MXG Magazine: PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT!

With her warm smile and her easy going laugh, Marla Sokoloff proved only too willing to offer up everything about her herself (from stuff about her love life to her childlike pasion for coloring books and sticker). Pretty brave. If you ask us, she was an interview dream come true.

Recently she's been wowing both tv and movie adiences alike with her work on "The Practice" and in this summer's hit flick "Whatever It Takes". Of course, we think it's her endering real-girl quality both on screen and off that helped her that helped her score so many scene-stealing sidekick roles (She was a regular on "Party of Five" and "Full House").

But she's also got her offbeat moments too, like when she tells the story about being obssesed with a pimple on the set of "the Practice". "Today, we were shooting a scene with me and this girl," she says. They did her close-up, and then we broke for lunch and, no joke, over lunch, I got a zit on my chin. Over lunch. Right before my close-up! Couldn't it have waited until the car ride home?" she wails. Sound like a spoiled starlet? Here's the kicker that makes Marla just like the rest of us; she spent the rest of the day fantasizing about popping it. "Lara Flynn (Boyle) and I are so funny, because we're always like, 'I cant' wait to get off work so I can pop it' and everbody's like 'Ewww! you guys are such freaks!'"

Well, maybe not quite a freak, but Marla is perfectly matched with boyfriend and "Freaks and Geeks" star James Franco. The two met on the set of Whatever It Takes", although the onscreen Marla chose Shane West's character in the movie, in real life Marla had her eye on James from day one. Within a few minutes of meeting her, it's more than obvious this girl's a girl in love. Whipping out pictures of James, she practicly gushes when she talks. "He's litterally the most amazing guy in the world. Truly, I consider him my best friend. We do everything together, and we have the exact same interests. I don't know what there isn't to like about him".

However that doesn't mean their connection was instantaneous. In fact James actually pulled her aside when they were filming to find out why she was giving him the cold shoulder. Truth is, she was too nervous to even speak around him for fear she'd seem like a geek.

Now they've been dating long past the honeymooner stage. "Where you just want to crawl up inside the other person", to full-fledged relationship status, complete with love spats and all. "We fight about the dumbest things", she admits, like if his show keeps him late, or if he's suppoesed to meet me at nine, and he's still at work at 9:30. I'll take it out on him and vice versa. It's like, why are we fighting about this. We've got no control over it."

But Marla has the dealing-with-bothersome- boyfriends situation down to a science: timeouts. "we're both stubborn people, so one of us will take some time off," she says. "We'll be like, 'Okay , you need 20 minutes to chill out.' and he'll go watch tv or play guitar for 20 minutes while I think about things. You wouldn't believe how rational you get. Then I always come back out, and I'm like, 'I'm sorry!'" The timeouts work so well that they even use them in public when necessary.

Marla may seem sugary, but she's definately got some salsa to her personality too. She admits to throwing major tantrums and remembers at least one party where she and James forced a timeout, which makes us wonder about potential "National Enquirer Headlines ("Practice Star Dumps Freak"). Wisely, Marla shrugs off tabloid press, "I try not to read those things, becuase I'm just going to get upset. It's hard to be an young actress, especially when they almost always look for something wrong with you. You've just got to say, 'Forget it. This is who I am.'"

It's this confidence that resonates in her personal style. For today, anyway, she sports some funky pink and purple streaks in her hair. "Totally punk," she says. Very Lucy from "The Practice"....a role she loves and plans to portray until the show ends. And as she gears up for her next big screen role, in "Sugar and Spice" with James Marsden, Marla may do more than just dye her hair magenta. "I don't want to do what's expected," she confessed. "I want to do something alittle more shocking." We can't wait.

WHATEVER IT TAKES.....Just what would it take for Marla to:
......ask a guy out? "Lot's of inspiration and pushing by my girlfriends."

......sing karaoke? "Did you know that MTV asked me to do "Celebrity Say What? Karaoke" in Cancun? I totally thought it was to judge, so I'm like, 'Hell yeah! Because it was Cancun.' Then my publist's like, 'You know you have to sing, right?' and I'm like, 'Hell no, I'm not going!' So I'd have to be completely out of my mind."

.....make a prank phone call? "It doesn't take anything. I used to make prank phone calls all the time at slumber parties with my girlfriends."

.....streak? "Girl, that would take a lot! Honestly, I don't think I would ever do it. When it comes to me running down the street with my big butt behind me, I'm pretty shy. No way."

This article is copyright under MXG (Built For Girls Magazine). No copyright infringemant intended by this duplication.

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Note: The song playing is "Like A Child" by "The Backstreet Boys"! This midi is from: MIDI ZONE!