Madeline Stowe: Stowe-ing Away

"A sense of humor is obviously a turn-on," I say. "How else could you explain Soon-Yi being with Woody?"

"Don't get me started ...," says Stowe with a chuckle. "Brad Pitt and Geena Davis in Thelma & Louise were sexy. Susan Sarandon and Michael Madsen were sexy together in that movie, too, and they only had two scenes. I loved True Romance, it's one of my favorite films in I don't know how long. I've seen it about 20 times. Patricia Arquette, to me, is one of the sexiest women on film."

"She has a real woman's body," I agree, "but it's not a movie body."

"It's not a movie body for now. She's exactly the way they used to want actresses to be in the '30s and '40s. I just love her. It's like you look at her and you just want to touch her. Can I tell you what Michael Mann said about her? He said, 'Love her body, love her teeth.'

"You know," continues Stowe as the Pacific Ocean blurs by on my right, "Tony Scott [the director of True Romance] has never been given the credit he's due. I loved working with him [on Revenge], even though I was so disappointed with the end product. I didn't blame Tony for that. The Scott brothers [Ridley and Tony] get it about sex, though."

"Wait--didn't Ridley make G.I.Jane?"

"Yeah, 'Suck my dick!' What the hell was that about? Why didn't she yell, 'Eat my pussy!'? That would have stopped them in their tracks."

I am embarrassed to admit it, but Stowe and I drive along yelling, "Eat my pussy," at the top of our lungs for a full 10 minutes. We are in spasms of hysteria before we realize that other drivers are staring at us. Finally, we pull ourselves together.

"Days of Heaven is, to me, one of the ultimates," says Stowe. "Richard Gere was good with Brooke Adams, but she and Sam Shepard ... the way he just wanted her so badly and wanted to make that work. I love that film."

"I wonder what ever happened to Brooke Adams. She was so good."

"I think she just didn't care enough, didn't want it badly enough," says Stowe.

"Like you?" I ask.

"Me?" Stowe says with real surprise. "I'm ambitious, I care about my career...."

"Madeleine," I say, "if you really cared, you wouldn't take two years off between films. You'd be out here going to premieres, being in the public eye...."

"You know," she says, as if this never occurred to her, "Brian and I almost never go out, almost never go to Hollywood parties. But when we do, I'm always surprised by what a great reaction I get from other actors and from the fans. It actually leaves me a little dizzy."

"As if you could tell the difference," I say. When she realizes what I mean, she punches my shoulder and laughs.

"You know, it's really weird about sex in the movies. The old films, where they did nothing more than kiss each other, were a lot sexier than the new films."

"That's because all we ever see is the woman's body," I say.

"How about The Grifters?" says Stowe. "I loved that."

"Hey, how could we not love a movie where a guy kisses his mother? John Cusack is sexy in just about everything."

"I really liked Grosse Pointe Blank," Stowe says. "And I realized a strange thing. There's that scene where he's in a hotel room and he's about to shoot someone and he's talking on the phone and assembling the rifle. And that really turned me on, seeing a guy doing his work and doing it really well. So what that he was a killer? Now we know--John Cusack has to make a movie with Patricia Arquette. They'd be fabulous together."

Stowe takes a deep breath; she's gone about a hundred miles in the last hour or so. "Can I tell you something personal?" she asks.

"Madeleine," I say, "you can tell me anything. In fact, I think it's your karma to tell me everything."

She laughs. "When I think of actors being sexy on-screen, I realize that personally, I find that a lot of the directors I worked with are far sexier than the actors I've worked with, because they're really good at what they do. I'm just so blown away at that level of competence, it's a total turn-on to me. Watching a guy do something he's really good at is sexy. And that's why so much sex doesn't work on the screen--because a lot of these guys have no idea what they're doing! Just don't tell anyone that I said that."

Her secret is perfectly safe with me.

By this time we are back in Santa Monica, blazing into Stowe's driveway and jolting to a halt. As Stowe gets out of the car, I notice how tiny she is and I can't believe she had a baby anytime in the last decade. Not only that, I personally watched her eat a huge lunch that ended with a gigantic piece of chocolate cake.

"Madeleine," I ask, "do you ever diet or work out or watch your weight?" She laughs her laugh and says she doesn't do any of that.

"You just eat whatever you want?"

Stowe tells me that's exactly what she does, and proceeds to explain that she buys her jeans three sizes too big so she doesn't have to unsnap them after she eats. "I know you think I'm crazy," she adds when she sees my expression.

But I don't think Madeleine Stowe is crazy. She's just not at all like any other actress I've ever interviewed.

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Martha Frankel interviewed Matt Damon for the Dec/Jan 98 issue of Movieline.

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