by Paul Fischer
by
Paul Fischer
Don't believe everything you read is the motto when talking
to glamorous and sexy actress 
Rebecca
Romijn-Stamos. While on screen in Brian De Palma's
erotically charged thriller Femme Fatale the actress gets up to
no good, the reverse can be said of her off-screen life. Laughing at the
notion of being on the cover of the men's magazine Maxim, [and laughingly
turning it over in the process] the impression one has of Romijn-Stamos
is that nothing fazes her. Except being misquoted, that is. "I would love
to clear a lot of this up, because I have been really badly misquoted
lately." The biggest piece of journalistic fiction? "The story of the
day that's been on the wire, I guess, is about sex at Disneyland." For
the record, no way. "You know, I just trust too much and I trust people
are going to take care of the things I say, and yeah, I guess I revealed
too much, but then they take what I say, they run with it, and then make
a mountain out of a molehill," explains the actress. "What I said was
that we fell in love at Disneyland. We first connected over dinner, we
had our first date there, and all of a sudden it turned into we were having
sex on rides at Disneyland," she laughingly says. "Then all of the reporters
were asking me which ride was it, and I'm like, we ride the rides, next
to each other, not on top of each other." At least Romijn-Stamos retains
a buoyant sense of humor about her supposed wild and crazy life. No, she
and husband John Stamos don't have an open marriage,
are not swingers and John has never dressed in drag, according to various
tabloid reports. "I once had a gender bender party, and all the girls
had to come as guys, and all the guys had to come as girls and I'm sure
the rumor that we're swingers been going around, too. We are so not. John's
very conservative, and honestly, I'm better with the rumors than
he is. He gets really upset about all of this, because he's conservative
and I'm really Dharma and Greg; he balances me out and really has to pull
me back in."
Romijn-Stamos was born in the above mentioned relatively
radical university town of Berkeley. Her father was Dutch-born and worked
as a custom furniture maker while her mother was American-born, of Dutch
descent, and an English teacher. She attended Berkeley High School before
attending the University of California at Santa Cruz where she majored
in Music, but left in 1995, admitting that she was "restless to see the
world. I used to sit in my dorm room, 
thinking,
I just know I'm missing out on something. But, of course, I had no money.
And so this friend hooked me up with an agency, and it happened very quickly.
I moved to Paris, got a cover of French Elle, and stayed for two and a
half years."
Despite her Bohemian upbringing, it seemed that modeling did not exactly fit in. Romijn-Stamos felt that her family "were all kind of like, 'well, Rebecca knows what she is doing.' I moved to Paris, was traveling to amazing places and making money and I learned how to be a business woman at a really young age. The beginning of my modeling career was awesome, and my family was all for me going and living overseas and being on my own." She promised her family that she would eventually return. She did and made the foray into acting, "something that my parents didn't mind me doing."
The statuesque blonde, married Full House star
John Stamos in 1998 and made her acting debut that year in Dirty Work.
She played herself in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me and
established herself as the evil mutant Mystique in X-Men, and
a starring role in the critically maligned Rollerball. With Femme Fatale,
Romijn-Stamos is very much the alluring and sexually aggressive star of
Brian de Palma's film noir thriller about a woman trying to straighten
out her life, even as her past as a con-woman comes back to haunt her.
Stepping into the controversial role, following the departure of original
star Uma Thurman, Romijn-Stamos recalls being sent the script then asked
"to get on a plane that day and go meet with Brian; I didn't even think
about it, I just wanted to go meet him," she recalls. "He had written
the script which is obviously very twisted and convoluted in a wonderful
way." It was also quite the risk "and so scary that I kind of wouldn't
even think about it. I kind of took nothing to lose attitude." Despite
the sex scenes, nudity and an opening seduction sequence which is more
explicit than the norm for studio-released film, Romijn-Stamos remains
matter-of-fact in the way she dealt with the sexual facets of the film.
"You know, it's all part of the work. I mean, its fun, its pretend, its
movie making and it is as fun to shoot that as it is to 
shoot
a fight scene." The actress adds that given what she does in the film,
she has to have a certain comfort with herself. "I'm somebody who is definitely
in charge of my sexuality as I think this character is," she says she
has no problem being sexy for a movie such as this, or even posing for
a men's magazine. "I hate the thought of being victimized by cameras,
and I've always done things because I choose to."
The actress believes that confidence has always been a part of her, thanks to her upbringing. "I think I've always had a very strong sense of self, which I think my mom did to me. I think my mom let me be me. I grew up in Berkeley in the early '70s and was raised by people who had left middle American, very traditional backgrounds and come out to Berkeley to be anti-establishment. We were kind of guinea pigs, as they raised this generation of children in a different way and didn't want to pass their crap on to us, as it was passed on to them. They gave us this fearlessness and every where I have lived in the world, I keep meeting up with people from Berkeley, from my generation. They just didn't put any boundaries on us and never taught us that there was anything to be scared of."
It is this fearlessness that enabled Romijn-Stamos to venture into the erotic territory of Femme Fatale, but she laughingly adds that "a few shots of tequila helped as well", when referring to a striptease sequence she shot with co-star Antonio Banderas. As she turns 30, that particular milestone is just fine by her. "I am really excited, because 30 has been my whole life. I don't know why, it's just this nice round number, this benchmark I have looked forward to my entire life and I feel like 30 is when I finally get to be a grownup."
Romijn-Stamos returns to the comic book world of X-Men in the much hyped sequel which will be released next year. Going from something like Femme Fatale to the effects-laden X-Men 2 was definitely a challenge. "Now that I know how easy hair and makeup can be, it's hard to go and sit for 4 ½ hours of blue paint, and you know, be a blue manikin," she says with a slight hint of disdain. Then quickly adds that "I have to say I have a lot more to do in this one. I'm not allowed to talk about it, but I do have a lot more to do in this film." She will only talk about the experience of shooting the sequel, rather than its secretive plot. "They're such a great group of people and we really, really enjoy each other. It's a really talented, fun, amazing group of people which has been the best part of it. Doing that kind of movie is hard Most of it is in front of a green screen, so you don't even know what you're shooting until the end result, and you see all those CGI effects. But at least they've gotten my makeup process down now to like 3 ½ to 4 hours, where it used to be 8 hours. I had a 1:00 a.m. call time every morning," she recalls. It wasn't a happy time. "There was very little acting involved in that move, because there's so much technical stuff going on, and so much makeup." But this time around, she has reason to be pleased. "We have an hour of the movie put together, and it looks amazing – better than the first one."
Romijn-Stamos is enjoying her life, despite the tabloids.
Her husband is currently the latest actor to play the Emcee in 
Broadway's
Cabaret, and she admits that the toughest thing about being married
to an actor "is the time we spend apart." Outside of acting, the actress
admits that she is "really bad at staying up late. I make tentative plans
with people to meet them for dinner or drinks, and I poop out, because
I get really tired. I'm very early to bed, early to rise." On the flip
side, one thing she does well is "getting up early and taking my dog on
hikes in the morning. I have a German Shepard, and we go hike in the mountains
every morning, and I'm really good at making that a habit." To keep herself
in shape, she does Pilates on a daily basis but still loves to eat a lot.
"I would like to eat In 'N' Out double burgers for every meal, every day.
I also love ice cream, and I would like to follow up my double burger
with a big bowl of Haagen-Dazs, but I don't do that." This is why she
looks svelte and gorgeous. "Well, I've got good genes. My parents are
tall and thin, and also just from adrenalin – I was so nervous the
whole time we were doing Femme Fatale, the adrenalin kicked in,
and that burns calories." Perhaps she should strip for the cameras more
often then.
