Holmes Sweet Holmes: Katie Is Ready for the Big Time

NEW YORK – Katie Holmes radiates a beauty in person differently than on the big screen.

Maybe it's just that we're watching her grow up. She's moving from "cute" into "stunning" with little trouble these days.

Her latest film Abandon puts her back in college but makes her love interest a much older Benjamin Bratt, which she did more awkwardly with Michael Douglas in Wonder Boys and Greg Kinnear in The Gift.

Now, as she prepares to leave Dawson and his creek, she talks about the kinds of professional choices she's making these days.

McCuddy: Do you enjoy the promotion process that goes along with filmmaking these days?

Holmes: It's really exciting to be in something that can afford to have a press junket (laughs). It's nice that people are either interested or acting interested in something that was important to me.

McCuddy: Well, I'm genuinely interested. And one of the things I'm interested in is the transition from television actor to movie actor. Does that come with a specific agenda or goal?

Holmes: Well, we're in our sixth season of Dawson's Creek and the one major agenda that my agent and I have had throughout this whole six years has been to try to find things either during the year -- parts that are small enough that Dawson's Creek will let me go and do and work out in some way -- or parts during hiatus that are very different and challenging for me because for nine months I play a teenager. The same character that I've been playing for six years.

McCuddy: So things like Go. Wonderful but odd. Not a mainstream romantic comedy. Is it safe to say you haven't pursued that kind of thing intentionally?

Holmes: (Thoughtfully) I think I've been intensely pursuing projects that I can learn something from. That I feel like when I step onto that set I am so nervous and I better know my lines and I better have my game going.

McCuddy: Play better tennis by playing a better tennis player?

Holmes: Exactly.

McCuddy: Would Michael Douglas be an example of that on Wonder Boys?

Holmes: (Smiling) Oh yeah. That whole set I was just like (heavy gasp noise), 'Oh God, don't talk to me.' It was just please roll the camera and do this and let me get out of here.

McCuddy: And you have to flirt with him.

Holmes: (Eyes widening) I know. I could do it when we were rolling and then I could barely even talk to him. I was soooo nervous. And I recently saw him and I was able to talk and it was so nice.

McCuddy: Did you flirt with him again?

Holmes: (Laughs) No no no no no no no. But yeah, experiences like that and The Gift and movies that have these actors. They did The Singing Detective this summer with Robert again.

McCuddy: Robert Downey Jr.

Holmes: Yes. And just to be around these people that you're just like 'Ohmygod!' 'How did you do that? Do that again.' Instead of being comfortable. And in a situation that you're used to. That's a similar story that you've been telling for nine months.

Abandon opens Friday, Oct. 18.