Denise Richards claims she was brought up to be a nice girl, but on the evidence of Starship Troopers, Wild Things and this summer's Drop Dead Gorgeous, most of her fans remain blissfully ignorant of the possibility. Now that she's in front of cameras as the new Bond beauty, maybe it's time to set the record straight.
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Denise Richards may not yet have achieved the level of fame that makes for instant recognizability in households across the country. But to a growing corps of true believers, the mere mention of her name elicits passionate attention. Otherwise rational, sensible males go monosyllabic at the sight of her tawny skin, her lustrous hair, her pouty lips and her impossibly stacked physique. As for women, there are those who seem to grow claws and fangs at the sight of her, but lots of others applaud her implicit parody of the classic screen sex doll and would emulate her steamy moves if they thought they could get away with it.
What's got so many so hot and bothered about Denise Richards? No one who's actually seen her on-screen could possibly think the question needs asking. Hollywood at large picked up on her when she appeared as the Barbarella-worthy intergalactic pilot in director Paul Verhoeven's 1997 film Starship Troopers. But it was really her follow-up film, Wild Things, that supremely un-guilty pleasure of pleasures, that put her over with the people who matter. A wickedly entertaining sex thriller, Wild Things featured Richards as a double-dealing high school Lolita who did double-love with Neve Campbell and Matt Dillon. A number of beauties in the movie business might have cut an impressive figure in a self-aware cheeseball offering like Wild Things, but Richards was so convincing, and so extreme in her presence in the film, you suspected she'd had a she-wolf for a mama.
Radiating rich-bitch, all-that-and-a-bag-of-chips insolence and a take-on-all-comers sensuality, she earned instant icon status with every Joe Sixpack and with a good number of less predictable types, too--like thinking men, including a number of movie critics, who were gratefully relieved of the burden of any coherent thought when Richards was on-screen.
Wild Things was moderately successful in theaters, but as a renter it was killer, and it turned Richards into one of the Internet's most downloaded knockouts. Those of us who can't get enough of her in movies will be heartened to know that she's starring this month as a small-town barracuda in the black comedy Drop Dead Gorgeous. Later this year, she'll fulfill a destiny most of her fan base would have voted her into if they'd been asked to render an opinion--she'll be the newest Bond girl, Christmas Jones, in The World Is Not Enough.
When Richards walks in to meet me for breakfast at one of Santa Monica's posh beachfront hotels, she's so fresh-faced, ripe and elegantly groomed that a couple of waiters practically slam into each other trying not to stare at her. What's more, the closer she gets the clearer it becomes that she's every bit as spectacular-looking in real life as she is onscreen--and that none of this lush beauty is artificially induced. Even though she's just off an arduous flight from London, where she's been shooting the Bond film, she greets me with a chipper, soft-spoken, wholesomely unassuming politeness that wouldn't be in the average young Hollywood actress's repertoire of behaviors on her best day.
With all this encouragement, I can't resist starting the interview with some go-for-it fun. Let's get right to that persistent rumor about Richards--that she got so far so fast by being fast and loose in Hollywood. Any truth to the notion she may have gone on a few dates to achieve her current spotlight status?
Having just downed her first sip of coffee, Richards lets out a great, quintessential guy's-girl laugh at this opening question. "I've never had anyone ask me that straight to my face," she nearly chokes. Then she lets another giggle rip through the quiet dining room and tells me, "I've dated very few people since being here. But I can see how that happens to some girls, because I was very naive when I began to get into the business. Not so naive as to think that's how you get ahead, though." I remind Richards that when a beautiful young thing seems to emerge out of the ether and goes on to play the sort of nubile babes she has, suspicious minds are bound to work overtime. "In Hollywood," she replies, "if you're brought up to be a nice person, which I definitely was, and that's what you are, people think: what does she want? I've had people say, 'You're so nice' like they were suspicious of me. It's sad and strange."
It's also inevitable. I mean, the least some people can hope for is that anyone who looks like Denise Richards will turn out to be a stark, raving bitch. "Do people think or hope that I'm a bitch?" she asks, laughing and shaking her head. "Personally, I would not want to even work with a diva, let alone be one. And, I'm really happy to say, I've never been around that kind of behavior on a movie set. I'm a nice person and., sorry, but I enjoy working with nice people, too. I'm not going to be the actress who's the last one out of her trailer. Life is too short for that. People who've seen me play 'the sexy girl' in films assume that's how I must be in real life, but if I ever got to be a diva, believe me, my family would be the first ones to slap my face."
OK, then, let's put some perspective on a little tale that Hollywood insiders have passed around about Richards and the notoriously ferocious director Paul Verhoeven. As I heard it, Richards, like no other unknown actress who'd just been cast in a big-budget sci-fi epic like Starship Troopers might have thought to do, locked horns with Verhoeven over a nude scene that audiences never ended up seeing. Was there any such difference of creative opinion?
Richards appears pleased to settle accounts on this one. "I had first met Paul for Showgirls, the part that Elizabeth Berkley finally took," she explains. "I don't think I actually could have done that movie when it came right down to it--it was about sex.. But I was thrilled when Paul remembered me, and I was so thankful when he cast me in Starship. After I was cast, though, he asked me to do nudity. He wanted to show my breasts in a scene with Casper Van Dien. I felt it wasn't necessary for my character--for that scene or for that film, for that matter."
So how loud did things get? Richards laughs, italicizing her mile-wide grin with a wink, and says, "Like, did he scream? Well, there may have been a...discussion between him and my agent. After that, I talked to Paul about a way we could shoot the scene, and we shot it. It wasn't the way he had wanted and it ended up not being in the movie at all. Everyone has their vision, right? When Starship came out the critics gave us all hell, anyhow. But...I mean, it was my first movie."
First movie? Hold on. Surely, Richards can't be intentionally omitting from her resume the little straight-to-video treasure Tammy and the T-Rex about a high school student who turns into a dinosaur. She turns crimson at the mention of the thing, lowers her face and starts explaining, "I'm not going to tell you what that movie was except to say it's something you should not watch. Let's not talk about it, OK?" I tell her I caught Tammy on cable by accident and that, if nothing else, she looked swell in it. "That's fine, we can move on," she says, cracking up. "You're completely embarrassing me, knowing about that movie. That's why I say Starship was my first movie--it's my first real movie that made it into a theater. Everybody's got to start somewhere, right? Maybe even Susan Sarandon has a movie like that in her past. I'll tell you what--if I become a Susan Sarandon, then I'll tell you about making Tammy." Deal. But then will she also discuss the 1995 film P.C.H. she made with Casper Van Dien and Elliott Gould? And the 1994 number called Lookin' Italian? And what about 1993's spoof National Lampoons Loaded Weapon I in which she's billed below William Shatner and Dr. Joyce Brothers?
Well, to be fair, let's go back to where Denise Richards first began. She started out a Midwestern suburban girl from a close, middle-class family, one of two daughters of a dad who worked for the phone company and a housewife mom. It was only when her father got transferred from Illinois to San Diego that she became, by 17, a cheerleader, a surfer's girlfriend and a teen-magazine and catalog model. On graduating, though, Richards hit the acting-class/auditioning circuit with a vengeance, for which she was rewarded with occasional decorative gigs on Doogie Howser, M.D. and Seinfeld. In 1993, she joined Ben Affleck in the cast of NBC's short-lived series Against the Grain.
After that stint the aforementioned embarrassments came along, together with a recurring role as Loni Anderson's daughter on Melrose Place. Starship Troopers, cartoon that it may have been, was the serious turning point for Richards. It got her noticed and it got her Wild Things. "I thought carefully about doing Wild Things," Richards says. "It was risky, especially at that point when I didn't have an established career in movies. It's very easy to get typecast in this town. But I thought it would be great to work with John [McNaughton], Neve [Campbell], Kevin [Bacon], Matt [Dillon] and Bill Murray. And I loved the character."
The frenzy Wild Things was destined to generate started right away. "The press junket was unbelievable," says Richards. "People had the flat-out audacity to ask me if I was bisexual, and if Neve and I had a thing going on. I can understand that, because I'm 'the new girl,' they think I must be just like my character, but get over it. I'm very comfortable with my sexuality and if a role calls for me to be with another woman, it's not a bad thing. I was more comfortable with Neve because she's a woman. With a guy, I don't exactly want to say, like I did to Neve, 'Can you protect me here? Would you mind putting your hand here or there to cover this or that flaw?'" At this Richards lets fly that great laugh and gives me one of her winking smiles as she blows back an errant strand of hair.
After Wild Things, Hollywood offered Richards just about every teen-slasher-on-the-loose flick, every She's All That-style romantic comedy, plus a part in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (or so it was rumored) and the lead in Tomb Raider. "And lots of scripts with eight-page lesbian scenes," Richards adds. "But I didn't want to do another movie like Wild Things. And I'm not a teenager. Plus, I need to be around seasoned actors, to be allowed to do great projects with great directors where I'm passionate about the character--to do, like, say, a real comedy, a beautiful period piece, something dark and gritty. I need to learn. That's why I went a whole year without work after Wild Things."
A year can be a momentum-draining lifetime in a young career, though, can't it? "I worried that I was never going to work again," she agrees. "But I didn't want to do just anything for the money. A lot of times with projects I loved, they already had offers out to Gwyneth Paltrow, Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet. I'd just go in trying to do my best. Luckily my agents and managers are truly interested in building my career. They kept saying, 'You will work again.'" The movie that brought Richards out of her self-imposed hiatus was Drop Dead Gorgeous, a darkly comic, often knee-slappingly funny mockumentary about nasty, behind-the-scenes in-fighting among a bunch of all-American crazies in a small-town Minnesota beauty pageant.
"I play a 17-year-old, and it's probably the last time I'll ever play a teenager again," declares Richards. "I'm clearly not close to 16, which my costar Kirsten Dunst actually is." So, exactly what is Richards's age? She laughs the question off with a wink and says, "Oh, twentysomething." (Some sources list her age as, oh, 28-ish.)
Richards's next film, The World Is Not Enough, in which she plays one of Pierce Brosnan's distractions (the other is Sophie Marceau), offers her the chance for global recognition, and for dangerous pigeonholing. The minute she was cast as the new Bond girl, her name and face became known to millions of Bond fans and linked inextricably for the time being to images of things shaken not stirred.
"I play a nuclear weapons expert," Richards explains, adding somewhat unnecessarily, "not the lab-coat-and-glasses-wearing kind." Is she the good Bond girl or the bad Bond girl? "I'm tough, strong and sassy. It's Sophie's character's agenda to make things terrible for Bond, and it's my character's agenda to make things good. Pierce and I have a lot of chemistry together." Will the movie ignore the age gap between Richards and Brosnan (he's 46) and feature a love scene? "He's not much older than I am," she insists, "but who'd notice anyway, because he's so sexy and fun? I can't really say, but maybe we have a little love scene. It is a Bond movie, you know."
Richards seems not at all nervous about being seen as just another Bond girl, the kind who, like Honor Blackman and Ursula Andress--said to play cameos in the new movie--tend to drop off the radar screen once they've kiss-kissed-bang-banged. "It's a great thing for me to work with the director Michael Apted, who's done wonderful things like Coal Miner's Daughter and the documentary 7 Up. He's an-actor's director and he's interested in the characters, so it's not just about the action. Hey, if I never work again because I'm a 'Bond girl,' then I was never going to work again, anyway. It's up to my agent and manager to provide me with the opportunities. My job is to work my ass off."
How does Richards cope with the anxious ups and downs of each move in a career that's finally got momentum? "It helps that my dad and mom are incredibly supportive, as they've always been. We're so close. They're very young--my dad just turned 50 this year and my mom's four years younger. They keep me very grounded. And, as always, my sister and Patrick are my best friends."
Patrick is Patrick Muldoon, former Melrose Place resident and Richards's Starship Troopers costar. "People say all the time, 'Never date an actor,'" she tells me. "I say, 'That depends on the actor.' I've dated other people since being in L.A., but Patrick is my first serious adult relationship. We were great friends for many years and I'd always been attracted to him, but the timing wasn't right. Then we really got to know each other on Starship. He has an incredible, sarcastic sense of humor, which is the most appealing part of a man, and a really sweet, lovable, endearing nature. And he's intense and passionate, besides being a goofball, which I love."
With a couple that looks like these two, I have to ask, who beats whom to the mirror? Richards cracks up at the question. "We don't race each other to the mirror. Although... oh, he's going to kill me for saying this, but he owns hair spray and I don't. Of course, he does have that phenomenal Irish hair." When I ask what she finds sexiest about Muldoon, she doesn't miss a beat: "I think it's really sexy watching a man shave. If I'm in the makeup trailer getting my face done, I love it when guys come in and shave. I've even shaved Patrick's face. As far as what's sexy physically, do you know what I love? There's something so sexy in the part just below the jeans, a little below the abs, just between the hips. Oh, that is soooo sexy."
For the past several months, Richards and Muldoon have enjoyed precious little time together because she's been on location shooting the Bond flick. "It really tests your sense of security being away for a long time like this," she says. "Patrick's been to visit and I come back to L.A. when I can. When we're apart we talk on the phone two, three times a day. When we met, he was doing much better than I was in his career. We both know that careers, like life, seesaw forever. Right now, I'm working a little bit more than he is, but he's making choices about what to do next and he's very supportive of me."
With all the work Richards has been doing, and all that quality time she's been trying to fit in with Muldoon, has she been able to rub shoulders with famous people at swanky Hollywood shindigs? "I met Tom Cruise at a party a while ago and completely lost it. There I was with one of my girlfriends and he smiled and introduced himself so sweetly. I told him who I was, then made a complete ass out of myself because I could not stop staring and smiling. He has the most beautiful smile. I made it so obvious I was starstruck."
And has Richards had time to enjoy her new paychecks with any big-time splurging? "I'm saving to buy a house," she reports. "I haven't bought anything extravagant. I didn't grow up with a lot of money, so I appreciate every penny I have. It's a big adjustment for me having someone pick me up in a car, someone else meet me at the airport and check me in. It's fun and silly and great, but only because I can share it with people I love. During my first week in London I called my mom and said, 'I'm lonely,' and I bought her a first-class ticket to see me. That's the stuff that makes it fun for me." Every once in awhile, though, doesn't she lavish a little largesse on herself? "I'm a clothes kind of girl," she declares, "and a serious shopper. The last time I was home from England, Patrick and I were at Fred Segal and I couldn't decide between two pairs of shoes. Patrick, who had no idea how much the shoes cost, said, 'Why don't you buy both?' So, when I went up to the counter and the guy said, 'That'll be $700,' he looked like he was going to fall over."
There's a good chance Richards will soon be able to buy those shoes in every color. She's currently deciding whether or not to do a big-budget extravaganza, but in any case, she's certain that in the next couple of years she'll be working with the kind of higher-profile directors she aspires to--Jane Campion, Ang Lee and Cameron Crowe. As far as actors she'd like to share the screen with, her wish list includes Angelina Jolie and Kate Winslet. "I'm just plugging along, hoping to learn and establish myself," she says. "Hoping that each movie helps me. There is no Plan B. I would rather be a great actress than a movie star. If it meant I worked a lot less, that would be fine because then I could have the ideal: my career, children and a great personal and family life."
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Stephen Rebello interviewed Adam Herz for the June 99 issue of Movieline.