Rebecca Romjin-Stamos: Rebecca Goes X

No matter. People will be gawking, if only at her costume, which, rumor has it, may end up helping to earn the movie an R-rating, "Bryan Singer loves that," she says. "I'm not allowed to say what my Mystique costume looks like. I will tell you that it's absolutely cool and really beautiful. But Mystique is covered in blue scales and morphs into many other characters--I mean, 70 percent of my body is covered with prosthetics, so nothing's hanging out. It is very revealing, but I'm totally unrecognizable once I go through this whole process. When Bryan Singer first had me come in for X-Men, he asked about my body painting for Sports Illustrated shoots. When I told him that one of them took 14 hours, he was like, 'She's in.' I think I got hired because I could sit still for 14 hours. They said, 'Your Mystique makeup will take 8 to 10 hours in the beginning,' and I was, like, 'Oh, but they'll figure out a way to whittle it down, so that they'll be able to do it in two by the end.' I now realize it'll never take fewer than 8 to 10 hours. I had no idea what I was getting myself into."

What she has gotten herself into is a high-risk, closely watched summer block-buster-wannabe in which she shares most of her scenes with the estimable Ian McKellen. "The first day I met him, I saw him drinking Welch's Grape Soda and, I don't know why, but I just started laughing. He asked, 'What is so funny about my drinking grape soda?' and all I could say was, 'Because you're a knight, you're like the world's most phenomenal actor and....' Well, he just looked at me like, 'Your point is?' It's moments like that when I know how I'd cast myself in a movie--as a silly six-foot spaz."

Is she bummed by how filmmakers appear less inclined to cast her as a silly six-foot spaz?, than a six-foot sex object?

"There are plenty of gay filmmakers out there that aren't interested in you for your sex," she asserts. "I have no problem with being a talented moviemaker's fag hag," Straight, gay or somewhere in between, most of the moviemakers she's most interested in working with are edgy. Don't even get her going on the subject of Being John Malkovich director Spike Jonze. "My taste runs to really out-of-the-way things," she enthuses, "and I've loved Spike Jonze ever since his Fatboy Slim video, which was the greatest thing ever, I've read everything about him and he seems like a very classy man. I dig that he's very offbeat." Another challenge she's aching to tackle is a Broadway musical, the way her husband did when he unexpectedly won outstanding reviews for How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. "I'm a complete musical comedy freak," she tells me, "and I studied classical voice seriously for years and years growing up, but haven't sung since I modeled. Seeing how great John was onstage really inspired me to work with a coach again."

Does she have a five-year plan? "To have babies with John and have a wonderful family life. I really mean it when I say that I'm not going to die if acting doesn't work out for me. I took a huge pay cut to leave modeling and try acting, and right now it's a scary transition time. But I'm having so much fun--which is the point, isn't it? I would love to continue to give acting a try and check out the feature film thing or maybe do a TV series. If that doesn't happen, there arc plenty of other things I could totally get into doing instead. The one thing I'm not willing to do is to risk my life, marriage and happiness for success in show business."

________________________________________

Stephen Rebello interviewed Anthony Minghella for the Dec./Jan. issue of Movieline.

Pages: 1 2 3