HOLLYWOOD — “200 Cigarettes” star Courtney Love has resigned to give up cigarettes for her daughter, but on the silver screen, Love is still smoking. Since her acting debut in a Kellogg’s commercial at the age of eight to a string of forgettable B-movies, Love has finally made a name for herself in the acting world.
“I had been in a couple bands. I had been in a band called ‘Faith No More.’ I had been in a couple of other bands, but then I had gotten some parts in some trashy B-movies. And I used to go to Risa [Risa Bramon Garcia, ‘200 Cigarettes” director] and her partner’s office all the time and almost get everything – which is still a little bit the story of my life but it’s gotten better.”
In “200 Cigarettes,” Love stars as Lucy, who tries desperately to cheer up her best friend Kevin (Paul Rudd). The two dateless friends bar hop miserably through New York’s East Village on New Year’s Eve. If only Lucy and Kevin could put down their cigarettes for one moment, they could see how perfect they are for one another.
The Paramount and MTV production also stars Ben Affleck, Dave Chappelle, Jay Mohr, Martha Plimpton, and other rising stars, like Christina Ricci and Kate Hudson. Directed by Risa Bramon Garcia, the film brings together various young couples and friends whose lives intersect at one party on New Year’s Eve 1981.
“Well this script, ‘200 Cigarettes‘ is clever. It’s charming. It captures a time. It’s sort of a romantic disaster movie. It’s got the glamour of that period of New York. I always wondered what that was like and that kind of lower East Side vibe,” Love explains.
From Love’s motion picture debut in “The People vs. Larry Flint,” which garnered her a Golden Globe nomination, to her next film project “Man on the Moon” with Jim Carrey, Love plays the odds and challenges her acting abilities.
“I want to push things further. Within pop music, I want there to be something intellectual. I can’t control the end result of a movie. That’s the one thing about acting that is bad. But I can make a safe bet.”
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Love places bets on her next project, “Man on the Moon.” She stars as the girlfriend of comedian Andy Kaufman, played by Jim Carrey.
“I took this part, it was quick. It was a character like – she’s not doomed. She doesn’t die of drugs. She’s not all the stuff I have to see in the day job anyway, and deal with all the teenage angst from the audience and everything else. And I want something where I can do something light and good and still me and still be believable, but go home at night. And be a grown up, because I’m a grown-up now.”
Love is dedicated to becoming a better writer and actress. By working with seasoned actors like Woody Harrelson, Jim Carrey and Danny De Vito, Love only improves her craft.
“I just finished ‘Man on the Moon,’ with Jim Carrey. I have a couple of scenes with Danny De Vito that are sublime. I mean the more that you work with, in acting, with someone who’s brilliant and grounded and present – the more amazing it is and really, really an honor.”
Love has come a long way, baby. Love’s third album, “Celebrity Skin,” with Hole garnered three Grammy nominations and spawned a tour with Marilyn Manson. In acting, Courtney Love has come full circle with the film “200 Cigarettes” and is finally comfortable with being the female version of Sean Penn, a comparison she has made and welcomes more than the press’ comparisons to Madonna.
“If I go away and I become a rock star, can I like come back and do this? And she [Risa Bramon Garcia, director] said, ‘the world will be your oyster.’ She was really encouraging. Her and her partner back then, ‘you’re really, really good, but you’re edgy.’ And the eighties was no time to be edgy and female. So, now, it’s like a good time to be edgy and female.”
