Marley Shelton: The Girl Next Door
In person, Sugar & Spice actress Marley Shelton looks like a beautiful, petite, porcelain doll with perfect skin, big blue eyes and golden curls. You may have seen her as Tobey Maguire's love interest in Pleasantville and a stalkee in the teen horror flick Valentine. In the controversial summer film Bubble Boy, she plays the girl next door whom Bubble Boy Jake Gyllenhaal falls for. In real life, Marley grew up in a semi-tough suburb of Los Angeles where there were more gangs than guys next door. She told us about her character, her off-beat sense of humor and her recent marriage to a Hollywood producer.
Teenhollywood: Is it possible to make a movie like this with a straight face?
Marley: I think it's impossible. We were laughing constantly. If you're gonna spend sixteen or eighteen hours a day working on a movie it might as well be a comedy.
Teenhollywood: When you were growing up, did the guys in your neighborhood want to date you like your character in this film?
Marley: We didn't have that kind of hierarchy in my neighborhood. I grew up in Eagle Rock (a suburb of L.A.). It was more one gang versus another gang. I went to public school. But it was fun to play the girl next door. I always cringe when I hear 'Girl next door type' because I don't know if that's a compliment or not.
Teenhollywood: How did you get into your character?
Marley: I thought of Chloe as someone who is very curious and adventurous. At least she ventures across the yard to investigate this "freak" if you will and I think she's also someone who is very sweet-natured but she's stuck in suburbia in tract housing. She's looking for her horizons to be broadened.
Teenhollywood: What made you want to tackle this sort of film?
Marley: Well, first of all (when I read the script) I laughed out loud which is always a good indication and, on top of that it was a fresh and original concept. I'd never seen or read anything like it.
Teenhollywood: How hard was it to work with Jake through this piece of plastic all the time?
Marley: Jake is so magical on screen. If Jake didn't exist you couldn't make the film. He really elevates it and yet he has great comedic timing. In terms of the plastic, it was very frustrating to have this physical obstacle but for our scenes, it was great because it was the same frustration our characters were feeling, not being able to touch each other. It fed into our scenes and intensified them.
Teenhollywood: Are you aware there's a controversy over the film because some think it's offensive?
Marley: Honestly we were all incredibly shocked. We had no idea. We didn't set out to push the envelope or make any statement or be politically correct. One of the messages in the film is why don't we all have a sense of humor about ourselves. It's good to laugh at ourselves. Also, it's satirical and there's humor that slides under the radar even though it's really broad as well. It, in no way, makes fun of a disease. I wouldn't be a part of that.
Teenhollywood: What's your master plan for your career?
Marley: Well, I have definitely been on a comedy streak which I'm enjoying because, as an actor it's fun to play with the timing but I have no master strategy. I just look for material that I respond to.
Teenhollywood: Why acting in the first place?
Marley: I love to study people and investigate them. I also love the notion of trying on different identities with no consequence. I love to people watch.
Teenhollywood: Where does your sense of humor come from?
Marley: I don't know if it's genetic but I have a very kind of quirky, a little twisted, slightly off-center (sense of humor). I have a talk show phobia, actually, because I feel like my sense of humor doesn't transmit. To know me is to love me but I can't come up with little anecdotes very well. I mean I thought Rosemary's Baby was really funny. I like weird characters like the two eccentric proprietors of her apartment building.
Teenhollywood: We heard you got married (to a producer).
Marley: I'm hitched. It happened seven weeks ago. We went to The Four Seasons in Kona. Beautiful. When I travel I'm the type that likes to go far, far away and explore and be adventurous and we didn't leave the hotel. The wedding was so intense that you just want to rest. I got married in Big Sur and we had a salsa band. I was engaged and about to be married during the actors' strike scare. We planned that if the strike goes on and on we'd just take a long honeymoon.
Teenhollywood: What is coming up for you?
Marley: I have a movie coming out called Just a Kiss, a black comedy in which I play a suicidal modern dancer. Typecasting of course. Zoe Caldwell plays my mother and there's Tae Diggs and Marisa Tomei, Kyra Sedgewick, a great cast. I dance in the movie. I've always been an amateur dancer; a little ballet, a little modern. But I get to pretend to be expert.
Teenhollywood: Are you working on not playing a high schooler anymore?
Marley: I haven't been typecast I don't feel. I would, of course like to play all ages and grow into those meaty leading lady roles. No, I didn't get married so I could play a leading lady. That would be pretty calculated. Even in Valentine I didn't play high school and not in Just a Kiss either. I'm pretty happy that at least I could age down to 16 in Bubble Boy.
Teenhollywood: Would you like to play a really evil character?
Marley: Oh yeah. That goes with that whole thing of being able to put on these identities with no consequence. You can be nasty and get away with it. I consider myself a choosy beggar right now. I'd love to do an historical piece.
Teenhollywood: Is there a lot of competition among young Hollywood actresses?
Marley: It's really not a competition with other people. There are so many variables that go into a casting decision. It's kind of futile to make it a competition. I get competitive with myself sometimes. I'm a big believer in fate and I believe things take their course for a reason.
Teenhollywood: Is it easy to watch yourself on screen?
Marley: I've gotten a lot better at it. I won't go to dailies if I'm PMS-ing. (laughs). I'm a believer in watching yourself if you are in the right frame of mind because it's really helpful. Sometimes, even watching playback is good. The director's trying to explain what they want and you're not understanding each other and then you see it and you're like, 'oh, of course'.
Teenhollywood: You did a small film with your dad (commercial director Christopher Shelton) called Protect-O-Man. It has a great plot.
Marley: It's a labor of love. We wanted to do something together and so we made this short film, a black comedy about this agoraphobic who is afraid of leaving the house. There's a stalker in her neighborhood so she sends away for a blow-up doll to make it look like there's someone else home. She develops a relationship with the doll.
Teenhollywood: Hummm, I sense a plastics theme in your work.
Marley: (laughs). It's her perfect, ideal man. It was really fun and we're working on making it a feature. My dad and I had a great time. We have the same blood so we have a lot of the same creative impulses.
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Interviewer and writer Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.
