Meet Monica Velour features Cattrall as Linda Romanoli, a porn refugee who once went by the movie's titular pseudonym. Long past her prime, she's tracked down by a young fan named Tobe (Dustin Ingram), who still envisions Monica as the beautiful star she was in the 1970s. In reality, Monica can barely make ends meet and is fighting for the custody of her daughter from an abusive ex-husband. Movieline met with Cattrall to discuss the film, the challenges 50-something women face finding work in Hollywood, her future with the Sex and the City franchise and her experience as one of the last Universal contract players -- which would find her on series from The Incredible Hulk to Logan's Run.
This movie is a little more depressing than one would think. What about it appealed to you?
I think it's the kind of film that's really interesting. It's a film that's comedy, it's a love story and it's very heartfelt at the same time. And sweet and complicated. I think that's what worked for me, when I read it, on so many levels because there was so much going on. The major conflict is fighting for the custody of her daughter, but, it's also a world he's created -- especially with Tobe. This is his vision. This is only what he sees; he doesn't see the reality of what Monica is and has become. He just sees her as his heart's desire.
Did you specifically want to do something that was different than what people generally recognize as your most popular roles?
Well, I thought it was really well written, first of all. And, also, I'm in my 50s, so there are very few terrific roles for women written after 35 in film. It gets really complicated. Why? I don't know. We worship youth. And what happens to women -- not just porn stars -- but what happens to women after their 40s? I think the envelope has been pushed a bit for the 40s, but 50s, it's like "Oh my God." But we're intelligent, we're sexy, we're desirable, we're alive, we're productive... but we're marginalized as far as the media is concerned. Because we don't buy 10 CDs, or we don't go see movies seven times, you know? That doesn't mean that we don't exist. And we should be represented. And even though this woman's circumstances are not of a very positive vein, at the moment when you meet her, there is something about her that is what she represents. And [that's] what's going on, not just for that character in that particular circumstance, but for most women in their 50's.
So do you feel what Linda is going through mimics your own career? You still seem to get good roles.
I know, but a lot of them are coming to me from -- especially the theater work I've been doing in the West End -- it comes from work that I've already done. And people knowing that I have a desire to play a lot of different kinds of roles and to work with a lot of different kinds of people. Whether it's Peter Hall or Richard Eyre or Keith Bearden or Roman Polanski -- yes, I'm very fortunate but that's where my attention is. My attention is taking challenges and taking chances because I figure this is what I love to do. People say, "Well, why do you choose to do that?" and, in some ways, I don't really feel like I have a choice. Because what is the choice? To play a character that I'm known for, for the rest of my life? I would feel like I'm holding on to something that is in the past, you know? What is the future? What is now? Where do I want to work? Who do I want to work with? What are the projects?
And that's what's exciting for me: those people are not marginalizing. They're saying, "Absolutely! I want to see Private Lives with a woman in her 50s and a man who is 35. Why not?" A lot of people would say, "That would never happen." Really? That would never happen? I think you're living in a different time and you're holding on. Why not let those things happen? And then the films opens and people say, "Wow, it wasn't just a 17-year-old that was an interesting character, that woman in her 50s -- I really understand what she was going through. She was fighting for the custody of her daughter. She's fighting for her job. She's fighting to be heard. She's fighting to live."
By holding on to a character in the past, does that mean you don't want to play Samantha Jones ever again?
No, I don't think so. I love playing Samantha. I take it as a great compliment that people think that's who you are or what you do. But it isn't. And I want to do more than that. I find that very satisfying, but, ultimately, it's limiting in some ways if you want to do more. If not, holding on... the thing about holding on to anything, it disappears. You can't hold on to your youth, to your desires. They change and they evolve, hopefully. That's how we grow. Who knows? I might play it again. I have no idea. That doesn't mean that I can't revisit it, but it's so exciting to play something as different as this and to ground it in a different kind of reality.
Speaking of reality, I've never given serious thought to what happens to female porn stars after they retire. Especially one as famous as Monica was -- she was even in a Star Wars parody...
Yeah, exactly. She was in many parodies of a lot of movies, as a lot of porn movies are. They've even done porn of Sex and the City... whoa! It's an easy sell.
Do you think what happens in this film to Monica is the norm?
What do they have? They get married. And they get some kind of job, whatever job they can -- they don't have a lot of training. Some of them start stripping, some of them do a radio show. I think there are very few female porn stars who would go into directing or anything like that. They go into kind of deals where they promote sexual toys or panties or whatever. They try and survive. But a lot of them go to nowhereville and try to start again. But this is a woman who can't do that. Everybody knows her in this little town where she's at, she can't even get a five-bucks-an-hour shampoo job in this town. What does she do? She lives on whatever handouts she can get.
When you watch a movie like this or Boogie Nights -- was porn in the '70s more fun? It's seems to have a kitschy value to it.
Well, I think there is in this film, and I think that there is in the movies that she made -- which were all parodies. There is certainly a tongue in cheek quality to that, but I think that's Keith commenting on it. But those films from the '70s, I think they were so naïve and they were done so low-budget and they think there's a nostalgia to it. I've watched some; I've watched some documentaries about it, and it was so off-putting for me how these young women were so... not just objectified, but used. And a lot of them had aspirations for more. A lot of them wanted to come to Hollywood and be stars.
Right, like if they do this role in a porn they might get a role on Three's Company, or something.
Yeah, then they find themselves in a backroom in Van Nuys taking their top off. And somebody is saying that this is a real screen. And, suddenly, they do one little flick and another little flick and they start to become this porn star. Then what do you do? It's exciting and it's part of the dream and you get carried away. And then, suddenly, you're labeled as an outcast.
How much weight did you gain for this role?
I gained 20 pounds. Well, that was part of the deal with Keith. He said to me, "You know, I'm really interested but, first of all, you're too pretty and you're too in shape." And I said, "How much weight do you think I would have to gain?" He first said 35 pounds so I said, "I can't gain that amount safely before we start shooting." He said, "Don't exercise. How much weight can you gain?" And I said, "Watch me!", because I love to eat, as you can see. [Points to her food] So he asked about 20 and I thought I could do 20 safely. So I did 15 before we started shooting, and by the end of production I was 20 pounds overweight.
Was it hard to lose?
It was heaven putting it on because I love to eat, as I said. Every night after shooting we'd go to a bar and have a couple of drinks and then we go and have a big heavy ol' dinner and sleep on it and come back the next day and eat Cheez-It and cheese Doritos on the set and all of these fattening foods -- which were fun! Most people eat like that all of the time. [Laughs] I kinda wish I could because it's delicious. But, afterward, it was hell. Yeah, it was tough. Keith said, "I want to take this image people have of you and smash it into smithereens. I'm going to make you look different than you've ever looked." And I think, like most women, I want to look good; I want to look attractive, all of those things.
Speaking of the '70s, I'm curious about your experience as a Universal contract player in the 1970s. For example, what was it like having a guest role on Quincy?
Oh, God, it was terrific. It was one of my first jobs, and I remember I played the wife of a rapist. And Adrienne Barbeau was in the episode. She played this detective who was trying to find who the rapist was. And he raped her, and he beat up and raped a whole bunch of people, and finally he did it to me and I turn him in. And I just remembered Jack Klugman being so wonderful to me and so supportive of me. And he thought I was terrific on the episode, so it was a very good experience.
And then you were on The Incredible Hulk.
Oh, Bill Bixby... I was a huge fan of his from My Favorite Martian. Yeah, so he was terrific. Again, he kind of took me under his wing. I was a young Universal contract player -- I was like 20 years old -- so all of those shows, I had never really been on camera very much, so it was a real kind of training ground. Just to be in front of the camera and feel ease on a set and know who did what.
And the one I'm most curious about because it has such a cult following, Logan's Run.
Oh my God! Wow, that's right! That was with Gregory Harrison. I played this princess from [starts laughing] another country... I mean another planet! It was fun. Again, that first year of being a contract player at Universal I was farmed out a lot. I just remember doing a scene and, at the end of it, the whole crew bursts out in applause. I guess I had done it well and it was like, "Oh, wow, OK!" [laughs]. It was like a theater experience.
As a contract player, when you do something like Logan's Run, do you even try to learn the back story of things like what happens at the age of 30?
There's no time, no. You're doing three or four shows at the same time and costume fittings and everything. I don't think you can get that heavily into it and I don't think the material really merits it. [Laughs] You're burdening it with something that I don't think it can really take.
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