By James Brady
Photograph by Blake Little

Personal: Born Nov. 10, 1977, in Atlanta, Ga.

Single.

Films: Include Family Prayers, 1993; Clueless, 1995; Freeway, 1996; Zack and Reba, 1998; Drop Dead Gorgeous. 1999; Girl, Interrupted, 1999; Trixie, 2000; The Audition, 2000; Summer Catch, 2001; Sidewalks of New York. 2001; Don't Say a Word, 2001; Riding in Cars With Boys, 2001

Television: Includes Murphy Brown, 1991; Drexell's Class, 1991-92; The Torkelsons, 1993; Blossom, 1993; Party of Five, 1994; Sister, Sister, 1994-95; King of the Hill (voices).1997-; David and Lisa, 1998; The Devil's Arithmetic, 1999: Cherry Falls, 2000: Common Ground, 2000.

Theater: Includes A View From the Bridge, 1997

Brittany Murphy grew up in Edison, N.J.
"It was SO unusual to be a Brittany," she said. "I've only met two others. But now I'm a big fan of Britney Spears. She probably never even heard of me."
Ouf' Brittany starred in Oprah Winfrey's production of David and Lisa with Sidney Poitier but never got to meet Oprah. Wasn't she there every day? "No," said Brittany. "The one day I didn't work, she came around."
Her breakthrough role was in Clueless. "That was the first film I ever auditioned for," said Brittany. "It really opened a whoie new world for me. One day I was unknown, The next day my face was on billboards."
Though she missed Oprah, she once got to talk with playwright Arthur Miller, "I was 20," said Brittany. "It was the most monumental thing career wise that happened to me."
And is doing those King of the Hill voices fun or a chore? "Definitely fun," she said. "I can just get lost for a couple of hours."

SO YOU THINK YOU would like to be a Hollywood star? Here it was, a Sunday evening, and Brittany Murphy had just gotten home after a full day's shooting on a movie set. "I've been under the weather for a few days," she said, "and I'm on antibiotics."

Brittany is just 23 and has only audited a few acting classes, but she has been getting plenty of on-the-job training: She was in Girl, Intuerrupted with Angelina Jolie and Winona Ryder; appeared in the Arthur Miller play A View From the Bridge with Tony LaPaglia and the great Allison Janney (The West Wing) in New York; does the voices of "Luanne" and "Joseph" for Fox TV's King of the Hill; and has a film out now and several ready for release.

The job that had her working through the weekend was Spun, a film about a man on a three day drug adventure. "It's fun, really unconventional, she said. And what does she do next? "I take a break and get some rest."

Currently, Brittany is Freddie Prinze Jr.'s co-star in Summer Catch, about a baseball player on Cape Cod. And this month she's also in Sidewalks of New York, about the tangled love lives of six Manhattanites, with Ed Burns and Heather Graham. "I love this movie," said Brittany, "and I adore Eddie Burns. The guy's magic. He has this way of making you feel you're not really making a movie."

In October. Brittany plays a woman who's been shocked into silence in Don't Say a Word, star- ring Michael Douglas. "Michael is my psychiatrist, and his daughter has been kidnapped" she told me, "and he needs to break through my silence to help find her. It's a psychological thriller."

Later that month, we'll see her in a Penny Marshall movie titled Riding in Cars With Boys, with Drew Barrymore.

What's it like working for Marshall? "It was a life-enhancing experience," said Brittany. "I love her with al1 my heart. We [she and Drew] play characters who both have a child at age 15."

Is that a disturbing sort of role for a young actress? "No, not to me," said Brittany. "I don't confuse my roles with my life. And in real life, believe me, I wasn't dating at 15."

This article was taken from Parade Magazine, September 2, 2001 page 14. All rights are reserved to them.

Hair: Roberto Ramos for Estilio Salon/Celestine,
Makeup: Lutz for Art Mix,
Stylist: Linda Medvene for Art Mix,
Shirt: Theory,
Jeans: Joe's Jeans

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.