Denise Richards/Neil Patrick Harris: Undercover
Gorgeous Denise Richards hanging with Doogie Howser, M.D.? The two were in Starship Troupers together and seem like best buds since filming the '70s throwback comedy Undercover Brother. The first thing I noticed about Denise was her big...engagement ring (hey, I'm a girl!). What a sparkler! Both the young actors revealed that they were happy to take part in a wacky comedy. Denise gets to spoof her sexy "babe" label and Neil gets to well, go ballistic and rip out a guy's heart! What happened to Dr. Howser's scalpel?
Teenhollywood: Okay only one personal question. Denise, what attracted you to Charlie (Sheen)?
Neil: Say 'his money'? (laughter)
Denise: His money? Him, his whole package. Everything. I loved everything about him.
Teenhollywood: This film hits hard at both Black and White stereotypes. Did either of you feel uncomfortable with any of the material at all?
Denise: Yeah, some of it. I just wanted to make sure that it was handled appropriately. I haven't seen the movie but I think, on set, they did a great job of that. We made fun of everyone.
Neil: I said a lot of really awful stuff in the movie so here's hoping that people aren't too offended.
Teenhollywood: Had either of you seen the Blaxploitation films of the '70s like Foxy Brown or the Shaft films?
Neil: I had seen them but my character wasn't supposed to know anything about that world so I thought it was important to be as ignorant about them as I could.
Denise: I saw Shaft but I didn't see Foxy Brown. I think this is definitely much more hip and contemporary. I love that we have the '70s mixed in there. I love the '70s music and hair and clothes.
Teenhollywood: You had a real Farrah thing going there with the hair.
Denise: Or Barbarella.
Teenhollywood: Did you have to really eat that load of mayonnaise in the film?
Denise: That crap was sitting out. There's no way that I would eat that. Plus I didn't have to eat it. I fed it to Eddie (Griffin). Poor Eddie had to eat it. It was so gross.
Teenhollywood: How about that fight scene? It's a sexy scene between two girls. Was that uncomfortable?
Denise: Where we rip each other's clothes, that was a disaster because, of course, they weren't ripping in the right places and the glue would come off or it would start falling off before we started fighting. Any time there are fights it's a lot trickier shooting than people think. You have to make it look real. Everything is technical.
Teenhollywood: I've heard it was a little dangerous.
Denise: Unfortunately we didn't have weeks of prep to work out all the fight stuff. But we did what we could and both had great stunt doubles and tried to make it look real.
Neil: You guys can't do those split kicks in skintight pants.
Teenhollywood: Neil, we notice you weren't in that catfight scene but were you on set that day?
Neil: Every minute. (laughter). Turn the water temperature down, please.
Teenhollywood: How hard was it to work with Eddie (Griffin) and Dave (Chapelle) two stand-up comics? There had to be a lot of improv going on.
Denise: It was hard to actually stay in character because some of the things they were saying were so ridiculous and funny but, at the same time, it's so much fun to be able to improv and for Malcolm (Lee the director) to let us do that and just take it there.
Neil: (Those guys) are used to that so they would just ad-lib all over the place. At the end of the scene, they'd just keep going. The first couple of days I had no idea that that was going to happen and afterwards you really have to play along, throw in your own lines here and there and hope that they are funny and often they're not. There was a fear that if you didn't ad-lib or come up with your own stuff, you'd just be overwhelmed. Everyone else would get the scene and you would just be in the background. Harder than coming up with new material was not breaking-up and laughing. It's the end of the day and it's one o'clock in the morning and everyone's kind of crazy and we'd had too much caffeine and Eddie goes off on some rant and we're just in the background and you have to nod, agree and laugh under your breath. Because as soon as you laugh, the take is done and that's the best stuff. It was hard.
Teenhollywood: Your mild-mannered character gets to break out and tear some guards to shreds. Was that slime when you mashed the guard's head?
Neil: Yeah. It was this strange contraption using a guy's trunk and head and two tubes that stuck out and another tube that was supposed to come out his mouth and you had to stand on this apple box and smash his head and this stuff came flying out both sides. Very bizarre filmmaking.
Teenhollywood: Denise, did you have any say on your costumes?
Denise: Yeah. Anytime you are wearing something that tight, you try to work out what's the most flattering, especially when the clothes were ripping off. What part is the easiest to rip away? But they definitely wanted it tight (laughs). I love how we're wet in this costume and we run out of the house and my hair is perfect, blown out and I'm in another outfit. No continuity, a poor script supervisor.
Teenhollywood: Do you love to make fun of this whole sex symbol thing?
Denise: That's what was so fun doing the movie. I'd been cast as vixens before and I was supposed to be taken seriously in those so to do this and make fun of that was very freeing and silly and ridiculous.
Teenhollywood: Denise, you had a lot of hot action in this. Are you into martial arts?
Denise: Huh uh. I learned 'where do you want me to punch? Where do I kick?' I did do some wirework. I used a harness but I don't know martial arts so I didn't have months to prepare for it. There were times when I'm wearing a tennis shoe on my left foot and then kicking with my right with my boot so I wouldn't break my neck. The stunt coordinator is holding my foot out of frame, holding me so I can kick with my heel. I did do some but it didn't come out like it looks in the film.
TeenHollywood: Did you ride a motorcycle?
Denise: (Laughing) No. I was on top of a truck while they were towing me. I had to be in the wind and I looked so ridiculous driving around in the streets being on this tractor on this huge, white motorcycle.
Teenhollywood: Eddie Griffin was saying that when you came on the set the guys acted a little differently. Are you kind of used to that?
Denise: I didn't think, 'Oh God, they changed as soon as I entered the room.' I was spying on them. Wow, they're different. I get along with guys. I have so many guy friends that I don't think of it. I can hang with the boys. I don't notice that.
Teenhollywood: Okay, Neil. How much did the room change when she walked in?
Neil: She got offered a lot of cups of coffee.
Teenhollywood: Neil, I read recently that Shannon Sossamon from "A Knight's Tale" said she had a crush on you growing up. How do you respond to that?
Neil: What's her phone number? I did not know that. I'm incredibly flattered. Wow, I don't know. But people say things like, 'I had such a crush on you when I was younger, growing up.' What happened now? Where did that go?
Teenhollywood: How was that transition, going from child star to adult?
Neil: It's been pretty seamless. I kind of pulled back from TV because I had done that for so long and the feature thing was kind of tricky for a while because I looked so much like my t.v. character and the baggage that went along but then I got to do some theater and long-form TV stuff and a random feature every now and then so I'm trying to dabble in as many different things as I can. So far it's going well. I'm doing the play "Proof" on Broadway starting July first for six months with Anne Heche so it's fun to be able to work in different mediums.
Teenhollywood: Denise, you started out as a model doing Bonnie Bell ads. How difficult was the transition?
Denise: I was sixteen when I did that so I wasn't acting then. Everyone knew me as a model. I could make more money at that than scooping ice cream at Haagen-Dazs.
Teenhollywood: Was scooping ice cream your first job?
Denise: I think it was working as a bagger at Albertsons. I had like ten jobs in high school.
TeenHollywood: Are you looking forward to doing a gritty role where you wear no make-up, etc.?
Denise: Yeah. Do you know of something?
TeenHollywood: What is coming up next for you?
Denise: A movie called "Empire" with John Leguizamo and Peter Sarsgaard That's a little grittier. John is drug dealing and thinks he's getting out of it for something better but lands in something worse with Peter. It was at Sundance.
Teenhollywood: You guys were in Starship Troopers together.
Denise: It seems to have a following.
Teenhollywood: Whoa, Denise, that's quite a ring there.
Denise: Thank you.
Big-mouth me after she leaves "Bet that ain't no cubic zirconia either!"
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Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.
