Melissa Joan Hart sat down with our friends at
PopEater.com for an interview about her upcoming made-for-TV movie, My Fake Fiance, what it's like raising 2 kids in Hollywood, and a ton more.
Why She Did My Fake Fiance: "I just really liked the character … because it's different than anything I've ever played before -- sort of a know-it-all girl who really thinks she has people figured out and stands by the stereotypes and can pick people apart just based on their appearance and umm that never works for anyone so she gets put in her place ... The characters I've played have been a little bit more wishy-washy than that, a little bit more sweet and girl next door so this was nice to sort of get to be sassy."
Working with Joey Lawrence: "We thought Joey would be perfect for the groom. He was great to work with ... I just love working with people from television sitcoms because there's just a different way of doing things, there's like a shorthand that actors use when they come from sitcom … you have to do things quick ... you have to be really efficient and really funny. Like theater, they really take their time and they really dig deep and this and that and with comedy you don't really necessarily have the time for that. And it's kind of fun to be loose and off the cuff and stuff. With Joey it was really great to work out these scenes."
How she handles her two young sons -- 3-year-old Mason and 1-year-old Braydon -- in Hollywood: "The main thing is the sleep deprivation but thank god for Starbucks. You know the good thing about the job I have is that you work for like a month, or like on this movie I worked 5 weeks and then I have pretty much been off since then ... … I also have not been working in L.A., the last five years it's been all location stuff. I've been in Calgary, Vancouver, Louisiana and Georgia. And the good thing about that is that my family comes with me and my husband luckily has a job where he can go with me too and we have a wonderful nanny. So we've definitely got people around to help. And my mom when she's producing, she's there a little bit too."
The best thing about working on location: "The great thing is when I'm on location, I don't have to worry about the house, is the plumber coming today, did I feed the dogs? ... All the other busy busy stuff. You know, it’s really just about, I go to work, I go home to the hotel and spend time with my family. And you know depending on what my day is like I can have breakfast with them, maybe I show up for dinner, but they always come for lunch to the set ... It's a nice schedule and even if I'm busting my butt working 15 hour days I still get a little bit of time with my family and then when I'm done with it, I get all the time with my family. Even though I may miss them for a few days while I'm working really hard, there’s always a week when I'm done working and it’s just all family. It's really a great career to have with a family. I can't complain."
Will she let her sons get into the Hollywood business? "My 3-year-old really likes to perform, but I think he's going to be more into music. Everyone always tells me I should get him into modeling, he's very photogenic and he's a real ham. But I don't know, it just seems, it's a hard life. You have to be really tough skinned because there’s a lot of rejection. And that’s hard to put any child through I think, unless you know they can really handle it but how do you know until you do it? So it's sort of a catch-22. But I would let him if he really really wanted to, I would obviously let him. I would never say no. But I would make sure that school came first and that he finished school and until he was 18, he had to do that and then he has to flirt with college a little bit, but that's it."
On how hard it is to be a child star in this gossip-driven age: "If it was 1999 right now, with all the media and the Internet and everything else, I would be in a lot of trouble ... I wasn't the most well behaved 20-year-old. You know, I was like a little out of control, and enjoying money and fame and you know parties and just at that age … But I always went to work. I always made sure that on a school night I was in bed and I was sober because I had 150 people waiting for me on a set every day and I needed to know my lines, I needed to know my blocking, I needed to have the energy to get through my day. I made sure I was a professional first, my job was important to me and so is my health ... I feel like though if you had caught me at certain moments, you would have thought I was Lindsay Lohan."
Comparing Marilyn Monroe to Lohan: "If the internet had been around back then, you might have seen these people in a totally different light. Marilyn Monroe might have been a little bit more like Lindsay Lohan, or something … she was kind of a mess. But it was glamorized because it was just still photos."
The IMDB.com trivia that she can recite Pi to 341 digits, which she quickly denies: "I don't know where that came from. I know it's 3.14, that's all I know."
During the promotion of 'Drive Me Crazy,' she became friends with Britney Spears, but admits they don't still keep in touch. However, she shares a recent dream of hers about the 'Circus' singer: "I had a dream that … I was in the airport and she was like 'You're by yourself with your kids, how do you do it?'"
She's on MySpace, but what about Facebook and Twitter? I had a Facebook page I just took down because people were using my voice to sell stuff. Twitter, no. I hardly have time in my life to check my MySpace or my email ... I have friends that have celebrity friends on Twitter that have had to dis-friend them, I don't know what you'd say, turn them off, because they would just get so many that it fills up in their in box and they don't have time for checking 'I'm walking into Starbucks,' 'I'm getting a soy latte,' 'I'm putting Splenda in the soy latte,' 'I'm walking out of Starbucks,' 'I validated my ticket." I don't have time for that.
The most ridiculous rumor she's ever heard about herself: "There was a rumor once in college that I gave some guy a blowj*b in a closet or something at a frat party. And I was like I went to one frat party with my sister. I don't think I would ditch my little sister ... I can't think of any like one really big rumor, except for that Pi one, that's one that has haunted me through my whole career … at least it makes me look smart, thank God."
She posed in Maxim in 1999, would she do it again after giving birth, like so many other Hollywood moms are prone to do? I'm doing that for PEOPLE magazine -- a little classier. It's a hard thing, it's scary, because people are really going to be judging. For me, Maxim was ten years ago. I was at a very different point in my life. I was in my early-twenties. I was not eating, I was working, and working out a lot, had a great metabolism and didn't have two kids. Things are definitely a little different. I want to do it just to prove to myself I can."
Does she think there's a problem with media's obsession with celebrity weight? Actually, I think, with the post-baby thing, it's OK because I feel like there's this thing about 'it's OK for me to be overweight because I have kids.' And it's true, your body does change. It just does. [But] there's no reason after kids unless you have a thyroid problem or a serious issue that you can't lose the weight. So I kind of think that it’s nice in that way, to maybe encourage people. It encourages me when I see other celebrities that have lost it."
What's been her favorite role? It changes. I really love Clarissa [from 'Clarissa Explains It All.' Like Clarissa is really close to my heart. She was smart, sassy -- that's so much more than way I am than anything else I've played. This one was fun, 'My Fake Fiance,' because I really got play a tough girl that I don't get to play a lot. But in 'Nine Dead,' [her new thriller] that was really fun, too -- to watch that movie and see myself in that role."
Her next project: "Actually, in 4 weeks, I'm opening up a sweet shop in L.A., called Sweetharts [with] self-serve frozen yogurt, gelato, coffee, candy and baked goods.
An anecdote about her 'Drive Me Crazy' co-star Adrian Grenier: "I texted him a year or so ago ... I just read in a tabloid, that I was one of his conquests. They were talking about bachelors and who they have dated and they put me in there. And I was like 'So I hear I'm one of your conquests' and he wrote back something like 'stop spreading rumors about me.'
While she doesn't know much about 'Twilight,' she likes the influence it has: "I know my little sisters are crazy for it …I'm just glad to see there's finally a little emphasis on some talent driven projects instead of reality crap. Especially to see 'The Hills' kids' faces plastered every where, it's like what have they done? Who? What? I feel so old, I go to red carpet sometimes and I'm reading the magazines and I don't know who half these people are ... I have no idea [about] this Melissa [Rycroft] 'Bachelor' person? She was on the cover of PEOPLE magazine. I've had a career for 27-years, I've never been on the cover … are you kidding me? In like a year, no one will know who the hell she is."
