Once a cult goddess famed for knotting a cherry stem with her tongue in TV's Twin Peaks, Sherilyn Fenn is gaining cult status again, this time for playing a twisted, recovering alcoholic in Rude Awakening on Showtime.
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Fifty years ago Sherilyn Fenn would have been snapped up by a Hollywood studio, run through their makeover department, and cast repeatedly as the coquettish naughty girl who schemes and claws her way into every man's heart. The maneater with killer eyes. The back-stabber with an icy smile. The vixen with one eyebrow always raised. But those studio days are long gone, and Fenn has had to fend for herself. So after she made her big splash as Audrey Horne, aka "sex in saddle shoes," in David Lynch's TV fever dream Twin Peaks, she started to jump around, hoping to find her groove. She'd already played a Southern belle who takes a hayride with a carny ( Two-Moon Junction ), and she went on to portray a lesbian who goes straight ( Three of Hearts ), a smalltown stripper ( Ruby ), a living legend (TV's Liz: The Elizabeth Taylor Story ), a woman whose obsessed lover dismembers her limb by limb ( Boxing Helena ), and a beauty who pushes John Malkovich over the edge ( Of Mice and Men ).
Perhaps if Fenn had been a better actress offscreen she would have been given better opportunities on-screen. "I was told by this agent, 'You don't play the game,'" recalls Fenn when I meet her for lunch at a bistro in the San Fernando Valley. "He said, 'If you're inspired by something, no one can touch you, but if you're not, it's painfully evident to all concerned.' But how do you pretend to be inspired by something you're not?" Fenn's plenty inspired by her latest project, the wildly irreverent Showtime comedy series Rude Awakening, in which she plays Billie Frank, a washed-up nighttime soap star who's joined a 12-step program to deal with her alcoholism but still manages to behave really, really badly.
DENNIS HENSLEY: What appealed to you about the part of Billie on Rude Awakening? SHERILYN FENN: She's flawed and has some very real problems. I wasn't doing the "Aren't I cute and funny?" kind of thing I find on a lot of sitcoms. Another element that drew me to the show was that this was actually somebody's life--producer/writer Claudia Lonow's--and she was on the set every day. Claudia's life was pretty ugly, but she turned it into something she was able to laugh about.
Q: Have you gotten much feedback from AA members?
A: I've gotten mixed responses. I got one letter from a man who said he didn't like the show because AA is a life-and-death situation for him. I was a little upset by that, but then I talked to Claudia and I realized that this is her truth. This is who she is. Who is anyone to say that's not OK? If you don't like it, don't watch it.
Q: You gotta love a show in which Lynn Redgrave uses the word "twat."
A: She's the best. You always have stumbling blocks on a job, but every scene I do with her works.
Q: Your character used to be a teenage star, right?
A: Yes, as was Claudia. She was Michelle Lee's daughter on Knots Landing.
Q: Oh my God, she must have good stories.
A: Claudia said that when the stars were on the set, the assistant director would say, "OK ladies, put your mirrors down."
Q: I noticed that Rude Awakening doesn't use a laugh track.
A: Yay! It's so much better without a laugh track. Laugh when you want. I did one episode of Friends and it was like mugging to me, waiting till the audience stops laughing to say your next line. I love having my own rhythm and not relying on jokes. I wanted it to be as real as possible. Otherwise, I might as well be on NBC.
Q: Did you ever get into trouble with booze?
A: My high school friends and I would ride our bikes to the park and drink beer. But there was never any real trouble.
Q: Do you think you have an addictive personality?
A: Definitely, that's why I was drawn to this role. I find that everyone around me in one way or another is addicted to something, whether it's cigarettes, sugar, alcohol, drugs, sex, love, whatever.
Q: What are you addicted to?
A: I can get addicted to wanting to be in love, and I think that probably just came from not having the most stable things happen to me when I was a kid.
Q: Has your need to be in love lessened as you've gotten older?
A: I'm not as needy anymore. I have a five-year-old son. I always split up my life into "before my son" and "after my son." Having him gave me a sense of completion as a woman. I wanted to be more true to myself, out of my love for him.
Q: Did these changes carry over into your work?
A: Yes. All of a sudden I felt I could do comedy. Because I hadn't done comedy, people in the business used to say, "She's not funny." And I wasn't secure with myself so I bought into that.
Q: Which of your movies will your son be able to see first?
A: He watches Rude Awakening and sings the title song. If bad words are used he says, "That's not a very good word to say, Mom."
Q: What role were you the most excited about when you got the news that you landed it?
A: Of Mice and Men. I was so happy when Gary Sinise called me.
Q: What do you remember from that film?
A: Well, my favorite memory was watching the Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill trials with John Malkovich at the house they rented for me. He was cooking and saying, "You know they fucked, you know they did." We had a great time. Gary Sinise was one of the first people who didn't see me like a lot of other people did.
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.
Q: I know you're not crazy about it, but I'm a fan of Two-Moon Junction.
A: I felt really exploited. I was not ready, willing or able to embrace my sexuality as much as [director] Zalman King needed me to for that movie. I thought it was a love story, because to me sex is nothing without love. To him it was a sex thing. It just wasn't very tenderly handled. I remember that after I did that, one of my agents said, "Now they can't ignore you." The flip side of that is, I also remember when a woman approached me in public once and said, "I really loved you in that movie but I didn't want to tell my friends because I thought they would think there was something wrong with me." Welcome to repressed, Sesame Street America.
Q: When it comes to your movies, how often are you satisfied with the finished project?
A: Rarely. I don't think I'm an easy audience member. I saw There's Something About Mary and I wanted to like it because it was such a huge comedy. But I didn't laugh much. I kept thinking, "Wow, I must be so out of sync with America."
Q: You recently shot a movie with Chris Penn called Cement. What's it about?
A: Dirty cops in L.A. I play a character who's selfish and sloppy with her sexual energy. I saw the film and I was really happy with it. It's got a lot of soul.
Q: How did you learn about the birds and the bees?
A: From my friends. I remember in sixth grade, sitting on the stage in the gym and my friend's showing me what a French kiss is with her fingers, and I'm like, "Nooooo!"
Q: You've played a number of characters who flirt with danger, sexually speaking. Any of that parallel your real nature?
A: I've been attracted to dangerous guys but I've never turned my life over for them. I tend to like guys who have good hearts and are a little bit goofy. I don't like macho guys. I much prefer a guy that's in touch with his feminine-side.
Q: Are you seeing anyone now?
A: Yeah, it's a really good thing and it's pretty new. He's in the business, but he's not an actor. Been there, done that. There's a fundamental problem with boys in makeup, which is what I jokingly like to call actors.
Q: Which is?
A: I think women are used to expressing their feelings and that's very normal. Men aren't. So when they get their makeup on and start doing it, there's something self-indulgent about it, like there's some kind of big sacrifice being made.
Q: Are you assertive when it comes to men or do you let them come to you?
A: I put out energy but I won't approach.
Q: You were linked with Prince for awhile, back when he was still Prince. Was it a romantic relationship or just a friendship?
A: More than anything it was a friendship, though at certain points it was romantic as well. I loved him. He's a brilliant man. My favorite thing was going to the studio when he was recording the music for Under the Cherry Moon and watching him. I haven't talked to him in a couple of years.
Q: What's been the lowest point in your life?
A: It was about a year ago. I was so disillusioned by this business, by the scripts I was reading, by my then-agent's lack of anything for me in terms of jobs and support. I was going to move to London--I got two films there--but they got pushed ahead and I realized I had better come back. I started feeling bad about my son's father. Then when I came back, I felt really different because I started working on something that was inspiring me.
Q: What are you most proud of?
A: My son, by far. I'm proud that I raised him pretty much by myself and that I can support myself.
Q: You posed for Playboy in 1990. What was that like?
A: It was fine because they gave me a lot of money, which was frankly one of the motivating factors. Also, I chose the way it was done, and I chose the prints that were used. When the magazine first got the pictures they said, "They're too artsy, we're not going to print them." I said, "Fine, then don't print them."
Q: Were there career ramifications?
A: It didn't really do much either way that I'm aware of. David Lynch was very excited to see them. He was like, "Oh my God, Sherilyn!"
Q: Who's been your most surprising fan?
A: Well, my friend said she heard Denzel Washington and his wife talking about Rude Awakening and how much they liked it. She called me right away because she knows I love Denzel. That was pretty cool.
Q: What's something you splurged on when you started making good money?
A: One time I spent $3,000 on lingerie in an hour and a half.
Q: What was the worst thing you've had to wear for a part?
A: Liz's fat thing was pretty awful. I looked in the mirror and felt bad for her. I could see how she could go to that self-hate place really quickly.
Q: Do you regret any of your career choices?
A: Nothing stands out, but that's probably because I'm of the mind that it's not healthy to regret. I try to live my life not looking into the past or into the future, but asking, "How can I be true to myself right here, right now, with you in this interview? Am I being honest or am I trying to present some bullshit image of myself?"
Q: If there was a doll of you that talked, what would it say when you pulled the string?
A: Kiss my lily-white ass.
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Dennis Hensley interviewed Rachael Leigh Cook for the April 99 issue of Movieline.