We all know the type—the girl who steps into a crowded room and every head turns. Such is Heather, the foxy foil to Ashton Kutcher’s “sexual grifter” in Spread. The latest from Anchor Bay Films, Spread is the story of Nikki (Kutcher), who uses his charms to seduce and live off older women, including gorgeous power lawyer Samantha (Anne Heche). Margarita Levieva plays the lady version of Nikki, and when their two worlds collide, both of their tricks stop working. “In most films, when the leading man is a bad guy he usually falls for a good girl,” says Levieva. “Here, the main character meets the female version of himself. Though Heather’s someone so manipulative, underneath you’re dealing with someone who’s insecure and needs a lot.”
No backdrop is better suited for such a tale than Los Angeles, and Spread uses the city’s infamous duality to brilliant effect—glamour and excitement on one side, loneliness and isolation on the other. “The perception is that people go to LA and suddenly they’re rich and famous,” says Levieva. “What we don’t get to see are all the people who don’t make it.”
The Leningrad-born beauty has embarked on an impressive career that has truly started to simmer this year. Having appeared in a few indies and the TV show Vanished, Levieva landed a foxy role in last spring’s Adventureland and took to the Broadway stage in Impressionism— opposite Joan Allen and Jeremy Irons. “My wish is just to get better, like a professional athlete,” she says. “I’m not after an award.” Spread opens August 14.
