Sherilyn Fenn: Fenn and Now

Q: Were most people at that time hung up on your Twin Peaks sexpot image?

A: Yeah.

Q: What's it like to be part of a pop-culture phenomenon?

A: The funny thing is that when I saw the pilot, I thought, "This is never going to fly. I don't even know what's going on half the time." The first time I realized it was a big deal was when I was in New York City and people shouted to me from across the street, "Audrey!"

Q: Why weren't you in the movie Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me!

A: I was doing Of Mice and Men. David Lynch was a little bit mad at me, and he said, "Sherilyn, I can't replace you. Everyone will kill me if I put someone else in that role." I'm like, "Good."

Q: David Duchovny had a small part on Twin Peaks in which he dressed in drag. Do you remember him from that?

A: Yeah, but I'd already met him in yoga class. I think other people made prettier women than David, but he was cute with his shaved chest and big hair. He's pretty sweet.

Q: Did you know the scene where you tie the cherry stem in a knot with your tongue was going to become so popular?

A: No. At the time, I said, "This is so stupid, you guys, why am I doing this?" They said, "Oh, they do it in college."

Q: You worked with Lynch again when you played a woman who'd just been in a car crash in Wild at Heart, right?

A: Yeah. I was shaky the whole time. How do you play someone who's mortally wounded and is living the last three minutes of their life? They just kept pouring more blood on me, and David Lynch is so abstract he kept saying, "Sherilyn, if you can't think of a line just say, 'Bobby pin!' 'Hairbrush!'" I'm like, "What does that mean?"

Q: You played Elizabeth Taylor in a TV miniseries. Did you ever hear from her?

A: No, but my dermatologist, who's a friend of hers, said, "You did a really good job, but she'd kill me if she knew I told you that."

Q: So you think she watched it?

A: Of course she watched it. Wouldn't you?

Q: I understand there were things you fought for in the script out of respect for Elizabeth.

A: They were trying to do, like, five scenes with her being overweight and I said, "You get one." That's probably the hardest job I've ever done. I played her from 16 to 65. We worked six-day weeks, sixteen-hour days. They'd fax you 10 new pages every night. Production shut down two or three times because I was sick. I would stare into the lens and not know who I was. It was outrageous. I was always trying to be the woman, not the legend. As hard as it was, I was very proud of the outcome.

Q: Before that, you starred with Kelly Lynch in Three of Hearts. My memory from that film is the big hair you wore during one of your scenes with William Baldwin.

A: [Laughs] It was all mine. It was so big they added a scene where Billy said something about it, like, "Whaddaya got up there?"

Q: I interviewed the director of the film, and he seemed miffed that you wouldn't do nudity. A: I read that interview and it upset me because he said horrible things about me. He wanted me to take my clothes off, but I didn't trust him. He thrived on negative energy and he was always messing with me.

Q: You played a stripper in Ruby. Were you self-conscious about your body?

A: I was scared. But I wasn't stripping down to tassels and a G-string.

Q: And you weren't licking a pole like Elizabeth Berkley did in Showgirls.

A: [Laughs] No. All I could think of while I was watching that was, "Is somebody cleaning that pole?"

Q: Early in your career you worked with Sharon Stone on Diary of a Hitman. What do you remember about her?

A: Sharon was busy being Sharon. That's what I remember.

Q: What movie of yours do you think is the most underrated?

A: Boxing Helena was something that I think was pretty cool, but people judged it without ever having seen it. It's not perfect, but I think for the story that we were trying to tell, it turned out pretty good. What it signified was really powerful to me: how society puts us in boxes one way or another.

Q: Logistically, what was it like being the box? Were you contorted like a magician's assistant?

A: Exactly. David Copperfield's illusion-maker designed the box. You sit like this in the box [gets down on the floor and reclines on her knees]. Then your stumps go here. [Director] Jennifer [Chambers Lynch] would always be adjusting my stumps.

Q: Were you in there for a long time?

A: Yeah. People would bring fans for me, bring me something to drink. Jennifer and I, because it was so intense, we would lean and touch our heads and we'd talk with our heads together. I love Jennifer. She's one of the brightest women I know.

Pages: 1 2 3