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FHM
Interview
Have you ever had a regular job?
No. It's funny you should ask that. We have a coffee guy who comes on set
once a week, but last week he wasn't here and I wanted a blended coffee. I
was like, "How hard can this be? Come on, I'm 28 years old, I can
make a blended coffee drink. "I broke the blender! Smoke was
billowing out of the room. All I could do was laugh. That kind of made me
realize I've never had a real job. I can't even make a coffee drink.
Do you think you've missed out on
normal rife because you were a child actor?
No, but in Who's the Boss, they used my life. which isn't normal. It was
so embarrassing. Like, I started developing and wearing a little bra, and
a couple of weeks later, I turned up for a table reading and the episode
was called "Sam's First Bra." And, the first time I got my
period, instead of being home with my mom I was with Tony Danza! I didn't
tell Tony, but I told Judith Light, the mother on the show. She told me
through the bathroom door how to put a tampon in. I phoned my mom, and she
was a little upset that she hadn't been there.
Is there a sort of sisterhood on
Charmed, or can it get a bit bitchy on set?
People always ask, "Do you guys really get along?" They just
assume we couldn't possibly. My stock answer is if we didn't get along,
you'd hear about it. I mean, if Shannen Doherty, Alyssa Milano and Holly
Marie Combs weren't getting along, that woutd be huge news. I knew the way
Shannen was viewed by the press, and I had a day before I joined when I
was like, "I don't want to get myself into a situation that's going
to be unpleasant." Then I had this sort of epiphany, and I said to
myself, "I don't even know her, and I wouldn't want anyone to judge
me without knowing me." At first, every day was a big slumber party.
We'd hang out and go out on the weekends together. But now, by the third
season, I'm definitely in my trailer more. There will be days when we're
like, '"Yes! I love you!" And days when it's, "Oh, God, go
away. I can't even look at you."
You played Amy Fisher, the Long Island
Lolita, in a TV movie about the Buttafuoco story. Have you had any similar
"dirty old man whose wife doesn't understand him" experiences?
No, I had a sheltered life. I had a guardian who came on the set with me.
I was so lucky, I mean, I have no casting couch stories or weird
sexual-harassment issues. Which is rare. In this business, you hear that
stuff all the time. Like the dirty old man making the young ingénue take
off her blouse during auditions.
You worked with Sean Penn in Hugo
Pool. Did he live up to his "difficult" reputation or was he a
pussycat?
He kept coming into my trailer. He is so sexy. I've never met a sexier
man. He'd say stuff and I'd be like, "Oh, God." And it would
have been, "Could you pass the ketchup?" I saw him a full month
after we were done, and he said, "You were really good in our
movie." And for me, that goes down as one of the greatest compliments
I've ever gotten in my life. I shit my pants. I laid a brick, and I was
like, "OK, thanks, Sean. Gotta go."
And Ice-Tea was your co-star in Body
Count. Did he turn up on set with a huge entourage?
Oh, yeah. He came with 17 one day—very sweet people. There were a lot
of, like, cousins that he had on payroll. There was one scene where he
takes a bullet in the leg and he took it so differently than I'd ever seen
an actor take a bullet before, so I was like, "Wow, that was a neatly
cool choice." He just looked at me and said, "That is what
happens when you get shot." So I went, "Oh! OK, so it wasn't
really a choice! Nice work!"
In Fear you played an out-of-control
girlfriend. What's the worst thing you've done in the name of love?
Well, after someone finished with me, I stalked him. I called a girlfriend
and we followed him, thinking we'd catch him with another woman. We
didn't. It was only one night, but I felt so guilty for ages after that.
Was it good to work with Mark Wahlberg?
Yes, there's a physical presence about him that most young actors don't
have—he's manly. Most actors his age are weird and androgynous, but
there's something very primal about him.
You had a best-setting workout video
called Teen Steam. Do you think it was watched by men for purposes other
than just improving their abs?
Probably, yes.
Do you get lots of kinky fan mail?
I have weird things, but I have an understanding with my security people,
which is, "Call my mother, tell her what's going on and if she thinks
it is important, she'll tell me." Idon't want to live my life in
fear. There have been a couple of situations when people have tracked me
down, and the FBI got involved. My mother called and said, "There's
going to be a security guard parked outside your house for the next couple
of days. Go out and say hello."
You run a Web site protecting
celebrities' images on the Net. How did you get to be a Web crusader?
When my little brother was 12
years old, he typed my name into a search engine and all these porn sites
came up. It upset him, it really did. And for so many reasons, it didn't
seem right. I'm not ashamed of the nudity I've done; it wasn't about that.
It's about the porn masters making $30,000 a month off my naked body
without my permission. We had 12 lawsuits, all of which were settled
outside of court. We did go to trial for one case, and we won a quarter of
a million dollars—a substantial lump of money that felt gross because it
was porn money. So I came up with the idea of starting an
entertainment-industry-driven search engine. I'm very proud of it. I felt
like a pioneer because nobody had taken that into their own hands.
Celebrities hadn't been doing anything about it.
What was the worst abuse of your
image? Had anyone put your head on a spread-eagled nude?
Yes, but the worst thing was that they took my head from Teen Steam when I
was doing leg lifts and they put a little girl's naked body on it. It was
so upsetting. That's when I thought it was getting to be sick.
You had a massive recording career in
Japan. How did that happen?
In a totally bizarre way. When I was 15, Commando was shown there. It was
the first time Japan had ever seen me, and fans started writing in to
magazines asking, "Who is this girl?" So I did some interviews
over there and said I'd been in Annie. A record-company exec saw that,
assumed I could sing and gave me a five-album contract. It was so bizarre
I had to do it. It was great—all five albums went platinum.
Can you speak Japanese?
Just "hello" and "I am Alyssa Milano."
Did you adopt the high-pitched singing
style of Japanese opera?
No, it was total bubble-gum pop.
Why haven't you tried to launch a pop
career in the US?
First of all, because actors and actresses are not taken seriously, and
secondly, it would be another excuse for everybody to give me shit.
You did some saucy commercials for
Candies, and your co-star was a man with a goatee. Is there any excuse for
exotic facial furniture?
Come on, I like weird facial hair. It's so neat.
Would you date a man with a beard?
Yes, although I've never dated anyone with a mustache.
The Candies print ads were banned by
Seventeen and Teen People magazines. Do you understand that censorship?
What harm could seeing you in your undies do to a teenager?
It was more to do with the condoms in the bathroom cabinet, and what
really upset me about it was that The WB was quoted as saying they didn't
promote condom use, which is the most irresponsible thing. I think they
were trying to say, "We don't agree with premarital sex," but
that was offensive to me.
Your former TV dad, Tony Danza, was
quoted as saying he worried about you when you appeared nude in a
magazine. Does he still think he's your dad?
He does think of me as a daughter, totally. He still calls me all the
time.
Do you have a nudity policy or any
kind of rules as to how far you'll go in sex scenes?
I do now, because it's been so taken advantage of. I have major clauses in
my contract saying if I choose to do nudity, I have editing and angle
approval or I won't do it. You have to. The production companies own those
rolls of film, and they need to back us up a little bit more, or it'll
wind up that no one wants to do nudity. It seems to be going that way
already.
You seem to have a relaxed attitude
about getting naked.
Yes, well, it's not normal in America. It's so bizarre. You can look at a
naked body, and to me, there's something very natural and beautiful.
That's why I garden topless. I'll be in my garden, you know, just being
natural.
Have you ever had to phone your
parents and warn them, "Don't look at page 36," or, "Blink
at minute 72"?
No, they've seen every single thing and there's never been any
embarrassment. They look at it as part of what I do for a living. It's not
like my dad would say, "Boy, in that love scene you were great."
We won't talk about the nudity. He knows it doesn't make me a bad person,
you know?
On New Year's Day, 1999, you were
married to Cinjun Tate, of the band Remy Zero, and you're now divorced. Do
you miss the rock-star life?
They were not your typical rock stars. I mean, they took Dramamine on the
tour bus. It was like, "Guys, aren't you supposed to be doing coke or
something?" They're taking drugs so they don't get nauseous! There
was no partying or girls. I expected it to be so much darker and seedier
than it was.
Do you like being a single girl again?
I just feel a bit ridiculous like, "Of course! The actress marries
the rock star and it lasts 11 months!" What a cliche. I was so pissed
at that. Our marriage was not a cliché.
Are you ready to start dating yet?
No, I'm not going to put the effort into it that I used to. I am really
good at being alone. But if next week I decide I need to be with someone,
I will pursue that.
Have you had to fight people off since
your separation?
No, because I haven't left my house! I'm not out there enough for people
to be hitting on me.
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