FAIRUZIAPALOOZA

THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE FOR FAIRUZA BALK IS PLAYING THE GIRL NEXT DOOR. At the age of eight, she played Dorothy In Return to 0z, an eerie sequel to the original The Wizard of Oz She strutted her stuff as the junkie prostitute Andy Garcia tries to keep out of trouble In Things to Do In Denver When You're Dead She then played the character of Nancy In The Craft so convincingly that she gave the film the creepy edge and camp It needed to become a cult classic. Next, Fairuza's signature turquoise eyes (Fairuza means turquoise In Persian) flickered with hate, as the skinhead girlfriend to Ed Norton's lead In American History X.

Although Fairuza recently received much praise for her part as a "Band-Aid" In the highly successful film Almost Famous, It's her role as Shade, the shy and timid younger sister to the reckless and rebellious Trudy (lone Sky) In Allison Ander's 1992 classic film Gas, Food, Lodging which the actress remains most proud of. Here, Fairuza played a young woman whose father's absence during her childhood thrusts her Into a compulsive search for the meaning of love and relationships. It's also the role that Fairuza claims most closely echoes her real life.

But that's about as close as the actress will allow you to her personal world, which she covets as her most prized possession. Well aware of how to achieve Instant stardom through self

promotion, Fairuza prefers working hard at being a crafted actress to chasing the
spotlight. But that never stops the gossip. When they come up empty-handed, a frenzy
of fans and reporters wrongly assume the actress's life mirrors her darker roles.

In the much-anticipated film Deuces Wild, Fairuza plays a tough female gangster In 1950s Brooklyn. She will also be spotted In the season finale episode of "The Sopranos" Happy about her new projects and feeling more at home In New York than she did back In Los Angeles, the self-proclaimed gypsy (she's part Cherokee, part
Romany) Invited Shout Into her new home to talk about the things that get 
under her skin...

So how do you like your new neighborhood?

I love it. There's a baker, a meat shop, a vegetable shop ... and a cheese shop! I haven't seen that-a shop just for cheese-since I lived in London with my mom.

You never lived In New York before?

I'm in the process of moving here now. Today I'm happy because I just took a part in the season finale of "The Sopranos." I'll play an FBI agent. I thought it would be really cool to be on a show that I love so much. I watch it religiously.

You'll be playing a real Jersey-girl type?

Yeah, and I don't even really know what that is! You're from Jersey you tell me...

The stereotype is big hair, really tight, gaudy, colorful clothes. Just really over the top...

Oh, yeah! It's gonna be so much fun. That's one of the parts of this job that I love. And I have no objections to making a fool out of myself to make people laugh.

(Pulls at her shirt) I've been wearing this Oui t-shirt for ages and I just found out it's a French porno magazine. I've worn it to interviews; I've worn it everywhere. I had no idea!

It's a somewhat tasteful porno magazine, at least.

I just saw a Playboy not too long ago and I was unimpressed. How do guys get off on this? I guess I just don't understand the porn thing.

Would you ever pose nude?

What I'd really like to do is a more artful thing, while I'm young and my body looks halfway decent. I want something really beautiful like the Avedon photograph of Nastassja Kinski with the snake.

What's sexier than seeing someone naked is seeing just a little piece of flesh. That's why I love thigh-high stockings. When you're getting out of a cab, you just see a sliver. It's that sliver that's tantalizing. You just want to touch that tiny area. It's just like the movies I find erotic, there usually isn't that much shown.

Nudity can really take the mystique away. Women can really use that mystique in terms of sexual power as opposed to wearing skintight mini-skirts or pushing out their cleavage. There's a way of looking sexy and still looking elegant.

My friend, Andres Serrano (the controversial photographer of "Piss Christ"), and I have been talking about possibly doing a nude piece. He told me if I find the perfect idea, to call him and he'll do it. I think human bodies are incredible-women's bodies, especially. I love painting them.

When you were younger you drew a lot. You're still doing that?

I've moved into painting. I used to do more realistic figure drawings. Back then, I wasn't able to use color and now I can. It's the most fulfilling, liberating, fantastic form of expression. With one color on a canvas you can express an emotion.

Did you ever go to art school?

No, and that's the one thing I wish I did. But then again, I always learned more from life than I did in the classroom. I also have ADD so it's very hard for me, in a classroom environment, to pay attention for more than two minutes-even if I'm fascinated by the subject. Did you ever take Ritalin or anything like that? No. And I'm really against the use of Ritalin on children. In my opinion, it's just wrong to give children drugs. I've had people come to me saying, "Look, my girlfriend's got ADD and she's really suffering. She's on all these medications." Or I hear, "I have a friend and he started off on Ritalin as a child and now he's really messed

up..." They say that between the ages of one and three is the most important time for children-for teaching them love and a sense of themselves. Up until six is the imprinting phase for the child. To start giving them medication at that age is wrong. It creates a pattern that follows them through adolescence and into their adult years. It's like a blanket. To give them a pill every time they feel bad is tragic, because you see these people who are in their 30s and they're on all these medications. Who knows if they need them? It's a sad by-product of our McDonald's society that people think you can take a pill and it'll instantly fix all your problems. If you have a problem, there are ways of dealing with it. I'm not saying medication is wrong. Some people really need medication. I'm ranting...

That's what this magazine Is about-people voicing their opinions and getting, well, uh ... angry.

Then I'll keep going. I've never taken Prozac, but from what I've heard, it just numbs. For example, if you're OCD or if you have bulimia, it helps, but it has the longest list of side effects. My friend's sister was a nurse and when he started thinking about going on Prozac, his sister stopped him because she works with Prozac patients all the time. What happens is that the patient is usually not given the right dosage. Prozac kills your sex drive. It does all these things. That spark or whatever you want to call that nagging feeling-may be annoying, but that's you. That's life. You can't shut life out, you have to live it. I think you rob yourself if you numb out. And I just know so many people who are so creative and so wonderful, and I've seen their personalities dissolve. I believe in roughing it as much as you can. But that's just my way.

I read a profile on you where your mother said that when you were beginning to develop, the other girls would make fun of you and say you were fat. You never looked heavy to me-and I've seen you act since you were, what, eight years old?

When I was a teenager, I weighed about 20 pounds more than I do now, but that's hormonal. When I was 16, 1 got the chicken pox and I lost about 15 pounds in like
two weeks because they went down my esophagus. When I got better, I went from having bigger breasts and wider hips to just being lanky. What about when you were younger? I wanted to be a dancer. You have to have a certain body type. That body type is real thin. Rail thin. I had these legs like a gymnast and big breasts. The harder I tried to get rid of my pudginess, the more it turned to muscle. I wasn't getting any smaller. I was solid but big. And all these waif-like ballerinas surrounded me and the teachers bugged you if you didn't look 11 right." I remember the poking stick. (Grabbing my outer thigh) An remember this? (She starts squeezing and laughing) I was in a boarding school for the performing arts in England. It was mainly dancing. A lot of the girls were becoming anorexic or bulimic and that was just considered normal. I told my mom about the pressure, about what I was seeing around me, and
she was like "Enough. You're out of there." I stopped dancing for a long time because of that bad self-image of my body.

Anorexia and bulimia make me so angry. There are girls who are naturally waif-like but the rest of us are not like that. All we see are supermodels and it produces this sickness in young girls because that's the ideal. We need to have fleshy bodies to have babies. It's natural. It makes me angry because it's drilled into young women that that's the way you're supposed to look. Even me, and I know that it's wrong. I think some of the most beautiful women I've seen are big. I don't get it, I wish it could be different. But it's not.

I've read some frightening articles about research that's In the works to eliminate menstruation. They quote doctors who say a woman's period Is not really necessary. Women would still be able to have children with whatever pill they come up with; they just wouldn't get their period.

Can you imagine how much that would screw you up? Mentally, spiritually, physically .. Oh my God! Where did you read that?

Glamour or Cosmo or one of those evil rags. You talk about young women not accepting their bodies as they are. Now they're being told that their menstrual cycle Is weird or unnecessary.

When you started talking about women feeling like they have to fit an Ideal of beauty and normalcy, It made me think about your role as Nancy In The Craft, which really put your name on everyone's lips-especially girls who feel like they're outcasts.

That's something I'm really happy about. The response I got was such a surprise to me. When you make a movie you never have any idea of what kind of effect it will have. For me, Nancy was just a character. But I've gotten letters like "I just wanted to thank you because your performance as Nancy showed me that I can be myself, that I was strong, and that I have power in and of myself that I didn't have to go to other people." And things like "Even though I look different, even though I'm an outcast, I know who I am." That just amazes me that a character can have that profound an effect on a woman's life.

Film has the ability to reach down into the deepest parts of a person. I know there are images and words that have affected my life, as well as music. But film is different. It's so powerful. And it frustrates me that so many films are being made that are just schlock. How many times can they make another high school boy-meets-girl movie? I know it's the moneymaker. Market research says that that's who's spending money to go to the movies. Teenagers between the ages of 12 and 19. They'll even go back to a movie three or four times. So of course the studios will take advantage of that-it's a business.

Yeah, I did The Craft. Yeah, I did The Waterboy. I've done some commercial films. But I really try to find movies that move me, make me think and have a message. You have a great opportunity to affect people. I want more films of a good caliber to be made again. They are still being made but so few. Did you see Happiness?

Yeah. It truly upset me but that's why It was great. They don't carry It at Blockbuster, but then why am I surprised?

Blockbuster is Christian, I think. They've been really good to me, though. They did a retrospective of my work and me a couple of years ago in Florida. I was

crying. Plus, they nominated me for their award for best-supporting actress in a comedy for Almost Famous.

You know what film you were In that I actually liked? The Island of Dr. Moreau.
Did you? (in disbelief) Yeah. It applies to all kinds of politics I think that was their intention but they strayed a little bit, dontcha think?

What was It like to give Marion Brando a massage?

(Laughs) I actually found him to be very human and very nice. But here's a funny story: One day we were all sitting around waiting to work. Two hours go by and

I'm like, "What's the hold-up?" Marlon's sitting there with his earpiece in, but I didn't know he was talking to his assistant, I thought he was talking to the ceiling or
something. I lean over to Marion and ask, "What are we waiting for?" and he says, "I don't know, I was waiting on them." Everyone was so afraid to go up to
him and ask, "Are you ready?" that we sat there for two
bloody hours! Everyone was so petrified to even talk to him.

Celebrities have become the new royalty-like how the British used to be about the Royal Family. And still are, I suppose. In America, the cult of the celebrity is massive.

It's crazy. These young actresses come up very quickly. They do every magazine cover in the world and it's over-satu ration. It gets to the point where they become a joke. And what happens to the actress is her career is over after her first major role. Or sometimes, they make a cult celebrity out of someone who isn't an

actor really and isn't really a singer. That boggles my mind. I've tried really hard to avoid becoming that.

When I set out to do this as a little girl, my ultimate dream was to be Meryl Streep. She was my idol. As opposed to becoming a massive star like Marilyn Monroe, I wanted to be an incredible actress.

In those days, that was a possibility. These days, it's not. You have to do the press. You have to do all that stuff. And for years, I've done almost nothing because I wanted to keep my anonymity, to keep a life that's private. 

Of all the films you've worked on, which one Is your favorite?

I'm really excited about a new independent film I'll be starting work on in the fall called Distressed. It's about two people who get trapped on a roof in the middle of Manhattan, surrounded by people. And they have to survive up there. It's a psychological drama.

As for my favorite film that's already out, I have to

say Gas, Food, Lodging. That film is very close to my heart. a girl, I was very much like my character Shade. I was shy. I was a loner.

Every role has some aspects of you in it. Any actor that tells you otherwise is lying. That's how you build characters: you take parts of yourself and the people you know and you make a person. Everyone acts all the time. You're one person when you're with your friends, you're another when you're with your family. It's the same thing in acting, but just more intense than normal life.

People think I'm this extreme person. It's just bizarre that people think you are the characters you play. You asked the other day why you haven't seen me in any roles since Gas, Food, Lodging where I play a sweet innocent. I think the reason for that is because I've been doing this since I was seven or eight. I really started to feel like I needed to be challenged so I started to take harder roles. Darker stuff is more challenging to me. Unfortunately, that has created a set perception of who people think I am, which is as far from me as possible.

You really are far from the way some of these magazine articles I've read make you out to be.

Journalists have to put you in a box. If they can't label you or section you off, they don't know what to do. They take snippets of what you say and create a different perception of you than what's true. It's very frustrating for me. That's why I do very few interviews. I'm lucky to have the longevity that I have. And I think it's because I don't take every project. I don't do every magazine cover. I let my work speak for itself. 

The film Deuces Wild Is going to be a big one, right? It's wild what happened with it. We got really lucky. They came to me three years ago and it started off as a little independent movie. We made it for almost nothing but we got a good cast because people are dying to do good movies, because good movies are just not being made anymore. When MGM saw it about halfway through, they gave us money to make it a bunch better. We even went back and reshot some of it. Did you Immediately want the role?

Yeah, they gave it to me and asked me to read it. I loved it. I'd never seen a movie about Brooklyn gangs in the '50s made from a kid's point of view. My character's 18 or 19. Pretty damn cool that I can play a teenager and I'm 26.

My character was written as a really tough girl, and I thought, "But that's how they always do it." She was a "What's it to ya?" kind of a girl. I thought it would be more interesting to show her soft side-the side she doesn't show anybody but her boyfriend (played by Brad Renfro). That's the sweet side, the caring side.

What Is this film American Perfekt I keep reading about?

Oh, it was never released here. I'm bummed about it. I liked making that movie and I thought it was a good film. It happens all the time: movies get made and if they can't get distribution they sell it to HBO or Cinemax.

HBO has some movies that are better than what gets released In theaters.

Oh, absolutely. The reason for that is, it's slightly lower budget and it's not aimed at teenagers. That's part of the reason I decided to start producing. There are fabulous scripts out there. It's just a matter of getting them made. More good movies need to be made, and I want to be a part of that process. I'm not condemning the stuff that's out there. They serve their purpose, I just think enough is enough. I'm kind of In denial of the whole business aspect of filmmaking, I just focus more on the art aspect of it.

Do you want to dispel all the rumors linking you to witchcraft? There's one website in particular that announced, "It's been confirmed. Fairuza Balk owns an occult store In West Hollywood!"
I do. I own an occult shop. It is now the oldest in the country. I did it because I liked the store and it was going under. 

Did you buy it before or after The Craft?
During.
Did you get Into the whole occult thing because of The Craft?
I'm a student of everything. When I do a job, I learn everything there is to know
about what I'm doing. Also, my family is made up of very psychic people so I'm
naturally drawn to it. I know a lot of people think it's hullabaloo, but it's been
proven that it's real. I found a lot, through doing research. Like how I can make,
my dreams come true. How I see things and they happen. It's all actually a very natural phenomenon, a natural skill. We all have it.
Like deja vu?
Yeah, exactly. We're all born far more connected to God-or whatever you want to call the higher power of the universe-than we give credit for. Parents, society, schools brainwash children to eradicate the imagination. I was lucky because I had a mother who nurtured my imagination. She made sure there was no one around me who would stop that. So it never went away for me. I always swore as a little girl that I would never become an adult. Children are so brilliant and they have so much to offer the world, and they're often treated like they're not as smart as adults.
What about witchcraft?
The whole phenomenon that's happening with Wicca is very fascinating. More and more people are getting fed up with religions not being able to give them answers or stable proof. Wicca gives women, especially, a great sense of themselves because of the goddess ideology. A woman is the mother, she's the nurturer, the lifegiver. She's
as close to God as you can get because she can create life. It gives women the sense that it's okay to be big. It's okay to be different. It's okay to want to have children. It's
okay to be feminine. It also teaches women how to take control of their lives. It
teaches them how to meditate. It's a very positive thing for people in general, because there is no martyr There is no self -flagellation. There's no guilt. It's all about positivity
and empowering yourself and discovering who you are as opposed to the restrictive thing many religions are.
Are you Wiccan?
No. I just learned about it.
I thought you were Buddhist because of all your Sanskrit prayer tattoos.
Well, my mom raised me in part Tibetan Buddhist. She also did a very neat thing, She sent me to every church she could think of Hare Krishna, Muslim, Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, you name it She didn't want to tell me what to believe. But I was so young,
I didn't know what was what. For a while I wanted to be Jewish because I wanted a big family and I thought that's what Jewish meant. Then I wanted to be Christian because I wanted the white dress. I'm fascinated by religion. And I have my own ideas about t he universe. But I'm very cynical, and I need things to be proven to me, One thing I believe is that we are not at the mercy of anyone. I believe that we have control over our own destiny as individuals. I do believe that there's a plan for everyone, like a path in life, and I do believe in a higher power. I strongly believe that you can make anything you want happen in this world.

Do you think the occult gets people In touch with their own powers?

It can. I wish there wasn't such a stigma about it because I believe there is a lot in the occult that's good: it teaches you how to ground yourself, how to balance your life. If people choose to take it to a dark place, that's their thing, not mine. That people judge me on the fact that I'm open-minded is disgusting. If you're different, God forbid! But who cares? I'm gonna do what I'm gonna do...