Pussycat Princess: Rachael Leigh Cook

Some stars would kill to be the next big thing. Others run like mad from stardom. And then there's Rachael Leigh Cook, who unexpectedly found herself famous two years ago in the wake of "She's All That," and has been trying to figure it all out ever since.

"I was getting offered parts that just were not good, that were 'She's All That' chopped up, put in a can, shaken up and told all over again," she says. "I didn't want to do that. 'She's All That' was really fun, but I didn't need to do it again."

"Probably added to that was my feeling that people really didn't want to watch me for an hour and a half anymore," Cook says. "So I just wanted to work with great actors, great directors and be a part of great projects. I also did a lot of ensemble movies, which I like because I feed off people."

On the heels of "She's All That" Cook appeared in several misfires - "Get Carter," "Antitrust" and "Blow Dry" - and filmed a supporting role in the still-unreleased, reportedly unreleasable Western "Texas Rangers." Now 21, the Minneapolis native will return to the screen again on April 6 in "Josie and the Pussycats," which is part ensemble project and part event movie.

"Oh, I don't know if 'Josie and the Pussycats' is really an event movie," Cook says by telephone from her Los Angeles home. "When I think of event movies I think of 'Armageddon' and 'Independence Day' and 'Men in Black,' really flashy movies like that. There are no explosions in 'Josie.'"

"When I think of event movies I think of $100 million budgets," she adds. "We were around $20 million, maybe under."

"I said yes to "Josie" because, after "She's All That," I went in other directions and did movies that were more dramatic, that skewed me as a little older," Cook says. "I felt I had a lot of that in the can - movie-speak - and I wanted to do something again that was for the "She's All That" audience. They're a great audience and so loyal."

And so Cook signed on for "Pussycats," in which she plays Josie opposite Tara Reid as Melody and Rosario Dawson as Val. The three are unknown girl musicians transformed into superstars by a scheming manager (Alan Cumming) and a devious record-company executive (Parker Posey).

Though a fan of the Archie Comics book that spawned the film, Cook didn't know much about the 1970s animated "Josie and the Pussycats" television series. It was the script, she says, that sold her on the movie.

"It was just funny," Cook says. "I didn't need it to be a cartoon or to have a cult following to want to be involved. I just liked what was on the page, and kind of went from there."

"The title might make it seem like I'm the Erin Brockovich, as it were, of the movie, but I'm not," the actress says. "It's about the three of us. It's got excellent resident villains and some other wacky characters."

It's hard to assess the film's box-office prospects, since it's more innocent and tongue-in-cheek than "American Pie" and the rest of today's outrageous comedies. But Cook sees that as a plus.

"I think there are a lot of people out there, like me, who will go for a movie that isn't filled with biting humor and high-school fart jokes," she says. "Do I think the 'American Pie' audience can go to this film and enjoy it? Definitely. Will my mom enjoy it? Yeah, because she's my mom."

"I'm not sure I'd recommend it to other people's mothers," Cook adds, "but I don't know. If you're eight, you'll probably love it. If you're in high school, you can enjoy it. If you're the parents of an eight-year-old, you won't be miserable, not by any means."

Cook reports that she got a kick out of performing - or at least pretending to perform, since she actually lip-synced the Pussycats songs - in front of 7,000 extras who turned up for the filming of a raucous concert sequence. And, more important, she says she enjoyed working with co-stars Reid and Dawson, without any of the tensions that have been reported among, for example, the three-women cast of "Charlie's Angels."

"I just love them dearly," Cook says. "They're two very strong-willed, independent, spirited, just wonderful girls. It's hard to meet actors these days who aren't a little bit crazy, and they're so great.

"Tara and Rosario know they have to work hard to be where they want to be," she adds, "and they do that. It would have been easy to wage war, because we're in practically every scene together and we were staying in the same hotel, but there were no egos involved."

Hollywood, to be sure, thrives on ego. Nonetheless, Cook comes across as a reluctant starlet.

"The experiences I've had with being in the public eye, outside of publicized events or appearances, have not been good," she says softly. "Rumors. Really mean things have been printed about me. That really upsets me - if that's what all of this is going to be about, I'll go back to doing my movies that hit the festivals and then disappear."

"There are all kinds of rumors," she says fretfully. "I'm not dating any members of 'N Sync. I did not yell at a store clerk in New York. "I'm not crying over either one of those things," Cook hastens to add, "but I'm waiting for it to get more personal. When it starts to become who people think I am, I'm really going to be bothered by that."

Which sounds as if Cook is in the game for the long haul.

"For now, yes," replies the actress, due next in two independent films, the drama "Tangled" - which she produced and which was recently picked up for distribution by Miramax - and "29 Palms," co-starring Jeremy Davies, Michael Lerner, Chris O'Donnell and Bill Pullman. "I lead a pretty private life. I like it that way. If this starts to become who I am, then I shouldn't do it anymore.

"I'm not worried about it yet," she concludes, "but I wish people didn't even know I was an actress before they met me, because they're biased. It's just that acting is not who I am, but what I do."