Lindsay Sloane claims that she has two kinds of fans — young girls that love her from “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” and gays that adore her from “Bring It On.” And despite my love of talking cats, I firmly fall into the latter group. But with a pair of new roles Lindsay is ready to make a play for the fellas.
First up is “She’s Out of My League,” where Lindsay plays Marni — the ex-girlfriend from hell. Literally. OK, so that might not bring all the boys to the yard, but her role as Mark Wahlberg’s girlfriend in “The Other Guys,” co-starring Will Ferrell might do the trick.
I rang up Lindsay for a frank discussion about being the reigning queen of big screen bitchdom and her love of bloopers before inadvertently introducing her to a whole new career path.
PopWrap: Marni is one of those characters you love to hate — what attracted you to her?
Lindsay Sloane: I think exactly that – you love to hate her. For so long in my career, other than “Bring it On” when I played Big Red, I’ve played really nice girls that are insecure. Closer to who I am. There’s something about playing someone who is so out there and has no moral code at all, that you can take it as far as you want and do things you’d never do in your real life.
PW: A lot of times actors will talk about understanding the motivations of their “villain” character in order to play them, any of that here?
Lindsay: Nope! [laughs] I knew going in that she was the one character in the movie who could be a cartoon. You really have to hate this girl. The only sense of humanity I gave her is that these girls really do exist.
PW: Where?
Lindsay: It’s the girl that always thinks she’s the most popular or beautiful. But then she moves to a bigger city and realizes she’s not all that. So to me, it’s based in reality. But the way we played it was so heightened. Even my hair, my makeup, my clothes – I walked around the mall in Pittsburgh. Not to offend any Pittsburghers
PW: Yea, don’t pull a Sienna Miller.
Lindsay: No, no, no! [laughs] I loved filming in Pittsburgh – but I just think there are different beauty codes in different parts of the word. And girls in Pittsburgh like to mix it up. At least the ones I saw – clothes are just a bit too tight, eyeliner just a bit too bright and I wanted my hair to be really big. It was less about Pittsburgh and more about my character in relation to the other girls in the movie. They were very simple and I had all this going on. I almost wanted her to feel like she was in a different time period.
PW: I got a lot of 80’s Jersey mall from Marni.
Lindsay: Totally! I’m so glad you got that!
PW: But that doesn’t even begin to address her biggest fashion faux pas — the matching sweatshirts.
Lindsay: Oh yea. [laughs] As soon as you open that gift box with the matching sweatshirt in it, get the hell out of there! I also think that when his mom starts giving you Christmas sweaters with reindeers on them, that’s another sign to run.
PW: I thought it was awful that even though you were so awful to Kirk, his family preferred you.
Lindsay: That’s the saddest part about the entire movie for me. Not only is this girl horrible, but his family chose her over him. That scenes where we’re all eating and he brings Alice’s character home, it’s like the lowest low. Normally your mom is the one like “you’re handsome, you deserve her” but they were like “is this an alternate universe?”
PW: That lunch table scene was amazing.
Lindsay: I love that scene so much. It took two days to film because there were so many actors around the table and I have never laughed that hard in my life – the actor’s in this movie were insanely funny. There are so many moments where you see us laughing – there must not have been any take where we could keep our s*** together. Normally if someone’s laughing they throw that take out, but I don’t think they had any options here because we were not professional actors in a couple of the scenes [laughs].
PW: So what you’re saying is the blooper reel may be longer than movie?
Lindsay: Yes. But I have to say, that’s the part of movies I look forward to the most – the gag reel. And I always hope there will be bloopers on really inappropriate movies, like “Schindler’s List.” Not so much! I think that comes from the actor in me, wanting to see serious actors be unprofessional at work like I am.
PW: I think you should make some “Silkwood” bloopers for Funny Or Die!
Lindsay: Oh god, you heard it here first. That’s such a good idea. You may have just started a whole new career path for me.
PW: As if the career path you were already on wasn’t amazing. I mean Big Red is one of the greatest cinematic bitches ever.
Lindsay: Oh god, that’s so awesome.
PW: Are you aware of the impact that character, and movie, had?
Lindsay: I always say that my fanbase are gay men and 14-year-old girls. Everything I’ve done is either “Sabrina” or “Bring It On,” so I attract a certain demo of people. In those moments, I feel like I’ve made an impression in this industry. Nothing makes me feel cooler – all actors are actors because we’re desperate to be liked and probably weren’t in our childhood’s. But the funny thing about “Bring It On” is when we were filming it, we literally thought it would go straight to video.
PW: Really?
Lindsay: Once again when you feel free and comfortable, because you don’t think anyone will see it, you’re able to do it all without judgement. And I think that makes the best movies. In the end, that’s why people loved that movie. Meanwhile, I thought I was going to get fired every single day from that one.
PW: Why?
Lindsay: I am not a dancer. I was able to pull it together for those scenes, but when I walked in, everyone else was two weeks in to cheer camp because I didn’t have as many cheers as they did. And it was crazy how good they were – they could have legitimately competed at nationals. So I thought, who are they bringing in to replace me?
PW: OK, so tell me — if Big Red and Marni were locked in a room, who’d emerge victorious?
Lindsay: Oh my. I feel like Big Red was arrogant in one aspect of her life. She was an awesome cheerleader. Later in life, I don’t think she went on to do great things. Marni is the devil incarnate and just think until the end of time she’s going to be a mean cold hearted bitch. I don’t think she learned any sort of lesson at the end of this movie, I still think she sees herself as hot s*** and will until the end of time.
PW: Your next movie also is filled with amazing comedians — “The Other Guys” with Will Ferrell, Steve Coogan, Mark Wahlberg. Who do you play in that?
Lindsay: I play Mark Wahlberg’s girlfriend. Hard work. Very hard work. I am his love interest that breaks up with him because I’m tired of dating a cop. He’s all about the force and has no priorities. Throughout the movie he spends part of his time visiting me at various locations trying to win me back.
PW: Is it one of those things where the script comes across your desk and you see “New Adam McKay film starring Will Ferrell” and say, “I’m in” without reading it?
Lindsay: Or, “I’m not going to read this because I’ll never get it!” [laughs] I wanted this desperately because all I want to do is be in funny movies, and this is the pinnacle of that. I am the biggest Will fan and this is cool because you also see how funny Mark Wahlberg is. Seeing them together, it’s this crazy buddy movie and you can’t believe they haven’t made one of these before.
PW: So being a big Ferrell fan, could you maintain professional decorum on set?
Lindsay: Oh, no, I was not professional at all. Luckily he’s the nicest guy in the world and I don’t say that lightly. Out of anyone who has had any modicum of success, he is the ultimate kind, kind soul.
PW: Adam & Will’s movies are very much sink or swim situations, what was your first day like?
Lindsay: It was a scene that may or may not be in the movie. You know that Adam & Will film like four hour movies that they cut down to 90 minutes. My first scene was a breakfast scene with Steve, Will, Mark, Eva Mendes … and me! I kept having moments of “one of these things is not like the other.” [laughs] Basically you do the scene once as is in the script and then it’s a comic free-for-all. I was just having moments where I’d say, “you’re not a fan, be present, be in the scene.” But I’d just watch them in awe and think, “speak! Speak! Say something!”
“She’s Out of My League” is now on DVD
Photo: Paramount; Universal