After shaving her head on camera in "Empire Records" and playing a girl with Tourette's syndrome in "Niagara Niagara", Robin Tunney must be one of America's bravest young actors. And fearless is a good word to describe her character in the action thriller "Vertical Limit".
The 28-year-old Chicagoan plays Annie Garrett, an expert climber whose brother Peter (Chris O'Donnell) comes to her aid when she is stranded 26,000 feet up K2. "I think if the situation had been reversed, Annie would have been able to go up and rescue Peter with even less trouble!" she laughs.
A vital part of the shoot was the five weeks she spent learning to climb. "There was no time to be scared, and if I had used my equipment with any sort of hesitation it would have looked fake. So it was nice to feel comfortable and not look like too much of a girl."
It's a far cry from her next picture, the provocatively titled "Investigating Sex". "It's about all these surrealists in the 1920s who decided they were going to have the first frank conversation about sex," she explains. "It was a blast - kooky and fun and an amazing experience."
So what's next on the horizon? For Robin, it's time for a little R & R. "I need to be home for a while. I've been working for two-and-a-half years, so I want to go back to New York with my husband (film director Bob Gosse) and hang out with my dogs!"
Read an interview with the film's director Martin Campbell
