What a difference eight months can make. When Hollywood.com caught up with Jessica Simpson on the set of The Dukes of Hazzard in January, it seemed like there simply couldn’t be any more attention placed on the deliriously ditzy MTV reality show star and her highly documented newlywed era.
But on the eve of the Dukes’ yee-hawin’ charge into theaters, Simpson star continues to ascend, soaring even higher than the General Lee over a broke-down Hazzard County bridge. Check out our chats with Jessica from the set, as well as our reunion with her in the big city just a few days ago.
Down on the Set
When I was told I’d be granted an audience with Jessica Simpson after shooting her scenes for her first-ever feature film acting gig, the last place I expected to meet her was in the back office of an aging used car dealership in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. But that’s where the Dukes production team had set up their offices, complete with a fully operational garage servicing a fleet of bright orange General Lees in various states of destruction, as well as a shocking amount of Hazzard county cop cars.
The Juicy track-suited Jessica came into the office as bright, blonde and bubbly as any Newlywed viewer would expect her to be, but her much-discussed dimbulb factor had diminished dramatically. I’d met Jessica and her husband Nick Lachey several times over the years, and it definitely wasn’t entirely an act (weeks before Newlyweds first aired, I asked if she regretted anything that had been caught on camera, and she guilelessly told me they caught her “walking into doors and walls a lot.” I think that was the moment I totally fell for her as a TV-ready personality).
But this 2005 model Jessica was decidedly more self-assured and polished than the one I’d first encountered a couple years earlier–not to mention more seductively sculpted: her toned tummy peeked out to offer a glimpse of the shaped up, baby-fat-free Daisy Duke chassis we’d later see in the film and her controversial music video. Yet, there was also nothing cynical, calculated or been-there-done-that about her. She still came off as fresh, genuine and seemingly unedited as ever–just as “Jess” as she could be, but more thoughtful and articulate than she’d ever presented herself. Sliding on those Daisy Dukes, I thought, had shaped the inner Jessica just as much as the other girl.
Did you find jumping into acting in your very first movie a difficult thing to do?
Jessica Simpson: “You know, I thought it was going to be a lot harder, but I think my atmosphere, the cast, Johnny [Knoxville] and Seann [William Scott] and the director Jay [Chandrasekhar], everybody has made me feel very, very comfortable. They’re crazy anyway, so it’s OK if I mess up. It’s cool to go into your first movie completely open to just fall on your face. So, that’s the personality they have and what makes them so good at what they’re doing.”
And Seann and Johnny really made you feel comfortable?
Simpson: “Seann and Johnny are great, and I had to give them a thank you note after my first day on set because I was so nervous. I freaked myself out a little bit and they were just funny and crazy. Really great guys. So encouraging and tell me how great I was even if I blew really hard, but they were very encouraging and is really what has gotten me through this movie. And my first experience, coming out with confidence.”
We were told you really wanted this part. Why did you really want to be Daisy Duke?
Simpson: “It was important for me to not go so far away from my persona and what people already knew me as. Eventually I’ll go there into acting, but for my first role, I didn’t want it to be too far-fetched. I just thought it was an amazing character. I wasn’t alive when [the TV] Dukes of Hazzard was around. I know that’s sad, but I did see all the re-runs and I’m from the South so the accent came naturally. It was that all-American girl I wanted to keep.”
Did your experience on your TV show with cameras around all the time make it easier to transition into acting?
Simpson: “I don’t even notice the camera anymore. I think that’s one of the positive things about having a crew around all the time. But they’ll be in your face and you won’t even know it, which can be scary but good as an actress.”
How did you prep as an actress, what kinds of things did you do before getting into it?
Simpson: “I shoot on Thursday and I don’t even know what my lines are. I’m better when I go in and sit in my hair and make-up chair and memorize my lines while getting my hair and make-up done. That way I don’t rehearse them too much, and it doesn’t sound like I’m acting and its more just how you say it. Rather than figure out where the emphasis should go, because that gets too confusing.”
You got into shape to do this role. Can you talk about what you did to prepare for the bikinis and Daisy Dukes?
Simpson: “Immediately when I found out I had the part, it was the best to know I had something to work towards. Because otherwise, I’m off to my fried food and Taco Bell. I had my last piece of chocolate cake when I found out. Ever since, I’ve tried to cut sugar out of my diet, but I eat healthy, and work out close to two hours a day.”
Have you though about doing your own line of Daisy Dukes?
Simpson: “Yes, I just signed a big merchandising deal and me and my mom are going to do it together. So we’re going to have a line called Britches. I have a line called Desserts and cosmetics will come and all kinds of things will come. But I’m hoping to do a line of Daisy Britches.”
With your TV show, what do you think is the biggest misconception of you?
Simpson: “I’m definitely ditzy and people think that about me, and that’s okay with me. But I’m not the Anna Nicole Smith type. I have all my stuff together and I’m very determined. I work really hard and a lot of that gets lost in my comments. But that’s OK, because it’s done really well for me.”
Do we get to see your first on-screen kiss in this movie?
Simpson: “Cooter [played by Anchorman‘s David Koechner] is my first on-screen kiss. That was great. I just kissed him on the cheek. He might have tried to slip something by me a couple of times but…that was actually my first day on set. He was covered in grease, my make-up artist had to wipe her off every time. It was just a peck saying thank you.”
And you get to enjoy a little barroom brawling in the movie?
Simpson: “I do. I have to kick some ass with a pool cue. Thank god it’s break away but might as well not have been because I felt so bad. I don’t think people like Jay thought I had it in me and I ended up leaving welts on this guy’s back. So I felt kind of bad.”
Did you have much of a chance to bond with Burt Reynolds?
Simpson: “One of my first days on set was with Burt and he was so sweet. He went out to an antique store and bought me a ring that was a daisy with blue sapphires. He made me feel so comfortable. I’ve had a scene with him already and I’ve had a couple with Willie Nelson, who’s unbelievable. Both of them are great.”
What’s your favorite aspect of Daisy’s character?
Simpson: “That she gets everybody out of trouble. That’s what’s so fun about it. That people rely on Daisy to make things happen. To use her sexuality or personality. It’s really fun because you never really look at Daisy Duke. I mean, if you look at her clothes she was wearing, especially for back then, it was so skimpy, and nowadays you’d be like, ‘Oh gosh, I can’t believe she wears that.’ Somehow Daisy Duke can pull it off because she has a smile on while she does it.”
You’re the testing the waters with acting in parts that are close to you. Where would you like to see things go? If this is a hit, where do you wan to go as an actress?
Simpson: “I want to do the romantic comedies, the stuff that Meg Ryan or Julia Roberts would choose. But I also love the movies that move you and make you cry, so whether it’s a drama, I’m up for anything. I don’t know if I’d be good at some coked-out drug addict, that’s kind of hard to identify with, but you never know.”
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Life After Hazzard County
Nearly eight months after my trip to Baton Rouge, and following many drive-by encounters with Jessica and her husband in Los Angeles, I’m once again sitting across the table from the newly-minted actress, her brilliant white smile offset by the sleek floral patterned Dolce & Gabbana sheath she wears, this time in a Manhattan hotel suite.
Much has happened since I was last granted a sit-down with Jessica: she wrapped Dukes; she frequently jumped on various stages around the country with co-star Willie Nelson; she and her husband visited and entertained U.S. troops in Iraq; and she showed off Daisy Duke’s teeny pink bikini in her “These Boots Are Made for Walkin'” music video sudsing up the General Lee, Paris Hilton-style.
And perhaps most troubling, she’s been dogged by a seemingly endless series of magazine headlines, articles and gossip items, some suggesting that her marriage to Lachey has hit hard times, others insinuating an affair with her co-star Johnny Knoxville. Despite the increasingly intense buzz of the media around her every public and private movement, Jessica seems entirely unfazed. Indeed, she takes every question she’s asked seriously and with good humor, and appears surprisingly tolerant of the rumors that continue swirling. And once again, though she carries herself with the poise and confidence of a star, her genuine quality remains undiluted: she’s still the pop star–and now actress–next door.
You looked like you had fun playing up the sex appeal of this character. Is there a line you won’t cross?
Simpson: “Oh, there’s a lot of lines I won’t cross. I did have fun playing up the sex appeal of Daisy Duke, because she’s a woman, she’s a smart woman and she definitely knows how to use her body! She was the brains behind getting everybody out of trouble all the time. She would always undo everything that was all wound up.”
How long did it take you to get into a comfort zone with Daisy’s sex appeal, to go from ‘Ohmigod, I’m hanging out of these shorts!’ to confidently washing the General Lee in a pink bikini for your “These Boots Are Made for Walking’ video?
Simpson: “I look at the General Lee and the bikini and everything as that was Daisy. That was definitely me playing the role. Me as Jessica Simpson, I could never do that. I can’t walk on the beach in a bikini. I lay down. I’m really shy! But I wanted to carry that into the music video.”
It also really showed how much work you put into getting into amazing shape. Do you feel like a fitness role model now?
Simpson: “Yeah, definitely, because I’m au natural. I’ve gained a lot of confidence in being Daisy Duke because I worked out so hard and I did it all on my own, so it gave me so much more confidence. So it just gives you so much confidence to say ‘Look what I did.'”
Were you surprised at the harsh criticism you’ve received from some conservative quarters after the video?
Simpson: “All that stuff that’s come up, it’s some Christian group. I just don’t think that’s really very Christian-like. It’s very judgmental.”
You’ve talked about why you wanted this part so badly. Now that you’ve played it, why are you happy you got it?
Simpson: “It was the perfect time for me to do a movie and I thought playing up the whole Southern sexy thing would be great. And to kind of show strength, because a lot of people haven’t really seen that from me. They see my ditzy side and my fun and dorky side and my obsession with clothes and all those things that are a part of me, but they haven’t seen a lot of strength as a woman, and I thought that Daisy Duke would be a great way to show it.”
What’s the biggest misconception about the South that you’d like to correct for people?
Simpson: “The biggest misconception about the South? Everybody thinks in the South, everybody’s riding horses and wearing cowboy hats, y’know? [Giggles] I wanted to do Dukes of Hazzard because what I loved so much about the South is how tight the family bonds are. The families always have each other’s back and I also love–especially about Dukes of Hazzard–I love that everybody is so friendly, everybody knows each other, everybody roots each other on. But then you have the Boss Hoggs. That’s very much like the South. It’s the story of the South. It’s the good cops and the bad–maybe it’s because I grew up watching too many reruns of Dukes. I also grew in small towns like McGregor, Texas, where my grandparents had a ranch and the whole thing.”
After growing up in a strictly religious upbringing, you’ve said that being on the set was actually quite liberating. What was the most profound part of the experience for you?
Simpson: “It was really just the fact that I wasn’t with my family every day. My dad’s my manager, and my mom would always dress me. It’s a family business. But they didn’t come on set but twice. And so I had three months. I was living with all my girlfriends and we just had fun. It was like Sex and the City. Without the sex. My husband was there for a month and a half. But it was like girls’ night out all the time. It was so fun, so fun.”
We’ve watched you grow up and mature on camera. Are you comfortable with people knowing as much about you as they do? Tell us where you are in your life right now.
Simpson: “Me being open about my marriage and as an individual and letting people in on my privacy. That’s what made me succeed. That’s what put me here right now. I absolutely do not regret that, but I do think that it’s time to make some things more private and sacred. You always feel, right now, that people are out to get something out of you, but I can’t look at life that way. The decisions that I make in my career from here on out are decisions that have been brewing for a very long time, but being open with my privacy is what made it all happen.”
What’s your relationship like with the press? On the one hand, you need the press for your career. On the other hand, it can be so invasive and so intrusive. How do you deal with it?
Simpson: “I just do what I do, I go where people tell me to go and I just speak my heart and speak my mind, and I don’t even really think about it. I try not to. A lot of people are out to get you and bring you down. But I think that through it all, you preserve through stuff like that. You really can’t complain about it. I can’t complain about people wanting to write about me. I can complain about the actual articles, but the fact that I’m in the magazine or the paparazzi, it’s just a part of it.”
Why do you think the tabloids have gone after you with all the rumors and innuendo about your marriage and your co-stars?
Simpson: “I honestly don’t know why. I am just lucky like that, I guess. But my husband was on set for a month and a half. It would have been impossible. But you’ve got to take all that in stride and it started getting Dukes of Hazzard some promo a long time ago. I think that just as long as we end up walking down the street and hold our heads up. I always wear my wedding ring now! [laughs] I can’t sit here and complain about it. I don’t have a bad life. I really don’t. So don’t have a pity party. Nick brings stability into my life. He’s the part of my day that I look forward to.”
What pitfalls do you want to avoid in your burgeoning movie career?
Simpson: “A bad script! [Laughs] And that’s another thing, that there’s a lot of movie projects that I’m looking at, but there’s this one movie called Major Movie Star that is with [Dukes producer] Billy Gerber, producer, and it’s a Goldie Hawn/Private Benjamin kind of role. My mentors are Goldie Hawn, Dolly Parton. Dolly Parton is my absolute favorite because she’s an amazing woman, she’s an amazing blonde, great Southern lady, amazing songwriter, singer, all of it. She has her own theme park! She has a legacy, and I hope to be doing the same thing as her. I would love to do something like 9 to 5. I love 9 to 5. You can’t really get better.”
What is your priority right now? Your movie career or your singing career?
Simpson: “It’s all a priority. I’m trying to balance everything. I have a workout video that’s about to come out. I have a clothing line called [sounds like] Trendy, shoe line that’s about to come out. I’m a little busy. But I try to make everything a priority. I put my hands in everything, and I make sure nothing comes out that I don’t approve or am [sic] creatively involved in.”
And you recently hit the quarter-century mark. How’s life at 25?
Simpson: “I love being 25. I feel so different. The moment that the clock struck midnight, I don’t know what happened to me, but I–maybe it’s just because life’s so good right now and everything feels good with Dukes of Hazzard, everything just feels so good and I just really love life.”
The Dukes of Hazzard opened in theaters Aug. 5.
