A First Time For Everything

"It needs to not be done with a sheet wrapped around me..."

Ivana Miličević has been doing film and TV work for 17 years, but her role on Season 1 of Banshee - which premieres on Cinemax tomorrow night - marks a couple of firsts for the Bosnian-born actress. It's the first time she's been the female lead on a TV series, and it is the first time she has ever taken her clothes off for a role. Miličević plays a former thief who has been leading a quietly domestic life in Banshee, Pa., under a false cover for years. Her husband-and-two-kids existence is idyllic ... until her old partner-in-crime/lover (Antony Starr) comes back into her life, having stolen the identity of her small town's new sheriff.

Miličević is hardly a household name, but you've probably seen her on-screen before. She's a former Bond girl (Casino Royale), and famously appeared opposite Will Smith in 1998's Enemy of the State (as an amused salesgirl in a lingerie shop). She also played an American hottie in the British-based Christmas rom-com Love Actually. But she calls Carrie the role of a lifetime for her. "I just love this part," Miličević says. "It’s very lucky and ... it’s rare for a female character to be written so well, and so emotional, and so in love, and so torn, and so tough, and so sexual. I loved the script. ... When I read it, it read very pulpy, and I was like, 'Wow, this is so kind of Quentin Tarantino-ey in a way, like Coen Brother-ey, and funny in its heightened reality, but so emotional, because I really can feel this love story. So first and foremost, probably the love story drew me in. Second of all ... look at what I get to play. I get to fight. I get to train. I get to love. I get to be sexy. I mean, if not now, when?"


The Amish would definitely shun Banshee for all the sex scenes (it’s Cinemax, after all) and Miličević certainly goes in at the deep end for her first experience of stripping off for the smmll screen. "I've never wanted to. I've never been inspired to. But for this, I was," says the 38-year old. "I was like, 'Oh, for this, it needs to be done, and it needs to be done well. It needs to not be done with a sheet wrapped around me; it needs to be done like a husband and wife do it. ... I just kind of wanted it to be natural. And I don't really find them gratuitous because ... it's part of the story."

In the series pilot, things get hot and heavy between Miličević and on-screen husband Rus Blackwell - although her character, Carrie, actually has former flame Lucas on the brain. And yeah, believe it or not, there's character development going on here. "I was telling my family, they were like, 'Oh, we just won’t watch (the sex scene).' But I said, 'No, you kind of have to, because there’s story points in it. It’s not just there to be there, like, 'Hey, let’s take a moment and get turned on.'" Not that it made the filming of it any easier. "I’m sure everyone you’ve ever asked always tells you the same thing: They are awkward and ridiculous," says Miličević. "Everything about them is embarrassing and a funny story. Although, the cool thing was is that we really wanted the sex scenes to kind of be natural and real. I really wanted them to be like, ‘If we’re going to do them, let’s kind of do it.’ I mean not do it do it, but I wanted it to be natural," she says. "It’s just the whole thing is really funny. And it’s got nothing to do with sexiness or anything. You just kind of do it. And the cast and crew were all so close, it was pretty comfortable considering how awkward the whole thing is. And then you just kind of get used to it."