January 26, 2008 | In the dangerous world of Untraceable, FBI special agent Jennifer Marsh fights on the frontline in the war on cybercrime. Most of the time, she and her partners busy themselves with pornographers, sexual predators and credit-card scammers. But when a psycho establishes the ultimate killer app – a website that offers live-downstreaming video of torture and murder – Marsh and her colleagues have to venture even further than usual into the dark side.

Diane Lane plays Jennifer Marsh, adding yet another notable credit to a resume she started building back in 1979, when she grabbed attention as a resourceful child actress who could hold her own opposite Laurence Olivier in A Little Romance. More recently, Lane has impressed critics and engaged audiences with her work in movies as diverse as Unfaithful (2002), Adrian Lyne’s steamy drama of adultery (for which she earned an Oscar nomination), and Must Love Dogs (2005), a frothy chick-flick comedy co-staring John Cusack. She has three other movies awaiting release, including Nights in Rodanthe, a romantic drama (based on a Nicholas Sparks novel) that reunites her with Unfaithful co-star Richard Gere. Right now, though, she’s focused on promoting the thriller that has her cast as a doting single mom and dedicated cyber-crimefighter

Q: No one can accuse you of trying to do a star turn in Untraceable. You really went for the de-glamorized look here, right?

A: [Laughs] Well, I’ll take that as a compliment. Honestly, I don’t think the lighting is the very best it could be at the FBI bullpen – the cyber bullpen, as it were. But that’s intentional, because it’s a gritty film, and my character has a gritty job. What can I say? It’s not a glamorous profession, and it’s not a glamorous role.

Q: Were you able to do much preparation to play special agent Jennifer Marsh?

A: Some. During my research, and the time I spent with the Real McCoys over at the FBI, I was able to meet some of the working moms who are very impressive in their profession. I’m so grateful they chose their profession, seeing how much there is a need for cyber-law enforcement. It was daunting, for sure. But I will say that their sense of humor – well, I don’t think that America is ready for the sense of humor that is needed for that job. Because, really, you have to protect your heart while you’re witnessing such heartlessness in trying to be a crimestopper.

Q: It must be tremendously grinding, emotionally, to view some of the nastier stuff these cyber-cops have to watch constantly.

A: For sure. Obviously, because of the anonymity aspect, people feel, I guess, less culpable in regard to what they put on line. And going after these people is quite a technical task – but, yeah, it’s also a very emotional task. And you have to keep watching, keep searching, because, you know, things never really die on the Internet. And that makes it all the more challenging. Because you can put out one fire over there, but another one will be ignited over here. Because when you’re transferring information digitally, it doesn’t diminish in its quality like tape or video or other media that we had previously. So these files get saved, categorized and reproduced – it’s almost like cloning.

Q: Did you know much about computers – and cyber-crime – before you signed on for this project?

A: Not really. I’m so naïve. And I have such a low threshold for the truth, I suppose, when it comes to the dark nature of the human animal. I didn’t even know that viruses didn’t grow spontaneously in petrie dishes or something. I didn’t realize that they were created on purpose, by people with, basically, the mind of an arsonist, with a lot of time on their hands and big brains to figure out to create it, and send it out in the world – and then take glee in the damage they create. I think it’s so sick and pathetic. In law enforcement – like in acting – we look for motive. And I just think: “My God, these people are really hurt, and they’re really angry about it. And they’re lashing out.”

Q: Of course, if you’re an actor, there’s another aspect of the digital age to consider: Thanks to technological advances, every movie or TV show you’ve ever made is, for better or worse, permanently preserved. 

A: That’s fine and well and good. I’m OK with that. It’s the isolation of images out of context that is irksome to me. Because that’s the difference between a complex, emotional story that involves sensuality and sexuality, and pornography. Once you change or shift or eliminate the context, what have you got? It’s just bumping uglies, you know what I mean?

Q: True enough. If you ever do scenes involving nudity or sensuality, as you have in Unfaithful and A Walk on the Moon – they’re bound to wind up on certain websites.

A: It’s really demoralizing. It actually kind of makes you give up hope about human nature after a certain point. You go, “I guess this is what we’re contending with. Are we just going to lie down and take it, or are we going to complain and enforce regulations or rules and penalties, and tracking and tracing?” But, I mean, you have to be able to find the people who have these sites to begin the process of changing things. And when things are – quote, unquote – untraceable, what do you do then? To me, that’s scary in itself. Whatever it is you’re trying to effectuate, if you can’t locate accountability, you don’t have a starting place.

Q: On a more pleasant note: You and you husband, actor Josh Brolin, have been in show business ever since you’ve been kids. But neither of you could be described as an overnight sensation. And it’s taken a while for each of you to achieve true breakout success. No Country for Old Men appears to be a major turning point for him. Would you say that Unfaithful was a turning point in your career?

A: I think it was more of a reward for other turning points. It takes a while for people to pat you on the back a little bit. And that’s as it should be, I think. Woe to somebody who gets it too early in the game. Because then they yank it out from under you.

Q: Do you and Josh talk much about this aspect of your work?

A: Well, we certainly do have conversations about the anomalous nature of what we do professionally. It’s always a crapshoot… And in this business, we’re all a bit like addicted gamblers. But I’m really so proud of Josh’s success [with No Country for Old Men]. And I just want to savor it. Especially since I did not have to do the work. I mean, it was fun to visit him on location, and eat the food in the restaurant, and check out the hotel room. But I didn’t have to stay there for three months and slog it out with a broken collar bone in the desert with the Coen brothers. He worked so hard.