Gretchen Mol

DISCOVERED WHILE WORKING AS A HAT-CHECK GIRL AND THRUST INTO THE LIMELIGHT WHEN HER FIRST BIG MOVIE HIT THE THEATERS, HER STAR TOOK OFF BEFORE CHANGE TO--A FACT THAT THE ACTRESS HERSELF KNEW BETTER THAN ANYONE ELSE. BUT GRETCHEN MOL IS DONE TRYING TO PROVE THAT WHAT PEOPLE SAW IN HER WAS NO FLUKE--AND READY TO SHOW THEM EVERYTHING THEY MISSED INSTEAD. WHAT BETTER WAY TO START THAN BY PORTRAYING TIlE WOMAN WHO CHANGED THE POWER DYNAMICS OF THE PINUP. TIlE INCOMPARABLE BETTIE PAGE?

Gretchen Mol--slender, blonde, and so often demure--wasn't obvious casting for the plum part of the curvy, saucy brunette who became the 1950s' most popular and controversial pinup. But in Mary Harron's The Notorious Bettie Page, which opens this month, Mol is to the manner born: She not only captures the uninhibited joy Page (whether cavorting innocently with animals or trussed up in bondage gear) brought to her poses, but nails the wistfulness of a woman who, away from the clicking cameras, was on a spiritual quest she barely comprehended. It's the finest performance yet by the 33-year-old actress, whose huge talent has often been squeezed into thankless girlfriend roles.

Undermined rather than boosted by appearing braless on the cover of the September 1998 Vanity Fair, Mol has had to fight tooth and nail to be taken seriously over the long haul, but her canny portrayal of sweet but stealthy Jenny in Nell LaBute's play The Shape of Things (and in the 2003 film version) put her on the right track. She is mesmerizing as Bettie Page--everyone's girlfriend and no one's--not least of all because she ultimately raises the specter of the onetime S&M fantasy queen as a seraphic bornagain Christian in Virgin Mary blue.

GRAHAM FULLER: Why were you passionate about playing Bettie Page?

GRETCHEN MOL: I didn't know much about her, but I saw the E! True Hollywood Story documentary on her and was pulled in by it. At the end she spoke, and when I heard her voice I was shocked. She had this gravelly, earthy, really strong Southern, country accent--and I think that's what got me. I thought, There's something else lurking here.

GF: I listened to the tapes of the conversation between Bettie and [Page photographer] Bunny Yeager that was published in the July 1993 issue of Interview. It's hard to match that voice with the image. Seeing you play her and hearing you talk like her intensifies the contradictions.

GM: When you think Bettie Page, you think "vixen with a whip." I didn't think of the winking aspect of her poses at first--I thought she was really into it--but [realizing] that got me spinning. Then there was the idea that she was almost like a canvas and people could make of her what they wanted, t tried to reveal the person underneath that because I felt something for her immediately. But there was also the fun of dressing up and being this character who is so different from me. The performer in me who likes to stand up and do musical numbers or whatever [laughs] was satiated by playing Bettie.

GF: What were the touchstones for you?

GM: Part of it was finding bits of lingerie and things for the audition. The wig was a big thing for me. It was a terrible wig I bought from Ricky's. I took it to someone who works at Patricia Field's, who styled it for me as much like Bettie's hair they could. I came to have real affection for that wig. [laughs]

GF: Did you see yourself in the onscreen Bettie?

GM: As much as I'm able to watch the film and not see myself, I do see myself. [laughs] The more physical things that go into a role, the more that you can then reveal yourself through that.

GF: Aren't the thoughts and feelings you have when you're in character more transformative than the look?

GM: They are, but it's dangerous for an actor to start thinking about a character's psychology. As much as I might have looked at Bettie's life on paper and said, "Okay, sketching from A to B to C, this is how it went in order and maybe this affected that, and that affected this," that kind of thinking can distract from it being an instinctive performance. It becomes too simplified.

GF: The film shows she was sexually abused by her father and gang raped. You have to assume there's a connection between those experiences and her exhibitionism.

GM: Of course, in drawing the character, I acknowledge that as a huge part of who she was. But I also felt that to get stuck in that was dangerous, because a lot of people suffer abuse and it manifests itself in different ways.

GF: Where I think Bettie differed from most pinups is that she didn't exude seductiveness.

GM: She didn't seem to be doing it for response. There's no neediness in it. Unlike other models, she never gave a full-on come-hither look. She was never asking her audience to accept her, but gave them permission to feel the way they felt about her--to enjoy her. There was something so pure in her posing.

GF: Your posing in the movie has an almost poetic flow, except for when you're tied up, perhaps. How did you make it seem so natural?