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Amanda Detmer Interview
IGN ForMen: Hey, so you went to NYU, how come you didn't attend Chico State? Amanda Detmer: I did! [laughs robustly]. I have a Masters and a BA. IGN4M: Ah, you got your BA at Chico. AD: I sure did. IGN4M: That I did not know. I do know that it used to be the #1 Party School, baby! AD: Yeah... It was, but if you grew up there it was sort of like taboo to be part of that scene. You know, we were the hippies. We boycotted anything having to do with any fraternities or sororities. And I worked a lot. I worked at the local coffee place right next to the University and I had to work in the mornings 'cuz I was doing theater at night. IGN4M: My aunt and uncle and cousins live in Chico. I used to go up there all the time on the holidays. I remember this spot Madison Bear Gardens that had underwear dangling from the ceiling and a drinking fountain made out of an old toilet. AD: Sure, right. It's still as is. It's great, I miss it, I love it there. IGN4M: Given your hippie response a few seconds ago, I take it that you weren't a cheerleader in high school then. AD: Un-uh. No, no I wasn't. Yeah, I think I very much was not, but must have had some secret desire to be one because I had so much fun doing it in the [laughs] movie [laughs]. I was like 'Maybe I was just lying to myself and I thought that being a cheerleader wasn't cool or something." But, yeah, I had a great time doing it. No, I was really into sports [in high school]. I played basketball and field hockey, stuff like that. IGN4M: So how much research did you parlay into this role of Sandy, where you're a former cheerleader-turned circus trapeze artist-turned nun? AD: Well, Jason and I actually had to do quite a lot of cheerleading practices. The two choreographers were very, you know, really super excited and ambitious and we were too, but we also knew that probably, you know like maybe at the most, you know 10-15 seconds of our cheer would end up in there. But we ended up getting like a full 5-minute routine. It was awesome. We worked really hard on that and of course not much of it did end up in the movie, but it was fun doing it and there's enough of it in there. Yeah, so we did a lot of that. IGN4M: Have you ever fought with another girl over a guy? That you can remember. AD: The only time that ever happened was, actually I was like 14 or 15 and it was my best friend and it was the guy I had been in love with like for three years, you know? And he would only go out with all of my friends. But he never went out with me. And we would talk on the phone all the time, but he always went out with my friends. And I finally got to where he kissed me or something and she was really mad at me. That's really the only one I can remember [laughs]. She was really mad at me and no one at school would talk to me. You know, in Junior High, when you do something like that..."You cheated on...Oh GOD!" IGN4M: So no fistfights or catfights or hair pulling? AD: No. IGN4M: You just got shunned. AD: Yes, I got shunned [laughs]. IGN4M: From the age of 19 to 21, did you do anything that you have so far lived to regret? AD: I did a lot of things then that I certainly wish I could have done over. Nothing that I am ashamed of, but maybe I would have handled differently. That's a really crazy time for a girl. It's like living on an emotional roller coaster 24 hours a day. Your brain never seems to match your...you know, your head is always somewhere else than you are. So it was a really confusing time and I think it's that way for most girls. I don't know. IGN4M: Do you think it's less confusing now? AD: It gets better [laughs]. It certainly gets better, I think. I mean I'm not as flighty I would say. I'm a little more grounded than I was at 19. IGN4M: More focused? AD: Mmmm-hmmm. It's easier to know what you want and what you want out of your life. IGN4M: Damn, you're good. That was my next question: do you know what you want out of life? AD: I know that I want to act and I know that I'm getting to do that, you know? I made that distinction, which I think is a very hard thing to, to know what it is you want to do with your life. And I feel lucky that I even knew and that I was willing to take the chance. You know, I'm doing what I want to do with my life right now and if it never gets better than this, then it's been great, it's been a great ride. It's still one day at a time, but I have stories that would last a lifetime for my kids someday already, so I'm just really, really glad and grateful that I'm getting paid to do what I love to do. IGN4M: Right on. Hell, I still don't know what I want to do with my life, so you're several steps ahead of me. AD: It's hard. It's a tough one to know what you want to do. You know, acting for me, it wasn't...I wanted to do it, but I didn't think it was a very smart thing to do, a responsible thing to do because it's so hard to make a living. I thought it would be irresponsible of me. Like I'd be following my heart but sacrificing my [laughs] well being, you know, in a sense. I've been lucky and that's what I think is the best part of it. IGN4M:I don't know if it's so much irresponsible as it is risky. AD: Risky, yeah. I felt risky IGN4M: You know, the pay-off, it you hit it big, is tremendous and if you don't... AD: Sure. But at the same time, like now I'm learning as I seem to be more in the public eye, there's a whole other thing that goes along with that. You find yourself going "Wait, did I sign up for this?" you know? I didn't necessarily think this far ahead. Suddenly I'm sitting here [with interviewers] talking about myself and my life and my boyfriend and my parents and my dog. You put my name on the Internet and suddenly, you know, sites come up. That's just crazy to me. IGN4M: So how do you deal with that loss of anonymity? AD: I don't think I've had to totally deal with it yet, it's only become just apparent to me in the last couple of weeks doing these interviews. Like I've had people tell me "You know if you type your name in on the Internet..." I didn't know that. These last couple of weeks have kind of been, you know, the wake-up call. Like "This is what you've gotten yourself into!" And I don't know how I feel about that, honestly. I feel like it's part of my job, you know, because I'm so fortunate that I'm acting. But I don't know how much a part of that I love, you know? We'll see. IGN4M: Please don't take this the wrong way, but that scene where you get smacked by the bus in Final Destination is off the hook. That was like one of the favorite movie scenes of 2000 around our office. We had the video of that flick and kept rewinding that scene over and over again it's so intense and at the same time over-the-top. AD: [laughs] It was good, huh? IGN4M: Oh yeah, not to be morbid or anything, but yeah, that scene rocked. But so far in your feature film career you've been smacked by a bus, you puked your guts out dressed up as Dorothy in Drop Dead Gorgeous... AD: Yeah [laughs hysterically]... IGN4M:...you kissed another girl, Claire Forlani, to be exact in Girls and Boys and now in your latest picture you prance around as a cheerleader and a nun. AD: Yes [laughs]. And a trapeze artist, let's not forget the trapeze artist. IGN4M: Right. Now when these scenes crop up in a movie do you get excited about them and then start thinking about future movies and future scenes to the point of saying to yourself "Oh man, I can't wait to get offered this type of part in this type of movie." I guess my question is: are there any specific types of scenes that you haven't done yet, that you would totally relish doing in a film? AD: Umm, well, I guess I kind of felt that way about Silverman. You know, when I read it I thought "How cool would it be to fly on a trapeze and how will I do this and how will it work?" All the things that this part certainly offered, I saw as like how exciting it would be to get to do that. I don't think I think about it too much until it's presented before me and it's there in the script and you kind of look at it as a challenge. To me, anything is exciting to do. And I don't think about them too much. I mean, like certainly with the whole with Claire, I mean you don't think about it that much. Because if you think about it, it's just gonna freak you out. It'll make you nervous or whatever and "Are they nervous?," whatever. It's better just to do it. And that's kind of how I approach everything. It's just head first. I think that's the only way to go. In terms of what I would like to do, I would really like to do something, you know, more serious now. IGN4M: I was wondering if that was going to come up. You've done the teen horror flick and the ribald comedies, so you've kind of gotten that out of your system and now you're ready to flex some serious dramatic skills, right? AD: Yeah, yeah, I'm really looking forward to hopefully getting the opportunity to do something more substantial, I guess is the [proper term to use]. |
