Are you trying to get some relaxation into your schedule now?
I'm going up to a cabin with some friends this weekend, and I'm gonna sit and read. I was invited to a bunch of things, but I don't want to go. I really need to just sit and read some books and take a hike and light a fire and read for a little while.

Is fame difficult to deal with?
It is, in some sense. It's a very odd thing when all of a sudden, your neighbors are telling you that people are taking pictures of you through your kitchen window. But on the other hand, I don't want to be one of those actresses who says she has no responsibility to her fans or the press--because I put my face out there every week.

Which of your characters do you relate to most? Hopefully it's Julia, on Party of Five, more than Scream's Sidney.
I hope so too! And I just created a character in Wild Things, a drug-addicted ex-convict bisexual. So I hope I don't relate to her too much! In the past, I think I related to Julia even more because I was younger. Now I'm definitely feeling like I'm outgrowing Julia in a lot of ways. But, on the other hand, Julia is pretty grown up for her age and has had to deal with lots of adult situations in her life. She's had to grow up pretty quickly. And I definitely have gone through similar circumstances. So I do feel close to Julia in that way.

Scream 2 is a very funny movie. Is there any kind of a "message" in there with the parody?
It's like the first film in that it sort of makes fun of itself and the way people are in the world today--so overly exposed to violence in the media that we've become numb to it in some ways. And also what's put out there in the media is sometimes taken too seriously and to extremes.

For me, the challenge was just, how do you play a character who has been through the tragedy that Sidney has and make it interesting in the second film? It was that she just had to persevere in her life and become a stronger woman and not a victim and sort of really fight back but still constantly question why her life is this way and how to deal with it. Did you audition for the first Scream? Yes. I did two auditions and then I did a screen test. It was down to two people. I always have a hard time just being cast in something [without auditioning], only because I love the concept of auditioning, of going in and having the challenge of being able to impress and win the role.
I think, with horror films, [the director] has to be very cautious and find actors that are going to be able to play the characters in a realistic way so that the film doesn't become a "B" movie. In a scary film, you're already dealing with extreme circumstances; if it's not played in a realistic way, with some kind of heart, then the film is going to end up being bad quality.

What's your favorite scary movie?
I've seen very few scary movies, only because I have a real hard time sitting down for two hours and terrifying myself. I end up being one of those people who holds a pillow in front of their faces and screams and cries a whole lot and then has nightmares for the next few months. [Laughs.] But on a sleep-over with a friend when I was a kid, we watched The Changeling. It's a terrifying movie. The reason it scared me so much is that I do believe in spirits and ghosts, and that movie was about reincarnation and spirits. I took it too seriously. [Laughs.]

What's your biggest fear?
I used to have a fear of the goblin under the bed--someone coming up and grabbing your hand when you're a kid and pulling you under and you're screaming for your life. I also used to have this really odd dream, when I was a kid, of jumping rope: Every time I tried to jump over the rope, I wasn't able to. That was a recurring nightmare I had for a very very long time. Maybe it was a fear of success, or a fear of not feeling I was capable.

Did you compare notes with Party of Five's Jennifer Love Hewitt about making scary movies after she did I Know What You Did Last Summer?
That's so funny! [Laughs.] People keep asking, "Do you teach each other to scream in your [dressing room] trailers?" No! Actually, I started doing films, and she did films before she did Party of Five, as well. It just so happened that she ended up doing a [screenwriter] Kevin Williamson film after I did one. I just saw I Know What You Did Last Summer a couple of weeks ago and thought it was a fun movie.

After two Screams and The Craft, are you at all afraid of getting categorized as a horror actress, a "scream queen?"
Oh, absolutely. And that was definitely a big concern of mine even taking Scream, because I'd done The Craft. But on the other hand, Scream plays a different angle in the genre. It makes fun of itself. I also loved the script. But I really don't intend to do too many more in this genre because I don't want to become pigeonholed as a horror actress--just as I don't want to be pigeonholed as Julia. That's the very reason I'm doing so many movies on my hiatus. That's why I did this other movie, Wild Things, and I'm doing 54 and other stuff.

You seem like a pretty "together" person, which is remarkable given that you've spent the past few years becoming a star in Hollywood. How have you managed to accomplish that?
By constantly listening to my lessons. All I can do is hope that I'll do that for the rest of my life. When I look back five years ago, when I thought I really had it together and was adult and knew everything about the world, I realize I knew nothing. I hope to God that in five years I can look back on this time and say the same thing--so that I'm constantly growing. I think it's just a matter of turning everything into a positive experience.

What's been the most difficult time for you?
Probably when I was at the National Ballet School of Canada, from the ages of nine to fourteen. It's the best dance school in the world, but an extremely competitive one, and there was a lot of pressure for a child. It had an extremely back-stabbing mentality, and there was a lot of favoritism.

Did you want to be there, or was it your parents who wanted you to attend?
I wanted to be there because I wanted to be a dancer. I love to dance, and that was my dream. When you're in that school, it means you've beaten out two thousand people to get there, so you're not exactly gonna quit. But I did, at fourteen, because I basically had a nervous breakdown--I wouldn't have been able to function had I stayed there. It was a huge decision. But I'd just about given up on my dream of being a dancer and realized that I'd completely lost myself and had no friends and was very unhappy in my life and couldn't have continued if I'd stayed there.
I was so unhappy and had learned to hate dance because of the pressure that I was feeling. But once I came out of it, I got back into dance and found a healthier place in my life. I got Phantom of the Opera [in Toronto] six months after I left the school and then I started to pursue acting. I sang and danced in Phantom for two years, and understudied one of the leads. Then an agent in the audience picked me and said, "Do you want to try modeling?" So I modeled for two months and hated it, only because I had trained professionally for years and years, and it didn't make sense to be just standing in front of a camera with everything being based on my looks.

How tall are you?
I'm 5'5-l/2", which is actually pretty tall for an actress. It was funny, in The Craft, I was like, this Amazon woman, because everyone was 5'l" or 5'2". It's odd that the average actress is so small.

A lot of male actors are short, too, as you've probably noticed.
Yes--so they have to have the leading woman be short, too. I think I'm just okay. I'm not too tall

Is your first name a nickname?
It's my mother's maiden name, which she gave me. She's from Amsterdam. In Holland, it's pronounced "Nay-fa."

Your father is a drama teacher. What did you learn from him?
A great deal. But he never actually taught my older brother, Christian, and me how to act. It was just sort of observing and watching him, and growing up in the amateur theatre group in Toronto that we performed with when we were kids, which my father directed. It was really just observing the direction he gave to other people.

Tell me about Christian.
He and I are eighteen months apart. He was on Malibu Shores and has done quite a few movies of the week and independent features. Now he and I are producing a low-budget independent film together--Hair Shirt--to get on the other side of the business.
Christian has a theatre company called Blue Sphere Alliance that I'm in, but I don't have an awful lot of time to work there. I have to be very careful of spreading myself too thin right now because I'm working so much.

Is your health holding up?
It's up and down. I'm not unhealthy in any extreme way. It's just sleep deprivation!

Your marriage ended recently. It must be a difficult time for you--
Yes, I've been separated since August. It's very hard.

How long were you married?
Two years--and together for seven.

Do you ever study ballet these days?
I take class when I can. I don't have time to really train consistently; but I built a dance studio in my house, so I go down there. That's my way of venting any kind of problem that I have, or just escaping from the busyness of my life. I like to go down there, and I do what I need to.

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