Petty shows she has nerves of steel in film ‘Tank Girl’

Petty shows she has nerves of steel in film ‘Tank Girl’

Actress discusses budding career, Hollywood stars acting
career

By Mike Horowitz

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

Lori Petty insists she has always known her life would work out.
From a trailer park in Chatanooga, Tenn., to sharing the silver
screen with Tom Hanks, Robin Williams and Malcolm McDowell. No
doubts, ever?

"I asked Madonna that," Petty defers, "I asked, ‘did you know
you were going to be the most famous woman in the world?’ She’s
like, ‘no.’

"’You really didn’t know?’ She’s like, ‘no.’ I said, ‘did you
know you were going to be successful?’ She’s like ‘no. I hoped so.
But then it just happened.’"

Petty pauses for a second to think. "That’s weird," she says,
"because I never had a doubt that I was going to do well. Not that
I was going to be queen of the world, or anything like that, but I
always knew I wasn’t going to have to give up and become a shoe
salesman. Somehow it was going to work out."

Just a few blocks and a quick jaunt down the beach from her
Santa Monica home, Lori Petty meets with The Bruin to talk about
her newest action flick Tank Girl. Over two days of intensive
interviews, the strain of constant questioning is beginning to
show, but her animated personality engages when she talks about the
knowledge she’s gleaned from her big-name costars.

This time she was pitted against famed British actor Malcolm
McDowell, Clockwork Orange’s brilliant anti-hero and Tank Girl’s
power-mad dictator. In the post-apocalyptic netherworld Tank Girl
inhabits, McDowell’s character controls the water, and thus, the
power. "He’s got this sicko-sensual madness," she raves, "and our
scenes are so intimate. He’s got these big, sick blue eyes, you
just kind of fall in there."

Petty maintains she’s not awed or anxious working beside a
legend. "I’m never nervous," she states. "I’ve learned not to be.
The only thing that happens when you’re nervous is you fuck up.

"I think I learned that on League," she says, referring to
1992’s A League of Their Own. "Tom Hanks is this great actor, Geena
Davis is this glamorous movie star, Penny Marshall’s like an
amazing part of American culture, and Madonna, who’s like the
Statue of Liberty.

"So here I was, in the same film as these people, standing
shoulder to shoulder with them, and I was nervous at first, but
then I was like ‘wait! this is what you wanted! Why don’t you just
do it and have a good time?’"

She’s had a good time since, even on the set of Tank Girl, where
grueling 125 degree shoots for 17 hours a day left her skinny as a
rail and perpetually exhausted.

"I used to think that when those big starlette girls, when
they’d say ‘she collapsed from exhaustion,’ I’d say ‘Oh yeah,
right, she’s probably a drug addict,’" says Petty, "then I do a
movie like this and I realize, yes, I feel sorry for these
people.

"And look at my skin!" she exclaims, "I’m the last white person
in America! I can’t take all that."

What Petty could take was a shaved head, despite early fears
that her boyfriend would be disappointed. Her hair is back now, but
she’s still excited by the experience. "It’s so sexy," she says, "I
have to fight every day not to shave my head. Because it just feels
amazing.

"Another thing that’s sexy about it is people always touch your
head. When you’re bald, they come up right away. It’s like ‘pet me!
pet me! pet me!’"

While having a shaved head may have attracted stares from
passers-by, Petty insists that her movie-star status does not.

"No one’s at that point," she says. "If you go out without 10
bodyguards, people get used to seeing you. I really believe this.
Go without any make-up on, wear sweat pants and a T-shirt."

She challenges anyone to think of a star that could invalidate
this rule. Madonna?

"If she walked in here right now without any make-up on, you
would not recognize her," she shakes her head. "Trust me."

Yet a little later, while talking about her past costars, she
brings up Keanu Reeves, her love interest in Point Break.

"There are people who have this quality that makes them so
inherently watchable," she describes him. "Back in the ’20s they
called it the ‘it-girl.’"

"There are people who just have ‘it.’ Like Keanu. He’ll walk
into a room and everybody will stop eating, even if they don’t know
who he is."

But what you were saying about stars …

"I was talking about women!" she says, content to change the
rules and press on for glory. No minor setback is going to stop her
from being successful. No doubts in the world.