“I scared everyone,” she told fans at the Antalya Film Fest. “Even at 18, people thought I might blow their head off. It’s a good power to have.”
Speaking to an audience who had just seen “Cape Fear,” the 1991 Martin Scorsese film that launched her career, Lewis added, “In any field, it’s nice when things get revealed. It’s important for any line of work that people get found out for their crimes.”
Having received the key to the city from Antalya’s mayor at the fest’s opening gala Saturday, Lewis reflected on the many lessons she gleaned from filming with Robert De Niro, Nick Nolte and Robert Mitchum.
“I was 18 when I did ‘Cape Fear’ but I’m playing 14 and so many people thought that Scorsese had just found me and I really was that girl, but I wasn’t.”
Lewis, whose father was an actor, lived a fairly conventional life as a teen in Los Angeles, she confesses. “I auditioned for the movie and that character is based on a young girl I had met at a park who was holding a kitten because when I play a character, I like to get inspiration from my environment.”