Melissa Joan Hart: Witchy Woman

Melissa Joan Hart has built up a massive young following as the immensely likable girl next door she plays on Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. But now as she hits the big screen in Next to You, Hart is letting it be known that she, like Sabrina, is not exactly what she seems.

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Melissa Joan Hart is one very big star. Even if you've never heard of her. She'd be the first to admit the possibility that you might not have become acquainted with her screen alter ego, the charming, vanilla-sexy, teen-angst-riddled heroine of ABC's Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. After all, the witty, smartly packaged series, which has been renewed for a fourth season, has held a target demographic of preteen and teenage girls. And yet chances are you know exactly who Hart is, since her appeal spreads well beyond that of other three-named TV girls. Her deft comic timing and all-American accessibility on Sabrina have managed to pull in twentysomethings, parents and guys of all ages. It's like some brilliant genetic engineer spliced the genes of adorable Sandra Dee with no-guff, early Jodie Foster, and the result is a character that constitutes a beloved "guilty pleasure" for a vast population of non-teens. Sabrina is a parentless witch whose only guidance comes from two nutty, throw-caution-to-the-wind aunts and a sardonic talking cat. You're right if you think the setup sounds like a formula for camp, but Hart supplies the heart that keeps the show from serious silliness.

Though most TV stars as successful as Melissa Joan Hart have long since made the leap to the big screen, Hart is only now attempting the feat in the romantic comedy Next to You. The delay is understandable. The network, having captured lightning in a bottle, has paid Hart by the truck-load to star in highly watched Sabrina TV movies (last year, it was Sabrina Goes to Rome, this year, it'll be Sabrina Down Under) as well as in non- Sabrina TV movies like Twisted Desire, Two Came Back and Silencing Mary. What's more, her popularity has spun its own profitable web of Melissa Joan Hart-related tie-in books, games, an upcoming animated Sabrina TV series and a Sabrina soundtrack on which she gamely covers Blondie's "One Way or Another." Even a feature Sabrina movie is brewing. In fact, Hart has marshaled so much cumulative clout as a young witch that she, with her mother, Paula, who executive produces the show, now run Hartbreak Films, a company with over 40 TV and film projects on the fire.

What's behind this girl-with-cat phenomenon? Many lives. At 23, Hart is the product of nearly 20 years of showbiz experience. Born to a housewife mom and lobster-wholesaler father and raised in Sayville, Long Island, she announced at age four that she wanted to be on TV. Her parents took her so seriously they escorted her to Manhattan auditions for TV commercials, which led to scads of TV ads on which Hart extolled the wonders of products like Rice Krispies and Splashy bathtub toys. The next step was Broadway, where child Melissa starred in The Crucible _ opposite Martin Sheen, and the prestigious Circle Repertory Lab Company's production of Beside Herself opposite William Hurt. Then, at age 13, Hart was cast in the title role of Nickelodeon's hit series _Clarissa Explains It All, which kept her busy for four years, during which she relocated to Florida sans family. Her massive fan base from playing the do-gooding, problem-solving Clarissa made her the obvious choice to play the do-gooding, problem-solving Sabrina for ABC, for which she moved to L.A. with her family.

When Hart arrives to meet me in a crowded Studio City deli, her presence sparks an appreciative, friendly stir of recognition and murmuring among fellow diners. As we park ourselves and order massive lunches, I note right away that she's a revved-up, mile-a-minute talker and an infectious giggler who hardly has to work at being likable and wouldn't anyway. When she jingles her charm bracelet, which is inscribed with the names of her best girlfriends, or gleefully reveals her silly nicknames ("Smelly Melly" and "Smell-A-Licious") or lists Britney Spears as a "guilty pleasure," you could mistake her for a carefree, everyday twentysomething--except you already know that underneath that playfulness is a sharp, seasoned professional with her eye fixed firmly on the prize. You could also mistake her for a guileless innocent. Whatever you imagine, she's not the girl you think she is. And she's certainly not Sabrina.

I start out by asking Hart why, except for a bit part in the Jennifer Love Hewitt-vehicle Can't Hardly Wait, she's confined herself to the small screen. She shoots me an "Are you kidding?" look and says, "Well, you make three times as much money doing TV movies as you do in features. A lot of offers get thrown at you when you're in a hit TV series--I had a taste of that when I was younger and doing 'Clarissa Explains It All.' I didn't dive into movies then and I don't want to now, either. If there was a movie script out there I really believed in, that I was available to do and that the producers wanted me for, I'd be doing it. But I'm doing Sabrina Down Under now instead, because I get to go to Australia for a couple of weeks with my very best friends who work on the show, and because the script has mermaids in it--which I love--and because I get a feature film deal with Disney for doing it, and because it allows me to buy myself another piece of art."

Another piece of art? "You see," Hart tells me, full of surprises, "my life goals have been to travel and to learn as much as I can. Two summers ago, I took off with some of my girlfriends to Florence. No work at all, just totally submerging myself in the culture--besides learning to say 'Basta!' ('Enough!') to guys there who are very touchy-feely. Florence is all about art. And when I went to three or four exhibits in Venice, I fell in love with Picasso, and now I have four Picassos. Now that I'm going to Australia to do this movie, I'm going to buy myself another great piece. If a van Gogh or a Chagall were available for sale, I'd be really excited."

Do a movie, buy a masterpiece. Sounds like a smart way to handle rising career fortunes. But since the attempt to move from TV to movies is inevitable, what's her strategy? "It's all about taking small steps, not running," says Hart. And yet her first small step isn't really that small. Hart has to carry Next to You, a high school comedy about former best friends who've grown apart. She's the friend who's become one of the popular kids, and newcomer Adrian Grenier plays the boy who's turned into a rebellious misfit, but somehow they manage to hook up again. In the twinkly tradition of screen ingenues warming up for something meatier, Hart play-acts being in love and gets to do a drunk scene. "It's a great first movie for me because it's the kind of movie people expect me to make," She comments. "Plus, I'm really proud of it."

Then she scrunches her face and admits, "I've already been trying to deal with what's going to happen if I get bad reviews. On an acting scale of one to ten, I'd say I'm like a four or five. I was really disappointed with my acting during the first 20 minutes of the film. But I was happier with my work in the later, bigger scenes, like when I play drunk, which lasted about an eighth of the movie. One of my guilty pleasures is gin and tonics--I love them! But, on the movie, it was just me and my acting teacher getting me through it. The big compliment was that everyone on the movie kept saying, 'Are you really drunk?'" Hart sounds especially enthusiastic when discussing some of her young male costars, whom she ticks off her fingers. "Adrian [Grenier] is very good-looking and touching in it." Besides Grenier, there's Chris Park, "a great talent and a wonderful person," not to ignore Mark Webber, who's "adorable, talented and a star boy in the making. He's the next Leonardo DiCaprio."

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