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Natasha Lyonne is one of the greatest actors of her generation. But you wouldn't know that from talking to her. Hysterically funny, cynical and bitchy but in that fun way she is just a blast to talk to. Apparently she is not a fan of most of her movies but Die Mommie Die she'll talk about.

Die Mommie Die is stars and is written by playwright Charles Busch. Busch stars of ex-60's singer Angela Arden. When Angela's husband, Sol [Philip Baker Hall], discovers that she's having an affair with gigolo Tony Parker [Jason Priestley], Angela offs him with a poisoned suppository. What follows is a hilarious mixture of whodunits and double-crossings involving Bootsie [Francis Conroy], the ill-fated family maid, Edith [Natasha Lyonne], Angela and Sol's spoiled, vampy daughter and Lance [Stark Sands], their boy-toy son.

Natasha first came into acting as Little Opal on Pee-Wee's Playhouse. But it wasn't until the one two punch of Slums of Beverly Hills and the monster hit American Pie that she became as popular as she is now. Since then she has done probably about 5 independent movies a year such as But I'm a Cheerleader and mainstream including turns in such mainstream hits like Scary Movie 2.

Natasha came into the room hiding her cigarette from the hotel personnel. She was wearing an outfit that the New York Post's Page Six would surely report on after she gets drunk at a club. It exposed quite a bit of cleavage but I don't think she would mind the attention. She seems like the kind of girl that would be fun to sit stoned with in a trendy coffee shop while we make fun of all the hipsters that come by.


Check out the Sundance's website for Die Mommie Die.


Daniel Robert Epstein: How do your scripts come to you?

Natasha Lyonne: Outer space. I don't know. It got sent to me and I met them for it. Then, I said that I wanted to do it and I kept asking about it for a year and a half, and they would always say, Get over it, It's another movie that's not getting made, and one day, it was getting made. The day that it was getting made, however, I had put on thirty pounds to do this movie Party Monster, to do a small part, because I thought that it would be funny. Then, I was sitting, eating, trying to continue to gain weight, I found out this finally got greenlit and I was like, Oh fuck, not now, because I loved this movie so much and I was so passionate about it and everything and I mean, I know my voice speaks passion [sarcastically], but I was. I was passionate about it and so then, that was funny.

DRE: Why do you always do smaller movies?

NL: Because I can't get big jobs [Laughs]. I mean, it does pay off.

DRE: Right because you were in David Goyer's ZigZag and now he's directing you in Blade 3.

NL: I'm glad you noticed that. That's what I was saying that if all of the first time directors that I'd worked with started to get studio jobs, then I would actually be in their movie because we would have a repartee in the first place. But frankly, I think that's my problem with independent movies is that a lot of them tend to be not that different from studio movies except that you're not getting paid, and they don't have the same quality. They can screw it up in editing or the music sucks or something, and one time, I did this movie that I thought was really great with Matthew Bright who directed Freeway and then, it was just terrible.

DRE: That was too bad because I really like Freeway.

NL: Yeah, and honestly, I mean, that was not supposed to be a sequel. It was Vincent Gallo and myself who at the time, we were not going to do a sequel to a mediocre independent movie, but they got more money and it pretty much went straight to video as Freeway II. I mean, there's just a lot of kind of risk involved in independent movies, but as someone who loves old timey everything particularly old movies and stuff like that, I love kind of the quality of these movies, and find that given the opportunity, I think that a script like this, sure, It's amazing. I have no idea how they pull together such a great finished product. I've no idea with the budget that they had. That said, the idea that it's still a gay film, such a small movie for a small audience, to me, is absurd. As opposed to it being just a normal movie that everyone can get a chance to see, I think that that's sort of weird. I mean, I say that and I'm thinking about a couple of different things one being that Jason [Priestley] and Charles [Busch] did the cover of Out magazine and then, they asked me for a quote. Four years ago, I did the cover with Clea DuVall for But I'm A Cheerleader and that was a gay movie and now, this is a gay movie, isn't this four years later? Why is this still a gay movie? Why isn't it just a comedy? It's so shocking in a culture that has accepted RuPaul and Will & Grace, why is it so shocking that he's in drag? I mean, It's funny. I don't see what's so intense.

DRE: I don't think Die Mommie Die is a gay movie?

NL: No, neither do I.

DRE: Is it a marketing thing?

NL: I don't know. I mean, I do feel that's a disappointment in independent film; rather than getting a chance to just make a movie, you're suddenly making a gay, small movie that's going to show at only the Angelika and the Sunset 5. Luckily, in this case because of the Sundance series connection, this is going to be in bigger theaters for better or for worse. My problem with independent movies is that I feel I've reached a point where twenty movies later, thirty movies later or whatever, and twenty years later, I feel like I'm preaching to the converted. It's the same guy that's going to go to the Angelica and the Sunset 5, he's going to go there, and probably have gay friends and probably have been sexually harassed as a child or whatever [Laughs]. I'm just saying that they're going to be comfortable with certain themes where you're not breaking new ground I would prefer. I felt more pressure doing American Pie 2 when I knew it was going to be this huge, giant blockbuster that was where the responsibility was to put something subversive in there. The fact that it was the last thing that they wanted broke my heart. I'm like, so, here's an opportunity to kind of do something where you might be able to shake things up a bit. I got kicked out of the press junket. I was in there with Seann William Scott and he was like, Yeah, man. The first day, we all got back together, went to a strip club and we were just hanging out and this movie is fucking awesome, and I was like, What are you? You have this opportunity, this forum, and Shannon Elizabeth is talking about her puppies and I'm like, you're not running for Captain America or a beauty pageant. This is the big leagues. You've got this huge forum and you're choosing to say nonsense. I guess I got kicked out for choosing to play solitaire instead and I had a BB gun and I would shoot Shannon Elizabeth whenever she talked about puppies. I realize that it was wrong. I mean, I can see that [laughs], but at the same time, I can understand my own frustration of feeling like why isn't American Pie 2 trying a little bit harder to make kids not so retarded.

DRE: Were there people you got along with on the American Pie films?

NL: Well, I got along with Allison Hannigan just fine. I think that she's alright, and frankly, I didn't like Tara Reid. Because here she is, this girl who's parents are obese, they're asking her for money all of the time and she's this girl from Jersey who's really just trying to make good, do you know what I mean. It doesn't get much more sort of intense than Tara Reid. Every single stereotype that you can imagine about Hollywood exists in one person and it's shocking. It's the way she talks and she's like, Oh my God, oh my God, and her voice is really low and It's really intense, but at the same time, she's the one woman in the Trump Towers with all the fur coats in her pocket. I'm the one, kind of trying to make independent movies and I get to Sundance and feel like I'm at Sundance with Chloe [Sevigny] because we have both have Party Monster there. I figure like, Okay, were going to be very comfortable here, and instead, I find Jennifer Lopez and Dustin Hoffman and Salma Hayek and Ben Affleck so now I know that's not my home. So, there is no reward for doing independent movies and being true to myself and fighting the system. Like, what's the point?

DRE: Have you met any of your punk fans?

NL: I'm pretty sure that those are my roommates.

DRE: Because you have such a strong group of fans do you feel your message is getting out there a bit?

NL: You know, I mean, I kind of worry in a world that sort of hails Kelly Osbourne as punk. I'm sorry. I come from nothing, and I made something of myself and I actually just hung out with my buddy Punk Rock Caroline who I knew since high school. We didn't go to the same school, but we knew each other then and she's now in college. Her ethics and her system and her definition of what is punk rock is so messed up by the fact that she's never had to work for a living. She went directly from being in her parents' house to going to college and falling in with a group of punk rock buddies. Now, I can respect that and she looks great. She's got a lot of pins and tattoos, but at the same time, to me, it's always been about the essence of doing your own thing and not giving a shit and like saying, Fuck you to everything, that you don't care about while having a certain sort of awareness of the world and politics and everything else and then, come in and say, Fuck you too. That being said, I think that she had a big problem with the fact that in her mind, I was a complete sellout just because I was acceptable and there was no way in her college, punk rock mentality that success and punk rock could coexist. As soon as you were successful, you were a sellout, and I understand that, but at the same time, there's something to be said for kind of being within the system and kind of trying to fight the system from the inside and someone has to have that responsibility on their shoulders. The world is so happy to keep anyone who's asking any questions corded off over there, and I feel like that's what this industry has done to me.

My fault has been honesty and I've been sentenced to a lifetime of independent movies, and that's it. That's how it feels right now. I used to have this drive based on high school and how mean everyone was to me and whenever I get to the upper east side, I cringe because I used to be a kid in school because of a scholarship. Me and my mother were living in a one bedroom apartment on the upper east side together, and the kids at school were really nasty to me, and my kind of drive used to be like, I'm going to show those kids, man. Now, I find that I have that exact same drive, but I've proved it to those kids and now it's about proving it to this business. It's within this industry that I'm finding the same thing. You think that you can keep me here, and that's all and I'm going to be perfectly content because I get to make six independent movies a year that no one is going to see. But my challenge at this point has got to be kind of breaking beyond that, and do something to shake things up even more. Honestly, I'm as rebellious as I used to be and my definition of shaking things up isn't what it used to be.

DRE: You've been working for so long. Is it tough to have a life beyond the work?

NL: You know the truth is that I try so hard and I find it so depressing, the bottom line is that this is my life and as much as I don't want it to be and all I want to have a real life beyond it. I've been doing it since I was six years old in Pee Wee's Playhouse. I mean, I know I wasn't a child star and I've never been a big star anyway. I'm not a movie star. I'm an actor, clearly, but at the same time, I don't have anything else going on. My hobbies are movies and going to the Film Forum and sitting there during the day for the double feature. That's my life. My life is music, books and movies, that's all I know. That's all I care about and I mean, as a fourteen year old kid, I was reading Entertainment Weekly and was curious about what was going on and I still read US Weekly. I don't give a shit. The point is that I wish that I had life outside of this, and I think that if this is what I'm doing then at least I want it to be a little bit more interesting or important. Like, Chloe Sevigny's brother Paul always gets on our case. Here you guys are, all you do is, you and Chloe bitch and moan about how you're not in big studio movies and how you're broke, but you guys are famous. Why aren't you doing anything? His sister is an Academy Award nominated actress and she has a huge forum and here we are not doing a goddamn thing. We are young ladies who have brains, who are kind of educated and sort of know what were talking about, we live in New York and we could do something, but instead, we kind of chose to sort of just sit there, and be so self indulgent essentially. We don't have any money. Why is Mandy Moore going to be the big star this week? Watching all of these girls rise to the top and drop forty pounds.

DRE: Was it a mistake for you to do all these independent films?

NL: I mean, I think so. However, I think that the truth is that I don't know any other way to be, that's the problem. I don't have a lot of parenting and I'm just street smart, that's it. I'm just very honest. I have no patience for any kind of bullshit. When I get to Los Angeles, It's very hard and I have to walk into the Coffee Bean and say how are you doing, good morning. Yeah, that's awesome. Can I get a latte? And that's opposed to just saying, Can I get a coffee? That's very hard for me and I think that it also hurt me, having a New York mentality and speed.

DRE: If you were making a lot of money doing these sorts of films would you be happier?

NL: Yeah, I'd be happier. I mean, I'm twenty four. I'm going to be twenty five. I've always been the kid and whatever sort of precociousness that I used to have from hanging out with the older kids is now just straight immaturity. Now, I'm just confused all of the time that I'm not the baby, and that I don't get the same privileges. I realize that by this time, I'm supposed to be a little bit more together. So, luckily, It's kind of happening at the age that I am, but one of the things that would make me very happy for sure would be to have the money in the bank to feel the security that I don't have to feel so scared all of the time that the rug is going to be pulled out from under you, that it's okay to say no to certain projects. I just said no to six independent movies in a row and I've never done that before. Usually, I've been sort of a Parker Posey-esque, if you send me something, I'll do it. I don't care what it is. What, two weeks out of my life, a month out of my life, big deal. However, suddenly, everything is for scale and I find myself getting to set and I'm doing things like, Don't you guys need a light over there? It's just completely organic because I've just been on that many movies, and it's too frustrating. Working with a first time director and never being challenged, that's just gotten to a point where it's too frustrating for me and so, that would be the bonus of having money and getting to continue to do independent movies because I keep thinking that my new M.O. is, Oh yeah, I'd love to be within the system and doing studio movies, but really that's what I wanted, to do independent movies and get paid for them.

DRE: How do you relax?

NL: What I do mostly is read and I go to the film forum, but these days, there's no smoking in New York city anymore which has taken quite a bit out of me. First of all, I mean, the thing that pissed me off is that when I got my DUI and when I said, I'm a movie star, call my entertainment lawyer, that was directly Andy Kaufman. However, I'm not someone that does a lot of publicity and so, people don't know about me. They just think, God, your so obnoxious, and it's not true. I was actually, in the face of the cops, I was like, Hey, call my entertainment lawyer, and joking about Andy Kaufman and all of that bit. I've never been a Tara Reid or a Paris Hilton who is dancing on the table. I mean, I've definitely been way more informed and more along the lines of a Dorothy Parker and my drinking was much more pointed and much more sort of misanthropic and all of that as opposed to trying to get some. It's just informed by a certain state of mind that people would be able to relate a lot easier rather than thinking that it's going to affect my showing up to set or something like that. I'm someone that never has a problem being late to work or not coming prepared or not knowing my lines and I mean, I think that people do know that I'm a little bit smarter than that kind of breed, a Tara Reid or something. I'm also not sixteen anymore and definitely, when I was sixteen, I was like, you know, I was like a tough girl who was kind of partying. Basically, I'm not drinking anymore because I'm not going to bars anymore because there's no smoking [Laughs]. So, finally, what's happened is that's gone too. So, now, I'm going to be twenty five, I don't really have the energy for it anymore, and I have a serious boyfriend who lives with me. So, I just stay at home. I have a great house, I stay at home, and I watch TV. I'm not someone who's pouring myself shots of whiskey while I'm watching TV. There's no real point for me in drinking while I'm by myself. So, I just don't anymore. I started cooking and stuff, and frankly, I've got nothing to do if anyone wants to hangout.

DRE: Does your rebellious side ever help you get certain roles?

NL: No, I don't think so. I think that part of me, as I see that sort of rebellious sort of side of me slipping away, I need something to fill the time with and it would be really great if I could fill the time with work. I mean, if I could actually be challenged and excited by the work and find a script that I was really into. For example, I just passed on this VH-1 made for TV movie. It's supposed to be about pop stars and I'd be making fun of a pop stars and I thought that it was really funny and I was going to be Daisy Fresh and my song is I'm Young and Wet, Pull Me Like A Flower and it was supposed to be really funny, like a spoof on that, but since it was scale and a low budget movie, I turned it down at the last minute because I was so scared of not doing it right. When you see something that Halle Berry decides to do or Nicole Kidman or Renee Zellweger, they take three months and they prepare so that way they look like a pop star. I mean, they get their dance moves down and the whole thing. Here I was, I was just going to show up from an existence of chain smoking and insomnia into being the next Brittany Spears and realized that essentially, the joke was going to be on me, not with me and it's that kind of thing with independent movies over and over again, you can never do a full job. It would be so much fun to actually take three months of karate lessons for my new Kill Bill installment. That would be something to do and that's the type of stuff that you don't get with independent movies that's kind of a bummer.

DRE: I heard Charles Busch wants to write an action comedy for you and Clea DuVall.

NL: Really? He told me that he said something to The Village Voice about it and I told Clea and we thought that it was funny, but he wasn't serious was he? It'd be funny. I'm dying to do something. There's this guy Adam McKay who was a writer at Saturday Night Live, he's awesome, I love him and he wants to write something for me and Chloe that's a hilarious concept and then, I always wanted to do something with me and Chloe that was kind of like prohibition era and sort of, I want something like To Be or Not To Be with Mel Brooks, but with me as Mel Brooks and her as Anne Bancroft and in the sequins and I'm in a three piece suit screwing up her act. I just had this whole concept, but you know, I'm not a writer. It kind of sucks. I'm sure that I could be, but I don't know if I have the focus to. Ultimately, I'm just an actor.

DRE: Are you still waiting for your big break?

NL: Everyone else has gotten one. So, I mean, I've got to be next in line at some point. I do feel, there's a thing that makes me feel sad. I feel like I'm kind of misunderstood and whenever I'm in a room like this, everyone is relating to me for some reason, and then, as soon as I leave and the stuff is in print, it just kind of like I'm a sarcastic teenager, and it's not really what I am anymore or what I have been. I don't think the part about being a New Yorker or cultured or stuff. There's no room for it really. It's got to be simplified and that I always find disappointing because ultimately, it's limiting. I'm learning that we're in a culture of magazines. There are no more auditions. It used to be okay to be a New York actor. Things would come through and you'd get a part like Kate and Leopold is a good example. I was Meg Ryan's quirky assistant. James Mangold hires me because he's a little bit smarter than most mainstream directors and he kind of came from a background of little movies. Meg Ryan's quirky assistant is a perfect role for someone me who wants to live in New York my whole life and not be a movie star. That's perfect, and get to go to the premiere and kind of make a nice a paycheck and if I could do two or three movies like that a year over a period of five or ten years, I would be a millionaire and everything would be fine. I wouldn't have to do sitcom, and go to work everyday from 8am. I don't want to do that. I don't want a steady job, but for some reason, It's always Julia Stiles picking up the phone like in The Bourne Identity, what are you doing in that movie, that's my part. I'm supposed to be Joan Cusack, not you, and there's no more auditions. There are so many starlets all of a sudden and it's all on an offer only basis and I just want to go in a room and get the job or not fairly, fair and square and I'm starting to realize that if I want the jobs, I'm going to have put on some fancy outfit and get my picture taken and put it in Style magazine because that's where they're hiring people out of.

DRE: Are you ever planning on directing a movie?

NL: I'm so scared now every time that I open my mouth where my honesty is going to put me next. I remember when I was eighteen, I got offered to direct a movie and I had all these ideas about how the lettering was going to be like Star 80 and we were going to shoot it super, super wide. All this stuff and all these ideas and music by John Lurie and we'll get Tom Waits in the movie and all of these ideas, and I just lost my courage. Now given the opportunity to direct something, I'd be terrified. So, I guess that is my biggest fear, sort of worrying about the fact that I keep getting more insecure as time goes on rather than feeling more grand with each turn. I feel more and more afraid. When I get my picture taken, I'm convinced it's because I must look terrible and they're going to put it in US Weekly as a joke. It's just a shame because the audience is equally responsible for making Scary Movie 3 as the studio system is because as long as they continue to go see Fast and Furious 4, they're going to make it. You have to remember that studio heads went to NYU and stuff and film school and they wanted to make great films and were seduced by The Godfather and instead, this is the world that were in.

DRE: Why are studio films so much different than independents?

NL: I just don't know why they're so bad. It's very confusing, but there is some promise with people like Paul Thomas Anderson and Wes Anderson and Spike Jonze. There is promise and I kind of wish that they would give all of us a little bit more a platform to do our jobs rather than wasting so much time and money. That's really up to the fans more than it is up to the studio system in some way and that, I guess, is really the depressing part.

by Daniel Robert Epstein (danielrobertepstein@hotmail.com)