Teri Hatcher: The Hunger

"In terms of relationships and almost everything else," she says, "I call this the 'Microwave Society.' Everything has to be fixed in a minute. It leads us all to feeling like the second anything gets a little bit uncomfortable, move on. [Personally] I have not found this business to be full of temptation, even though I work with attractive people. You're put into situations where you get close to people very quickly, and if things are at all rocky in your normal life, you can get confused in fantasies of how things could be with this or that person. [But] I am very clear about the line between fantasy and reality."

Despite her claims not to be part of the microwave set, there is the thorny issue of Hatcher's earlier failed marriage, which only recently came to light. "It's so funny that people seem to think I kept that a secret," she says. "If anyone had ever asked when I was marrying Jon, 'Is this your first marriage?' I would have said no. Nobody did, and, besides, it's a personal thing. I was 21 years old."

"I could sit here and take the blame, but [my first husband] wouldn't let me do that. I was immature. I didn't have the tools to communicate in a way that makes a marriage work, nor did he. I didn't talk about it because I thought, why should his privacy be invaded because he was married to me for five minutes'? Almost every video and paper tabloid has turned up calling my ex-husband and his new wife, following him to work: it's horrendous. I was hurt that he gave some interviews, but what I realized was the press kept following him and engaged him by saying, 'She's a total bitch, isn't she?'--which made him feel like he had to defend me."

Does she suspect, deep down, that somewhere in her is some-thing that sets off the press, fuels the rumors? "Of course, I've thought that," she replies. "The first place I go when these things happen or are said about me is, 'What did I do? How did I cause this?' I'm trying to erase that from my personality because it's just garbage. I also say, 'Why would I care, even if it were true?' I'm certainly not the only person this happens to, so I try and take a big, deep breath and go. 'Wow, it really sucks that they said that.' But then, when I wake up the next day, it's another day and I'm further along on my journey. Actually, the tabloid stuff has motivated a lot of good growth, because I've learned I don't like it when people don't like me. I have a really hard time when bad things are said about me. I care what people think. I know I'm a good person. I have a great need to change their minds, even when I know that the whole point of tabloids is not truth. But all of it has made me stronger in terms of knowing myself. In the end, yourself is all you really have--that and great friends and a great family who have really stuck by me."

Hatcher also has in her corner legions of faithful fans who've made her the most downloaded image on the Internet. I ask how it feels to have so many web users finding her sexy. "I don't know how people on the Internet are perceiving me as 'sexy,' or whatever," she observes. "What they're judging me on is not me. Now, say you were someone with whom I was out on a date and you were thinking, 'She's really sexy.' That would make me feel good because you're experiencing me eating, drinking, talking, listening, finding what I say passionate, and noticing that I'm swearing or not swearing--all those things that make me me. So, if you thought I was sexy, it would be like. 'OK, you get me."'

If she doesn't get her cyberspace popularity, then surely she does notice the impact she has on people she meets, yes? She breaks up laughing, covering her face, saying, "Oh. God, why do I tell these stories? They always end up in print. Well, anyway, on my way here I went to get waxed, a wonderful thing us females have to do." Suddenly, she turns on the breathy, sloe-eyed Teri, whispering, "So. I'm lying there in my bra and my little lacy black underwear and this Russian woman who works there says, 'You have a very good body. How old are you? Do you exercise? Are you a model? You look very good." I'm like, 'Oh, I'm 31 and no, I'm not a model, but I do work out.' It was a real neat moment because I was thinking, 'Wow, I just got off an airplane, I only got four hours' sleep and I'm lying here getting waxed and I feel sexeee! Wow, I'm happ'nin'!' It's in those weird, offbeat situations where I feel sexy, not when I get dressed up for the Emmys or a photo shoot; there, I'm just self-critical, you know?"

I ask Hatcher whether she'd watch "Lois & Clark" if she didn't star in it. She hasn't a ready answer.

"I don't watch television," she says, falling silent. After a few moments, she finally remarks, "I have so much baggage about what it takes to make the show, about what it's taken from my life, that it would be skewed for me to say I wouldn't watch it if I weren't on it. Would I watch the show? Dean's really cute, so I guess, if I had nothing--if I was just Hipping through the channels, I'd probably be like every other woman in America and go, 'Wooo, he's cute.'"

On to the topic, then, of Cain's lights: padded or all Dean all the time? Hatcher leans in, smiling like a minx: "Haven't you heard those rumors? From what I've heard, there's no padding involved." And how does Cain rate on Hatcher's kiss-o-meter? "I haven't kissed anybody but my husband for four years," she frets, before giving it up. "Well, except Dean, who is a great, great kisser."

Does Hatcher think that perhaps people's perceptions of her, based on her Lois celebrity, stand in the way of her getting killer movie roles? "Perceptions are made to be broken," she asserts. "Take Elisabeth Shue. We did Soapdish together. You can't tell me that all of the time Elisabeth spent between Adventures in Babysitting and Leaving Las Vegas wasn't excruciating for her. You can't tell me that a billion times she didn't think, 'I hate this business. I'm not getting the parts. I'm going home,' because I know for a fact she did. She knew the power of what she had inside her, but there was no opportunity, no outlet. There are days when I'm frustrated, but I say to myself, 'It's not time yet.' Elisabeth is now getting offers to do pretty much any movie she wants to. That's an inspiration to me that tells me: just stick it out."

Still, Hatcher insists it won't ruin her world if a Leaving Las Vegas never comes her way. "Even if a movie becomes a very big deal and makes a ton of money, it's only in theaters for two or three months," she reasons. "Television is in your face every week, so I think TV people are probably bigger than movie stars. There are probably far more people who want to know what I'm up to than what Meryl Streep's doing."

"All I know," she continues, "is that I'm on that show every week and I'm, like, a big deal on the Internet. What more could I want? Well, I did write my first script this year. It was only for 'Lois & Clark,' but still. And I'm going to direct a 20-minute short. See. I have a goal, not a 'soon' goal or a 'near' goal, but still a goal that I haven't really admitted aloud. I want to produce, direct, write and star in a romantic comedy. Whew! There. I've said it. I'm a firm believer in putting your money where your mouth is."

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Stephen Rebello interviewed Andie MacDowell for the July issue of Movieline.

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