'Paradise' Stars Talk Sin, Singing & Spirituality
Julianne Hough, Russell Brand and Octavia Spencer are looking for Paradise in Sin City in the quirky and thoughtful directorial debut of Oscar-winning Juno writer Diablo Cody, and ETonline sat down with the three ladies of the film to talk sin, religion, karaoke, and what paradise means to them!
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"As much as I try to sin, I can only go so far," laughs Julianne, whose strict Mormon upbringing mirrored her character's foundation to a certain degree. "Otherwise my conscience is there and I can't go any further than what I do."
"I've sinned enough for both of us," Octavia jokingly chimes in, adding, "Sure, I like the dark and seedy side of Vegas. Who doesn't like to see something very tragic?"
In theaters Friday and available now On Demand and iTunes, Paradise follows the journey of Lamb Mannheim (played by Hough), a devout Christian in a God-fearing Montana town who questions her faith after she's severely burned in a freak plane crash. Armed with a big insurance payout and "a checklist of untried sins," the naïve Lamb looks for answers in Las Vegas -- much to the chagrin of her parish and conservative parents, played by Holly Hunter and Nick Offerman.
Like a fish out of water in Sin City, Lamb meets a friendly Brit bartender (Brand) and cynical soul singer (Spencer), who teach her a thing or two about what it means to really live – while she does the same in return.
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"I think of myself as a seeker," says Diablo. "I actually am a spiritual person and a religious person. I believe in God, and so this isn't, for me, an anti-spiritual movie at all, but it's about finding your own version of the truth and maybe looking past all the different opinions that humans have and finding the truth beyond that."