Gretchen Mol: Mol or Nothing

Auteur Neil Labute has directed Renee Zellweger and Gwyneth Paltrow, but for both the stage and screen versions of his critically acclaimed play The Shape of Things, he wanted Hollywood hype survivor Gretchen Mol.

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Having already played the glamorous girlfriend to a number of top-tier lookers in dressed-up Hollywood productions--she was Leonardo DiCaprio's plaything in Celebrity, Matt Damon's alternative to gambling in Rounders and Jude Law's obsession in Music From Another Room--Gretchen Mol (rhymes with "doll") took a different tack by hitting the stage to play a college preppy in writer/director Neil LaBute's The Shape of Things. And now she'll be reinforcing that departure by bringing her character to the big screen in LaBute's stage-to-screen adaptation. According to Mol--an acting vet whose first film job was playing a phone sex operator in Spike Lee's 1996 comedy Girl 6--her decision to go with LaBute couldn't have been smarter.

"This was the most pure experience I've had with acting, ever," says Mol, 30. "Paul Rudd plays this schlumpy guy who meets this art student, Rachel Weisz. They begin a relationship, and she makes him over. He starts eating healthier, stops biting his nails and gets a nose job. My character and Fred Weller's character are Paul's friends, and we watch him undergo this change, but we don't trust her."

Given that LaBute has directed A-list leading ladies like Gwyneth Paltrow (in Possession) and Renee Zellweger (in Nurse Betty), was there ever any question that a bigger Hollywood name--say, Cameron Diaz--would play Mol's character in the film? "Neil would tease me about that," she laughs. "He has a very dry sense of humor and he'd say, 'So, um, I'm going to meet with Michelle Williams on your role today.'"

In truth, LaBute was not likely to go elsewhere for his big-screen star. "I'd always liked Gretchen's physical presence--a real throwback to the starlets of Hollywood's Golden Age--but it was an impression of goodness that I felt on-screen that sold me," says LaBute. "She also has a kind of silly laugh, which is sweet and a little heartbreaking. And she can locate the sadness in a scene."

For Mol, who has weathered a number of films without having much impact, The Shape of Things couldn't have come at a better time. "I was hungry for something like this, and I thought it would never come," she admits. "I've learned that it's hard to be good in things when you're not surrounded by great directors and great writers."

Mol also allows that being plucked from obscurity and splashed on the cover of Vanity Fair back in 1998, with just a few supporting roles to back up the hype, was a mixed blessing. "I certainly don't regret saying yes," she says. "But afterwards, I felt pressure to live up to it and there was no way I could because the roles I was playing weren't that big. So I had to stop caring about what people thought. Now, I refuse to let that stuff destroy me. I've gotten much less neurotic about my career, especially now that I'm in love."

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