Hellboy (2004)
Interview with Selma Blair
Selma Blair is known to be a publicist's nightmare. Therefore OutNow.CH was not surprised to see a care-taker in the room where the interview was held. Nicole, as we believe she was called, was to sit through the whole interview to take care Selma wouldn't do any naughty things with us boys. Well, Selma still did, but more on that later. The actress looked gorgeous in a dark brown top and beige trousers and seemed generally very happy. Since it took OutNow.CH some time to get ready for the interview, it was her to come up with the first question:
Selma Blair: Did you like the movie?
OutNow.CH: I liked the movie a lot.
SB: What if you didn't. Would you tell me if you didn't?
ON: I guess so. We are not that "American". [Everybody, including Nicole, starts laughing] We would tell you, seriously. I liked it a lot. Although I felt a little too old for it sometime. Hellboy is a bit of a teenage kind of character.
SB: Really? I loved it.
ON: But there are lots of other movies with you that are less teenage material that I like a lot, so I am happy to have an interview with you.
SB: Ah good. Thank you.
ON: You look great by the way. I once read that you felt like a tomboy next to Cameron Diaz and Christina Applegate on the set of The Sweetest Thing. I don't think that's true.
SB: Oh, thank you. Guillermo calls me his little tomboy too.
ON: How many times did you see the movie?
SB: I think I saw the movie three times.
ON: How did you get involved in Hellboy in the first place?
SB: I got involved for the first time when, thanks to my lucky stars, Guillermo called and said he wanted me for the movie. That was it. I have never heard from the movie. I didn't even know it was in production. I was familiar with Guillermo's work. I had only seen The Devil's Backbone. That was all I was familiar with and I was so enchanted by that movie. I thought it was gorgeous. So I said yes. That was it. Then I met with him. I was so nervous, that I spent the entire interview on the floor cowed up behind his desk. I don't even remember that. He told me afterwards. So he thought, I was really perfect for Liz. And that was it.
ON: Do you relate to the character of Liz in any ways?
SB: I do relate to Liz. I think I am as well - and so is about everyone I know - a very powerful person. All of us, I think, have a lot more power than we are aware of or are comfortable using. I can be so unbelievably awkward and uncomfortable in this life. So it was pretty easy to get into Liz's skin. She is really a strong woman, who can act like a very underconfident little girl. I definitively have some of that quality and that fear, which I hope not to have my whole life. It's really a drag. But I can relate to that.
ON: Did you read the Hellboy comic prior to the movie?
SB: No. I didn't even know the Hellboy comics existed. As soon as I was offered the movie, I went and got all the comics. And I thought they were gorgeous. Mike Mignola is an amazing story teller. And I think they are some of the most handsome comics around. But I wasn't familiar with it before. And I wasn't any more familiar with Liz after I looked at the comics either, because she was barely in the beginning ones. Now she is in the B.P.R.D. ones, but I was like: "What a drag! I don't know this girl at all." I couldn't tell anything. There was like one frame of her with a cigarette or something. So the only thing I tried to adopt from the comic book was a beret, that I tried to put in the movie. But it just looked so ridiculous on me. So it was cut out of most of the movie.
ON: Do you read any other comics? Did you read comic books as a child?
SB: No. I was one of those dumb girls that read "Archie" comics. I didn't read fantasy comics. I read the school yard stuff like "Ritchie Rich" and "Betty and Veronica". Kind of the dorky ones. Now I do. Now I love the Neil Geiman ones. I love "Spider-Man" and "Superman" so much and my husband is a huge comic book junkie. So I kind of take his up and read.
ON: You shot Hellboy in Prague. Did you find the time to explore the city?
SB: During Hellboy I had so much time. That was the most challenging thing about shooting. It was, that I didn't do it enough. I was so happy on the set, I loved everyone so much. Then I had a month off somewhere I think, where I couldn't leave. I couldn't go back to the States and I couldn't go to London in case they needed me. So I stayed in Prague and I made some wonderful Serbian (sic) Friends, that where living there. And I would travel on the weekends. I would go away to see castles. I really loved Prague so much.
ON: Are you going to be in part two of Hellboy as well?
SB: Yes. I will be in part two! How can I not be, you evil man? Liz has her strengths finally. She would better be in part two! I'm signing on to do it and I think we are shooting in one year. Probably in Prague, maybe Berlin even.
ON: Can you tell us something about the storyline already?
SB: Top secret. I swore myself to secrecy. I think it's going to be very beautiful. And Liz is going to be much more powerful in this one. She has to be. She sure didn't bust out a lot of moves in the last one in the end.
ON: How was it to kiss Ron Perlman with all his make-up?
SB: I was looking forward to it. I had this crush on Hellboy the whole movie. I was so exited. And Guillermo saved our kissing scene for the last day. And I think Ron was more nervous than I was. He could be my father, so it was a really emotional moment for him. And then we kissed and it was so weird because he was all rubber. I forgot that Hellboy was all rubbery. He was very sexy to me during the shoot, very strong and funny. I really got to know him as a person. Not as Ron but as Hellboy. And then we went to make out and it was all those teeth and latex... It looked better on the film, believe me. I was laughing the whole day.
ON: Do you think you will get nominated again for Best Kiss at the MTV Movie Awards with this kiss?
SB: I don't know. I would like to have a bookend, another MTV popcorn trophy. But I think there wasn't enough skin showing for MTV's taste. They like things really crazy now.
ON: How does it feel to be in one of the most freeze-framed scenes in the history of DVD?
SB: Are you talking about the scene with Sarah Michelle Gellar? That was very nice. I think it was a lovely part of kind of cinematic history. I thought that Cruel Intentions was one of the best teen movies that was made in that wave of teen things made since the John Hughes movies. And Sarah was lovely to kiss. She was a sweet girl. She has very nice lips. That spit take was a bit daunting. There is really like that *shwet* [she tears an imaginary string of spit from her lips] that they kept shooting over and over in order to get something like that. She was my first and last girl kiss. And I'm glad it's on film for my children to see one day.
ON: Before you had a career in acting you pursued a career in photography. Are you still interested in photography? Are you still taking pictures?
SB: I'm not taking them in any way that makes me money anymore. I'm used to do it to make my living. I was doing sports photography and then sent them in to magazines. But I also wanted to be an artist with that. But when I became an actress and started getting work I put it aside. But there is no reason for me not to. I will again. I need to build a dark room.
ON: Can you tell something about your part in the next John Waters movie A dirty Shame?
SB: I play a girl named Ursula Udders. I'm hideous basically. I am a sexy hideous beast. I am a dancer. I fancy myself to be a dancer. I'm really not terribly good at it. And I am a sex addict and my mum is Tracey Ullman, who is hysterical, and Chris Isaac is my dad. Johnny Knoxville is also in that movie. It is a great John Waters cast. It's a ridiculous, dirty, disgusting movie that is really really joyous. Basically a bunch of ugly misfits who aren't really confident. Ugh!
ON: It received an NC-17 rating.
SB: It is NC-17. So I think it is kind of a celebration for John Waters-Fans. Yeah. We got our Idol back. This is not your mother's Hairspray anymore. Enough of the good mainstream John Waters. This is old school kind of hideous slag.
ON: I'm sure you get this a lot. How was it in that costume? It doesn't look very comfortable.
SB: It was a massive thing. I laughed at Ron in Hellboy and how much prosthetics he used to go trough. Little did I know that I would be going home, sitting naked in a room full of men applying tits to me for four hours every morning. And then taking them of for two hours, leaving me with a terrible rash. But it was fun. They were really lightweight. They made me feel very dumpy though. I felt like a big mess. There were like armrest for me. I could put my food tray on them at lunch and eat off my chest. I couldn't kiss my boyfriend at the time. I couldn't get my neck passed my breasts. And I flashed a construction crew by opening up my bath robe. There was not one whistle. They were disturbed. They really really really were going to be sick. The tits where big.
ON: That's good to hear then. You are married to Ahmed Zappa. What is it like, to be part of the Zappa-Clan?
SB: I don't know. I guess my family was much odder than I thought, because the Zappas seem very grounded and normal to me albeit much more creative than the usual family. And really innocent. They really are an innocent, lovable and joyous family. And not at all immersed in... the preconception I think a lot of people have is like agh like drugs and crazy but none of that. That never was. Frank Zappa was always a real innovative artist with his mind only. It is a pleasure. I really consider it a real honour. I can't wait until we have our children to teach them about grandpa Frank.
ON: I would like to conclude with some pop-ups. I'll tell you some keywords and you just tell me what comes to mind.
SB: Ok.
ON: Switzerland
SB: Clocks.
ON: The Internet
SB: Porn.
ON: Franz Zappa
SB: Moustache.
ON: The Blair Witch Project
SB: [smiling] Nausea.
ON: Christmas in Tulsa
SB: What the fuck is that? [she burst into laughter]
ON: I'll tell you later. Press Junkets
SB: Spirit stealing.
ON: OutNow.CH
SB: Gay men. Cause we have a magazine in the States called Out Magazine. It's a gay magazine.
ON: Oops. I think we have to do a research on that magazine. Let me just quickly go back to the Christmas in Tulsa keyword.
SB: Is that a movie?
ON: It's the name of the episode of Friends you played in.
SB: Ah. I forgot. I'm like "What the fuck is that!" I thought it was a band ore something. Now I would think of Matthew Perry.
ON: Speaking of which. How is it to be on the set of the most popular sitcom in history?
SB: You know it was a real honour. I said one day: "I want to do an episode of Friends." And they're like: "Cool, come tomorrow!" It was that quick. I was friendly with Matthew Perry and then we became very close friends. And Jennifer I've been friends with all along. I was very dumb that I wasted my one chance on Friends and I didn't get to work with the whole group. I'm friendly with Courtney and David. With all of them. Watch, I don't know Matt. But they're all friends of mine so it would have been a great thing. But no, it was not meant to be.
ON: That's it then.
Selma Blair then took the microphone and started moaning into it. Although Selma did not agree on letting OutNow.CH film the interview, she was fine with taking some pictures. Of course we asked her as well about the confiscating of the DVDs at the Hell Boy signing event in Berlin last week. She noticed the incident too and told us that one of the DVDs indeed was a pirate copy but she wanted to set the record straight that both DVDs were sent back to the owners. Mostly thanks to Guillermo del Toro who during the dinner with the managing director of Columbia Tristar Germany Martin Bachmann, where the piracy issue was discussed, urged them to not make a big deal out of it. According to Blair, Martin Bachmann wanted to sue the owner of the pirated version. But Guillermo del Toro ultimately came through with the friendly approach to his fans, which he is well known for.
