. >> i once had the honor of catching a ride with mayor mike bloomberg. i think they went down the wrong way. >> rose: why do you love the job. you just sat down with me and said this is a great job. >> i'm, you know, i began as a, i did speeches in my career but i love writing and i began as you mentioned a spectator. but after a while you really do pine when you reach your middle years. you pine to do things and you're fed up with criticism and my love about being mayor, there is no job like it in politics that

gives you the ability to do stuff. >> rose: and it's the closest thing between the governed and the govern. >> the idea of direct democracy is very strong. i have mandated more than a million votes, which nobody else has had in the uk. i have every day, i have kind of a rolly focus group with people who shout at me, toss whatever at my bike and i engage with people. we invent a new bus, a design that produced a wonderful machine so on and so on. >> rose: did your journalistic skills help you as a politician? >> absolutely. i think journalism for me has just been a continuation of politics by other means. clearly -- >> rose: or politician was a continuation of journalism by other means. >> obviously a natural cross sterilization and of course the

two things prop each other up. but yes, i hear people say nowadays that the oratary has gone out of politics. it's too very very important. >> rose: here's what they say but. you have your eye on ten downing. that's where you want to go. >> every got a great job now and as i say i think it is the best job certainly for me in british politics. it's an incredible privilege to be elected again. and you know, you might equally say, charlie, that as an american citizen having been born in new york general hospital, i have my eye on the whitehouse, you know. >> rose: no, no. have you thought about it? >> have i thought about -- >> rose: yes. in other words, have you looked at david cameron and said in yourself when you looked in the mirror and said i could be david cameron, i could be that person.

>> i think david cameron's doing a fantastic job. >> rose: you're in favor of austerity and everything that he and george os borne are doing. they say george osborne is not so keen about you getting that idea because he wants to succeed cameron. >> people should feel the top job is coveted and it's very important for the democracy that people should feel that. like it's a jammed jaw. >> rose: and compete for it because only because of the competition for it -- >> and will the country be best served. because it's only if you do have a ruthless process of elimination by thousands of people, which is an argument i make in this book. >> rose: i just want one last question. can you tell me whether you

intend at any point to make a run for prime minister. >> as i said, i think that is improbable. >> rose: improbable is your answer. not impossible but improbable. >> in the phrase of michael -- >> rose: didn't quite make it. as minister of defense. >> i cannot foresee the circumstances in which i would be. >> rose: all right. this is now video taped as you know. >> i've got four years and i've got a lot to do. >> rose: including the olympics. tell me about the coming of the olympics to london. >> it's going to be a great thing for the city. it's the third time in london, the only city in the world to have three olympic games. obviously we're pleased. we beat new york by the way for that. even though times have been tough, we think that the investments we're making will pay off. >> rose: people are raising the question of whether it's like there was a budget and then there was another budget and

then you're basically saying at long last we're going to come under one of the budgets. >> we're going to come under one budget. we sure are. we'll be about half a million under the budget. >> rose: the third budget. >> my budget. when i came in the budget was set. we've come in half a billion under the budget as it was when i came in. and you know, it's going to be great games and i look forward to welcoming people from new york and america. >> rose: we hope to be there. it is always a giant celebration and achievement is what it is. it's celebration of the universality of the sports. >> that is right. and also of course of competition. >> rose: in your city there is an investigation into hacking. >> yes. >> rose: what is it going to do to journalism? what is it going to do to conduct. >> i think media for a long time was one of the great unregulated professions. this is the reality and i think all newspapers and all newspaper groups to a greater or lesser

degree were involved in unscrupulous practices of one kind or another. >> rose: unscrupulous and illegal? >> and certainly illegal in the case of hacking people. i believe their behavior is disgraceful and it's right it should be investigated. >> rose: yes, all that's true. >> but in you ask will it change the media. >> rose: yes. conduct is what it will change. will it change conduct. >> it already has change the conduct and it will continue to change. i don't believe in the sense that everybody is in the moment apprehensive for the media. sort of the inquiry that you've described. >> rose: journalism is your first love. >> yes. and i think, look, i think some of the stuff that went on in those papers was reprehensible. it's right that it was exposed. so far as people are guilty of

illegal acts they've got to go to jail. and arrested. but the thing i was going to say once this whole thing is finished, let's move on. >> rose: has this diminished the political power in london of rupert murdock? you're not editing yourself, are you? >> no. i think the reality is that the times, the sunday times and those titles remain incredible important. >> rose: but politicians in the parliament that you knew were intimidated. >> yes but they're intimidated by the bbc. the media is intimidating. if you get the media, if they're going to pick you up by the roots of your hair and dangling before you and -- >> rose: lives were destroyed and changed. >> that's what happens with the press, yes. the point i'm making is that i think it's much too early to say

that the of news corps or news international is significantly reduced or diminished in britih politics because those titles are still there. >> rose: should it be diminished? >> look, i probably view the last remaining policy, i think actually when you look at what rupert murdock did in the uk and the state of the newspapers in the 1970's and 1980's that grim year i talked about earlier in the life of the city, i think he did a lot of good. and this is something for which i'm widely excoriated but i think actually it was a revolution was needed, a technological revolution was needed. he financed it. as far as i can remember, in order to get the whole sky tv, to get satellite tv into british

household the thing almost went bust and he mortgages in house to do it. i mean the guy, look, i'm a believer -- >> rose: the mayor of london says rupert murdock rather than being castigated should be haled as a hero of journalism. >> it's a complicated thing. there are many aspects to this problem. i certainly think that it's not a one-sided story. and i think he did a lot of good stuff. and it's obviously deeply disgraceful and incredible that some of his publications have, his reputation is certainly, the reputation of those titles has been badly damaged. >> rose: who are your heroes? are they in this book. >> some of them are, yes. i would say wilkes is my hero.

wilkes is very controversial guy but he's a hero of mine. >> rose: are there more men of letter, men and women of letters than there are men and women of politics. >> it's interesting how many of them writers, yes. >> rose: indeed. and -- >> but -- >> rose: and circles to the back here. >> that's right. i think it is by, it is by the word, by the words of the civilization that it is remembered. i see the bulk. it's by its literature is the thing that is the greatest legacy. johnson, samuel johnson, what a great guy. i genuinely think there is a danger that people will forget about the achievements of these people. and i wanted to celebrate it. >> rose: if you do what i do, pleased to see people like you in politics. thank you for coming to this table. >> well thank you for having me. >> rose: the mayor of london

boris johnson. the book is called johnson's life of london, the people who made the city that made the world. back in a moment. stay with us. >> rose: "prometheus" is one of the most anticipated films of the summer, marks ridley scott's return to science fiction after 30 years. his two classics alien from 1979 and blade runner from 1982 are considered some of the best ever made in high fi genre. he looks at the human race and follows a group of scientists in search of their creators. scott's first 3-d movie. it's called a visual feast. here is the trailer.

>> memorable. >> these are ancient civilizations. they were discovered at every one of them. >> i think they want us to come and find them. >> we're here -- >> enough of that. a new mutation. >> from whom >> they used to tell me you could do that. >> whatever that probe is speaking up. >> what do you mean a life form.

>> up ahead. changing. >> changing into what. >> moving. >> they're leaving. >> where. >> we were so wrong. >> go back. >> big thing have small beginnings. >> rose: two of the stars of "prometheus," michael fassbender who plays the android and noomi

who plays the scientist elizabeth shaw. i'm pleased to have both of them back at this table. welcome. >> thank you. >> rose: so tell me how ridley scott, who i wish was at the table but he's somewhere else today, how he called you and what did he say to you about this? >> yes. actually, i was in l.a. one and-a-half year ago and i was having lots of meetings. i was supposed to meet michael costigan with his producer. just before the meeting they told me ridley was going to come and they wanted to see me. i was always wearing black at that time and just this day i was wearing a bluish long dress trying to look a little more feminine. and then i started to sweat and i was like oh no, i was really nervous. i don't really get nervous but then i started to sweat like heavenly and i got this big mark and i was like no. and ridley came into the room and i was just, i kind of just

froze because he's one of my heroes. he kissed me and he said i wanted to work with you. and then i forgot that i was nervous and we started to talk about movies and he asked me lots of questions and he kind of mentioned this movie. that he was working on something and he wanted to come back to me about it. and then he came back like a couple weeks later and he said that he was doing this sci-fi movie, that it was not ready yet but he wanted me to do, to be his -- >> rose: elizabeth. >> yes. >> rose: and you michael. >> well, i met him and he just keep talking about noomi. >> rose: we know why. >> he was like you know, and i hadn't seen the trilogy of films the girl with the dragon tattoo, but he's saying you must see these films, this girl is very interesting, she's got this sort of toughness and resiliency and then he proceeded to tell me the

whole film, basically pitched the whole film to me. >> my film, oh, "prometheus." >> it's not all about you. [laughter] >> okay, "prometheus." >> so it goes through the entire film and he looks at me and says am i boring you. no, i'm listening and that was it. sort of like the prospect of working with him because i wanted to make sure that you know i had my homeworked on. >> rose: he sent you three films or he told you to go watch them. >> he said check out peter o'toole in lawrence of arabia. that's a very important character for david the robot. and thenar said check out doug bogart in the servant, and the idea of somebody who is subservient at one point and

slowly the tables turn. and then it was the man who fell to earth. we were looking at david bowie and then myself, i sort of watched blade runner again. actually i didn't watch the alien films again, i don't know why, just made the decision not to. and sean young, i felt it was kind of interesting. then and greg louganis the diver sort of his physicality i wantd to use had. >> rose: how is david. >> i don't know. he's a walking question mark. >> rose: there are big questions in this movie. >> big questions, it's funny because we've been doing it and obviously we see david quite different. for me peace, michael's energy was so different onset. it was quite, it was really interesting because he was -- i was trying to figure out what was going on in him trying to read him because i couldn't understand if he was sarcastic or ironic, if he was trying to

make fun of me. because it's different from today and that must have been david, you know. and i realized like when you finished "prometheus" you were quite pissed and it must have been the robot in you. >> rose: what was in you. is that how you saw david. >> yes. that was something that ridley and i sort of discussed right at the beginning. he was like i want this quality of this character. you're looking at him and you're like is this guy messing with me or is he being serious, is he sarcastic sincere and that's kind of threw out the whole time with the audience and with the other crew members. we wanted to sort of have that quality to the character. but essentially for me, he's somebody who is curious. his whole thing is information, to take as much information, to get information, process it and he's quite child like in that respect. it's like with children, everything is new to them. >> i never thought about it before but they were actually similar in that sense. because he is also child like

and curious. >> rose: that's why when david does take a particular interest in elizabeth, even while she's in cryostat while she's asleep because finds her fascinating, she's a scientist yet she's got this belief, this faith, which nothing -- well she's using science to prove your faith. >> rose: is she at the beginning an innocent. >> yes. i think i love that line, you know. i had in the movie when i say it's what i choose to believe because i really think that he kind of built her whole life on that, that she made the decision when she was young to believe instead of going into destructive living because she left her father when she was young. she lost her mother when she was a baby so she could have gone in a total different direction but she made a decision to believe and to such for answers and not just accept the things we see, look behind and think outside the box. so i think you kind of, and it's

a great conflict. it's a contradiction in here between you know the archaeologist and the scientist and the believer. and i think that it's actually the believer in here that makes her strong in the most critical moments in the movie. >> rose: is this a prequel to alien. >> well, we've been told to say -- you know i think maybe the origins of this project, it was looked at as a prequel and as ridley started to dwell into who is this guy in the spaceship. well this is it. >> that's rid me maybe he has a master plan. we're just on board this thing and it's not a prequel and then

to be revealed oh my god it is a prequel. >> rose: tell me the relationship between the two of you. >> are you going to ask me or him. >> when we're introduced to david we see kind of a butler in space, he's looking after the spaceship. >> rose: the bogart thing. >> exactly. and then we see that he's taken some sort of special interest in noomi's character and elizabeth and going into her dreams. he's been sort of curious of her throughout and she's making sort of her discoveries there's something about her that's different than to the rest of the crew members. and so i think there is a certain, you know, beyond a curiousity there. i think he's sort of investing in her more than he is any of the other crew members on board. and finds her to say, to be a very sort of fascinating case. in some respect i think like the lawrence character, you know in lawrence of arabia, she has this

sort of clear vision that she's going to get to no matter what. >> rose: also lawrence was somebody who was both arab and in sense english. >> he didn't belong to either in the end so he's kind of an outsider which david is al so. he's the only robot on the ship. the human beings treat him with a fair level of contempt. >> no, that's not true. it's just when you start to misbehave. as long as you do what you're programmed to do, everybody is very nice to you. >> exactly. >> you're not supposed to have your own agenda but i think it's both me and elizabeth you have to collect yourself and remind yourself he's a robot, he's a computer. so at one point in movie i felt this huge rage and arrange and it's -- and anger and it's almost like there's no soul he doesn't have emotions, he doesn't understand me because he doesn't have a soul. i would say that elizabeth is the soul and the heart in the

movie and he's the brain. and we could be a good deem. >> i think it makes perfect sense except it's a hard ass not a hard desk. >> rose: is there any of this in elizabeth, in her. >> i would say elizabeth is much more fragile and more humble and vulnerable, but that kind of the survivor, the kind of instinct of never giving up, never giving in, always kind of find the way to pull yourself together and stand up again. i think they have that in common. >> rose: more how far a survivor as a film goes on. >> yes, absolutely. and a trooper. she's very committed and she would -- >> very open as well isn't she. she's sort of very confident like that from what i got from the elizabeth character, she's much more -- >> rose: here's my question. do you guys have these kind of conversations before the movie

begins or during the movie? in other words -- >> i wanted to talk to him and he was like keep it to yourself. >> rose: is that right. >> don't talk bit. >> i don't want to talk too much. i like, noomi is like -- >> rose: it's in your head and you don't want to stir it up. >> i just think show it to me and surprise me in the scene. you're like i might do this and i'm like just do it, it's my job to be able to sort of respond. >> normally i don't talk so much. when i did the girl with the dragon tattoo, i kind of stick to myself and i sit in the corner drinking my coffee and not interact with people. i don't know what happened. >> rose: we've got some clips. first is the clip in which david and the scientist hallway discuss the mission that they're on. here it is. >> am i interrupting. i thought you might be running

low. >> pour yourself a glass, pal. >> thank you but i'm afraid it would be wasted on me. >> i think we wasted our time coming here, don't you. >> your question depends on the understanding what you've achieved by coming here. >> what we hoped to achieve was to meet our makers to get answers. >> why do you think your people made me. >> made you because we could. >> can you imagine how disappointing it would be for you to hear the same thing from your creator? may i ask you something. >> please do. >> how far would you go to get what you came all this way for? your answers. what would you be willing to do. >> anything and everything. >> so tell me about that. >> that was i think we filmed that pretty early on. i think that was the first seen

i actually had with somebody else. the rest was sort of me just wanted ring -- wandering around the ship. again there is something to be looked at the character with david he needed the guinea pig. >> why did he pick him, why my boyfriend. >> he presented himself. >> rose: why do you think he picked. >> because he was mean to me. >> you think so? i don't know. he's kind of like an open target because he's so restless and so childish and immature in way and desperate and angry so you feel like he would probably, as you say, he would do anything and everything without thinking. but i'm not sure. >> neither am i. >> no. >> rose: this was a good experience for both of you was it not. >> yes, absolutely it was. >> yes. >> rose: all right. here's a clipping with dr. shaw tells a crew they need to stay and you'll see yourself. here it is.

>> with a -- what the hell is that? >> is that you. >> listen to me. you have to stop it. >> we're not stopping anything, shaw, we're going to home. >> if you don't stop it, there won't be a home to go back to. >> that was nice. >> rose: he also shot her in iceland and it's kind of a star geography. >> even the kind of like, yes, just the landscape, it looks lunar, it looks i never saw anything like that before. the dark sand down to sort of the volcanos there.

and they have really good hot dogs, do you remember the little hot dogs. >> i grew up in iceland. i lived there as a kid. it was kind of weird. my family lived just an hour where we shot showing scenes. >> rose: are they still there. >> yes, they are. >> rose: they had a chance -- >> i went home to them over the weekend. i was so tired, they had a big barbecue and i had one small piece of meat and i had to go take a nap and i crashed and the party was over when i came down there. so yes. >> rose: here's a scene with both of you in. take a look at this. this is where both of you shop for extra terrestrial life. roll tape. >> tell me you can read this. >> what are you doing david. >> i'm attempting to open the door. >> wait. we don't know what's on the other side.

>> remarkably human. beautiful painting. >> so new. stop, stop. don't touch it. >> sorry. >> please, don't touch anything oh no. david. we must leave now. >> rose: what does she discover on the wall. >> murals.

up on the ceiling and they start to change. so we realized we're letting oxygen in the room and i realized the head we found were also starting to change because we need to go back to the ship as soon as possible and seal it. and then when we get out, there's a storm coming. >> rose: and soon you're in search of all of these questions. >> yes. >> rose: like? >> like who created us, what's the purpose of life. why did they make us, and then that's the kind of the first part of it. and then i realized that i was wrong, that they were not. we kind of, i get to the point when i have to question everything i thought before and everything i expected and everything i dreamt about. >> rose: because you were a person of faith. what is it you have. >> a cross. she's religious. her father was a priest and i think that's kind of, we were talking about that faith and belief and religion and i kind

of had to do back to my own childhood and face my own religion in a way and i remember that i believed in angels when i was a kid. i really had it completely worked out with dark angels and good angels and that they were there and god could not throw them out from paradise. i have this whole thing so i had to kind of translate that into elizabeth's faith. but we are opposite. we are on two different sides. >> rose: your role in the film is part comedy? >> i'm not sure what the intention, if it was intented that day. when i was reading it i'm like this guy's funny. there's a lot of comedy here, isn't there. and then we started filming and ridley was like in total sort of agreement. >> rose: he was not in agreement. >> no, he was. >> rose: oh, he was. you're on to something. >> absolutely, let's do this.

let's push it and the do something with it even if it has a horror element to it. even if it's dramatic where you want to touch people and there's sadness to peace. if you get people laughing you kind of disarm them and you hit them with the next phase or next emotion they're more open tight. but i just read on the page and i thought it's already kind of a funny image. >> rose: remind what i need to know about "prometheus." he was a greek god because zeus got angry because he stole fires. >> yes. >> rose: he was attached to a stone or something. and then it would regrow. >> yes, yes. >> yes. and "prometheus" is the name of the ship, spaceship. >> not the best name of a ship sort of like calling the ship icarus or something. >> i found it quite interesting

that this whole movie is like so much layers in it. it's not only a sci-fi movie, it's this religious spiritual layer as well. so you can, we can end these discussions about the questions we're kind of throwing up there. and that's, i think that's very much ridley said the way he kind of creates an environment for us to work in. you had ideas, you read the script and you saw things that you wanted to try. and ridley was so open. he knows exactly what he wants and he's very clear and very specific but at the same time he likes to, he likes ideas and he likes when the actor comes with they want to try so it was a very open creative playful and fun environment to work with. it was just incredible. >> rose: do you feel like this sort of evolution away from elizabeth the character you created. >> yes. at least i got to work with him

and do this very typical ridley scott iconic character. yes, it's probably. take it off from that elizabeth body. even though i left her many years ago. >> i think it's interesting that you say that and that you said ridley's the perfect transition from that because he writes such good female characters ridle and he realizes, exactly, you know. so much of the time with film, you know, the female character sort of realizes her sort of vision through the male counterpart do you know what i mean. her objective becomes clear whereas the characters that he represents thelma and louise and sigourney, they're independent, they have their own independent sort of objective and vision. and it's not reliant on the sort of you know the male lead. >> i think ridley the way he

was, i have this very disrbed quite twisted scene in the movie where i go through a very horrible thing. i'm not going to go into any detail but i was kind of half naked and it was, it really messed me up my whole, my soul and my body. and i remember that i was on that table, and ridley, he was so in there with me. i never ever felt like he was looking at me from a sexual point of view. it felt like he was breathing and thinking and living the character with me inside her. so and i just remember that i was completely exhausted and i left the studio and i felt like oh god, i'm losing it. but at the same time, i was so happy and just full of energy because the way he works, he's so, he's almost like a -- he's so passionate and into it, into every detail and into hi characters and to the big set.

i never worked with anybody who does that. >> rose: that's a great director. >> yes, absolutely. >> rose: so you come with that sort of notion of having been elizabeth and he comes as sort of the sexiest actor alive. >> i know. ha ha ha. [laughter] >> yes. no, honestly, when i heard, when i met ridley, like the third or the fourth time when we're talking about this script and this project, he said to me that he really wanted michael fassbender in it and i remember i was just like okay, yes. make him say yes, make him work out. where is he because i was in l.a. and i heard a rumor that e was in l.a. and could i go to see him so he could do it with me. michael is one of the best. i remember seeing hunger and

many of your movies i was so captured and so struck and it was just so powerful. so working with him has been an amazing thing to do too. >> >> likewise, thinking. >> rose: what are you doing next. >> i'm getting ready to go down to nor liens and work with steve again, steve mcqueen his next film 12 years of slave. >> rose: that's a big working relationship. >> it's great. steve brought me to the ball, really. he changed my life with the opportunity he gave me in hunger. and yes, i'm looking, i'm really looking forward to this and also nervous again. >> as always, right. >> rose: you're both nervous when you enter a project. >> yes, it's terrifying every time. >> you build up fear. >> rose: how do you overcome it. is there some point it kicks in that you know you have the character. >> yes. i think it doesn't matter -- >> last week of filming.

>> hey guys. i think it doesn't matter if it's a big studio movie, it's one of the biggest directors in the world, it's a small ending movie in a small country out in no where and you sleep in a car or whatever. i think we always have to do the same work and we have to find a way to concentrate and to focus and to kind of wash away everything outside. to ignore the pressure, the expectations, everything that can kind of, and vanity. for me it's like to work, it's so much about capturing life and kind of capturing the soul and bringing this to life and not thinking of my own vanity and not try to look good and try to correct myself how do i look in this angle, no i don't want to do this, you have to realize and shoot me from a different angle because i don't mean the way i look. for me i've seen your work and

it's always from a space of passion and curiosity. and for me, and then you can kind of ignore and fool yourself to not feel that you're nervous and all the appreciate and fea. >> rose: you worked with the director to to made dragon. >> yes. a movie called dead man down. >> rose: here's what he said about you at an interview here at this table. take a look. >> wow. >> rose: the actresses name is. >> noomi rapace. >> rose: where did you find her. >> the producer had seen her in a play where she played a controversial tough part. they showed me a picture of her and a clip from a film she had done and i could see she was strong. but i thought she was too beautiful to play elizabeth but i pulled her in for a two hour rehearsal and she blew me away. she had really really dark

strong energy. and she has something that you rarely find in an actress. she is unpredictable yet high high credibility. i call it the hand grenade effect. it's like i hand you a hand grenade i pull out the split and you have to hold it for two and-a-half hours. she has this quality she's so seductive on screen you want to look at her all the time you want to see what she's going to do next. that's an amazing strength. >> wow, i have to talk to him about this. me and collin ferrell. >> rose: you mentioned this, john -- robert deniro, al pacino are all heroes. do do they all have something in common. >> i don't know when i was 17 or 16 when i started to realize this is what i wanted to do, there was just something about them. i think it was the truth. there was an element of the truth telling to them. and there's some more there as

well. gene hackman -- there was something -- >> rose: about truth. >> yes, truth seekers. >> yes. >> rose: thank you. great to see you. >> thank you, great to see you. >> thank you. >> rose: great to see you. the movie is called obviously "prometheus." it opens in theatres on friday, june 8th. thank you for watching. see you next time. captioning sponsored by rose communications captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org