Actress Brittany Murphy doesn't sleep much. Maybe that explains her "people are molecules" theory.

By Stephan Talty
Photograph by Kate Garner

Remember your best friend's little sister who one day showed up all grown up and … well, disturbingly hot? That's Brittany Murphy. Best known for her sweet-as-hell performance as the dork sidekick in Clueless, Murphy now does the voice of redneck Texas babe Luanna on King of the Hill and has two very adult roles on the way: a poultry-obsessed lunatic in this month's '60s madness flick Girl, Interrupted and a potentially star-making turn as Janis Joplin in the rock goddess's forthcoming life story. We decided to ask for a piece of Brittany's heart.

You play a neurotic who hoards chickens under her bed in Girl, Interrupted. Any trouble relating?

I'm quite neurotic, so it didn't take a while lot of research. I've always found that there's a very fine line between laughter and tears.

So true. Your character is also a laxative fiend. Did you have to pop and Ex-lax pills during shooting?

[Laughing] They were actually vitamin C. And the fake valiums were so yummy-they tasted like Smarties. The production people had candies, including Good & Plentys, for every medication, and they looked exactly like the real pills from 1967.

What's the last thing you obsessed about?

On Halloween, I was a bit obsessive about dressing up in costume all weekend. I started out on Friday as dressed up as four different things, including a Marilyn Monroe angel-and I ended up never leaving the house. Then on Saturday night I was a '20s silent-film-star angel. On Sunday, I ended up as a goofy Playboy Bunny-type mouse, with a bustier and a little pink boa. But she was German.

You're not obsessed! Okay, so what would it actually take to drive you insane?

I do know one thing, but I'm afraid to say it out loud, because in The Witches of Eastwick, Jack Nicholson played the devil and told these three women to say their greatest fears aloud. Once they said it, he made all their fears come true.

I'm not Jack Nicholson.

I know. But I'm too superstitious and afraid to say it out loud. I'm sorry!

I'm told that not only are you superstitious, but you're an insomniac who reads magazines all night. What's the weirdest thing you've seen while going out for a copy of The Economist at five in the morning?

I've seen a lot of weird things, hon. One night my friend and I were driving over to Laurel Canyon, and we passed about four or five car accidents. When we got to the magazine stand, we looked across the street at this huge Kinkos, and there was a car that had plowed through the window and landed on the fax machines. It was just sitting there, and everything was quiet as a mouse. It was very surreal and odd and creepy. So we decided not to stop.

One of your friends is Kirsten Dunst, whom you call "my little Cocoa Puff." What cereal do you resemble?

Cheerios. It was always my favorite cereal. I like o's and oaty oats- and I just like the way it sounds. [Affects a british accent] Cheerio! Cheerio!

Um, cheerio? Not that saying "Cheerio" is dorky or anything, but you're most famous for playing the supergeek Tai in Clueless. Are you a secret dork in real life?

You should move in. I trip over things all the time. I'm a klutzy fumble bum, but I think the least dorky thing about me is that I know I'm dorky.

I'm told you also know-or at least have said-that "people are molecules." Explain, please.

When you're onstage acting, when you emanate something, you're able to touch people through the space between you-through those molecules. Other people feel what you feel. Or when you're in love, you know that space when you're standing next to that person that's totally indescribable? That's what I'm talking about.

One thing that emanates from you is a resemblance to Clara Bow, the '20s actress who became the original "It Girl."

People have been telling me I look like her since I was 15 or 16. So I kind of got obsessed with her. She started an entire sexual revolution, and her freedom on camera was just unbelievable. I'm also Obsessed with the '20s Berlin thing and Cabaret-which I saw four times and bawled like a big idiot-and everything. It had a darkness and an eroticism and tawdriness. That era affects me greatly. I think I was there once. Oh no, now I'm gonna start sounding really bizarre!

When do you feel most sensual?

When I sing. It probably comes from when I was a little girl. My aunt didn't sing me lullabies… she sang me blues.

Your singing may have helped you land a big upcoming movie role-as Janis Joplin.

I just did a nine-hour screen test for that role! For me, she is raw heart, soul, blood, sweat and tears.

If they asked you to play another singer with the initials JJ-say, Janet Jackson-could you pull it off?

Well, Janis always said she was the first while black woman. Then I could literally be the first while black woman. I could do it, man. Bring it on!

This article was taken from Details Magazine, January 2000 page 66-67. All rights are reserved to them.

Fashion: Isabelle Varter for Artist Group Management, Hair: Ken Paves for Profile LA, Makeup: Cheryl Platt for Rex Agency, Bikini top: Diesel, Hiphuggers: Vaunt from CurveLA, Photographed at Chateau Marmont Hotel, Hollywood.

Please buy this magazine, as always the images look much better in the magazine than scanned in, and we want to encourage them to keep writing great Brittany articles and doing interviews!

Questions or comments? Mail me at: seareaver@aol.com

Please note: I am not Brittany Murphy, I just run this fan page.