Interview
From Mr. Showbiz
How important is it to be a
gentleman these days?
Oh, I think it's essential. That's why I decided
to do this movie. I just read it, and I was like,
"Awww. That's so wonderful to put that message out
in the world." It's so funny because some guys
… like, I'll be hanging out with my girlfriend
Caroline somewhere, and some man will push you aside to
get to the bar. And I'm just like, "Are you
kidding?!" I can't believe that behavior. It's not
only that they're not being a gentleman, it's like
they're looking right through you. It's bizarre. It's so
lame to see someone that self-centered. It's really nice
when somebody cares about you.
You mean, like having a guy open the door for
you?
Yeah. I mean I used to take that stuff for
granted when I was younger. It made me uncomfortable. I
was like, "No, I can do that myself. I don't need a
lot. I don't require a lot. I don't wanna be the girl.
I'll open the door." But now, when somebody does
that for me, it's just so nice. It's not a big deal. I'll
hold the door open for people too. Even if a girl does
that for a boy, it's just nice.
Is Brendan Fraser as sweet as his character was
in Blast From the Past?
He is. I mean, I don't know him intimately, so I
don't know what he's like as a boyfriend or anything like
that, but he's a very nice guy. And what was so lovely
about working with him, we both just sort of did our own
thing. We both respect each other, but we both just
showed up and just did our thing. I liked that. It's much
better to do that than have this false camaraderie. I
hate that. When everyone tries to be friends just to be
friends for a little while. It's like, we're never gonna
be friends when we leave. Why are we pretending right
now? You know?
What attracted you to doing Blast From the Past?
When it was brought to me, I fell in love with
the Adam character because he's such a dreamboat. And I
also thought it was so romantic and exciting. But I
didn't really care about my character at first, it was
all about Adam. And I loved the story and the message.
Then I met Hugh [Wilson, the director], and I said,
"You do know that this movie is saying a really
wonderful thing. You must be a really good guy." And
I knew that he was. He had no ego about his directing. He
was open to my ideas. The prop guy would go over and say,
"You know that shot. Why don't you try this?"
And Hugh would say, "You know what? That's a good
idea."
I heard that your character changed a lot from
the original script. How did she change?
I was just interested in making sure that we
were really developing a relationship and that my
character wasn't just there to accelerate the story.
Because a lot of times the girl character is just
decoration for what happens to everybody else.
What was it like coming onto the set a month into
filming?
I had worked with Christopher Walken before, and
I met Sissy at the table reading, and Brendan and I had
met quite a few times through our lives actually. I
remember him from when I was little because we had the
same lawyer, and I remember when she told me she had
Brendan Fraser as a client, and I was like, "Oh,
yeah? Can you set me up with him?" And she said,
"No. It's illegal." I was like 15. And I was
like, "God. What are you? My lawyer?" [Laughs.]
But years later we're working together.
Right after you did Clueless there was this
perception of you as being just like Cher, your
character. What's it like looking back?
Well, [that's] very interesting because I'm
nothing like Cher was in Clueless. I've always had such a
repulsion for clothing. I don't like all that fashion
stuff. But now I'm finally realizing — I mean, I
watch my best friend Caroline and I watch other women,
successful women, and I've realized that you don't have
to be just like a man because you're a successful woman.
You can be a beautiful woman that's doing her own thing
and enjoying dressing nicely. I've just been growing up
and learning stuff and figuring things out since
Clueless.
Do you feel like you're back now?
Back where? Here?
Back on the same level as you were when you made
Clueless?
Oh, no. I don't think about that stuff at all.
Levels. I never knew any differences between them.
Well, it must've been difficult for you to deal
with all the media attention. You became a focus for
being an actor-producer on Excess Baggage, but the movie
wasn't a success.
My experience was I produced a film and I did a
damn good job at it. I had a great time. I learned so
much. I felt very successful through all that. So I know
I heard little buzzes of things, but I was just like,
"They're stupid." [Laughs.] I don't read
reviews. The only review I saw was that Siskel and Ebert
gave it two thumbs up, and I was very proud of that.
How old were you when you produced that?
I think I was 19 — 19 turning 20.
Were you worried about feeling like an outsider
producing your first film at such a young age?
No, because I felt smarter than everybody there.
[Laughs.]
On the Internet, you are still such a role model
for teenage girls. What's it like to be that for girls?
Also, Blast From the Past is doing promotional work with
Hard Candy nail polish. So once again, you're associated
with something fashion related.
First of all, the good thing about the nail
polish is that it isn't tested on animals. So that makes
me super excited that all these little kids are gonna be
after Hard Candy because they're a good company. I never
think about being a role model, but there's really no
avoiding it. I think it's nice. I know I'm a really nice
person and that I'm not doing any harm in the world, and
I try to tread as lightly as possible. I think I have
some valuable things to say to people that are interested
in hearing, so it's fine. When I was little, I didn't
really have people I was super excited about. Except I
really liked Olivia Newton-John when I was 3. And then I
really liked Michael J. Fox for a moment when I was like
10. But I never would sit around and get excited about
teen idols, so I don't know what that's like. Maybe
that's because I was becoming one at that age. I don't
know. Now because I've only been on the other side of it,
it's always been super weird. It's like, "Why are
you doing this? What do you want?" Because I just
thought I was one of them. I felt very normal.
In both Blast and Clueless, you're wooed by the
nice guy, not the flashy guy with all the money.
Yeah, I think it's a hard lesson for anyone to
learn. If you've had a really great father figure, you
probably still want to screw up and go for a jerk. And if
you've had a terrible father figure, you definitely go
after the jerk, and then hopefully eventually find a nice
guy. It's so sad when you talk to a woman, and she's like
30 or older, and she's still going after jerks. You're
like, "What are you doing? There's only so many
jerks left!"
Do you have any advice for up and coming young
actresses?
I don't really know how you can enter into this
business. You have to be careful about what you want. The
thing about anyone who becomes part of this roller
coaster, you have to know who you are. As opposed to
change [who you are]. I don't think people ever really
change. I think that whatever is inside you just becomes
enhanced and comes out in really weird ways. I just hope
that they're good people to begin with.
Did you know what you wanted when you started in
Hollywood?
I didn't know what I wanted out of the media. I
didn't want anything to do with this. I just wanted to
act. What I love about acting is that it's like therapy.
Because it was like, I was 12 years old when I first
started taking classes, and I entered this room where I
was like the youngest kid, and they were all like 17 or
18. And I got to hang out with the older kids. And we
were talking about real things. Real issues. Real
discussions about life and relationships with our
families. And we were discovering things, and we were
talking about what's going on in the news. We were like
miniature adults, trying to figure out life. And what I
realized there was that life isn't just your family;
there's a whole world out there that I didn't know about.
It just gave me confidence. Acting was like an open door
for me. I could do what I wanted to do and be who I
wanted to be. All I had to do was work my ass off and
care about it really deeply.
Tell me about doing Love's Labour's Lost with
Kenneth Branagh directing.
I was really nervous about doing Shakespeare on
film. I was going to do another project with Des McAnuff
[who directed a recent adaptation of Honore de Balzac's
Cousin Bette], and it was a very different approach. I
sort of thought that maybe Shakespeare doesn't work on
film, and I had never seen Kenneth Branagh's version of
Henry V before. I thought Shakespeare's characters were
so rich that [his plays] can't be done on film. But I was
excited at how wrong I was when I saw Henry V. I just
knew I was safe when I saw what he could do. Henry V was
so good; the battle scenes were amazing, and I felt like
I was right there. So I was like, if he can do it, and he
wants me to do it, he must be crazy. I really thought
he'd lost his mind when he hired me. But now, it's just
wonderful, and I'm so excited to do it, and I'm working
really hard on it. It's also a musical. Which is scary. I
can't sing. I can't even sing in the shower, but now that
I'm doing it, I'm realizing that I can sing. And the
songs are so fun. Irving Berlin, Gershwin. The film's all
in the style of Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers movies. Big
showy numbers. It's so fun. Nathan Lane's in it, Natascha
McElhone — the girl from Ronin — and Matthew
Lillard.
Could you relate to Eve's cynicism in Blast From
the Past, based on your own experiences with love?
Eve definitely shares my observations of a '90s
sort of a girl. She knows herself. She can make herself
look good with what she's got. She's fi n agled situa
tions. She's very much a survivor. And she definitely
does not want to get [caught up in] anything that
involves love because for her that's like the worst thing
in the world. So I understood that. If you're smart, you
have to figure out a way to survive.
From:
http://www.mrshowbiz.go.com
|
