I stumbled across a dusty box of tapes in my basement last week and found a virtual time capsule of stuff from my days as an intrepid entertainment reporter. Imagine my surprise when I saw a tape labeled “Marsden/Jackson/Reedus”.
Wait … I interviewed Norman Reedus? THE Norman Reedus? Norman “I’m-the-biggest-TV-pop-culture-entity-on-the-planet-because-18-billion-people-watch-The-Walking-Dead” Reedus? Yep … there he was.
I nearly fell over.
Why I saved this tape, I’ll never know. It was for a rather obscure 2000 film called “Gossip”.
Yes, it had big names … Oscar-nominee Kate Hudson! Yes, it had pretty people … model-turned studly actor James Marsden! Yes, it had a hot “Dawson Creek” ingénue … Joshua Jackson. What was it missing? Uh, movie patrons. The psychological thriller absolutely tanked at the box office and disappeared into cinematic obscurity. The film’s tagline “Some people are dying to hear it” probably should have been changed to “No one is dying to see it”.
As I watched the interview for the first time fifteen years later, here’s what I noticed:
*James Marsden is reeaaaally, reeaaaally ridiculously good looking. (Still is, mind you.) I think I was transfixed on him because of his floppy late-‘90’s hair, chiseled cheekbones and mega-watt smile. Plus, let’s face it, he carried the interview. He seemed engaged and chatty. Gold star for you, James Marsden.
*Joshua Jackson, on the other hand, seemed to be constipated that day. It was obvi. Notice the pained look on his face. He would have rather been doing anything else but sitting between those two tools. Or talking to me. Or breathing air. At the time, he was the biggest of the three stars and probably had to show off some bravado and teen angst. Oh … how times have changed.
*Norman Reedus, meanwhile, was incredibly chill, nonchalant and ambivalent. He could not have possibly given one f*ck about this interview … but in a cool-I’m-cool-you’re-cool-whatevs sort of way. Out of all the stars I chatted with that day, I had absolutely no idea who he was. Oh … how times have changed squared.
*That was the first, last and only time I ever wore yellow on TV. Good Lord … not only did I look like I had jaundice, but my skin tone resembled a Burnt Umber Crayon because of too much time in the tanning bed. Pre-fame for them. Pre-melanoma for me.
*My interview skills were fairly woeful back then. I’d like to think I’m now much more clever and irreverent. That reminds me, I need to find the interview where I asked Vin Diesel to take his shirt off FOUR TIMES while we were chatting. I probably should have asked Marsden the same thing. Lord knows he would have obliged.
*The flashy-zippy-ever-changing video background was enough to nearly send me in to convulsions during the interview. It’s even worse fifteen years later. That let’s-try-to-cause-a-seizure look was so indicative of the early 2000’s. Let’s hope it never sees a renaissance.
*I can barely remember my review of the movie, but it was something like, “With so many insane plot twists, you’ll never see it coming, until the ending hits you like a ton of bricks.” Seeing how bad it got skewered by other reviewers, I probably should have just left it with “You’ll never see it.”
*I think I spied all three actors at this year’s Golden Globe Awards. (Or was it last year?) Well, nice to see they’ve all honed their craft and gone on to bigger and better. Unfortunately, I don’t think the same thing can be said for “Gossip” co-star Marisa Coughlan. (Wait? Who?) Her next film was the universally loathed “Freddy Got Fingered.”
*And on a completely random side note, my mom’s favorite and least favorite character on “The Walking Dead” was Daryl. Too bad I never got to show her this video … as I’m sure she would have had some seriously snarky 82-year old insight to interject in to this seriously snarky blog.