by Michael B. Dougherty | Photographs by Ondrea Barbe
Selma Blair suffers from “that girl” syndrome. She was “that girl” in the promising yet short-lived teen sitcom Zoe, Duncan, Jack & Jane, “that girl” who famously made out with Sarah Michelle Gellar in Cruel Intentions, and sometimes “that girl” with the capricious haircuts. It’s partly her own fault for having chosen a career trajectory more concerned with landing solid character roles than starlet prepping, but then there’s the media fascination with decoding the Blair persona. Raven-haired, wry, and formerly married to a Zappa (Ahmet), Blair has always exuded a certain anti- Hollywood quality, causing most interviewers to either deem her “dark and mysterious” or, as Details once did, “the coolest girl we know.” It seems people can’t decide who they want Selma Blair to be, but they know they want more of her. With the July release of the Guillermo del Toro-helmed Hellboy II: The Golden Army and her casting opposite Molly Shannon in a new TV comedy this fall, everyone is finally about to get their wish.
LOS ANGELES CONFIDENTIAL: You were just in New York doing upfronts for Kath and Kim, where network executives show advertisers what’s new for fall. How did that go?
SELMA BLAIR: It’s a strange thing, doing television, because you’re working for a network. You really get to be an actress when you’re doing movies, but when you’re working for a network you’re working for a corporation, and that’s really evident when you go to something like the upfronts. You’re there selling soap! [Laughs] I’m not a good soap salesman. I’m not a good anything salesman. I’m not a good Selma Blair salesman. So it’s like, ‘Oh, God, they might not be happy that I’m on their team.’ I’m not good with the forced smile. I’ve had to learn [to think] when I wake up in the morning, OK, it’s time to get up and make the doughnuts, because I am so grateful to have this great job with Kath and Kim.
LAC: How did it come about?
SB: I was in Budapest for six months shooting Hellboy II, getting tired of being away on location so much. My life seemed really fragmented. I wanted to stay in one place longer. So I thought it might be nice to go and do a TV show. My manager brought me this script and nobody wanted me for it, I just didn’t seem to fit the part at all. But I talked to the producer, Michelle Nader, and we just hit it off. She was a kindred spirit, and I really “got” the character. I thought I understood what Kim, this character, was about, an amalgam of American pop culture and Britney Spears, and how every little girl would want to be her.
LAC: Hopefully not anymore!
SB: Well, still. Kim’s still very juvenile, even though she’s 30 or something. She’s past her prime, but still living out this dream of something she thinks she is.
LAC: And Molly Shannon’s your mom?
SB: Yep, I’ll be playing Molly Shannon’s daughter, and the math does not work. It’s impossible for me to be Molly Shannon’s daughter. It’s part of the fun.
LAC: So what can you tell us about the plot?
SB: Kath and Kim are a very loving but dysfunctional mother and daughter. I play Kim, and I’m married, but I move back in with my mom because my husband actually expects me to do things, like microwave a dinner every once in a while. And I’m very self-absorbed; I think I’m a princess. Where my mother is very upbeat about things, I’m very downbeat. I’m pop-culture-obsessed and know everything that’s going on in the tabloids. I think the show might be very politically incorrect.
LAC: Tell us about working on Hellboy II.
SB: The filming of Hellboy II was a remarkable experience. Guillermo had just come off the success of Pan’s Labyrinth, which is so well-deserved. So to be able to work with the hottest director and someone I love—to go and get into his brain and be able to walk into his sets—is something I’ll be forever grateful for.
LAC: You mentioned being in Budapest.
SB: We were in Budapest for a really long time, which was kind of a tough place to be. But well worth it. And Ron [Perlman] does such a fantastic job. I think nobody could play Hellboy the way he does. He’s in makeup seven hours a day.
LAC: You’re often labeled as the quirky or weird girl in Hollywood. Does that ever get old?
SB: I don’t know quite how it happened. Being in my skin I feel pretty normal—no, I guess I courted it somehow because my answers are either flip or people don’t understand my sense of humor. And I’ve taken pretty odd roles, and the choices I’ve made are brave. I guess there was a time when I really wanted to be the pretty girl in a video.
LAC: Rap or rock? You know there are two different kinds.
SB: I don’t know. I think I wanted to be the cheesy pretty girl in a video. I wanted to be what I wasn’t seen as, for sure. I wanted to be the airbrushed girl, like in an Aerosmith video. Glamorous, sweet, pretty, sexy… everything I’m not seen as, I probably wanted to be for a moment.
LAC: Karl Lagerfeld described you as a “muse.” How do you feel about that?
SB: It’s always flattering. Karl, especially, is someone who never stops, and he’s always inspired by things. So to be even considered, in any form, to be part of his life is very flattering.
LAC: Is the fashion world something you’re interested in?
SB: I’ve always loved fashion, and in the past year I’ve kind of strayed from it. I’ve stuck to a uniform of wearing the same white shirt and blue jeans. I’ve just kind of let myself go in the past year.
LAC: Why’s that?
SB: I’ve been traumatized or something ever since I came back from Budapest, and just haven’t felt the same. I hope I get it back. Some things happened in the past year and I just haven’t been inspired by anything.
LAC: Personally or professionally?
SB: Personally and professionally. So I’m really looking forward to the TV show and going to promote the movie. Hopefully I’ll start to write again, and get things going.
LAC: What kind of writing are you doing?
SB: I write short stories, mostly for myself. I had a couple published but they’re not very good. My mother gives them a solid B minus. Hopefully I’ll start moving again soon, because it’s really hard when you have to start putting your face out there and you just don’t want to. [Laughs] And I wonder why I’m called sad and odd!
LAC: So are you the antithesis of Hollywood?
SB: I probably am. I’m a dark-haired East Coast girl. I’m a character actress… so what are you gonna write about me? I’m finding my way into leading-lady roles, and now even my leadinglady stuff is against a big red monster and the lead in a sitcom where I play a self-absorbed, unattractive daughter in Sarasota, Florida. [Laughs]
LAC: As the dark-haired East Coast girl, how does LA suit you?
SB: Initially I thought it was paradise. It was the strangest thing, being able to have a bagel on a Sunday morning under a palm tree. I grew up in Detroit, and then in New York, so to be able to wear shorts year ’round, not that I do… God! I don’t even know if I own shorts. But to be in the warm weather and smell jasmine is incredible.
