Selma Blair plays a total junkie in her upcoming flick Poker House (the trailer is below if you wanna check it out.) She recently sat down with PopEater for an interview about her role, and also the lesbian kiss heard round the world with Sarah Michelle Gellar in Cruel Intentions.
How do you go about preparing for a role like yours, being a junkie? "I find the ones that are darker to be more truthful. My experience as a person goes that way more than the energetic stuff I play. Even though my part isn't too huge, I think Lori did a brilliant job with the writing. I spoke to her about her mother, and just really got honest with myself about moments where I've encountered people like this.
How true to form is the story? "I'm not sure. Lori kept telling me 'bigger, uglier.' The moments you're with people that are really screwing up in life and are still trying to get attention, those are big, ugly moments. After somebody saw the screening, they said 'Oh, a big over-the-top performance from Selma Blair,' and I was like 'No, that's contained for what we're dealing with.' People forget how big and ugly things can be."
Is there a performance from the past you studied that played the junkie role? I don't think I did because I'm such a mimic I'd just wind up copying them. It's just something where I wanted to be there in the moment ... and not really see her. Look at her through drug-stained eyes. I loved that challenge.
Do you think the Cruel Intentions kiss between you and Reese Witherspoon was a culturally significant moment, and the catalyst for all of the recent obsession with same-sex kisses on TV and in Hollywood? "I think that whole movie is a cultural moment. Besides the John Hughes movies of the '80s, this was the first wave of movies where teens are telling explicit stories and being the stars of movies again. It started this huge wave of it, and this kissing scene which I didn't think at the time was a big deal, it opened the door for a lot of ... even though my character wasn't a lesbian, it opened the door for a lot of same sex relationships to be on TV and in movies."
Poker House trailer
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