Illeana Douglas turns in a pretty hypnotic performance as an amateur hypnotist in the ghostly Stir Of Echoes. The actress gets the plot churning when she hypnotizes her brother-in-law, played by Kevin Bacon, who brushes up against an occult world after entering this altered state.
Douglas, who was herself definitely in an altered state from the movie during this interview, showed her more relaxed and funny side. The granddaughter of actor Melvyn Douglas filled me in on hypnotic happenings offscreen, and the wild buzz around her gig as a savvy hooker on the Fox series Action this fall.
PRAIRIE MILLER: I hear you did a lot of delving into hypnotism for your role in Stir Of Echoes. Did you find out that a lot of the things hypnotists claim just aren't true, like making you jump off a building or fly?
ILLEANA DOUGLAS: Oh yeah. A lot of that stuff you see on talk shows about hypnotism is all completely phony. And strangely enough, I was booked on the Howie Mandel Show. I was on with a fake hypnotist, who like made everyone run around like a chicken. It was mortifying, because I knew that it was completely fake.
So I was trying to keep a very blank face. I was like, Oh my God, I can't believe I'm here with a fake hypnotist, pretending it's all real.
PM: So what do they do, get together with these people beforehand and slip them a hundred bucks, or what?
ID: I don't know exactly how they do it, but Howie Mandel would say, do you believe it, they really seem under. And I was like, they're not! I mean, a guy told me there's only eight per cent of the population that can be hypnotized, it's very rare.
But I think women are always interested in things like that, and in psychics. I always think that psychics are hookers for women! It's like we completely believe in them, we trust them, we tell them very personal things. And we pay them a lot of money! It's like totally the equivalent, you know? And men can't understand why we go to them.
But I do like them. I mean, they make you feel better. So I believe in that. I'm kind of the 'nothing can hurt' motto. I mean, if you just start staking your life on it, you'll be in trouble.
But for instance in terms of the movie, I absolutely knew when I read the script that I was going to be doing the movie. Even though everybody, including the director, told me to the contrary that I wasn't going to be doing it! I was like, I know I'm going to be doing the movie, there was not a doubt in my mind.
And I kept turning down projects. I would say, you don't understand, I'm going to be doing Stir Of Echoes. And thank God it eventually came true. So maybe I really am a psychic!
PM: What made Chicago such a perfectly chilling backdrop for Stir Of Echoes?
ID: I thought that Chicago really made the film. You know, there actually is in Chicago a great history of spooks and ghosts, and things like that. So I went on all the ghost tours. And like I went to where the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre took place, and where John Dillinger was killed. And Richard Speck's boarding house, where he stayed, is still there. For some strange reason, there is actually with Chicago a lot of creepiness associated with it. So anyway, it helped me.
PM: You're not an actress who fits into the Hollywood glamour girl mode. Do you worry about getting typecast as the sister, best friend or wise cracking dame kind of character?
ID: No. There have only been a couple of times where I specifically played the funny friend, because I was paid a lot of money to do that. And I'm good at it.
My character in Stir Of Echoes happens to be funny, but I don't think of her specifically as wise cracking. What interested me about this character is that she's kind of a stoner, and I've never really played anybody like that. So I thought that was what made her different. But I don't really get worried about typecasting.
I mean, now I'm playing a prostitute. It's like, if you play someone who's funny, then you keep getting offered roles that are funny. And because I'm currently playing a prostitute on Fox TV's Action, I've been offered two parts now where I'm a prostitute. I've never in my whole career been offered the prostitute role! But that's what happens. Like now I'll be the heart of gold prostitute.
PM: In the middle of the current public outcry against violence and sex on TV, Action keeps getting mentioned. Are you bracing yourself for the controversy?
ID: Well, I hope. To me, the pilot doesn't have any sex in it, and it's not violent. There is the use of swearing in it, but the swears are bleeped out. I mean, I wouldn't want to be part of a show that is really there merely to push the envelope. I'm there as an actress taking a role that I think is an interesting role.
So I don't think that it's going to be a show merely to cause controversy. I don't think it will...I hope it makes people laugh!
PM: Illeana, exactly what research did you do for this role of Wendy in Action? Have you met working girls around Hollywood like the one you play?
ID: Gee, no, no...Are you crazy? I'm from Connecticut.
PM: Well, on what level did you relate to Wendy, if any?
ID: I think that one of the things that I responded to in the Action script was the relationship between my character and Jay Mohr, who plays an egotistical movie producer. I thought there was something a little lost about both characters.
I always respond when two characters need each other for some reason. And whatever point he is in his life, and whatever point Wendy is in her life, I love the idea that they're strangers, that you're going to watch their relationship develop.
And as I was saying, I think there's a little lost quality about them, and the fact that they need each other and they don't even know why they need each other. But I think you're going to watch that relationship develop.
And they're sweet with each other. I think with everyone else, they're very hard-edged and cynical. And with each other, they have a little vulnerability. I like that. And I liked working with Jay.
PM: Is it a good feeling to play a character that you can kind of inhabit for a little while?
ID: Yeah, because she's really going to change. I mean, she's a former child star. You know, she's fallen on hard times, she's now a call girl, and he's going to turn her into a Hollywood executive. So that in itself is going to be such a growing process.
And I think with TV, it's one of those things where your life and the character's life begin to merge the more you play it. So I think the more the writers get to know me, they'll put a little more of me in the character. So I'm looking forward to it, it'll be fun.
And what I also like about Action is the idea that each year is going to be carrying a different movie. That the approach is going to be that each year of the show, you're going to start a movie, and finish a movie. So I thought that could be interesting, because it means that every year is different. And I think this kind of breaks the sitcom genre a little more than things I've seen.
PM: What sort of reaction have you been getting to this unusual turn in your career?
ID: I'd like to say, my mom watched the show and also my eighty seven year old grandmother, and they both really like it. They're now going to start watching Fox!
PM: Do you find that there are more moral dilemmas being in a business which makes it hard for you to be good?
ID: Well, I grew up in the '70's, so I faced all my moral dilemmas through my parents and came out of them okay. And so I don't really see that. I mean, in many ways I think I've always found Hollywood is a very clean town. I just think people go to bed early, and they go to yoga class.
I find more deviant behavior when I go on location in, like small towns. I really do! That's where I've seen all the craziness. And Hollywood, I find, is a very working town. I was just asking my agent this morning, when does summer vacation start? Because I know on the East Coast everyone goes to the Hamptons in the summer.
So I find Hollywood a very moral town. And the character, in terms of playing the character, you just pick up little bits and pieces of things everywhere. But Action wouldn't be funny unless you have the moral dilemma. That's kind of what makes it funny.
PM: What's it like to be the granddaughter of classic screen legend Melvyn Douglas?
ID: I think of my grandfather in the sense of me having a tremendous sense of film history. It gave me a fascination with the studio system and working under the studio system, the community of that. Whenever I meet people who were in the studio system I'm always like, what was it like? You know, what was it like, the feeling that you'd end a romantic comedy on a Friday, and on a Monday you'd start on a western. And for me, I always liked that. I try to do movies with a great deal of variety. Because I'm always trying to replicate the studio system, working with a variety of directors. I'm trying to get the spectrum of working with people, because eventually I want to direct, so I want to work with as many people and pick up as many styles as possible.
PM: Did your orange tinged character on Seinfeld ever get explained?
ID: Carrot Girl? I think they clipped it a little bit, because it was shot a little longer. But it's basically that she wears too much tanning makeup, and I don't know if they really ever explained that. So some people actually think that maybe I just went nuts and decided to wear like Indian makeup, or something. It's sort of explained by George. He says, like I've seen her in the office. She wears too much makeup, I call her Carrot Girl, you know, stuff like that. But some of it got clipped, so it may not quite make sense. But...oh well!
PM: What kinds of movies do you like to go see?
ID: I really like scary movies. They have to be of a certain type. I don't like women in jeopardy movies. Those actually scare me just on a different level, because I'd have nightmares about them. But I like scary movies that are about ghosts or the supernatural. And anything about the devil is always fun!
