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SELMA
BLAIR costars in Hellboy 2: The Golden Army,
which opens on Friday. She’s also in Lori Petty’s
autobiographical drama Poker House, which just
played at the Los Angeles Film Festival. This fall, she
and Molly Shannon star in NBC’s American version of
Kath and Kim.
Do you
generally enjoy being interviewed?
Sometimes I think it’s really invigorating to talk about
myself for a while! But then I feel really strange
because I’ve been talking about myself for an hour. You
know, it doesn’t make for a good conversation.
It’s
maybe not dangerous but sort of exhaustingly odd to
plumb yourself all day.
My whole
life I’ve been missing a filter. I don’t censor myself
very well. Thank God people don’t give that much of a
hoot about me.
How do
people in your career find a therapist?
I dunno!
All the other actors recommend a good therapist?
Everybody has confidentiality issues with a therapist.
That’s kind of the law they’re not supposed to break.
But I’m just in therapy talking about my dog dying when
I was 18.
How are
you enjoying being single?
Next
question!
Yay!
Yay!
Therapy’s working! I’m censoring myself!
Kath &
Kim, the US version, is coming to NBC in October...
That’s
what I hear, October 9, NBC, at 9:30, after The
Office. I can be a salesman! And I’m smiling while I
say it! Ben Silverman would be so proud of me. I’m a
good team player. See, I can work for a network. My
career is still going strong, exclamation, exclamation!
Were
there ever doubts that you could be, as they say, on the
team?
Doubts
in my head, for sure. Well, I had done a TV show years
ago...a show on the WB called [Zoe, Duncan, Jack &
Jane]. It was a thrill to me and I was giddy and new. So
I was on the WB, and it was the second-to-worst-rated
show in the United States. There were things you had to
do—affiliate dinners, cocktail parties, and you had to
sell the show, especially because the WB was a fledgling
network....It was very difficult for me, and I thought,
“Never again. I’m not cut out for this.” I get bored
doing something more than a couple of months. That’s why
I like film. [But] I was away shooting Hellboy 2
in Budapest and I thought, “I don’t know if I want to be
on location so much at this point in my life. One day
I’ll have a family or a child, or I could get to know my
house!” So I really fought for it. It wasn’t handed to
me. When I went to the up-fronts and realized I had to
talk to people and smile, I was like, “Oh, no! I don’t
know how to be this affable. I need to go to the dentist
and put veneers on my teeth.” I’m so grateful to be
here. I want to do it well! But I think I have to put a
disclaimer: “This does not come naturally to me. Please
don’t be angry with me.” You have to try to charm
people. I’m not dripping with that said charm. That
thing they call charm I do not know.
It
sounds like shyness and something else—not necessarily
hatred of humanity.
No! I
like humanity. I’m a little uncomfortable around
humanity. But I like them there people. Those people you
speak of seem kind and nice at times. But it’s a lot of
work to be up and breathing, don’t you find?
Did you,
uh, get fat for Kath and Kim?
I let
myself go a little. I didn’t get fat, because that would
sound wrong. I’m never going to be a big girl—I’m just a
little floppy. It’s hard going to the gym. It hurts. And
it hurts when you don’t see results. There’s mirrors all
over the gym!
Do you
have some monster putting you through the paces?
I have
two very good-looking guys putting me through the paces.
That’s right, I need two: Ryan and Matt. They text me
and tell me to eat every two hours, to keep my
metabolism up. Little do they know I’m eating macaroni
and cheese.
That is
like a Demi Moore routine!
I’m
trying, baby, I’m trying. I had my birthday on Monday,
and I went surfing for the first time. I’m making this
year about being active.
How was
your birthday?
It was
great. I talked to my mom on my birthday, whom I
worship. I turned 36 this year. She said, “Oh, baby,
when I was 36 I remember laying in bed and thinking,
‘I’m 36, it’s halfway over, it’s halfway over.’” That
was my mom’s birthday gift.
That’s
what 36 feels like.
It felt
halfway over when I was five. I’m surprised I made it
this far. I never thought I’d be 16! I thought I’d die
tragically young and it’d be over.
How hard
did you try?
I was
pretty self-destructive, I’ll leave it at that. I was a
reckless person. But those days are gone! |
