The Hellboy hottie talks about those girl-on-girl kissing scenes we love so much and insists, with a straight face, that she's the flattest woman in Hollywood
Q1
PLAYBOY: You've starred in movies like Legally Blonde, The Fog and Hellboy, but how does it feel knowing fans would love nothing better than to see you kiss Sarah Michelle Gellar again the way you do in Cruel Intentions?BLAIR: It's insane how big an impression that kiss has made. It's the one thing people remember me for. No matter what their age, they say, "Oh my God, you're that girl from Cruel Intentions who kissed Sarah Michelle Gellar." I'm flattered. I think it was the first girl-on-girl kiss in a popular mainstream American film, so it broke the door down.
Q2
PLAYBOY: In a short story you wrote for the erotic anthology Stirring Up a Storm, the main character enjoys sexual thoughts about a beautiful young woman she happens to see one day. Are we detecting a trend here?BLAIR: The assignment was to write an erotic story, and I don't have an erotic bone in my body, so I thought, Just go the girl-on-girl way. Now that I think of it, though, I have done three girl-on-girl kisses on-screen -- Cruel Intentions and Feast of Love, and I just finished Driving Lessons, in which I kiss a young girl. I didn't realize I had done so much lesbian exploration, yet I've never done any in my real life. Gay women do hit on me a lot, though. When lesbian friends tell me they're in love with me after our friendship has been cemented, it always shocks me. Why would they think I'm gay, except maybe because I'm open, loving and don't mind gayness at all?
Q3
PLAYBOY: You just said -- jokingly, we hope -- you don't have an erotic bone in your body. We beg to differ. Don't you think you're sexy?BLAIR: I do feel like a sexual being but not especially when compared with other people. While I was making The Sweetest Thing with Cameron Diaz and Christina Applegate, I felt like a different species. They're such girlie girls -- adorable, endearing, typical blonde, beautiful-figured women -- whereas I'm a brunette tomboy. I'm kind of missing the gene that immediately endears people to me, but that's okay.
Q4
PLAYBOY: You've done offbeat movies like Storytelling and others like Cruel Intentions that enjoy a huge cult following. But what movie plays closest to what it's like inside your head?BLAIR: Cruel Intentions holds up after all these years, so it's okay to have it as a guilty pleasure. It paved the way for everything on TV now. It opened people up to how good teenage stories can be. But sadly, inside my head it's more like Woody Allen's Interiors or Bob Rafelson's Five Easy Pieces -- lonely movies with strong imagery and something a little off. I don't have a lot of the teen-genre spirit in me, which is funny because that's pretty much all I've been playing the past 10 years.
Q5
PLAYBOY: A Dirty Shame, which John Waters directed, strays pretty far from the teen genre. Do you know there are Internet threads debating whether your freakishly massive breasts in that movie are real?BLAIR: I remember some people were shocked when they thought I would disfigure myself like that for a movie. I thought, People are daft. I mean, those breasts are gargantuan. Hideous. Nobody would find them attractive -- well, okay, maybe two people out there would be fascinated by them. No, I wouldn't do that to myself in real life. I remain the flattest woman in Hollywood.
Q6
PLAYBOY: Growing up, how did you deal with the crap you must have been handed for being named Selma?BLAIR: I've always thought of it as an old woman's name, so I demanded that everyone call me Blair. In high school, when people found out my name was Selma, they'd call me things like Smell-ma or Salmonella. That stuff basically came from friends, and I never really had any enemies, so I just kind of smiled through it. I still don't like my name. It does not fall prettily off the tongue. In fact, it's hideous. My middle name is James, and I like to be called that.
Q7
PLAYBOY: What sort of kid were you?BLAIR: Creative, artistic, always drawing and writing. Going to school, I dressed differently every day so I couldn't be categorized. Like, one day I'd dress like an equestrian -- very strange. My mom gave me a necklace when I was six; on one side was a smiley face, and on the other was a frowning face. She'd have me flip over the necklace to suit my mood. She introduced me to her friends as her little manic-depressive child. My home life came out of a movie by Wes Anderson -- too stylized to be believed.
Q8
PLAYBOY: Speaking of Anderson, is he on the list of directors you would love to work with?BLAIR: A long time ago I dated Jason Schwartzman, who is in Rushmore, so I've met Wes, but I don't think he was taken with me. I could definitely see being in one of his stories, and I would love to be. I've prayed to work with Roman Polanski. I wish I could've been in Bitter Moon, exploring that world of heartbreak with him. Whenever I'm in Paris I see him in restaurants, but I've never met him. I keep meaning to write him a letter, but I'd just come off like a stalker.
Q9
PLAYBOY: Did you always want to become an actress?BLAIR: I started at a great small private school in Michigan, Kalamazoo College, where I had a photography scholarship and was introduced to theater. I transferred to the University of Michigan, where I majored in photography. When I moved to New York, I didn't know whether I'd pursue photography or acting, but I would lock myself in the darkroom for 12 hours at a time. It turned out it was harder to make money as a photographer than as an actress.
Q10
PLAYBOY: Describe some of your photographs.BLAIR: I didn't have many models I was comfortable asking to pose for me, so I did a lot of self-portraits. But I didn't want them to look as if they were of me, so I made myself up like Magritte's mother, who drowned herself and was supposedly found with her nightdress wrapped around her head. I took a bunch of self-portraits in that state and some very macabre, victim-y ones in which I'd torn off my clothes, found a ditch at the side of the road and jumped in.
Q11
PLAYBOY: Is it true you lost out on an early acting job on Dawson's Creek that put another actress on the map?BLAIR: I had tested for the Joey role, and it came down to me, Katie Holmes and one other girl. Holmes got it fair and square. She hadn't done anything before that. I remember seeing her walk into the room and thinking, She is just the tallest girl. There's no way they'll give it to her. She won't even fit on camera, she's so tall. Then I ate my words. She was adorable.
Q12
PLAYBOY: In the first Hellboy movie, your pyrokinetic character torches a lot of cool stuff, flirts with Hellboy and looks hot. Do you get to do more in Hellboy II: The Golden Army?BLAIR: In the first movie, Liz is very much a wounded little girl coming to grips with whether Hellboy is her boyfriend or not. In the new movie she's more sure of her powers. She lives with Hellboy, they have lovers' spats, and there's a lot of humor in that because of our superpowers -- he's so strong, and I'm so fiery. Evil creatures come from the underworld to destroy Earth, and without spoiling it, I'm right along with Hellboy. I'm a part of the force and more of a superhero in this one.
Q13
PLAYBOY: Did you have any trouble unleashing your inner butt kicker?BLAIR: The one note Guillermo del Toro -- the director and writer -- always had for me was "No, you're strong. You're strong!" I found it difficult to play a really strong woman once I had established her as a kind of child in the first movie. I hope it works. I'm in it a lot.
Q14
PLAYBOY: Have you ever had an erotic thought or two about Hellboy?BLAIR: Oh my God, yes. [laughs] I have such a huge crush on Hellboy. I find him very sexy. I find his body appealing. He has a great physique, and his personality and humor are really laid-back. It's funny because I'm such good friends with Ron Perlman, and when he was in costume, I was always flirtatious, hanging onto Hellboy, touching him, holding and kissing him. When he'd take off his makeup at the end of the day, I'd be like, "Oh hey, old buddy, put your costume back on."
Q15
PLAYBOY: A guy could get scorched being around your Hellboy character. Who should stay clear of you in real life?BLAIR: People who abuse animals or children or who throw cigarettes out in the canyons and paparazzi who take pictures of me at six in the morning when my face is still bloated from sleeping. Please, it takes a village to get me ready. Can't you wait until the village has put my face on?
Q16
PLAYBOY: The four years since Hellboy opened have been especially eventful for you, including a marriage and subsequent divorce from Ahmet Zappa, a relationship with actor and model Matthew Felker and a reported rehab stay. Do you think those life experiences informed your performance in Hellboy II?BLAIR: I was having a much harder time when we shot the first one, going through a terrible breakup and feeling like crying every day. It was appropriate that I played Liz as wounded. In this new one Liz is more confident and, of course, not only older but ready to be in a relationship. I learned a lot in my marriage, and I remain friends with Ahmet. I'm so glad I married him, and I'm so glad I divorced him, because he turned out to be such a wonderful friend after the marriage. I didn't know someone could remain so loving after a certain type of loving was gone. I'll probably be single for a very long time, because I don't want to get into something lightly. I can't repeat former patterns. I admit I know nothing. It's scary.
Q17
PLAYBOY: Do you want to say anything about the 2007 press reports that said you spent a month at the Promises rehab facility in Malibu?BLAIR: It was written about, but it's something I'm not prepared to talk about.
Q18
PLAYBOY: How big of a bummer is it to have to see a famous ex in a magazine or on TV, dating someone new?BLAIR: It's very difficult. I pray I don't run into my ex-boyfriends around town. I wish they'd move back to where they came from in the Midwest or someplace. I don't want to see them on billboards or in magazines. It's heartbreaking. I'm very sensitive, and it's hard for me.
Q19
PLAYBOY: What is the most absurd thing the tabloid press has printed about you lately?BLAIR: That Kevin Federline and I were dating. People were asking me about it. [laughs] Oh yeah, it's going really well. We're really happy. I'm pregnant. Seriously, that was strange. We had exchanged phone numbers at some place, but we didn't even see each other on the night in question. Weird.
Q20
PLAYBOY: You're about to co-star with Molly Shannon on an American TV version of Kath & Kim, the hit Australian comedy series about a dysfunctional mother-daughter relationship.BLAIR: I have long hair for the show, and I feel like a Mormon. Talk about Goth-looking. Thank God I play a brat who says whatever she wants, isn't the friendliest girl, is juvenile and dresses like she's 13 -- in unicorn hoodies, tight jeans and Ugg boots. It's a real comedy, very funny, but a little daunting because everyone's so up in arms that we're going to ruin an Australian show. That's fine. I'm best as the underdog.
