Former lingerie model Romijn-Stamos dons actress' clothing for major Hollywood roles
By GLENN WHIPP
Los Angeles Daily News

She’s tall, she’s talented, she’s wearing...a slip? We remember that Rebecca Romijn-Stamos was a model for Victoria’s Secret and all, but we didn’t expect this kind of product placement when we sat down with her recently to talk about her two latest movies. But here she is, sporting some kind of silky fuchsia garment that, for all intents and purposes, we’ve never seen worn outside, say, a bedroom and, well, um, where were we?

Oh, yes, right...Romijn-Stamos and her two new movies. Since gaining all sorts of credibility in Brian DePalma’s ‘‘Femme Fatale’’ and notoriety as the sexy shape-shifter in the ‘‘X-Men’’ franchise, Romijn-Stamos has become something of a sought-after actress in Hollywood. And not just the kind of ‘‘actress’’ who sashays across the screen, butchers a line or two and then becomes part of the scenery. Filmmakers now seek her out for her ability to inhabit actual characters.

‘‘The sky’s the limit with her,’’ says ‘‘X-Men’’ director Bryan Singer.

‘‘Nothing she does would surprise me.’’ Adds Nick Hamm, who cast her in the supernatural thriller ‘‘Godsend,’’ ‘‘Rebecca is a find. She’s instinctive, intuitive with her choices.’’

About those choices: ‘‘Godsend,’’ which opens Friday, has Romijn-Stamos and Greg Kinnear playing parents who are given the opportunity to bring their dead son back to life through the miracle of cloning. In ‘‘The Punisher,’’ Romijn-Stamos plays a weary soul offering the revenge-seeking title character a shoulder to cry on. (Not that he would.)

When we meet Romijn-Stamos, it’s just days before the announcement that she’s separated from her husband of five years, John Stamos. She says she’s cross-eyed (though not literally, unless we were too focused on the slip-thing to notice) from talking so much about her latest projects. She was game to soldier on, though, extolling the value of conniption fits, the wisdom she gleaned from ‘‘Godsend’’ co-star Robert DeNiro and why we should all avoid small children with bad haircuts.

Q: These two movies you’re in...they raise a lot of questions.

A: Please, not the cloning thing again.

Q: No, no. Well, first off, you have that childbirth scene in ‘‘Godsend’’ and I’ve always wondered where they get those newborns. Does somebody send them over from the hospital?

A: Those were triplets. They were like 3 1/2 weeks old. They put strawberry jam all over them to make them look like they just came out of the oven.

Q: Strawberry jam? You’re kidding.

A: No. It made me want to ask for some toast and butter.

Q: Next question: Why do all the evil kids in movies — like the boy in ‘‘Godsend’’ — have bad haircuts?

A: There’s nothing scarier than a bad haircut.

Q: That’s where the evil comes from, don’t you think?

A: From bad haircuts? It starts there. I feel pretty evil if I get a bad haircut.

Q: In ‘‘The Punisher,’’ you live down the hall from this guy and he practically blows up the building, wall by wall, through the movie. Where was the apartment manager during all this?

A: Good question. You never saw him. You’d think the super would show up at one point and go, ‘‘What the hell?’’ The other thing I kept wondering was how we all lived in that building for so long and no one snagged the apartment with the elevator inside. The Punisher gets it. It’s cool to have an apartment with an elevator that comes through the floor.

Q: What about DeNiro? In interviews he comes across as some kind of shy, slightly incoherent mumbler. Did you learn anything about what makes a guy like that tick?

A: When you’re around a guy like that, a legend like that, of course you’re waiting for any little crumbs of wisdom to be thrown your way. And he is a man of few words. Every once in awhile he’d say something like, ‘‘ ‘You know Marty (Scorsese) and I used to ...’ ” And immediately, when you hear him start a sentence with ‘‘ ‘Marty and I used to,’ ’’ you perk up.

‘‘Marty and I used to ... what?’’ And it would be something super-dumb and mundane like ‘‘ ‘Marty and I used to take naps after lunch.’ ’’ And you’re like, ‘‘Oh. And that worked for you? We should do that! We should totally do that!’’

Q: I always feel better after a nap.

A: Who doesn’t? Certain things happened that made him more human to me. One day, there was four minutes of light left and it’s his shot and he fell into the conniption-fit laughter thing. And there’s nothing funnier than Robert DeNiro breaking down in conniption-fit laughter, which makes the rest of us break down into conniption-fit laughter and then the shot’s gone.

Q: I haven’t had a good conniption fit in a long time.

A: I love conniption-fit laughter! I LOVE IT!|

Q: Well, they did used to call you the Jolly Blond Giant...

A: Let me tell you something — and you have the exclusive on this. I made that nickname up for an interview years ago and people keep asking about it. ‘‘You used to be the Jolly Blond Giant?’’ No. I totally made it up.

Q: You did a photo spread recently for Premiere magazine, dressing up as four famous movie characters: Bonnie Parker from ‘‘Bonnie and Clyde,’’ Melanie Daniels from ‘‘The Birds,’’ Alex Forrest from ‘‘Fatal Attraction’’ and Sandy Olsson from ‘‘Grease.’’ Which part would you have most like to have played?

A: Well, any of them and all of them. They were already played to perfection. But the biggest fantasy for me, literally the happiest half-hour of my career to date, was when I got to do Sandy. They put ‘‘You’re the One That I Want’’ on the stereo full-blast and I got to do that whole dance routine, which I knew like the back of my hand. When I put on those shoes, it was like, ‘‘This is the greatest moment of my life!’’ (Laughs uncontrollably.)

Q: Are you having a conniption fit right now?

A: Yes! Yes! And it feels so good!































 
 


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