Melissa Joan Hart: Witchy Woman

Unlike Frances Farmer's mother, Hart's is a well-liked, relatively low-key presence around Hollywood. "We couldn't be closer now," Hart says, "though there were four crucial years when mom and I weren't really very close. When I was 14 and in Florida doing Clarissa Explains It All, she was going through a divorce with my father after 25 years of marriage. My brother and one of my sisters were in New York with my dad, and my mother was with my other sister, who was doing Meet Me in St. Louis on a cruise ship. Mom moved us to a little townhouse in Manhattan, a city I hated at the time, and I blamed her. She'd go out dancing every night and I had to take care of the kids. There were some tough things I had to deal with, with my mother going through an early midlife crisis. I resented her for the responsibility I had to take. Still, I trusted her and loved her unconditionally." Hart says she's also remained close to her father, who, like her mother, has subsequently remarried.

So if Hart gets along fine with her mom, what about Frances Farmer does she relate to? "You know the moment when the hair-and-makeup woman is brushing Frances's hair and Frances just turns around and belts her?" she asks, with a crooked grin. "Do you want to know how many times I've felt like that? Not to my hairdresser, whom I adore and who will be godmother to my firstborn, but to other people on sets. Most of the time when you're making movies and doing TV, you just feel used." Hart flashes a devilish smile and continues, "I love the part in the film when Frances goes back to her home town and says to a woman who presents her with an award, 'Aren't you the same woman who told me I was going straight to hell?' One time when I went back home I went out to a bar with my dad and I saw some people who'd never been nice to me, and now were acting that way. After a drink or two, when I had a little more courage, I went over and said, 'Don't you remember saying this and that to me? And now you're pretending you're my best friend?' It was a little Frances moment."

Speaking of Frances moments, Hart's longtime friend Calista Flockhart, whom she met a decade ago when they acted together at the Circle Repertory Lab Company, appears to be living out a few of her own. "She's getting torn apart for her body," Hart comments. "I can show you pictures of her when she was my age and she was skinny-skinny then. The best thing I can think of, saying it in a nice way, is that she's neurotic. Her mind works really fast. I really value her friendship--she was like a sister to me--especially because it's harder to make friends with girls than with guys. Girls can be so catty and back-stabbing."

What about guys, then? "Well, a couple of months ago, I broke up with the guy I was living with and going with for almost six years," Hart says, alluding to her relationship with James Fields, a guy two years her senior who was a University of Utah business major when she met him, but moved to L.A. to be with her. She describes Fields as "my best friend and the first boyfriend I ever had who wasn't tall and Italian like John Travolta in Grease," but tales of their rockier times together widened their rift. "Part of the problem was that I'm a pretty open person," says Hart. "There are no big secrets in my family. There are things that happened between me and James that I could have kept private, I guess. But, like, if I have good sex, then the next day I'm going to tell everyone I know about it. Everyone. When I told people about the fights, the hang ups on the phone, the sex, it wasn't to hurt him, it's just how I deal with things. I say things out loud, hear them back and if someone gives me valid advice, well, that's my therapy."

Did the imbalance between their fame and financial status help topple things? "It didn't seem to bother him so much in the beginning, when he was just so proud of me," she recalls. "If anyone wanted to take pictures of me, he'd always step aside, but I'd drag him in, saying, 'I want pictures of us both!' Then, all of a sudden, he wanted to be an actor. Last year, we did the Sabrina movie together in Rome and that was a hard trip, for a lot of reasons. It seemed then it was kind of hard for him that the girl was bringing in the paycheck. It's terrible to say, but I think that might have gotten in the way. We tried to stay apart for awhile, but then we'd constantly call each other with, 'I miss you. Let's see what happens.' Until very recently, it was a 'We'll-get-back-together thing,' but now it's 'That's it, it's over.' I don't want to feel I have to bring him with me to Australia while I shoot the new Sabrina TV movie. I want to be me for awhile, not me and someone. I'm meeting a lot of people and dating. I'm really happy. And I'm having fun."

The way she says "fun" makes me think perhaps she's having fun with someone else. She laughs coyly and says, "I've got a crush. A definite, major crush." On whom? "He's a race-car driver, 21," she says and, though she won't confirm it, one hears he's not only a star in the pro-racing circuit, but also the very good-looking son of a celebrity participant in this past April's Pro/Celebrity Race at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. When I try to tease out a few more pertinent details, she turns crimson. "It's really exciting to find someone who's got something else going on for him, who has a life, and who makes a good living doing something he loves. I can go watch his races, be proud of him and what he's doing and it doesn't affect me or my business.

"I've been growing up this last year," she continues, appearing less antsy for the moment. "The show is finally on its own and doing OK. I got my production company going. Everything's falling into place. I had my wisdom teeth removed and now I notice angles in my face. I'm becoming more physically active again. I'm having fun. When I turned 23 I had a big birthday party with about 100 people all on roller skates. I wore a little tube top and hot-pants disco outfit. Very Rollergirl, you know?"

So what's her forecast for the future? "It's time for me to do more of my No-Fear things," she announces with absolute determination. "My goal is to finish two more seasons of Sabrina, some of which I'm going to direct, then go to New York and complete two years of college while doing a play at night, because stage terrifies me now. It's also time for me to do my No Fear physical stuff like race-car driving and snowboarding. This is the first year I've felt confident doing lots of things. I guess I've finally become an adult."

____________________________________

Stephen Rebello interviewed Demise Richards for the July 99 issue of Movieline.

Pages: 1 2 3