"You think it's such a cool idea -- all the smoking in the scenes. Twenty takes later, why the hell did I want to smoke in this scene?" - Martha Plimpton
"Then you start to smell like Denis Leary's index finger. Not that I've smelled Denis Leary's index finger." You have to forgive me," Martha Plimpton apologizes. "I've been talking a lot today and the English language is beginning to elude me." Plimpton and Paul Rudd have teamed up to meet the press and field questions regarding their latest project, the newly released 200 Cigarettes. Ironically, they barely share a moment onscreen. Plimpton spends most of the film in comic anxiety as a hostess throwing a New Year's Eve bash that no one seems to be showing up for. Rudd, in the meantime, is engaged in a will they or won't they plot with rocker Courtney Love.
Love was great to work with, Rudd reports. An added perk was hearing a sneak preview of Hole's Celebrity Skin, which Love was mixing at the time. "What an incredible experience it was to sit and listen to this record with the writer and singer right there," Rudd marvels. Then there was the matter of Elvis Costello, who puts in a cameo in the film and who is highly admired by both Rudd and Plimpton. "Of everybody that worked on this film, Martha and I probably were in the freak zone when it came to Elvis Costello," Rudd admits. "I was just rendered mute by his presence," Plimpton concurs. Like most fans, they found themselves hanging out and being best friends with their idol and bringing out Costello's more obscure albums to impress the music legend.
When asked about being approached by fans who feel about them the way they feel about Costello, Plimpton and Rudd laugh it off. "It's still strange," Rudd says, "that somebody might actually feel that way about me." Plimpton observes most of the people who approach her think they're old high school classmates. "And I get a lot of touching," she smiled.. Now the two pour forth with fan stories. Fans who gush on but have never actually seen any of their movies, fans who open with, "You're a movie star, right?" Or, in Rudd's case, fans who mistake him for Ben Affleck, who is also part of the 200 Cigarettes cast. One bartender apologized for the case of mistaken identity: "You're probably pretty cool, too."
In fact, both Rudd and Plimpton are. Plimpton, with her Lauren Bacallish looks and attitude, has been one of her generation's top actresses. She began her career playing precocious, headstrong teens in The River Rat, Running on Empty and Stanley and Iris and made the transition to adult roles in I Shot Andy Warhol, Pecker and Eye of God (a highly overlooked indie that showcases a devastating performance from Plimpton). Rudd first caught the public's attention as Alicia Silverstone's charming stepbrother in Clueless and recently won kudos for his performance opposite Jennifer Aniston in The Object of My Affection. He spent much of last season onstage with Helen Hunt and Kyra Sedgwick in Twelfth Night; clad in skimpy costumes, he sent temperatures rising.
But back to 200 Cigarettes and the early Eighties when the film is set. Though the outfits they're clad in are of reasonable funkiness, both actors readily divulge that they've worn their fair share of fashion disasters. Having just gotten out of her noir phase (when she went around garbed in slacks and Oxford shirts and fedoras), Plimpton found herself in sweat pants "tucked in the socks with the high tops and the occasional Cosby sweater." Rudd, who grew up Jewish in Kansas City, at least had an excuse: "Anything that was really fashionable got to Kansas City a couple of years later. Kansas City just now is getting out of acid-washed jeans," he jokes. Half seriously.
Rudd recently wrapped The Cider House Rules which costars Tobey Maguire and Charlize Theron. Plimpton has nothing lined up for the moment. "We'll see who hires me," she says. "Not to say that I'll run off and do some new Red Shoe Diaries," she laughs. "No, I don't get offered much porn and I'm angry about it. I'm bitter," she deadpans. "Sometimes in this business, they want to categorize you," Rudd joins in. Plimpton roars, scrunching her eyes. "They think, 'Oh, he's this sweet guy. He'd never be interested in porn.' But we're actors."
- Paul Rudd
