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Was
it something like the Eco Challenge they do every year?
Exactly
and I could just see myself crying at the end of it. So on my trips
you definitely don't have to work for it. You do get to go on cool
adventures but it's not anything like "Survivor" the TV
show. You don't eat rats |
and
you get to stay in a hotel.
So
you don't have to fish for your own food or anything like that?
No,
no.
Did
you do something recently with Tippi Hendren?
We
were scheduled to do a photoshoot together. It was kind of last
minute and she ended up going out of town so we couldn't pull it off.
You've
met other famous people including Oprah Winfrey.
Yes.
Where'd
you meet Oprah?
This
is kind of interesting. My boyfriend at the time and one of my best
friends and her husband were at the Bel Air Hotel. We were just
sitting there having some drinks. Jim Carrey was there with a bunch
of people also. He was with a blonde and it was about the time he and
Lauren Holly were breaking up but the media hadn't caught on yet.
Cool.
I
was wondering what he was doing with this blonde. It turned out it
was Oprah Winfrey's producer and they were with this guy who was her
hairdresser and a couple of Jim's people. They were all sitting in
the corner having a good time. You have to understand that my
friend's husband looks exactly like Jim Carrey and people mistake him
for Jim all the time. So we dared my friend to go over to Jim Carrey
and ask if her husband could walk over and say hello. Jim agreed and
they met and Jim Carrey kept saying, "You don't look like
me!" and joking around. My friends came back and sat down but
you could hear Jim and his group shouting into their cell phones for
someone to come down.
And
it was Oprah?
It
was Oprah. She was in town for the Revlon Run/Walk, which I was
doing the next morning. She came down in her nightclothes and was
laughing and telling these guys how she had to be up the next morning
for this event. Well, my friend and I admire Oprah so much and we
dared my friend's husband to go over and ask if we could meet her. He
did and Oprah came over and was the most gracious, sweetest person
I'd ever met. My friend started crying.
And
Oprah was in her nightclothes?
Yeah.
That
is so funny.
But
she also had on her 10-carat diamond earrings, too.
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(laughing)
So she still looked fabulous.
Absolutely.
There was nothing casual about those stones. And my friend was
crying and saying, "Thank you for what you've done for
society." And Oprah was so gracious. I'm sure people tell her
those things all the time and she was acting like she had never heard
it and was very thankful and sweet. She was just one of the coolest
people I've ever met. After that she said good night because she had
to get up and we ended up partying with Jim Carrey for a while. |
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He
invited you over?
Yes
he did. We ended up having champagne with him. It was a lot of fun,
we had a great time. He's one of the nice people in the business.
You've
said that one of the people you'd like to meet is Madonna.
I
would love to meet Madonna. Hands down I think she's the coolest.
She's a businesswoman who's stayed on top of her game and faced all
kinds of adversity in the process.
You've
also said you'd like to meet Dame Judi Dench.
Yes.
What an actress!
She's
a wonderful actress.
Yeah
and it was sad to hear that she lost her husband recently. I read
something that said she had never been away from her husband longer
than two weeks. They made it a point in their relationship that
family came first and that acting, even though it was a passion for
her, was completely separate and second. She had this amazing
relationship with her husband and unfortunately he just passed away.
I feel so sad for her.
Have
you ever married?
No.
Have
you ever thought about marrying?
Yes!
Totally down the line I will. Right now I'm just busy with my
career. I've had long term relationships. One of my boyfriends I had
for 10 years.
Ten
years?!
Can
you believe it?! I love relationships. He's one of my best friends
and to this day we have a business together. We rent camera equipment
back to the television show "E/R" where he's on the camera team.
Did
he ever propose to you?
Yes
he did actually. At one point he did and I was just like, no.
(laughing)
You told him "no"?!
Marriage
is a very scary proposition. I still feel like a kid. I still feel
like I have so much ahead of me. I would love to be married and do
the whole family thing but right now I'm so busy that I don't think
it would be fair to him.
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What
is your biggest self-doubt? Do you have a self-doubt?
Yes
I do. I think everyone does in anything they do even if it's small,
especially in the acting business. Sometimes you just don't know
where your next meal is coming from. There's always that fear that
you're never going to get to the point where you feel comfortable in
what you're doing. And also sometimes you remember the days |
when
you were struggling and you have a fear of going back to those days.
It's like any kind of business. In acting and modeling it's not like
a job where you go to college and then you start out at an
entry-level position and then you move your way up and you see your
results as you move up. In acting you could be on top one day and
kind of forget about you the next. The reward and the work you put
into it doesn't always come through right away. It's not tangible
like some other kinds of jobs or positions. This is why I never rely
on an agent to get me out there and get me parts or modeling jobs.
You
would get your own parts alone?
I
would have this network of friends and we were all pretty
entrepreneurial and we always came up with things to keep ourselves
busy and to bring in income. An agent has 350 girls of your type and
then it's a matter of you going out and getting the job. But if you
can personalize it and bring it down to a personal level and meet
these people that are going to book you they'll remember you and
trust you to get the job done right.
I
hear what you're saying.
It's
so hard. It's a rough, rough business. I've been in it since I was
three. My whole family has been in it and thus I learned to look at
it as a business and not what it is.
Are
you thankful your parents got you into this business?
(laughs)
That's an interesting question. Yes and no. (pauses)
What
do you honor most about your mother?
She's
tenacious as all hell. That's probably where I get my drive from.
She's very smart. She taught me about the stock market. I would come
home from school and I'd stay with my Aunt Peggy who was like a nanny
while my parents worked. And when my mom would come home she would
ask me if the Dow was up or down and I would tell her. (laughing)
Because of that I have this interest in the stock market. I love
playing the stock market and for a while I was day-trading. I've
pulled back on it recently though. That's a hobby of mine that I
don't think too many people know about.
Is
the stock market up or down today?
I'm
not following it that much these days and I haven't looked at it
today. Since the NASDAQ's decline I've kind of been on the sidelines.
I'll hear about it every once in a while or I'll go into Yahoo! and
I'll check to see what stocks are doing but I'm not following it that
much anymore. When it was hot though, I'd wake up at five in the
morning to do my research, checking P/Es (price earning ratios) and
all of that good stuff. By the time trading opened, boy, I was ready!
What
stock made you the most money?
I
did really well with I2 Technologies and with Qualcomm. There were a
series of different stocks I owned and it was fun while it lasted.
I've been dealing with my tax accountant recently and he told me I
did much better than I thought I did last year, which means more
taxes I have to pay.
Do
you find a lot of compassion on your travels? Do you find good
things on your travels?
Oh
yeah. Travelling to me is one of the best ways to educate yourself.
You learn about different cultures and people. I think in other
places people lead more simple lives. I'm from L.A., a big city where
things get complicated and you're more easily stressed. It seems like
when you travel there's a different mentality. Abroad everyone thinks
Americans are pretty crazy and that we're all overworked. They think
what's wrong with us that we don't take siestas.
(laughs)
Their
perspective of us is interesting. And compassion is worldwide. I was
in Belize and I think this is an interesting statement from one of
the native guys that was with us. He worked for Captain Morgan's, our
sponsor for the Belize event. He was taking us out on a boat and we
were doing some filming and we were kind of teasing our cameraman
Mark. And this man from Belize was kind of keeping quiet and shaking
his head. I asked him what was wrong and he said, "You
Americans, I don't understand why you're always putting each other
down." I was shocked and explained to him that you tease someone
because you like them. It wasn't even teasing about something mean, I
think it was about the way Mark was holding the camera. It was
something silly. But it definitely made me think how we aren't one
world. And that just makes me want to go out and explore it even more.
Interviewed
and written by Sandro
Galindo
