Vanessa Williams: Don't Look Back

So here Williams sits, on the edge of a new phase. But when I ask her if she isn't nervous and/or insecure about suddenly appearing in thousands of theaters in the summer blockbuster sweepstakes, she says. "I'm insecure in terms of my looks -- more so on this film, because I realize it's not going straight to video. I'm always freaked out about my skin, and I lost 14 pounds after I got the role." She says this without sounding freaked out at all. Does she feel any pressure to prove that she can really act? "It's not that kind of film," she says. "You're lucky to have motivation in some scenes that are verbal. There are a couple tender moments, but it's a lot of explosions and running. This will not be the role to review my acting. But I think what will show is that I'm experienced and comfortable." Not to mention this fact: Eraser will stand or fall on Arnold's shoulders, not hers. Not that she's worried. "Arnold's such a marketing machine. Even Last Action Hero--for him that's a failure monetarily, but it would have been a tremendous hit for any other film."

Does Williams realize just how difficult it is to cross over from singer to actress? Actually, no, "I'm not aware of it," she claims. "Although it's been pointed out to me that a lot of people don't succeed." Williams says she likes to '"visualize success." and does so by concentrating on the winners: folks like Sinatra, Bette Midler, Barbra Streisand. There's one name that doesn't come up--indeed hasn't come up once in our conversation, though you'd think it might have: Whitney Houston.

Houston and Williams are the same age, both beautiful, successful singers, both African-American. Have they ever, I ask, been up for the same role? "No. You mean like me getting Whitney's rejects or something?" she says, and laughs. "No--my agent hasn't said 'Whitney's turned this down and now you're second banana and they want you.' We're both metropolitan East Coast girls, born in the same year, successful and very powerful in our careers and choices. [But] she came from a gospel church background in terms of her vocal style, and I came from a classical theater background. Different strengths, different styles."

But there is this additional similarity--an important one: both actresses have had success in roles not specifically intended for black women. Houston in The Bodyguard. Williams in Birdie (in which she played a Latin-American secretary) and in Sidney Sheldon's Nothing Lasts Forever, which, like The Bodyguard, involved an interracial romance that was not treated as an issue. "I'll take roles that are appealing to me and that I think I can do." Williams says. "This role [in Eraser] wasn't cast black or white--they chose me because the chemistry between me and Arnold during our screen test was strong. I crossed that line where color didn't mean anything." Williams says she didn't even realize there was a racial/ethnic angle to consider in Birdie until she met with the producers. "They were saying, 'Well, are we gonna get a lot of mail because she's not Latin? Will Hispanics be upset?' They were talking about maybe making it a black role. I said, 'You know what? I don't think you have to go to that much effort. Rosie Perez is as brown as I am--and she's Puerto Rican. I think people will buy it.'"

Williams continues, "People in their 30s are execs and producers now, and they've grown up in schools and with friends of all different ethnic backgrounds. The business is getting more expansive. Every year it gets better for black actresses. Whoopi certainly paved the way in terms of getting tremendous dollars. Halle Berry is constantly starring or co-starring in features."

Of course, Williams's image today has its roots not so much in race, but in a different kind of surface issue: she was the Miss America who had to resign. Frankly, I'm surprised at the longevity of the whole scandal. Last fall, during the network airing of Sidney Sheldon's Nothing Lasts Forever, the local news ran leering promotional teasers for a post miniseries "special report": "Vanessa Revealed--From Scandal to Stardom." Pictures at 11? You bet. Those pictures. More than 10 years after the fact, it was time to reveal Vanessa again. But hasn't the scandal lessened in impact, just a little, especially in view of the tabloid takes on people like Madonna and Sharon Stone and, yes, Whitney Houston. Or am I wrong? "Yeah, I certainly think you are," she says. "You're always labeled as what people first perceive you as. First, I was Miss America, so I had that obstacle in being considered an actress. Then I was a dethroned Miss America--a defrocked beauty queen, [Eraser costar] Jimmy Caan tells this story of how he always had the fantasy of back-handing a Miss America and now in Eraser] he has the chance to. I'm still a former Miss America to him." Williams laughs, and then says, "To {Eraser producer] Arnold Kopelson, I was a scandalous beauty queen who had made hit records but wasn't considered a feature film actress. So I had to prove myself."

"Success is the best revenge" has been the title of more than one media report chronicling Williams's steady upward climb. That suggests, I say, that there's some force or foe she's been battling all along. "Or, like, bitterness or resentment that I'm harboring?" she says, "I think that's a neat little journalistic title to interest the reader, but that is not my thing. Once you release the negative stuff and move on, that's when the good things happen, I've been over it for a while."

What if the next good thing that happens is movie stardom? Is she ready for the harsh glare of fame and publicity she already knows more than enough about? "Been there, done that," she says dismissively of celebrity hassles. "I don't anticipate anything getting out of control. If you lead a boring life, nobody has anything to say. 'She rides horses with her daughters, she flies home to New York on the weekends'-- what else is there? There are tremendously famous people who live life without making too many waves." If that is what Williams aspires to, it's a goal that dwarfs her other ambitions.

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Joshua Mooney interviewed John Badham for the November '95 issue of Movieline.

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