Kim Basinger is nearly a three decade veteran actress, yet she’s been considered a sex symbol the entire time. From Bond girl and Nine ½ Weeks seductress to superhero love interest and oversexed cartoon character to real life and on screen Baldwin romance and most recently, Door in the Floor adulteress, Basinger has been aware of her assets while maintaining integrity with her craft. Now, as the kidnap victim in Cellular, Basinger again looks very good in a panic.
“I used to think that was just a horrible thing that people put on you when you first get to Hollywood,” Basinger said of sex symbol status. “But you know what the Europeans taught me more about that than anything? They truly cherish that thing or whatever we call it. So when I would go do films in Europe and I would do press tours in Europe and everything else, they really taught me to appreciate having been put in that category. They really did. It’s cool to be sexy. It’s cool to be whatever. I think when you first come into this business and you want to be taken seriously and you really want to create interest in yourself as an actress over and above just the physical, it’s hard.”
Hollywood of course has never been friendly to aging. Many actresses can’t get work after 40, an unspoken rule that is only now beginning to change. Still, Basinger has persevered. “I wish we had more of a European attitude about that because it puts so much pressure on everybody, all of us. Everybody. But you know what, this is my craft. This is my job so long as I am in this business and whatever. And I like to stay healthy. I love it. I’m an athlete so I love to do that. I’ve always been of that mindset but I wish we could adopt healthier attitudes about aging in America because it’s really sad. It puts a lot of pressure, I see even in young girls. Are you fat? Are you thin? Are you tall? Are you short? It’s sad where we place the emphasis.”
Now a parent, Basinger must look back at her body of work and prepare for her daughter’s discovery of her steamier work. “Somebody threw this question to me years ago. They said what if you ever had a kid, because I did Playboy, what are you going to tell her? And I had no idea. And so we were going through all of my pictures one day and she saw it and she said, ‘Mom, you didn’t?’ And I said, ‘Yes, I did. I did this’ and I had to sit down and I really found myself coming to that moment in my life where I say down with my daughter and I said, ‘Yes, I did it. Today, I wouldn’t do that again. But I made that choice at that time and whatever and it was nothing.’ It was really no big deal.”
Being such an involved parent actually provided some motivation in Cellular. When her character’s child is threatened, she springs into action taking out bad guys. “When you kick someone’s ass when it comes to your kid, you will go to the mat for your kid. I consider myself a strong woman, I really do. I also consider myself somewhat naive. I consider myself a lot of things. But since I’ve given birth – and my baby, my daughter will turn 9 in October – there’s not a thing I wouldn’t [do]. You just forget, you forget that somebody could claw your eyes out, you forget somebody could shoot you. You forget somebody could stab you. You forget somebody could destroy you, but it’s going to be over my dead body. I think that’s the whole thing.”
Her child has also provided her more challenges to overcome. A generally shy person, and prone to occasional panic attacks, Basinger has had to become more social as a family woman. “My gift, honestly and this is the truth, my gift from god is that I became an actress. It’s also my curse because I’m not a very public person and that part of it is hard for me. Very, very hard. But it’s also been a great deal of – I don’t want to sound corny here but it’s true – but it’s been a great deal of therapy for me to go into these characters. It really is. It’s very therapeutic to go in and to be someone like myself, to be this shy, kind of a loner in that way. I can find a lot of things to do by myself. I don’t mind being alone. I don’t mind being me. I’ve got things, you know, my in basket, the day I’m out of here my in basket is going to be so full. I’m never going to be able to do all the things I want to do so I would have to give my credit to therapy and my ability to, my gift, to be able to be an actress and the longevity I’ve had as an actress and I think also giving birth to my daughter, really. Because you can’t be what you are once you’re responsible for another human being. You can’t. You have to come out of yourself. She’s got friends and I’ve got events and I have to stand up. I found myself standing up at her school last year making a speech. Yeah, come on. For the new high school and I said, ‘Look at you. Look at you.’ Only because she wanted me to do it. And she has prepared me for some of the roles I’ve taken on lately. It’s amazing.”
And she has become successful too, influencing policy at the school. “They’re building a new high school and I had to get all the moms and dads kind of enthused.” |
