Playboy.com: A lot of your performances seem to be about how you use your body to reveal the interior states of the characters you play.

Kelli Garner: That is what I do, and I'm very aware that I do that. I think your body is your most amazing instrument, and I think acting without words is one of the most difficult things to do.

Playboy.com: It reminds us a lot of Marilyn Monroe. Is she an influence?

Garner: I've seen a film or two, and I've seen a lot of her photos. I think she's the epitome of a beautiful woman. Maybe there's an inherent quality or maybe I have subconsciously picked up something she does. I'm a very vulnerable person, and I love to shelter myself a lot.

Playboy.com: It must have been daunting that your first significant part in a prestige film was Martin Scorsese's The Aviator, with Leonardo DiCaprio.

Garner: I remember receiving the script, looking at the cover letter, saying it's Scorsese, DiCaprio, Miramax. I said, "Fuck this. Yeah, right."

Playboy.com: Scorsese screen-tested you with DiCaprio.

Garner: In the screen test I have these weird contacts on. They were cheap. I'm super nervous, I get tunnel vision, I trip walking into the room. I'm trying to keep it all together. I think Scorsese saw this little girl who was super terrified, but also trying to hold herself. I walked out, thinking, "I ruined it. I bombed. I couldn't see. I was a wreck." I believe I was one of the first people cast in the movie.

Playboy.com: The Aviator was partly about Hollywood as dream factory. Growing up in California did you buy into that mythology?

Garner: Definitely. I'm just now 22. Growing up, being younger, innocent, that whole world seemed so magical, it seemed so beautiful. I definitely bought into it. I love the '40s. I think women were a little more full figured and gorgeous.

Playboy.com: Marilyn Monroe specialized in playing women smarter than they appeared. Do you think because of your physical attributes, people are less likely to think of you as a fully formed woman?

Garner: It's something I deal with in everyday life. If I'm at a dinner table, lots of men, some women, I'm a little quiet and shy. People naturally think, "You're just pretty, you're just nice to look at." I've learned to use that to my advantage. I love the art of manipulation. That's why I'm an actor. It's something great, you go in somewhere and, slowly but surely, bite at people, saying "No, no, no. I have a mind, I have opinions, I have things I want to do. I'm extremely creative and confident in myself. There's no stopping me." I'm just lucky.

Playboy.com: Aren't most young actresses' identities and roles almost entirely defined by their sexuality?

Garner: In a lot of my roles, it is about a girl who knows how to control or doesn't know what she has. I think sexuality is one of the most powerful things that a woman can learn to use. For a woman, if used correctly, it's an amazing thing. If used incorrectly, it's crazy and it's hideous. It's animalistic; it goes back to the beginning of time. Sex is what makes everything happen, it's beautiful, I just think you have to be delicate with it. I want to play roles and women who don't use sexuality to get what they want. I'd love to play a role that wasn't sexual.

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