Rollergirl Vs. Jack the Ripper

By: SCOTT COLLURA
Date: Monday, October 22, 2001

Unlike her collaborators on the new Jack the Ripper film FROM HELL, Heather Graham readily admits that she knew very little about Saucy Jack and his vicious exploits beyond the sort of pop culture awareness that any respectable movie fan might have.

"I didn't know a lot about Jack the Ripper," acknowledges Graham. "[Co-star Johnny Depp] and [co-directors] the Hughes brothers are really into it and know all the details. [They] met the Ripp-ologist who writes books about his theories and they were just so into that, but I thought it was a little creepy.

"We did a Jack the Ripper tour [in London] and I read the graphic novel and I actually thought the script gave a lot of information. I've seen certain movies that had Jack the Ripper Time After Time is a very good movie. But, no, I just don't read about serial killers in my free time. I don't seek that out really."

That last line garners a big

laugh from the room full of reporters who are interviewing Ms. Graham about her participation in FROM HELL. Not surprising, since Graham, like many of her on-screen characters (including Felicity Shagwell from AUSTIN POWERS and Rollergirl in BOOGIE NIGHTS) is an immediately likable presence. Still, one can't help but wonder what might have drawn the actress to the decidedly dark thriller that is FROM HELL, when she's previously been known for substantially lighter fare.

"I read the script [when] I was home alone," explains Graham. "I was freaked out after reading the script. And I couldn't really sleep! But I just liked the characters and the writing. I thought it was a really well-written, interesting story, and a mystery that kind of unravels an interesting theory about who [Jack] might have been."

Unlike some Ripper tales, which leave the identity of the killer up in the air, FROM HELL definitely pursues a line of inquiry that leads to the "real" Jack. Based on the popular graphic novel by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell, FROM HELL details the investigation into the Ripper's killing spree by one Inspector Abberline (Depp), an opium-addicted detective who gets involved with one of the killer's potential victims, a streetwalker named Mary Kelly. Playing the role of a 19^th-century prostitute was clearly a new challenge for Graham, especially since she was one of the few Americans and a movie star at that working with an almost all-British cast.

"I was totally intimidated," she says in reference to her Brit co-stars. "But they were completely nice and great and the opposite of what you would imagine. Completely warm and supportive. But it was intimidating, especially because two of them were in [Mike Leigh's] naked. I had watched naked a few years ago and was like, 'Wow, that acting is so amazing,' and then I was working with them [here]."

Some have wondered how

the directing duo of the Hughes brothers, best known for so-called "urban" films such as MENACE II SOCIETY, wound up helming this tale about a bunch of white Englishmen and women from a hundred years ago. But the brothers themselves have been quick to point out that race is not an issue for them, and that the themes that do interest the two such as the persecution of the underclass and the desperation of the poor are quite evident in FROM HELL. This is certainly true of Graham's Mary Kelly character.

"I think in this movie [prostitution] is just like a survival thing," explains the actress. "It's not at all like, 'Well, how did she get into prostitution?' We had no other option we need to get through the day, we have to eat. Being from the lower class, a lot of the women's husbands had left them, or they had children, [and] it was kind of our only option, so it's just like a survival move."

Quick to avoid too much seriousness, however, Graham responds with another one-liner when asked if her views on prostitution have changed since taking the part.

"Well, now I'm all for it," she straight-faces.

For all her fun and games, though, Graham clearly takes the character seriously, and while she confesses that straight horror films aren't really something that interests her, she would go see FROM HELL even if she was not starring in it.

"Just because I think it's good," Graham says. "I mean, I don't love going to see movies that are scary and gory unless they're good, but I think [this is] an interesting story and has interesting characters and I think visually they did a lot of cool stuff with it too."

Graham also had a good idea about Mary Kelly's back-story when making the film, which helped inform her portrayal of the real-life character.

"My family moved [to England] when

I was 8 for work," explains Graham. "We were starving in Ireland, so I guess my family moved to England to try to work and make money and obviously we didn't. There was a story actually one of these lines got cut out that I had been married and my husband left me, and [being] poor [I] really didn't have any other options, I guess."

So just how does a rich and famous movie star go about playing a homeless, indigent, hungry prostitute? After all, Graham's character has got to be the cutest 19^th-century hooker to ever grace the cobblestone streets of London's Whitechapel district.

"The script was really good," she says. "It was very descriptive about how starving we all are and how you get just a small amount of money per day, and then we have these pimps taking all our money, and then everyone wants to get drunk because we don't want to think about our lives. There's a scene where Johnny takes me out to eat, and that day I was like, 'OK, I just don't want to seem like some actor pretending to eat,' so I just ate and ate and ate so much just shoving it in and I went home and I was like, 'Oh, that was good,' and then I just threw up immediately."

And they say Method acting is a lost art in Hollywood. But Graham knows the ins and outs of the industry quite well, having worked in film and TV since the late '80s. It took the actress nearly a decade to achieve full-blown "movie star" success with her role in BOOGIE NIGHTS, but Graham is happy to continue a career that mines both small, independent films as well as big Hollywood outings.

"Ideally you want to try to do both," says Graham. "I like some blockbuster movies and also that gives you the freedom to do independent movies, because a lot of those independent movies get their financing because you've been in a blockbuster movie. So it's kind of bizarre. It's actually helpful to do both [since] good directors often like watching independent movies because they're sometimes a lot more original. So that's a way to get a job in a blockbuster movie too."

Speaking of blockbusters,

Graham confirms that she will most likely be returning in the next AUSTIN POWERS movie (tentatively titled GOLDMEMBER), though her role is likely to be more of a cameo just as her predecessor in the series, Liz Hurley, only showed up in the second film long enough to be revealed as a fembot doomed to destruction. Ms. Graham hopes for a kinder fate for her Felicity Shagwell character.

"They wrote some pages up and I'm gonna probably show up in the beginning of that movie," she giggles. "I said I wanted to do it as long as they don't blow me up or something like that. I was like, 'Look don't dispose of me in like a bad way!'"