A schooling in film

EVAN RACHEL WOOD might be tight-lipped about her work in the movie Woody Allen is shooting in New York -- about which she would reveal absolutely nothing! But the 20-year-old muse to rocker Marilyn Manson had more to say about appearing with Uma Thurman in Vadim Perelman's new film, "The Life Before Her Eyes," which explores the aftereffects of a school shooting and opens in limited release Friday.

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You're such a believable gum-snapping high school girl.

Ha. I really like the film a lot. It was a really strange but cool script. And I was curious to see if they could pull it off going back and forth between me and Uma -- if people would get annoyed by it or get confused. But it flows really well. And it's shot beautifully.

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That can't really have been a treat to film.

Yeah, it was a little rough. Me and Eva [Amurri, who plays her character's best friend] got along great, and we definitely had fun, but some of it was pretty grueling. And the swimming pool scenes were incredibly cold. I've got some great photos of me running into the house with 20 blankets wrapped around me and shivering. That was the hardest thing to shoot.

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You're back to back [on sets, but before that], did you, like, sit around and think about roles and look at scripts?

Yeah, I mean, I've been keeping an eye out for things. I just waited to see what was going to come my way. I was supposed to do a film called "Bronte," but it's hard with those independent films sometimes to get them off the ground, so that got pushed.

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You need to start working on a "Speed Racer" or something.

Why?

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A little job security?

I haven't had a problem.

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But you don't seem to be angling for a big money movie.

No, no. It's not satisfying. It doesn't matter how much I get paid for something. It won't, I dunno, do anything for me if I don't like the movie or am embarrassed by it. . . . Having integrity . . . definitely hurts your buying sprees, but I can sleep at night. I like that I never kind of have to worry or cringe when someone walks up to me and says, 'I love you in . . .' and you're like, was it something I was embarrassed of? I have to connect to something or else it's not going to work.

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And how was the Darren Aronofsky set [for "The Wrestler"]?