Kate Bosworth reunites with her Beyond the Sea and Superman Returns co-star Kevin Spacey, as well as her Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! director Robert Luketic, for 21, a high-stakes drama based on true events. Bosworth plays Jill Taylor, a student at M.I.T. and a member of an exclusive (and secret) blackjack team headed up by Professor Micky Rosa (Spacey). The film is based on the book Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezrich.

Mezrich's book was inspired by the story of Jeff Ma, a former M.I.T. student who, along with 10-20 teammates, took the Las Vegas casinos for millions of dollars by counting cards at the blackjack tables.
All the members of the blackjack team donned disguises, used fake names, and made up biographies while playing at the Vegas casinos. And one of Bosworth’s favorite things about playing Jill was getting to play a character within a character. “Well, I went to town with that one,” declared Bosworth. “When I did a little bit of research into what these kids went through and started learning that they were beginning to be recognized by the eye in the sky and having to put on disguises, that's such a great element. I sort of made that my character's thing more than anyone else.”

Bosworth helped come up with Jill’s look for the scenes in 21 in which Jill isn’t using a disguise. “Jill Taylor is already labeled as the fantasy girl and I just didn't want to be a blonde for it. I just wanted to go a bit darker and be a little bit more low-key with her looks,” explained Bosworth.

“They did let me do that. Obviously, I'm usually more of a brighter blonde, but they let me go a little darker for it. I think it's important to find the physicality, the look, whether it's hair color or costume or makeup, whatever it is. It really does help create that character. And that's just how I saw her, just a little darker.”

Bosworth had her own ideas on how to play this fantasy girl. “Originally, on the page she was a little different. I wanted her to be more of a tomboy, which I think ended up being that way in the film. That's kind of my fantasy girl, a girl who can sit there and box, and also playing a mathematical genius is pretty fun, considering math is my worst subject. So, yeah, and I liked the fact that she had her inner struggle with her father being a gambling addict and having that pain and that loss and seeing a similar experience with the person that she had found new love with. So I enjoyed playing this character.”

One part of the character that was a little more difficult for Bosworth to relate to was Jill’s college experience. Bosworth’s kept busy acting and college, so far, hasn’t fit into her schedule. “Well, I worked very hard in high school and I put acting on the back burner for that. My first acting job was when I was 14. It was kind of a fluke, to be honest, because I'd been an equestrian my whole life. I was a show jumper [and I] randomly heard that Robert Redford was casting a film out of New York and looking for authentic horseback riders. So, on a whim, I just went and was given some lines, read some lines, had never done it before in my life, was put on tape and kept getting called back and called back and called back and got the part. Subsequently, I fell in love with acting.”

“But I was very aware at that point, as well as a 14-year-old, that I wanted to go to high school. I wanted to have real life experiences. I wanted to go to my prom. I wanted to graduate. I wanted to get my diploma. I wanted to have a first heartbreak. I wanted to do all those things that I think would have been entirely different if I had focused on acting completely at that age. So I devoted my life to school at that point, and I was accepted into university. I actually, funny enough, part of my essay for getting into that school was about my acting experience. I got a letter back from the dean saying, ‘I highly recommend you defer for a year and just go and have this life experience and see what happens. See what happens for you.’ So I deferred for a year and moved out to LA on my own, in this tiny studio apartment, went on six auditions a day and in that first year I ended up getting Blue Crush. I just was very fortunate that films started falling together. I kept deferring until finally I said, ‘All right, I'm actually loving what I'm doing.’ Perhaps one day I'll go back, but I think right now I want to focus on this. I love it,” said Bosworth.