Uptown
Girls
An Interview with Brittany Murphy
After a very
public break-up with Ashton Kutcher, Brittany Murphy seems to
have gravitated towards a project that is about the power and
necessity of good relationships. “Uptown Girls” resonates
with underlying messages that reflect perhaps the many feelings
Brittany herself has had to maneuver through to get over her recent
break-up. It’s quite conceivable that “Uptown Girls”
has served as a cathartic exercise not only for Brittany’s
heart, but also as a way to show the world she has blossomed as
an actress, and most importantly as a person. I had a chance to
meet and talk to Brittany about working on “Uptown Girls,”
her changing image, the next film she is shooting called “Little
Black Book,” and oh yeah, Ashton. This is what she said:
 Did
you do any improvisation in this movie?
Brittany: No.
Was all the physical
action, like the dancing, scripted?
Brittany: It
was in the script that Molly danced, but I did the moves and we
choreographed for camera where it would be, but that was all written,
yeah.
Do you have any kid
friends?
Brittany: Well,
Dakota. Lots actually. I actually made this for--one of the reasons
in the beginning, when I first read it, first of all it was just
sprinkled with pixie dust and it was very magical and really felt
very personal to me. So, 80% of it in the beginning was there's
a little girl that we became very dear friends. I was a Christmas
Angel. I thought she'd absolutely love this. So, I wanted to write
her a love letter because we met in a different state and we never
got to say goodbye and I always wanted to write something. Then
it became a love letter to children of all ages really, which
basically means us people.
Are you a big kid
at heart?
Brittany: Aren't
we all?
Dakota is more of
an adult than most adults.
Brittany: Oh
Lord, she's the best at being nine that I've ever seen anyone
else be nine. She is so wildly intelligent and I could eat up
all the time in the world to speak about Dakota, but she is a
ray of sunshine. Dakota is a ray of sunshine and obviously wise
beyond her years. Her soul is so old and beautiful and she is
so aware and intuitive of other people’s feelings, and that's
one of the attributes that makes her such a brilliant actress
is because of her hyperawareness to other people's feelings and
her openness. But on the flipside of that, you could talk to her
like your best girlfriend but you can't forget she's nine. She
is nine years old and she has the most adorable hysterical sense
of humor and she's as funny as the day is long and she's a giggle
bunny and will do cartwheels with me and she's very much nine,
but a very, very old soul and quite wise beyond her years, yes.
She's so intelligent.
Were your feet gross
after going barefoot in the streets of New York?
Brittany: You're
the second person to ask that. Only two people have noticed that.
That's interesting, yeah, of course. I have, I had sticky pads
on the bottom, but they kept on peeling off on the sidewalk. Once
you're working, you get in the dirt of things. You get your feet
dirty and that's part of the job, so no dirt makeup under the
nails. It was real.
Donald [Faison] kept
saying how beautiful you've become?
Brittany: Aww.
It's personally an overwhelmingly wonderful day as far as friends
are concerned. I'm so proud of Donald and the man that he has
become and not only is he an absolute stunner, this is like a
high school reunion and I never was able to have a high school
reunion but you really realize that someone's truly your friend
if you wait five years until you see them again. And if you see
them again, everything's exactly the same except that they're
just more mature. He is an extraordinary man, and to see this
young boy who was always funny but he's the same Donald, just
his responsibility has changed and he's just as brilliant an actor.
He's obviously even more brilliant and more gorgeous and he is
just an incredible man. And I'm so proud of him.
What about your physical
transformation. You've lost a lot of weight?
Brittany: I actually
haven't. I actually have never lost a large chunk of weight at
once in my life. I've been the same weight since I was in “Girl,
Interrupted” and I was padded for that film. So there's
a very common misconception there. And when someone is 15 and
they do their first movie and their face is a little bit different,
I was actually really, very excited about--I've always been a
squirt and the tiniest one in class with the little toothpick
legs in the recital picture my whole entire life. And there was
a little moment that was post-puberty which was immortalized on
film forever which was Clueless, and I'm proud of it and happy
to have that immortalized. The most awkward stage definitely,
aesthetically in my youth and internally afterwards, it became
even more awkward that next year, but I was 15. And your face
changes when you're 15. It was nearly 10 years ago and I think
just for some reason, people just don't really get it. I tweezed
my eyebrows since then and my hair color's different. All those
little things can definitely leave great attributes to a physical
change.
 Isn't
there some industry pressure to transform and be super thin?
Brittany: So
I've read. I have never felt that because I consider myself a
character actor. I've never had to gain weight for a role and
everybody says that's a difficult thing to do, to gain and then
lose. But I've never had to go through that for a role. I've been
padded anytime I had to be bigger than I actually was and I'm
an actor. It's my job.
As a character actor
you are getting more many lead roles; how do you look at this?
Brittany: I
look at it as the same thing, just a different sized trailer I
guess.
Do you have any role
models for physical comedy?
Brittany: No.
I was trained in dance. I could state the obvious, but I'm not
going to. I was trained in dance and they always used to say that
I was a little--she could dance circles around everyone and everything
but she can't walk to save her life, and this whole physical comedy
thing is far more me than a lot of other roles that I've played
before. That’s more truly me than the person that my family
has to deal with, the klutz human. Hi.
You're wearing a cross.
Are you religious?
Brittany: Yeah,
I'm a Christian. I go to church when I can, not enough. I was
raised Baptist. I went to a Lutheran school and a Baptist church
and I'm a nondenominational practicing Christian. I have a lot
of faith.
Is it hard to get over a breakup when your ex is on
the cover of every magazine you see?
Brittany: This
is an easy one. No. The answer is no. Not for me, not in this
case.
So do you have any
advice or positive message on getting over a breakup?
Brittany: I don't talk about relationships
in print anymore. That's one great thing I learned from that relationship.
I don't want this interview to be misconstrued in any way, shape
or form as specifically speaking about one relationship. I would
like it to be known for the record, everyone, that relationships
in general, it's good to have a broken heart sometimes. It's good
to have your heart broken and to be the heartbreaker is also really
difficult. So if you've had both ends of it, to break someone's
heart and to have a heart broken, or it be mutual, isn't the best
thing, but it's a really growthful experience and I think instead
of taking it out on yourself, you must learn from those experiences.
This is geared for young people, what I'm saying. Basically, I'm
25, so I'm not a walking wealth of knowledge. I've had four and
a half boyfriends in my life and I've gone on two dates. So, I
think the most important thing is to just learn. Learn why it
didn't work and not allow that to happen again, and not give someone
your power. As Lauryn Hill says in The Miseducation of Lauryn
Hill, definitely keep your own power in any relationship of any
kind. Those can be some of the most growthful times, but don't
give yourself away to anyone. You have to still keep yourself,
which is also, I'm going to tie it into this film, which is also
a really big message in Molly Gunn. Her relationship with Neal,
she gives and gives and gives of herself until she doesn't have
anything left to give. And then it takes the most unlikely relationship
with an eight-year-old to realize wait a second, I have to trust
my instincts, believe in myself and be true to myself to actually
be able to give the way I want to give in life and be the person
I want to be, and be the balanced person that I'd like to be,
so I think it's important. Self-preservation is quite important.
If you could change
anything about yourself, what would you change?
Brittany: I would
love to be--all of my instincts, I do now, but even more than
I do--no, I'm sorry. I take that one back. That's a tough question.
Why would I want to change? I don't want to change. Everybody
has little things. I've always wanted to be really tall for a
day. That's kind of a very superficial thing. I'm 5' 3",
but for one day I'd love to be 5'9" and tower over everybody.
I think it would be fun. I'd love to be a man for a day too, just
to see what it's like. I find this life so interesting, so obviously
it wouldn't be to change into a man. If I could change anything
about myself it would be--and it's going to get too metaphysical
with the answer, so I'll just say to be able to answer questions
quicker! [Laughs] I wouldn't be as tardy. I'm tardy sometimes
and I would like to be more orderly and timely.
 Can
you talk about your next project?
Brittany: The
next film I'm making is called “Little Black Book”
and it's great. It's by Revolution Pictures and Blue Star Productions.
Nick Hurran is directing it…“Plots with a View”
which is this Miramax film coming out. It’s a film with
Brenda Blethyn, it's his first American film, but Nick Hurran,
I call him Nick The Man Hurran because he's a genius and it's
co-starring Holly Hunter and Kathy Bates and all these incredible
people. It's a great ensemble…Julianne Nicholson, Ron Livingston
plays my boyfriend and it's kind of thematically a mixture between
“Broadcast News” and “My Best Friend's Wedding”
and it's about basically embracing chaos. You can't avoid chaos,
and journalism and it’s about a girl that wants to be Diane
Sawyer…We start shooting next week, the day after the Hamptons
premiere of Uptown Girls, I fly into work the next morning. It's
a redeye and I start work at four a.m. here in LA.
Did doing the research
give you more respect or insight into what journalists do?
Brittany: I never
didn't have respect for journalists. [Said very sincerely and
smiling sweetly; she’s a doll] I always had a wealth of
respect for journalists. I don't know how you all do what you
do. It actually really blows my mind. And I find it really intriguing
and interesting. I would love to sit down and ask all you guys
a ton of questions. I realized a few press junkets ago that it
eats up too much time. I would always ask everyone else questions
but I stopped doing that.
If you have any questions, or
comments, you can write me at jax@latinoreviw.com.
UPTOWN GIRLS OPENS
ON AUG 15
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