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Gretchen Mol
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It's 9 a.m. Coffee and toast time. Pulling the pillow over your head and hitting the snooze alarm again time. And yet, 26-year-old starlet Gretchen Mol looks stunning. Her face is perfectly powdered. Her lips delicately rouged. She is a sweater-set-wearing poster girl for good cosmetics. Sitting in the hallway of a Los Angeles hotel on a recent Saturday morning, Mol waits for her latest spin on the publicity carousel. She sits quietly with an assistant (proof of her fast-track career). The hallway is abuzz with the scamper of clipboard-clutching publicists. At a time when most Angelenos are still sleeping off Friday night revelry, Mol is an eager beauty, ready to tackle a necessary showbiz task: meeting the press. Mol's career bio, while brief, suffers from no lack of media attention. She was bookended between celebrity actors Matt Damon and Ed Norton, playing Damon's law school girlfriend in last fall's cardshark drama Rounders. Mol can already claim her own "Woody Allen" experience, cast as the girlfriend of Leonardo DiCaprio's spoiled actor (he essentially played himself) in Allen's 1998 comedy Celebrity. There have been indie films (The Funeral and The Last Time I Committed Suicide) and bit parts (Donnie Brasco and Spike Lee's Girl 6). With the release of her latest film, the noirish science fiction thriller The Thirteenth Floor, Mol gets the chance to break out of the girlfriend mold. A virtual-reality thriller about an elderly scientist who's created a lifelike replica of 1937 L.A., Mol plays a mysterious beauty who assumes control of the computer company responsible for the otherworldly experiments.
"That seems to be the way it always is with films," says Mol, speaking later that morning. "There's one woman and there are the buddies. So I'm looking forward to doing something with an all-female cast. That would be nice for a change Always being surrounded by men is like 'eech.' You only want to do challenging roles, really. But when you're sort of first starting out, you take the things that happen to come along and build on it from there."
On-screen, Mol has lived an eventful life. She joined DiCaprio for Celebrity's clothes-ripping, furniture-trashing, hotel room fight. She wept incessantly as a grieving gangster's widow in The Funeral. There have been the obligatory movie love scenes. Of course, this is the make-believe Mol. A 35mm fantasy personality pieced together in countless movie theaters. Now, on the brink of stardom, Mol's own life takes center stage.
Hers was a publicity explosion of the supernova variety. Even by Hollywood standards, Mol experienced an exceptional, hard media sell. Most ingenues would kill for similar attention. It's also the type of excessive media glare that kills careers.
There is Mol on the cover of the September 1998 Vanity Fair. Her head is tilted back invitingly. Her elbow raised in a sultry pose. Those lips, those full ruby lips, inviting readers for a closer look at her sheer dress. As if possessed by the ghost of Jean Harlow, or any other "golden age" platinum blonde, Mol single-handedly breathes new life into the idea of a Hollywood 'It' girl.
"It's something you can't prepare yourself for, but then it dies down and you get on with life. You know it's just a cover," says Mol, speaking with the enthusiasm of someone new to the business. "You can look at it (Vanity Fair) later. They give you a nice little book and once in awhile -- well not once in awhile, not that often -- you can open it up and you go 'Oh my god, that's me!' It's so funny. You feel nostalgic for who you really are which is not that person on the cover." Celebrity makes quick demands on one's private life. So reporters bombard Mol with a dizzying array of personal questions. What is your sex life like? Who's your partner? In bed, do you prefer sex or sleeping? Inquiring minds want to know and inquiring writers want to tell them. Now, average Joes know that Mol likes long bubble baths in her New York City apartment. They know the contents of her makeup bag: Smith's Rosebud Salve, Stila pressed powder in Light, Trish McEvoy No. 5 brush and Nars Perfecting Mascara in Bamboo. She's defended her casual jeans-and-sweater style (avoiding the starlet's uniform of tight dresses). After all, as an up-and-coming actress, Mol is ultimately judged by her fashion sense.
Not that Mol is complaining. Fame? Sure. Why not be famous? Of course, in her eyes, being famous means getting good film roles and working with good people. Stardom is supposed to be creatively fulfilling.
"I got the splash over with, and it was such a splash," she says. "It was unnecessary maybe, but as far as balancing with the work, it was big. I think I'll look back on it in a few years and I'll feel even more happy about the choices that I made. I don't regret it. It fueled the next project and got it going. So I can't regret it."
Maybe there isn't a "right" formula for acquiring a Hollywood profile. Although there are countless agents and publicists who would disagree. Still, Mol sticks to her belief that doing the "right" films with the "right" people will bring fame as well as success. Listening to Mol's bubbly enthusiasm, sinking into her ocean-blue eyes, it's easy to believe her. Yes, Gretchen Mol's self-help guide to career boosterism makes fame seem so much easier.
Still, why shouldn't an acting career go smoothly for Mol? She's so lovely. The type of wholesome beauty one expects to see sitting on some float at the Wisconsin Dairy Pageant wearing a tiara. It's laughable, really. When one magazine describes Mol as "having a face like a tournament rose dipped in whipped cream," you can't help but agree. And when Mol complains that baggy jeans and a loose sweater makes her look like some little boy, you think, she would probably be the most glamorous "little boy" around.
Hers was an idealistic New England childhood. A comfortable adolescence bathed in the suburban comfort of Deep River, Conn. Mol was bit by the musical theater bug in high school. She sang. She danced. Later, Mol packed off to New York City, enrolling in the American Musical and Dramatic Academy.
An acting career never seemed like a far-away dream for her. Mol would look at pictures of classic movie stars to see how they applied makeup. Watching The Great Gatsby on TV, she retreated to her bedroom to redo her eyes to look just like Mia Farrow's character.
Family support came enthusiastically. Mol was the subject of her artist/mother's paintings and photography. Her brother Jim, a Super-8 filmmaker, cast Mol in all his student-splatter movies. When it was evident that musical theater was not going to fulfill her artistic visions, Mol became a wholesome-faced fixture on TV commercials for McDonald's and Coca-Cola. There were the obligatory jobs to pay the rent. She took tickets at a Manhattan art-house movie theater. A job as a coat check girl at Michael's, a midtown restaurant frequented by agent types, even led to the myth of Mol's "discovery." There were tough times. Last-minute interest by a more famous actress almost cost Mol her breakthrough role in Rounders. Still, despite it all, her career has worked out famously.
When the initial buzz has faded, after the spotlight has shifted to the next "hot" actress, what will become of Gretchen Mol?
There's showbiz irony in the fact that Mol's latest film, The Thirteenth Floor, opens opposite Julia Robert's romantic comedy Notting Hill. It is a sign of what might lie ahead for the ambitious blonde: high-profile projects built around herself. Sandwiched between other blonde actresses such as Charlize Theron and Reese Witherspoon, it's too easy to see Mol falling into a character "type." The dutiful wife. The girlfriend in trouble. A pretty accessory to whomever her male lead might be. Still, listening to Mol's breathy voice explain sensible takes on celebritydom, one's hopes are raised. Mol has too much sense and sensibility to become a Hollywood victim.
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Matt Damon and Gretchen Mol in Rounders
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"I think you just choose your lifestyle and try to maintain it," says Mol. "It's part of the business. It's the thing that I've chosen to do and you have to try and use everything that happens to strengthen you and turn it into an opportunity. It's something that I'm working on."
Sitting beside her, it's easy to forget the other actresses in film. Granted, Mol is too pretty to become a character actress. But she's also too smart to remain simply the "girlfriend" to male celebrities such as DiCaprio and Damon. The Thirteenth Floor is a first step toward trying something different. A starring role in Paul Schrader's upcoming romantic drama Forever Mine will help build a reputation in leading roles. Proof that Mol isn't shackled by her classic looks, she even dyed her hair red for a role in an indie comedy directed by Seinfeld alumni Jason Alexander. There's even the thought of stage work.
Hollywood continues to beckon, although Mol has passed on some high-profile scripts that have come her way. She keeps her home in New York City for creative inspiration. She's increased her confidence, she says, the key to bringing it all together. Mol has already benefited from one big break. The next one will be on her own terms.
"The more you emerge yourself into it (celebrity) the more difficult it is. I don't have any of that BS in my life in New York. I mean it's great just not having to look at movie billboards and things, and not seeing The Hollywood Reporter on every chair in every office. There are other things going on. It's not life and death. It's only a movie."
