Jennifer Tilly Unbound

Q: Were you working with Gina when Showgirls came out?

A: Yeah. Before it came out, she said to me. "My fondest hope is that it becomes this big, campy, cult phenomenon. I'll feel I've succeeded when drag queens get dressed up as Cristal and Nomi and have catfights.'' Lo and behold, it's come to pass.

Q: How did you like Showgirls?

A: It wasn't my cup of tea, but, you know, maybe I missed something when I was in the restroom.

Q: Lizzy Gardiner, who won the Oscar [with Tim Chappel] for The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, was the production designer on Bound. Did you get to wear any hand-me-downs from Terence Stamp?

A: [Laughing] No, but everyone on the movie had a crash on Lizzy, She was the total trendsetter. After the Oscars, she said, "You would not believe how mean people were about my credit card dress." Well, I had noticed that the minute I got nominated for an Oscar [for Bullets Over Broadway], I started to get such nasty things written about me. I'd never before been important enough for anyone to take the time to be nasty about me. I have to tell you, I was really glad when that was all over and I could go back to my normal life.

Q: What sort of things were written about you?

A: There was this perception that I wasn't really acting--you know, like Woody Allen just turned on the camera and caught me in my natural habitat, like an ape or something. This one woman journalist said, "Jennifer Tilly, please. She got nominated for playing a ditz, which is what she is." I was like, ''Hello? Do you know me? Have I met you?"

Q: Was it hard to get to audition for Woody Allen?

A: Yeah. A long lime ago, when I was married, my husband said. "Jennifer, you should do a Woody Allen movie." It's funny how people assume that the only reason you haven't done a Woody Allen movie is because you haven't thought of it.

Q: Did you start getting a lot more offers after being nominated for an Oscar?

A: Yes. The week after, I signed to do Bound and House Arrest with Jamie Lee Curtis, It's weird because people assume I have all these options. I don't have a lot of options. Part of it is that people are not real creative; they see you play a loudmouth bad actress and they say, "Next time we need a loudmouth bad actress, we'll call you."

Q: Did you ever think, "I've played so many ditzes, I'd better stop"?

A: Well, if it had been anybody but Woody Allen, I probably wouldn't have done Bullets Over Broadway. I felt I'd gone to the well once too many times with that kind of character. My basic rule is, if a major motion picture offers me that kind of role, I'll do it, but in independent films I'm doing more for myself, I'm trying to stretch. But the thing is, people don't see these independent films.

Q: Did you have a good time at the Oscars?

A: No, and not because I didn't win. It struck me as this big, tacky TV production in which we were just overdressed extras. It didn't seem glamorous to me. I think it's because you're so stressed out. It's more fun throwing an Oscar party than going there, because you can't make fun of other people's outfits when you know people are making fun of yours. I'd always dreamed about being nominated. Now I dream about winning. I plan to be back.

Q: What was the most surreal moment?

A: We were waiting outside for the limo and I remember Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary sword-fighting with their Oscars.

Q: What were your feelings when your older sister, Meg, was nominated for Agnes of God?

A: It was funny, because I came out here [to Hollywood] first. I was an actress and my sister was a ballet dancer. She hurt her back dancing, came out, got a lead in a movie first thing, and took off in a way that hardly ever happens. It's taken me a lot longer. It was hard in the beginning, because people always assume...

Q: People assumed you were riding on her coat tails?

A: Right, and it wasn't that way at all, I was really happy for her.

Q: Wasn't part of you jealous of her success?

A: I'm sure there was some of that. I didn't feel she took something away from me, though, because the thing she did is so different from what I do. I didn't want to be her. I wanted to be me, with a similar amount of success. The thing that's really great about it is that it seemed like things are possible; I mean, Meg and I didn't have any connections in Hollywood. I think it's amazing that two girls who grew up really poor in rural Canada came to Hollywood and have successful careers and get nominated for Oscars out of nowhere--out of an idea I had. The thing is, we're tremendously aggressive; we say, "This is what I want, why can't that be me?" I just knew I had to be an actress. I had some vision--this was when I was seven or eight--of myself at 40, a housewife with curlers in her hair, watching TV and crying because I had never followed my dream of being an actress. I always remember having that vision.

Q: How would you have handled success if it had happened when you were first starting out?

A: I don't think I would have been able to deal with it. I've been in the business a long time, and I see a career as a bicycle: sometimes you can coast, but hardly ever. Most of the time you have to pedal, and sometimes you have to stand up and pedal. People can get a really unrealistic picture of where their career is at because nobody will be honest with them. That's where you see people screaming, "Don't you know who I am?" Well, if you have to say that, obviously they don't. Also, too, since I became a celebrity--[laughing] that can be the title of this article. "Since I Became a Celebrity"--one does get so much free stuff that at, say, the door of a club, the thought can cross your mind. "I have to pay?" You must catch yourself and say, "Oh my God, Jennifer, get a grip!"

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