Thank's sooo much to Pina for typing this up for us :)Go Katie go!
There's a Dawson's Creek Katie, the Disturbing Behaviour Katie, and the Go
Katie. This month, she plays a sexy southern belle in The Gift. Katie
Holmes, who are you?
This is the Katie Holmes interview in which she's teased. Gently, mind you.
The star of Dawson's Creek is genuinely nice and unfailingly polite. It's
just that, so far, she's revealed much more of herself in her work than in
her press: Playing Tobey Maguire's rich girlfriend in The Ice Storm, she's
simmering sexy. In Disturbing Behaviour, she's a wild child. In Go, one of
the best movies of the nineties, she gets down with a drug dealer in a
scorching makeout scene. In Wonder Boys, she makes a subtle pass at Michael
Douglas. Playing the sweet, sarcastic tomboy Joey on Dawson's Creek, she
falls head over heels with her longtime crush's best friend. A lot of
action, yes? And in her press, so far, Katie maintains a certain discretion,
giving little insight into the passion that fuels her best performances.
When all else fails, when discussing any topic that veers to close to
personal, Holmes' motto seems to be: revert to talk of jelly beans and
cookie dough.
Her next outing, released this December, is a film called The Gift, in which
she plays a strong willed Savannah society woman who uses her sexuality to
her advantage. Another scorching role for Katie. Are we going to let her get
away with yet another safe conversation?
Katie is dressed for lunch looking casual and gorgeous. In the midst of
responding to a query about what she's wearing (Earl jeans, Abercrombie &
Finch plaid shirt, Armani rectangular glasses, black flip-flops, crimson
nails-"They need a pedicure.I have the world's ugliest feet") we happen up
the simple matter of her Tiffany watch.
"It was a present from a producer," she says and giggles a little
self-consciously.
Oh, really? Hmm. The casting-couch spectre has suddenly risen up before us,
most improbably in the company of America's sweetheart. Let's say this for
Katie: she's quick on the uptake.
"No, no," she says. "It was an end-of-the-job present." A pause, then. After
that unfortunate choice of words, a race to clarify. "End of filming."
"Which one?"
"The Gift."
Appropriately enough.
When told she's to grace the cover of NYLON's science and technology issue,
Katie Holmes visibly tenses. "Well, I got through chemistry," she offers. "I
liked anatomy much better than physics. I'm not that computer literate. I
e-mail. I know how to get on the web, but I haven't crossed over the
internet world. I'm old fashioned, I guess." She's told not to worry, that
we're not going to ask her to solve calculus questions or put her through
anything that resembles chem-lab hell. She doesn't even have to be up on the
latest tech toys. We are going for something more complex, and that is
examining the elusive equation that is Katie Holmes.
Born in Toledo, Ohio, to a prominent lawyer and his homemaker wife, the
fifth of five, young Katie was raised like a Southern belle in training, and
that meant being sent to manners school. It was all about posture and
propriety, with a little acting on the side. That side order, a Saturday
acting class, provided combustible, and was Katie Holmes' ticket out of the
land of proper table settings. A reading of To Kill A Mockingbird at a
consortium in New York brought her to the attention of the producers of The
Ice Storm, and Holmes, fresh out of an all-girls Catholic high school, was
cast in her first film role at 18. Good manners propelled her even further.
When the producers of Dawson's Creek wanted to fly her out for an audition
at a time when she'd already committed to her school play, Katie chose to
remain in the play. Her choice changed everything: The producers of Dawson's
Creek wanted her even more. No matter Katie Holmes has stayed on the
well-mannered route.
Katie calls before we meet, to make plans for the next day. "We can have
lunch in town," she says. "I know some nice places." We're in Wilmington,
North Carolina, a college town, also home to the floating university that is
the cast of Dawson's Creek. Katie arrives at my hotel lobby-sans rep or
bodyguard-looking purposeful, pulled-together, like she's just been to the
mall, which in fact, she has. At Baby Gap, specifically, she purchased an
outfit for her newborn nephew. And yes, he choice changed everything.
"Deciding between the pumpkin and the bear outfits were pretty intense," she
says. "I had to get advice, and involved the whole Gap store in my
decision."
She orders chicken Caesar salad at Phoenix, a tiny little restaurant where
Musak plays in the background. It's not Katie's first choice. Deluxe, the
more hip place where the cast converses after shooting, is closed. " This
place is pretentious," Katie sighs. Piped-in piano music adds delicate
flourishes to our conversation. In a fantasy scenario, the instrumental
would fade into "I Don't Want To Wait," the Dawson's Creek theme, which
hovers around Katie Holmes, always. So Katie, are you sick to death of that
Paula Cole song? "If it comes on when I'm on the car, I have to turn it,"
she says. "I don't want to look like a dork, listening to our theme song.
Every once in a while, someone will play it on the set, just to make fun."
Katie has been known to throw a few well-timed music cues into her life.
"You want to have a good John Coltrane song in the background for a nice
romantic moment," she says. "You don't want Lit 'You Make Me Completely
Miserable.'"
She's loath to talk about her personal life, but it's been reported that
she's dating actor Chris Klein, who starred in Election and American Pie. We
get around the issue by speaking in generalities. What would her ideal guy
be like? She takes pleasure in listing the qualities, an indication that
she's enjoying them with someone right now: "He'd probably be someone who is
creative. Usually and unbelievably kind. Smart. Has a strong comedic side.
Very handsome, very good at what he does."
She's happy at home, but Katie Holmes' scripted TV life is another matter.
"Well, it's hard for Joey to be friends with Dawson right now. Pacey and
Dawson used to be best friends, and now they hate each other. He enjoyed
having someone pine for him, so when she chooses someone else. what you get
is jealousy. Resentment. Betrayal."
This fall, the WB network spent a small fortune blanketing the country with
an ad for Dawson's Creek, featuring the tag line "Her choice changed
everything."
"Oh, my friends make so much fun of me for that," she says. "On of the
billboards was down the street from my friend's apartment in New York, and
he said 'Katie, I wake up to your face. It's really annoying. You're like
Big Brother.'"
It's true, her gaze in that poster is searing, her cheeks hollowed out. They
look airbrushed, when in fact, sitting here before her, it's apparent that
she can achieve the sculpted-cheeks pose as easily as arching an eyebrow.
When I mention that her eyes seem especially piercing in that poster, Katie
does The Look. She could move small objects with that gaze, given enough
practice.
Can a choice change everything? We talk about the film Sliding Doors, and
how Gwyneth Paltrow might have been successful and happy if only she'd
hotfooted it faster to the tube. "I really don't think it's the case," Katie
says. "If you work hard and are a good person, things are going to be OK. I
do think there is something about karma that is true."
She and co-star Joshua Jackson have interesting karma. Three seasons ago,
they were dating in real life. Now their characters have hooked up. The love
scenes between Pacey and Joey are mini-squirmfests, something along the
lines of watching Sonny and Cher do their couple schtick after they'd
divorced. I ask Katie about the love scenes. "Maybe there's a hint of
realism?" she offers cautiously. "It's been such a long time since we dated.
I guess the audience can read into it whatever they want. It's such
different circumstances for all four people involved. I guess if Pacey and
Joey dated the first season, there would be a more clear indication of
what's going on between us. But it' just so far from that."
Is there such thing as a Go Katie?
"There's a side of me that's apt to take risks," she says. "I'm open to new
experiences. I don't think I would be in the position Claire in Go was, a
kind of dangerous rethinking of that situation. Acting gives you the freedom
to maybe say what you want to but can't, to expose a part of yourself that
you never would."
And in Disturbing Behaviour?
"I got to be that bad girl that."
"Is somewhere inside of you?"
"Maybe," she considers. "Maybe I really am bad. Maybe those articles that
have been written about me are all wrong."
"Let's see it," I tease her. "Let's see the Go Katie."
She mimes a strip tease: "Da, da, dada da da."then puts her finger to her
mouth,"Shhh!"
Some things you may not have known about Katie Holmes: her favourite book is
The Picture of Dorian Gray ( perfect). She's re-reading The Bell Jar
(typical) She cannot tell a lie. ("My family can't lie to save themselves.
We always get in trouble. Our eyes give everything away.") Last Halloween,
she attended a party as "a one-night stand." Excuse me? "You know, I put
cardboard on my shoulders, cut a hole out for my head, decorated it with a
tablecloth, a few pictures, and a lamp. Then I put a big '1' on the
tablecloth. One night stand-get it? It was a hit."
"Ba da bup," I say.
"Ba da bup," she says.
In 1998, Time voted her, out of a panel of young stars including Neve
Campbell, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and co-stars James Van Der Beer and
Michelle Williams, "the most likely to reach 20 with sanity intact." She was
19 then. "I don't think I even saw that. Did it say in-tact? That just shows
how crazy that story is, because there's nothing sane about me," She smiles,
then catches herself. "my mom's going to read this, and say 'Be more
positive in your interviews.'"
"Is she a little conscious about sitting on your shoulders?"
"Yeah."
We walk slowly down the street. In this moment, as the sun casts a certain
golden halo over everything, it feels like we've entered a virtual Dawson's
Creek. "It's kind of weird, like living in the Magic Kingdom, or
Pleasantville," she says. That morning, she reports, she woke up at 7:30,
put on a bathing suit, and went for a run on the beach. She lives in a
townhouse community near the college. Katie says that she hears parties all
the time. "Sometimes," she laughs, "I'll get a knock on my door." Does she
ever accept an invitation to party down with the frat boys? "Ah, no." More
likely, she'll go to a fresh seafood place nearby, pick up some tuna and sea
bass, and grill it at home.
We stroll past the water's edge. "This is the lovely Cape Fear River," Katie
reports. "Notice that smell? Mmmm." So, Katie, have you learned to row yet?
"I'm still mad at James for telling the world that I don't row," she says.
Those crazy TV stars, bickering at each other through magazine articles. "He
doesn't know how to row either. I just don't want to get blisters on my
hands."
She admits that life in Wilmington is a bubble. Given her
wise-beyond-her-years assessment of fame and its possibly damaging
qualities, that's a good thing. "I get scared about loving being famous or
liking being famous, or getting used to being famous, she says, "because
it's something you really have no control over. When you start obsessing
about being famous, you're really not concentrating on the job. You're
always looking at the result without looking at the time."
Suddenly, a car slows, and a friendly face appears. "Hey Katie," the guy
says. "I've driven past you car. You've got to get it fixed-there's a dent
in the front." Katie says he's with the show. Still, the moment is very
Pleasantville.
Later in the day, taping Dawson's at a soundstage off a major highway, Katie
exudes star power. Her hair has been straightened, her makeup applied. She's
wearing a fuzzy yellow sweater by Barneys Co-Op, tight brown pants, chunky
black heels. The extras are more dully costumed and heavily backpacked. It's
virtual high school here, and Katie instantly assumes the role of the
popular girl chatting in the hallway. "It's fun on stage, so low-key," she
says. But not for long, with her around. "I like to torture they guys a bit,
point out the cute girls to them," she says. "I like to cause problems. Stir
the pot."
She takes me to the catering van parked out in the back, a little snack
truck whose interior is aglow with Christmas lights. She and the attendant
begin speaking in code. This is the Dawson's Creek equivalent to a water
cooler. I bust then on their gossip session. Katie says: There's more drama
behind the scenes than on.
As the days ends and the sun begins to set, she talks about how this will be
the cast's last year in Wilmington. Katie will sell her condo. She hopes
that the show will move to New York, but Vancouver will most likely be its
destination. Katie has a special fondness for New York. Last summer, she
lived in SoHo and loved it. "It's the kind of city where you're at a party,
and the next thing you know, it's 5 a.m. and it doesn't feel late at all."
(Go, Katie, go!)
Katie knows the value of innocence, which in itself indicates a certain
shrewdness. She's also aware of the host of personas, some conflicting, that
live under the nice-girl banner that we know as Katie Holmes. "My friend
Albert and I always laugh about how, when we're really old, we'll still know
one another. He says 'Katie, you with all your personalities, I'll wake up
and knock on your door and you'll just have to tell me who you are today."
