by Paul Fischer
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CHRISTINA APPLEGATESure, she played a horny airhead
for eleven seasons on Fox Television's Married With Children,
but the most important thing we took away from our chat with
actress Christina Applegate is that, in real life, she's just
a simple, level headed, church going, California property owner
who's been working "in the business" since babyhood.
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| With a full
set of acting chops -- soap operas to radio spots to TV comedy
and parts in major [and minor] movies like Wild Bill, Don't
Tell Mom The Babysitter's Dead and Mars Attacks! --
Applegate goes against type and delivers a dead on delivery of
a Jewish American Princess in The Big Hit. This is the
first of two comedy flicks Christina will offer this year, the
Godfather spoof Mafia comes your way at summer's end, and
then Applegate moves back to the small screen, in NBC's Jessie.
Cranky began its interrogation of the Princess with the Sacred Heart of Jesus Medallion hanging around her neck with the standard opening question of the famed Inquisition... |
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CrankyCritic: You had the image of
being the Supreme Airhead for so very long . . .
Applegate: I never owned that image. It hasn't been too hard to
get away from it. When I walk in to read a script for a movie or whatever,
they know that Kelly was a character I was playing. It hasn't been difficult.
I've been very lucky.
CrankyCritic: How did The Big Hit
come into your hands?
Applegate: It came to me through my new agency (that I love --
I got three jobs in a row through them), and I didn't really know that
it was going to be an action film, 'cuz it isn't written that way. It's
written as a comedy. If you can get a copy of the script, it's a great
read. I was laughing out loud. But I didn't understand why they wanted
me to play a Jewish American Princess. My agent said "look. You're
probably not going to get it. Why don't you just go in and use it as a
character study for yourself. Get into it and have fun with it."
And that's what I did. I did not know I was going to get this job. I was
surprised as anyone.
CrankyCritic: How long did it take
you to get the accent?
Applegate: I had looked at a couple of tapes 'cuz I only had a
day to get ready for this thing. Once I put the clothes on; once I put
the nails on. It just kind of happened.
CrankyCritic: What was working with
Mark Wahlberg like?
Applegate: Mark's so cool. He's really cool. Funny and talented.
Very professional.
CrankyCritic: What makes you think
people connect to him?
Applegate: His vulnerability. There's a vulnerability about him
that's so attractive, I mean, besides the rocking' bod.
CrankyCritic: Had you been a fan of
Mark's music?
Applegate: Yeah, but I only know the Good Vibrations song.
I was raised listening to Al Green and stuff so I never got into rap music.
I have nothing against it but I've never been a big rapper.
CrankyCritic: What do you think your
Jewish American Princess character saw in his German Irish mix?
Applegate: [laughing] His bank account. Also her rebelling against
her parents was the one big attraction because he was everything that
they wouldn't want her to be with. And obviously, at the end, she was
guilted into going back with her parents.
CrankyCritic: How does it feel, being
finished with Married, With Children?
Applegate: It feels pretty darned good. All the doors are way open.
The horizon is very vast. It can be intimidating sometimes, not having
that "thing" that you have to go to do every day. That security.
CrankyCritic: Was there a downside
to working on Married, with Children? Some looked at it as a new
low in comedy.
Applegate: Well, if we really look at the world, nobody is Ozzie
and Harriet, but the Bundy's were the most functional family I've seen
in a while. They love each other and they're still together and they're
still family. They're relatively happy. They're honest. They say what
they mean. They accept each other for who they are.
CrankyCritic: Hollywood has had no
trouble separating Christina from Kelly. What about your fans?
Applegate: Yeah, an interesting thing happens when you come into
people's living rooms, for all the years that I have, is that they feel
they know you and they kind of get in your face. That's been sort of trying,
sometimes.
CrankyCritic: Do they quote stories
back at you?
Applegate: [sort of sarcastic] Yeah, and I just love hearing that.
[laughs] Over and over and over again. "So. Um. What's hourly like?"
That's a big one. Look, whatever anyone thinks of the show, Peg and Al
were two real characters. But the show never got any recognition. Yeah,
we were like the black sheep. Nobody wanted to give the show any credit
for starting an entire new era of television, or at least recreating it
again. Someone once asked me "Do the guys on Seinfeld give you any
advice on being on the air that long?" We were on way longer than
they were. We were on before Roseanne. We started an entire network. There
is a lot of credit that we didn't get, but nobody was bitter about it.
CrankyCritic: Ten years from now,
when they do the MWC movie, who would you cast in your part.
Applegate: Oh my God. I don't know.
CrankyCritic: Did you keep anything
of Kelly from the set?
Applegate: The one thing that I did take from Kelly was her confidence
in her own skin. That's something I really respected about her. That's
something that I think young women have a hard time with. I mean, going
and flaunting it isn't necessarily the way to get over that. But she was
very comfortable in her own skin. That's something that I've always battled
with in my own life. So I brought that quality of her with me.
CrankyCritic: It must have been difficult
being on the show from such an early age. You didn't know who you could
trust or how to meet people. It must have been fairly limiting.
Applegate: Yeah, y'know I never got caught up in the hype of what
was going on. I never sat there and pondered that the show was as big
as it was or that my life was changing. I never got into that. I'm just
this silly little kid who grew up in Laurel Canyon with a single parent
and who, y'know, goes to the gym and goes to church like a good little
girl. I don't know this public person. I don't understand it and I don't
want to fall into it because I think that's when people get screwed up
in their heads.
CrankyCritic: Why did you decide to
become an actress?
Applegate: I never decided to. I was born into this business. My
mom was an actress and we couldn't afford baby sitters. She'd put me in
plays she was in, or whatever she was doing. I started working at the
time I was five months old, in a Playtex Nurser commercial. Then I was
on Days of Our Lives and, when I was three years old, I was doing radio
commercials, for four years. I bought a house when I was seven. That's
how I got into this. Mom always gave me the option to quit -- and I would
-- and like ten minutes later I would realize that this is what I love
doing more than anything else. This is all I've done.
CrankyCritic: Did you have a stage
mother? Is that why you started so early?
Applegate: My mom was an actress and we couldn't afford baby sitters.
She'd put me in plays she was in, or whatever she was doing. That's how
I got into this. She was never your typical stage mother. She was always
very supportive. She never made me do things I didn't want to do. She
always gave me the option to quit and I would and like ten minutes later
I would realize that this is what I love doing more than anything else.
CrankyCritic: Are you married?
Applegate: No. No no no no no. I just haven't met the right one.
Y'know I've only gone on three dates in my entire life. I've only gone
out with three guys who could afford to take me out [laughs] and those
dates were great! They paid for my dinner and that was it. I was so excited
about that. I don't have any funny date stories for you.
CrankyCritic: What's the most rebellious
thing you've ever done?
Applegate: As a teenager, I shaved my head. I was 13 and I ended
up getting more work because I looked so different.
CrankyCritic: Why'd you do it?
Applegate: All my friends were doing it. I was at that point where
I didn't know if I wanted to be an actress or not. I was getting pissed
off. I didn't want to do it. I just wanted to be a kid. So I shaved my
head and ended up getting a series on Showtime because of it.
Lou Diamond Phillips Mark Wahlberg Antonio Sabato Jr. The Big Hit website