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October 12, 2001
Murphy's Draw
By Gillian Flynn With her breakout performance in Don't Say a Word, busy Brittany Murphy is giving Hollywood something to talk about. Brittany Murphy is the kind of person who squeezes your arm while breathing peppermint-laced exclamations like, "Ohhh, that is sooo funny." Coming from some other chick's mouth, such pertness might resonate with a sticky sorority-rush vibe. But Brittany Murphy possesses such an artless enthusiasm that you're left thinking, "Check me out: I am indeed one funny, funny person." Brittany Murphy is also the kind who breezes-into, say, the Gothic-meets-midcentury-modern basement bar of Manhattan's Bryant Park hotel. That 5'1" frame seems tiny: Her slim legs, encased in black slacks, resemble nothing so much as keyboard quotation marks. (Until she curls them under herself, and then they resemble, oh, parentheses.) Her blond hair crinkled up in bobby pins, the Edison, N.J., native (an only child raised by her single mom, Sharon) bears little resemblance to her first big movie character, in 1995's Clueless. The rough-edged Tai, the ultimate high school fixer-upper, launched a string of performances that kept Murphy's career bubbling-always just below the surface. In 1997 she began lending her raspy voice to beauty-school babe Luanne on King of the Hill, but cartoon voice-overs rarely get you stopped on the street. In 1999 she was truly disturbing as pudgy poultryphile Daisy in Girl, Interrupted, but the Oscar went to… Angelina Jolie. Last year's starring vehicle, the slasher satire Cherry Falls, didn't even earn a theatrical release. Then there's the recent Freddie Prinze Jr. romance Summer Catch. Of which we'll say no more. This fall, however, could belong to the 23-year-old. The Drew Barrymore drama Riding in Cars With Boys opens Oct. 19, and Ed Burns' romance Sidewalks of New York arrives Nov. 22. But it's the current Michael Douglas hit thriller, Don't Say a Word, that has tongues wagging- thanks in part to Murphy's taunting catch- phrase: "I'll never teh-ell." "She has all the qualities to be a star," Douglas says. "She's got a wonderful free spirit. She loves to sing before a [scene] and I mean sing. It's very sweet." The movie itself is not. She plays a mental patient who holds a secret that Douglas, a Manhattan shrink, must unspool to save his kidnapped daughter. To prep, Murphy did the obligatory research at Bellevue's prison unit-not that you'd call her a Method actress. "I just kind of talked to everybody," she says. "I was just. ..visiting. Everybody can use visitors if they're put away somewhere." The resulting portrayal jerking from exploitative sexuality to coiling despair-has garnered some Oscar buzz, a surprise for an actress with no formal training. "Working with her was very musical," says Word director Gary Fleder. "She has this incredible gift, this instrument, and every take was about playing louder or softer or changing the rhythm or tempo." Fleder is well acquainted with Murphy's fine-tuning. In 1999 he cast her over Courtney Love and Emily Watson as the lead in his planned Janis Joplin biopic. The project became a music-rights casualty-but Murphy is biding her time. "We're both kindred freaks," she says of the late singer. "I have faith she'll know when and who and even if her story should be told. And I'm getting older and older-a great thing. Maybe she's saying 'You I need to ripen up a little bit there.' " The Joplin gig did have one lasting twist of kismet. Director Penny Marshall saw Murphy's audition tape and signed her for Riding in Cars, based on Beverly Donofrio's memoir about getting knocked up in high school. Barrymore is Beverly; Murphy's the best friend with a matching bun in the oven. "Our energies just complement each other in the loveliest of manners," Murphy says of her costar- "She's wise, she's sunshine." Starting in the '60s and spanning 20-plus years, the film showcases Murphy's loose-limbed goofiness-and other attributes. Under Marshall's law, the cast had to list all their hidden talents, and while Murphy (alas) won't be seen making fishy lips or contorting- into a human pretzel, she does get to sing the Shirelles' "Soldier Boy" "It was sort of out of character" Marshall admits. "But I don't care." Murphy's third fall feature, Sidewalks of New York, originally scheduled for Sept- 21, got bumped to November to put distance between the is World Trade Center attacks and the Big Apple-based romantic comedy, in which the actress plays an Iowa-bred student entangled with a married man (Stanley Tucci). "It would have been very easy to paint that character as a helpless victim," says writer-director-star Ed Burns. "With Briittany, she is vulnerable, but there's a strength there. This is a smart girl who just loves to giggle and have a good time." As for Murphy's to-do list: She wants to play Sally Bowles in Cabaret on Broadway, a role she had to turn down this year because of scheduling conflicts. She also dreams of someday slipping into Gwen Verdon's dance shoes for Bob Fosse's Sweet Charity. Next year, moviegoers will see her playing a stripper in Spun, and she's signed to star opposite Eminem in an untitled drama being directed by Curtis Hanson (Wonder Boys). "I'm the girlfriend," Murphy laughs. "I've never done that before: The Girl." How appropriately atypical.
Styling: Mark Vassallo - Independent NYC
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This article was taken from ET Weekly 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!
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Questions or comments? Mail me at: seareaver@aol.com Please note: I am not Brittany Murphy, I just run this fan page.
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