Keeping Her Faith
Jenna Elfman: The CrankyCritic.com Interview by Paul Fischer

In a short period of time, beautiful Dharma and Greg star Jenna Elfman has broken the rules, and made a successful transition to the big screen. Whether as the unwilling TV star of EdTV, or as the business executive loved by a priest and a rabbi in Edward Norton's directorial debut, Keeping the Faith, Elfman manages to light up the screen playing characters far different from her TV character. She talked to Paul Fischer

When she was just 14, Jenna Elfman used to take ballet lessons. Dancing was her life and her passion, and she also knew that she was unique. "I thought I was kinda different", she recalls. "I just felt that I was unlike everybody else. I never felt I fitted in with my contemporaries." It took the actress some time before she left those insecurities behind, and it was her marriage to actor Bodi Elfman that changed her, she now enthuses. "Being married to him has been amazing, because he's the safest person I know." They met as fellow struggling actors. The attraction between them was instantaneous, she recalls. "I was smoking a lot of pot at that time. It was the only thing that lifted my spirits. Bodi got me off the pot, introduced me to Scientology and showed me what love was." Jenna and Bodi lived together for four years before getting married. That was about five years ago. "It's because Bodi is in my life that I'm so confident and spunky." By the time of the marriage, Elfman had given up on her dream of being a full time ballerina, due to a bad ankle. But she has no regrets. Acting was a natural extension of her dancing. "I was always acting; I just love to tell stories."

The sense of confidence and spunk Elfman derived from her relationship with Bodi manifested itself into the TV show that has made her a household name: Dharma and Greg. The series, for which she's been nominated for an Emmy Award, led to her making a successful transition to the big screen, avoiding, it seems, the pitfall of many of her TV contemporaries, of being typecast outside of television. So where has Elfman succeeded where others have failed? It's so simple, she responds. "Firstly, to try and go out and star in your own film and carry it straight way, is a no-no, because you seen, in people's minds, as TV, in the box. So to get OUT of the box, and be accepted as a movie actor, you need to do a character that is different from the TV show [to me very obvious] and position yourself with film people. In other words, TV people don't do films with other TV people, so you're doing one or the other."

So far the ploy has worked, from the insecure character she played in EdTV, through to her beautiful performance in the new romantic comedy opposite Edward Norton and Ben Stiller, Keeping the Faith. "It was really nice for a change playing both a leading lady and a character, both combined, and that's very rare," Elfman says in describing her latest big screen outing. Jenna says that she was also glad to be able to stretch beyond simply doing the comedic moments "and get stuck into some drama with this movie. I've been studying drama long enough, but nobody's seen me do it except for my classmates." Keeping the Faith, which marks the directorial debut of star Edward Norton, revolves around Priest Brian Finn (Norton) and rabbi Jacob Schram (Ben Stiller), who have known each other since childhood. When Anna Reilly (Elfman), whom they both knew as children, returns to New York, both men find themselves infatuated with her, sparking both rivalry and personal dilemmas: Brian has taken a vow of celibacy, and Jacob is allowed to marry only within his faith. Her character has a harder edge than we're used to seeing, and Elfman responded to that element of the character. "It was a nice challenge, because I wanted to bring out my ferocious, bulldozing strong side, that only my husband and assistant see. It was a great chance, with this character, I could bring out that very hard-driven girl in me."

One of the ironic twists of Elfman working on a movie about faith and religion is that the actress herself admits to having once flirted with the idea of becoming a nun. "Yeah, I thought about it for about five minutes, until I realised I couldn't be with boys, and then I said: Oh, never mind," she says laughingly. But the idea of getting herself to a nunnery, stemmed from her belief "that there were problems on this earth and that Mankind needs to be loved, helped and guided and I really wanted to help that, so I felt a kind of responsibility in trying to make this a better place", the Catholic actress adds. As a high profile actress, she can still maintain those ideals. "Artists are the ones that pave the way. They inspire in others new realities and the possibility of future." Elfman also furthers her beliefs through Scientology, "making myself sane and clearing away the shit so that I can be pleasant as well able to be comfortable in front of other people, to reach into their lives."

While Elfman aspired to being a nun for five minutes, she also dreamed of being a drummer, and still bangs away. "Fortunately I already have a career, so I don't have to use the drumming as my only career, so I can just really suck if I want. But I'm ok." Ok to the point where she even managed to share a stage recently with her idol Bob Dylan "which was a pretty amazing experience. But I really like drumming, especially as a dancer, my whole life is about rhythm." Elfman loves everything about music, declaring, "that I can't exist without it."

As for Dharma and Greg, Elfman remains completely enthused by the show that has changed her life. She knew from the outset it was something special that would take off. "I don't know what it was, I just felt like it was going to do well. I felt while we were doing it that this was a character that is not neurotic for a change. I just felt that this is a girl who's just alive, that this life force is able to shoot through and inspire people, because she accepts people for whom they are and loves them. That's a really good message I think, because if you're going to be on TV, you have to be responsible."

Elfman is still content to continue working on Dharma and Greg, but at the same time ensure that the film industry doors are further pushed open. "There's no way around that; I will PUSH them open."