Heather Graham’s looks have cost her “smart” roles.
The Hangover actress is looking out for roles that show off her intelligence because she’s tired of playing hookers and bimbos, and if they don’t start sitting up for her she’ll write and direct her own projects.
“There aren’t that many great parts for women, and it can be frustrating…,” she says. “I want to do more things I write and direct. I feel like I’m really smart, but I don’t often get those parts, and I think, sometimes, it’s because of how I look. But a very smart, strong character is something I want to play more because that’s who I am in life and that’s not how I’m always seen.”
Heather was inspired by her Bowfinger co-star Steve Martin to start producing and directing projects because he took charge of his career when he didn’t like the parts that were coming his way.
“It’s inspiring to see him writing his own stuff,” she tells Entertainment Tonight. “He’s such a good writer. He didn’t sit around waiting for someone to give him a job. He wrote books and he wrote scripts, and he controls his own creativity.”
The Boogie Nights star is currently reveling in the role of Judalon Smyth, the mistress of psychologist Dr. Oziel, on TV mini-series Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders. Smyth turned Oziel’s clients Erik and Lyle Menendez in for the murder of their parents, despite his threats.
“She really stood up to him,” she says. “These other women were treated really badly by him, and they went on with their lives. But Judalon really got revenge on him. Then she detached herself and found a way to get her power back, so as a woman, I got into that.”
“When you’re an actor and you get a job that you actually would want to watch, you’re like, ‘Ah, thank God’,” she adds. “I’m doing something that I actually like, that I actually would want to watch.”
