At 17, Hilary Duff has already conquered television, movies and music. This month she stars in Raise Your Voice. Could she be the hardest working kid in showbiz?
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IF YOU EVER GO TO A HILARY DUFF CONCERT and the Texas-born entertainer foregoes the traditional "Hello, Cleveland!" shout-out to your city, don't be too surprised. "When we started this tour a few months ago, I'd always say the name of the place," says the former Lizzie McGuire star while reclining on a sofa backstage at the Arrowhead Pond arena in Anaheim, California, a few hours before showtime. "I can't even do that anymore. I forget what time it is, what day it is, what month it is. I love my job," she assures, careful not to sound ungrateful. "I feel like the luckiest person in the world, but there's definitely nights where it's like, 'Where am I?'"
Spend a few hours in the eye of the multi-media storm of Duff's red-hot career, and it's easy to see how even the luckiest person in the world could become disoriented. In addition to the concert tour, she's got a new self-titled album coming out in a few weeks, the follow-up to her debut, Metamorphosis, which has sold close to 5 million copies worldwide. Her last movie, A Cinderella Story, grossed $50 million this past summer, and her next, the musical drama Raise Your Voice, opens this month. She'll follow it up in '05 with the recently wrapped romantic comedy The Perfect Man. Add to all that the demands of a clothing line (Duff Stuff) and charitable foundation (Kids with a Cause) and you've got the toughest schedule a 17-year-old ever had.
Duff's pre-show look today is casual but clean--jeans, a red cowl-neck top, smoky eye makeup she applied herself, lip gloss. Still, there's just no missing that star quality. While waiting to interview her, I hear a member of her team remark that she has 250 items on her "Things to Do" list for today. Maybe he's exaggerating, but as I observe Duff complete one of those items--gamely posing for photos to be used on teen magazine covers--I decide that maybe he's not. Through it all, I never see Duff be anything less than agreeable. "Becoming a mega-star at 13 would be tough on any kid, but Hilary seems to wear it really well," observes Sean McNamara, the director of Raise Your Voice and Duff's first, made-for-video film Casper Meets Wendy (1998). "I see Hilary as a little Sally Field. She did her Gidget days. Now she's slowly becoming a real actress and could one day go on to win an Academy Award."
She just might, but first, Duff has to entertain the good people of the O.C. Before the show starts, I'm invited by her genial right-hand man Troy to join the band's nightly prayer circle--just two people down from Duff's Perfect Man costar Heather Locklear. Troy delivers a short prayer for a safe and successful show and after amens all around, Duff thrusts her fist into the air and shouts, "Anaheim rocks!"
She remembered.
DENNIS HENSLEY: Do you have a lot of friends coming to the show tonight?
HILARY DUFF: Not too many. I just saw them in L.A. What's funny is that my friends don't think what I do is cool anymore. They're done with it [laughs]. I love that, though. I have like five close friends and I've had them for a long time. I feel really lucky. They're really loyal.
Q: What's the craziest thing that ever went wrong for you during a show?
A: In Georgia recently, I had some friends who were watching in the pit. Between songs, I'm like, "You guys, I smell smoke!" Suddenly, one of my friends starts pointing up and yelling, "Get off the stage!" Then this speaker hanging from the ceiling just bursts into flames. Nobody got hurt, but it was scary. Afterwards, people were picking ashes from the floor and rubbing it into their T-shirts and asking "Could you sign this?"
Q: You play an aspiring singer in your new movie Raise Your Voice. It sounds like Fame for the 21st century.
A: It's very similar. I liked it because it's not a normal teen movie, it has a lot of depth. My character, Terri Fletcher, has to deal with the death of her brother and how her family falls apart and rebuilds itself. Nobody's ever seen me do something this dramatic before.
Q: When it comes to choosing roles, how do you balance being a good example to your young fans with challenging yourself to grow?
A: You just try to forget about the role model aspect. Like with my new album, it's more mature than my last album, but it's not like I'm going to be singing about something really inappropriate that younger kids may not understand. In the future, I'd definitely like to do some more risky parts, maybe make some independent films and do some small parts in films that aren't all about me.
Q: What would you like to do in a movie that you haven't gotten to yet?
A: I'd like to do something like what Uma Thurman did in Kill Bill. I'd love to learn martial arts. I studied gymnastics, so I think I'd be really good at it.
Q: Can you do a back handspring?
A: I can do like seven in a row.
Q: You've been working over half of your life. When things get overwhelming, what do you do to stay grounded?
A: I don't know. My TV show came out and it all happened so fast that I don't really think I had a strategy in place to deal with it. I can handle the stress, but it can be very overwhelming, being constantly on the go and having to constantly be happy. You just have to deal with it. Sometimes a really good cry helps. Sometimes I'll cry for no reason and then I'm like, "OK, let's go. I'm ready to do this again." Maybe in the future I could learn to balance work with time for myself.
Q: Who's been your most surprising fan?
A: Hmmm. Once, I was in Johnny Rockets on Melrose Avenue with a friend and these two really tall girls with Mohawks and piercings walked up to me. I was like, "I think I am about ready to get beat up here." I was so scared. They looked at me and I just looked back and then they said, "We love you! Could we get a picture with you?" [Laughs] The other big surprise was Steven Tyler. When Aerosmith was honored as an MTV Icon, I thought I'd been invited by some PR people, but when I was walking to the red carpet he passed by and stuck his head out of the car and screamed, "Hilary! Thanks so much for coming!" When my sister and I checked in, they told us that we were his guests for the night. It was so great because I'm a huge fan of his.
Q: Celebrity journalism seems to have gotten more invasive in the last few years, like if you pick your nose at the grocery store, it'll be in Us Weekly under the headline, "She's just like us!"
A: [Laughs] Yeah, I hate it. The tabloid magazines are so mean-spirited and negative--either you're too fat or too thin or, "Why are you wearing that outfit?" People are picking apart who people are inside. It's disgusting. I'd like to see how the journalists who write that kind of thing look.
Q: Was there an untrue tabloid story about you that made you laugh?
A: Yeah, that I got boob job and was snorting coke in a bathroom with [porn star] Jenna Jameson and then doing tequila shots--all in one night!
Q: Being a young girl working in show business post-Britney, do you ever feel pressure to up the sexy quotient? Will we ever see Hilary Duff in a thong on the cover of Maxim?
A: [Laughs] I definitely feel pressure sometimes, but I think there are so many options available that you don't necessarily need to take your clothes off. You can be sexy and beautiful in your clothes.
Q: You just turned 17. Do you feel your age?
A: When I'm with my friends, being stupid and dancing to music and stuff, I do. But when I'm taking meetings about my clothing line or running errands all day, I don't feel 17. I feel like I deal with a lot more than most 17-year-olds, sometimes in a good way, sometimes in a very overwhelming way.
Q: What's your favorite thing to blow money on?
A: My sister and I could shop for handbags and makeup all day. I work really hard and I really feel lucky that I am able to go and buy what I want, but I don't go crazy.
Q: What actor would you like to play opposite in a romantic comedy?
A: Not many people out there are my age, so it might not be appropriate, but I like Josh Hartnett.
Q: Do you even have time to think about dating?
A: I'd like to date but I am so busy that I feel like every second of my day I am giving to other people. I had a boyfriend for a while, but I would be out of town and I would be calling him or he'd call me and I found myself feeling like I was working very hard to make the five-minute conversation I had time for each day sound interesting and I hated that feeling.
Q: What's something about guys that you just don't get?
A: I don't know. I don't think I am jaded or bitter about guys yet [Laughs], I've had a couple of really good relationships and one bad one.
Q: What happens to all the gifts that your fans bring you at shows?
A: Well, I can't really take flowers on the plane or the tour bus so I give them to the security people. I keep some stuffed animals and some go to kids' hospitals. When we get stuffed animals with really cute clothes, we strip them off and put them on my dog [Laughs].
Q: When I see dogs with clothes on, I always think, "That dog does not want to be wearing that Burberry sweater."
A: [Laughs] My dog loves the clothes!
Q: What is the funniest thing anyone ever wrote on a sign at one of your shows?
A: Every couple of shows someone has a sign that says, "Lindsay Lohan is so yesterday" [Laughs], I wouldn't think it was funny if the girl hadn't been so mean to me, you know? I don't even know her and she's done some really horrible things to me. That's why I think it's funny.
Q: What's the weirdest thing anyone's ever thrown onstage?
A: A bra got thrown at my keyboardist the other day. I was like, "Hmmm. What size is that?" [Laughs] It was actually a really big one. It wouldn't fit me at all.
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