[[CANDIDS]] Dark Horse babe Selma Blair all smiles leaving dinner

Hollywood sweetheart Selma Blair was seen leaving dinner in Beverly Hills looking very happy as she got into her car. The award winning sexy actress known for her roles in Cruel Intentions, Legally Blonde and the Hellboy franchise is currently filming the Todd Solondz directed drama Dark Horse.

Dark Horse also stars Donna Murphy and Christopher Walken and tells the story of the romance that blooms between two thirty-somethings in arrested development: an avid toy collector and a woman who is the dark horse of her family.

[[INTERVIEWS]] Selma Blair back in the saddle: Actress has come a long way since Brain Candy

Anyone who's got ``Girl at rock concert'' (in Kids in the Hall's Brain Candy) listed as one of their first film credits was probably destined for a strange ride through show business - and, so far, that's just fine with Selma Blair.

From being a face in the Brain Candy crowd, Blair carried on to land a standout role in Cruel Intentions, the youthful, contemporary remake of Dangerous Liaisons starring Ryan Phillippe, Reese Witherspoon and Sarah Michelle Gellar. A romantic lead in the Hellboy franchise followed, as well as the supporting role in Legally Blonde and the TV show Kath & Kim, but Blair removed herself from the casting Rolodex shortly thereafter.

``I took a step back the last few years and haven't worked. I took care of some kids and horses. I actually bought a horse . . . and it saved my life,'' says Blair.

``I started riding seriously at 17 . . . show jumping. Now I do dressage, also, but I finally decided last year I'm not going to devote everything in my life to the next movie or the next TV show. I'm going to move on.''

Now back in the saddle professionally, as well as personally, Blair is in the midst of shooting a Vancouver indie thriller called Replicas. The debut feature from music video/ magazine publishers Justin Tyler Close and Jeremy Power Regimbal, Replicas features Blair in the lead role as a mother trying to enjoy some quality time with her family - when things go horribly wrong.

``A friend gave me the script and it was something I hadn't done before. (So) I said yes and attached myself. It's a really quick shoot, and when you do an indie with a new director and a new producer, you feel their excitement,'' says Blair of the film currently shooting in Langley, B.C.

``I'm definitely the veteran on set. I'm certainly the oldest. It's a young crew, and they're so happy to see their dream coming together.''

As someone who describes herself as ``a tough smile'' who ``never had a lot of twinkle and shine,'' Blair says she's lost some edges with age, and says the nice thing about getting older is that she can finally detach from any ingenue expectations.

``I've never been the most ambitious actress. I don't look like Julia Roberts; that's not what I bring physically to a role. Now I can play mother roles and it works. I feel something good is happening,'' she says.

``If I could dream of the kind of career I'd like to have, it would look like Catherine Keener's or Diane Wiest's - OK, I really am fantasizing here. But I think those actors are a huge pleasure to watch.''

Blair shouldn't sell herself short. She, too, has a proven track record for being interesting, whether it's as the villain-turned-ally in Legally Blonde or an ill-fated turn in The Fog.

``So it's not Titanic,'' she says. ``I get confidence from doing it consistently, even if it's under the radar. I can say to myself: `OK, I'm sticking around. I'm going to keep doing this,' '' she says.

``I asked myself what makes me happy, and I found it. But I can't tell you what that is. I'm afraid someone might take it away from me, so I put it under my pillow.''

Blair says she's a firm believer in the redemptive power of true love, and she's a living, breathing example of it as she speaks. ``I am very in love right now. He designs Ever clothing and he's a wonderful, wonderful man.''

With personal and professional esteem surging, Blair says the other half of the confidence equation is crushing the bogeymen.

``It's not an overwhelming thing. It's just that somewhere, there's this little bit of knowledge that someone is willing to take you down a notch. And you know, to not be paranoid of it, but just to realize it, and that's the way a lot of people work,'' she says.

``You can't do anything about it except be mindful, and then move on with your life.''

And Blair is certainly moving. In addition to Replicas, she's working with Todd Solondz on Dark Horse alongside Christopher Walken and Mia Farrow. She's also slated to appear in Four Saints, a First World War drama about brave nurses, and A Different Kind of Love with Richard Dreyfuss.

``I love Todd Solondz. I love a director with great vision who really knows what he wants. It makes the job easier, because you can understand the vision that much better and communicate it better. I want to do that for every director.''

Blair says she's never been so grateful for the work because she realizes it's a huge opportunity. ``Not everyone gets to do this for a living. I grew up assuming the worst, so if I get two days of happiness handed to me in a row, I'm grateful.''

Replicas wraps this month, with a release date to be determined.

[[ARTICLE]] Abaout the books

The 36-year-old actress related to the main character of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s ‘The Secret Garden’ – which her mother gave her a copy of before she started college – and claims the novel helped her learn not to be so unhappy with life.

She said: "This book changed me the most, for the best. I was kind of a depressed teenager. My mother would introduce my sisters and say, ‘Ok, this is the athlete, this is the overachiever, and then this is Selma, the manic depressive.’

“It's strange that such a childish book had such an effect on me, but it did. I felt so like sour Mary, and the book transformed me the way the garden transformed her – teaching her not to let sad, bad thoughts stay in her head."

The 'Hellboy II' star loves being given new books to read and carries the copy of J.D. Salinger’s ‘Nine Stories’ given to her by Jake Gyllenhaal everywhere.

Speaking about the book, she told Britain’s Elle magazine: "Jake Gyllenhaal gave it to me many years ago because it's one his favourites, and in exchange I gave him a copy of 'Till We Have Faces'.

"I got this book maybe nine years ago, but I still carry it in whatever bag I have. It reminds me of the friendship I once had with Jake and these amazing stories by this author that I love."

[[PROJECTS]] THE REPLICAS

THE REPLICAS

American actor Selma Blair, last here for 2005's The Fog, is back for this thriller about a vacationing family beset by criminals intent on stealing their identities. It's directed by Vancouver's Jeremy Regimbal.

[[PROJECTS]] Josh Close, James D’Arcy, Selma Blair and Rachel Miner Cast in 'The Replicas'

Music video helmer Jeremy Regimbal is directing the home invasion thriller, which just began production.

Josh Close, James D’Arcy, Selma Blair and Rachel Miner have been cast in the home invasion thriller The Replicas. Music video helmer Jeremy Regimbal is directing the project, which just began production.

Close also wrote the screenplay, which follows a couple that heads with their family to a vacation cottage to grieve after the death of their youngest child. Not long after, they are visited by the Sakowskis, a couple with an unhelpful agenda.

Kim Roberts and Tina Pehme of Sepia Films are producing along with Justin Close of The Studio Movement.

Josh Close, who is repped by Buchwald & Associates and Untitled Entertainment, was a regular on the ABC series The Unusuals. On the feature side, he has appeared in The Exorcism of Emily Rose and Diary of the Dead.

Repped by CAA and Management 360, D’Arcy has appeared in Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World and An American Haunting. He will next appear as Ian Fleming in Age of Heroes and in Madonna’s W.E.

Blair, repped by Gersh and Global Creative, most recently appeared in Hellboy II: The Golden Army and Feast of Love. She is filming Todd Solondz’s Dark Horse.

Repped by the Kohner Agency and Untitled, Miner appeared on the Showtime series Californication and in the films Bully and The Black Dahlia.