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ONE-ON-ONE WITH RACHEL NICHOLS
Interview by Michael J. Lee, Executive Editor
for Radio Free Entertainment
November 1, 2007
Actress Rachel Nichols first turned a lot of heads in 2005's The Amityville Horror, in which she swanked it up as a too-hot-for-the-'70s babysitter who picks the wrong ghost to tick off. Since then, she has been featured in Resurrecting the Champ alongside Josh Hartnett and Samuel L. Jackson, the Tom Hanks political drama Charlie Wilson's War, and the final season of TV's Alias. She also headlined the horror thriller P2 with Wes Bentley, and starred on the short-lived, but wonderfully dark and atmospheric, FOX crime series The Inside, which proved she was more than just a pretty face.
In this exclusive "get to know you" interview, we had the chance to speak with Rachel about growing up in Maine, graduating from Columbia University, and making the cross-country move to Los Angeles to start an acting career. Aside from her obvious good looks, Rachel is also funny, entertaining, and considerate (after a long day of interviews for P2, her main concern was repeatedly apologizing to reporters for running late). Further packing the stat sheet, she is a student of number-crunching economics and languages, can handle a rifle, enjoys organizing and wields a mean iron and vacuum, has great taste in horror movies, and has a strong relationship with her family. If it wasn't apparent by now, all of these things in conjunction make her a triple threat of beauty, brains, and personality.
We're confident that her ambition and fantastic demeanor will help her Hollywood longevity, and we look forward to seeing her fanbase grow in the coming years...
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The Interview
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RadioFree.com: I noticed that your character in P2 mentions that she is from Maine, just like you. Did you get to add that in as your own personal touch?
RACHEL: [Director Franck Khalfoun] added it. You know, I love this question because I get to share something special that I've totally forgotten about until you said that. In the original script, she was very Jersey and she was kind of tough and was going to say something like, "Yo, don't you know I'm for real, yo?" I mean, something so not Rachel Nichols, so not the character. "Don't you know I keep it real?" And it just never sounded right to me. And Franck was great, and he was like, "Well, that doesn't sound like you, it's not you, let's find something that's real." And I said, "I'm from Maine." And I think we used that. You know, "grew up on the farm" and whatever the line was that we ended up using. But yeah, we got to throw that in because that was me, and that was not "Don't you know I keep it real, yo?" [laughs]
So what's the thing to do in Maine? What's your claim to fame besides lobster and Stephen King?
Well, if you're there in the winter, you're skiing. I love to ski. If you're there in the summer, you're on the ocean sailing and stuff like that. And if you live inland like me...Ummm... [jokes] We have a Wal-Mart. No, I'm kidding. It's a really outdoorsy state. That's what it is. We spent so much time outdoors as kids, and you can see the stars, and we were just outdoors all the time, and that's something that I would say is very Maine.
How many siblings do you have?
I have a younger brother named Hunter. Appropriately for Maine. That's also something you do in Maine: shoot things.
[laughs] I remember you mentioning in an earlier interview that your father hunts. What do you shoot? Is it for game or for food?
Aside from shooting skeet, which I am very good at, and it's one of my favorite things to do, clay pigeons, that whole thing...Deer season in Maine is in November. And my father, we always eat it. He doesn't do big game hunting. It's not like he goes to Africa and kills animals on safari or something. [laughs] I love venison. I never order it in a restaurant because my dad makes it so well. But yeah, you apply for your doe permit or your buck permit, or you see what you're handed out. And then you're allowed to shoot one deer if you have one permit. My brother also hunts as well. So yeah, we're a big venison family. "So nothing goes to waste" is I think what I'm trying to say, because I don't want people to think my dad's just a profligate animal killer.
[laughs] Growing up in a farm house, did you have the typical farm chores and duties? Waking up at the crack of down, milking cows, that sort of thing?
Well, it was a farm house and it was 250 years old, but it's not actually a working farm. So that would be no, because I really didn't have any farm duties! [laughs]
You juggled your early career with college, so I assume education was important to you...
Very.
What did you study?
I majored in economics, primarily math-based economics, minored in psychology, and I'm fluent in French.
Math and psychology aren't the first fields of study you would associate with a career in acting. Did you have no intention of studying something like theatre at college?
You know, coming from Maine, where models and actors and musicians kind of don't exist, there are no performing art schools for kids. And I was just always driven and motivated and ambitious and I wanted to go to a good school, and I always had visions of power suit briefcase, working on Wall Street. That's just always what I thought would be fantastic. And then I started at Columbia and totally fell by accident into the entertainment industry because I had started modeling to help cover some of the bills for school and to help save for graduate school. And then I started doing commercials. And then I got a bit part on Sex and the City. And I was in it for one episode, and kind of got the acting bug a little bit. Stayed in school. And then when I graduated, my parents sort of said, "Look, if you want to try this, now's the time." And so I had done one film, Dumb and Dumberer, which was coming out, and I literally packed up my stuff and I moved across the country and I was like, "I'm going to give this a go. I've got my degree, I've graduated from school, and if it doesn't work out, then I'll be okay. But I do want to give it a try."
What was your first audition like for that Sex and the City role?
It was really bizarre, actually, because I had never auditioned for anything. And when you go in, you sit down, they're usually...the director was in the room and the casting director, and they have a video camera set up, and I didn't know if I was supposed to look into the camera or at the person reading opposite me. And now obviously you never look into the camera unless they tell you to do the audition into the camera, because that would be strange. It was really surreal, because then they offered me the job, and I thought, "What? I didn't even know what I was doing!" But it ended up being a really great first experience that made me want to have more. I was like, "Oh, I like this. Okay, I could do this. These women are nice..."
Did that relatively easy experience spoil you for future auditions?
Oh, yeah! Because auditioning is not easy. There are some people who love auditioning and some people who hate it. I genuinely like it. And I try because that's when I'm my most relaxed. I'm like, "I like this. This is fun." You know, talking myself into that. So that was my easiest. Of course, it was one of my first auditions and it was my audition that was the easiest in the history of the world! Because yeah, especially when you get attached to a project and then inevitably you aren't right for it, or they go with somebody else, and it's a real heartbreak, and you have to get up the next day and audition for something else. And it's never as easy as it was that first time!
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Even pre-dating Alias, the role where I first started watching you was for TV's The Inside...
[gasps] I love that you saw it, because I loved that show so dearly!
But then Fox went and cancelled it. If we had seen that show continue for two or three seasons, where would the plotlines have gone?
You know, [creator Tim Minear], who is this crazy mad scientist mastermind of a brilliant man, was very, kept everything really, really close to the vest. But I think, you know, Rebecca's abduction and that whole story would have really been flushed out. And I think we would have found that Peter Coyote's character, he would either go bad and then good, or good and then bad...Like there was a dark essence to him. And I think maybe Peter's character might have known much more about me than he ever let on. And I think it was going to go really dark--I mean, even darker than it already was. And I do know that Jay Harrington's wife, I believe, was going to die, because then they would hook us up. And I couldn't be like a homewrecker, so they'd have to kill her off first. [laughs] But yeah, there would have been some really great stuff. That was one of the sad moments when [the show was cancelled].
Even though The Inside had a short run, did it help in your landing your role on Alias?
Oh, I can't tell you how much it did. First of all, I'm not properly trained, I didn't go to Juilliard, I didn't go to Yale drama, you know? I took acting classes in New York when I had started acting already. But that was as good as doing a three year intensive acting studio kind of thing. It was so sink or swim, and I was suddenly thrown into being one of the leads on this TV show, and we'd shot 13 episodes, and I had great people. Thank-you to Peter and Katie and Adam Baldwin and Jay, who really helped me. Because I didn't know really what I was getting into. And so I learned so much from those 13 episodes that when I met on Alias, I had clearly proven that I could carry that kind of a load of work, to myself and to the people that were in the room at Alias with me. And I just knew I could do it, you know what I mean? It was a different kind of confidence level going in. I felt like, "I've done this before, I can do this again. And I love this show." I had seen every episode of Alias ever made before I got the job.
Given all your tough female roles, how comfortable are you now with stuff like swinging axes like in P2, and just generally kicking butt on suckers and chumps?
I'm very comfortable with the physicality, and I like that, because as I said before, I like the idea of feeling like I'm a good role model, you know? And that's why I do a lot of my own stunts, because I do have a trainer, and I do now take pride in my actual physical strength. And all the stuff that I've done, I feel like I could do again and again. And I'm proud that I can hold and fire a gun properly. And I've learned all this great stuff doing these roles. I mean, I will always know how to say [speaks a phrase in Dutch] which in Dutch means, "Get your hands off me, Hendrick. Who do you think you are?"
On the flip side of physical action, how comfortable are you with just...you know, "looking good"? Do you have fun with scenes like in The Amityville Horror, where you walk in and jaws literally drop?
Those are so much fun. That movie was a really, really great experience. I had a lot of fun. And in Alias when I'm the prostitute and then I'm the girl with the dark hair...I mean, that stuff is just so much fun to do. You can't not have fun with it. You can't not have fun putting on these different personalities, whether it's being the sexpot or being the brainy scientist part. They're all so much fun. And yes, some are physically draining and emotionally draining. But they're all these different people you get to introduce yourself to because you're playing them, and it's really great.
How did you feel about the P2 scene in which you're in the elevator, drenched in water? Did you think it was just an excuse to turn the movie into a wet t-shirt contest?
Well, there had been a discussion about the wardrobe that I was going to be wearing before we shot the movie, because I had vetoed the initial "negligee, and no bra, no underwear." And I said, "Guys, no, I'm not going to do it. I have rules against that kind of thing." So we had negotiated so that I was wearing that dress. And of course, when I read it, I'm like, "Yeah. Water. Great." It's a cool effect, like the idea of the [elevator] filling up, and it's frightening for me because I'm not great with water as it is. But I was kind of like, "Great. Wet t-shirt contest. Totally." But they negotiated with me on the dress, and the dress got wet, but not super, super wet. And it was this crazy material and it didn't cling funny. And I think we got the best of both worlds, because that gag in the movie is one of the worst for me, because I'm not a big fan of the water and the body falling on me and all that stuff, and I didn't have to show anything I didn't want to.
You said your mom was a big horror fan. What was her reaction to the Amityville scene where you stick your finger in the girl's...uh, "head hole"? Because that's the scene audiences get up and scream about...
Yeah, because it's so gnarly! [laughs] I think my mom did one of those "Oh, God!" and then like looked back immediately. I mean, the only thing that we can't watch...I can pretty much watch anything, except I can't watch needles. I can't watch people being injected with anything. But I can watch fingernails coming off...So I think my mom could pretty much stomach anything.
Since we were talking about shooting animals earlier...
[laughs]
Let's end on a happier note. What's your favorite black and white animal: penguin, panda, cow, or something else?
A skunk. No, I'm kidding...
You would have been the first one to say that.
[thinking] Uh...favorite black and white animal. Well, yeah...Penguin would be a good choice. I'm trying to think of other black and white animals. Oh, no! I take it all back! We had Flopsy the bunny, a mini lop-eared bunny, and she was black and white, and she was our pet, and that would be my favorite black and white animal.
Okay! Thank you for your time, Rachel. It's been a pleasure.
Thank you so much!
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