Sleepover at Alexa's! Alexa Vega has traded spying for Sleepovers. But don't tell her she's gorgeous or she'll shoot you with her air-pump gun

Girls' Life, June-July, 2004 by Jodi Bryson

Alexa Vega isn't like most actresses, Heck. she isn't even like most 15-year-old girls. She'd rather shoot a hot guy with an air-pump gun than kiss him. Ask her about makeup, and she'll say it's way more fun to go outside and get dirty, than to get all dolled up and go out on the town. If pressed to choose between the ultimate all-girl sleepover or camping with bugs, mud and moldy tents, Alexa would choose the dang bugs.

But that's Alexa's combo-identity: a glare Hollywood star who also happens to be a bona fide tomboy ... and proud of it, thank you. What do you expect from a girl who has spent the last five years doing hardcore battle against the bad guys in three Spy Kids movies?

The Spy Kids serifs behind her (no, sadly, there won't be another one), Alexa has traded action for antics in her new movie Sleepover opening July 9. Alexa plays Julie, a nice but not-so-popular girl who happens to throw a sleepover the same night as the school's "it" clique. The night turns into an all-out contest for the top spot in the caf. "It takes place in the summer before our freshman year in high school," says Alexa. "I'm competing against the super-popular girls for the best table in the school cafeteria. We decide to have a treasure hunt to see who wins."

Did Alexa draw on personal experience to play the part of Julie? Not exactly. Alexa says she would never knock herself our for something as superficial as popularity. "At some point, I think everybody goes through a phase where they're like 'Oh, I could be a little bit more popular if only did X or Y or Z," she says. "I've tried to impress my friends by, like, maybe trying to dress a little bit cooler instead of being myself, but I think everybody does that. Now I knew that not being Miss Popular doesn't make you a loser."

As each sleepover squad determines the other team's list of scavenger hunt items, the movie gets, um, very interesting! Says Alexa, "This popular girl knows I'm in love with this one guy Steve, so she puts down that I have to steal a pair of his boxer shorts! That was a funny scene to film!"

Julia's crush Steve happens to be played by Sean Faris, whom Alexa is more than happy to chat about: "Sean is a very hot guy who is just the sweetest!"

In the movie, Steve is Julie's first kiss. So was Alexa nervous about making out with a babe like Sean? "Joe Nussbaum, the director, wanted to get us really comfortable with each other," reports Alexa, "so that when we did the kissing scene, it wouldn't be scary. So literally every time Sean came on set, the director would make us rehearse." Wait, rehearse? Does that mean rehearse the scene or just practice kissing? "Just kissing!" she says with a giggle. "It was fun. I liked it."

Shocking! Alexa the tomboy dug being directed to kiss a dude? "I know! I was basically getting kissed every single day," she says, all jokey. "I wouldn't even ask. [Sean] just did it. I was like, 'I'm OK with it!' You gotta take one for the team!"

While Sleepover gives Alexa the chance to show America her comedic chops, it also gives America the chance to see Alexa's transformation from Spy Kid to Gorgeous Girl.

And, truth be told, this glam new version of herself is one Alexa is still getting used to. "I don't think of myself as great-looking," says Alexa humbly. "I'm a tomboy! I hang out with the guys. They come over, we play guitar, rock out, have fun."

So does that mean she never crushes on these guy friends, even when she hangs with them so much? "Having a crush, I think that's part of life," admits Alexa. "You're always ending up liking someone, and then not liking them the next week."

Guitar, water polo, cross-country running, snowboarding, playing spy games with air-pump guns, surfing ... Just some of the ways Alexa spends her days when she's not playing characters so different from who she is in real life.

Still, Alexa must have her moments that are purely girly, stories about experiences that involve, say, outfits and jewelry instead of helmets and knee pads. "I had a sleepover with the Sleepover girls because I wanted to get to know them better, and it definitely helped," she says. "I came up with the idea because I thought it would be fun for all the girls. But sleepovers don't always go well. It's kind of hard to please everyone. Guys are easy-going, and girls are harder to please."

We almost got Alexa into Chickland, but it's right back to the boys. So we press on and ask if she's all about dudes all the time. "I get along with little kids, too!" chirps Alexa. "I have three sisters, 13, 10 and 3, and my sisters' friends come over a lot--I'm the big sister of the neighborhood. Actually, we just bad a sleepover, even though we didn't mean for it to be one. It started off as we were building huts out of blankets, pillows, parts of the couch, and lots and lots of tape."

That's a girly sleepover--Alexa-style. "Well, boys were there," she corrects us. "It really was whoever could build the best hut won. We all built these awesome huts, and we told scary stories and then, like, randomly, one-by-one everyone just fell asleep. It wasn't supposed to be a sleepover, but it just kind of happened and it was great. I think that anything that's too planned out won't be as fun--it kind of ends up boring. If you just wing it, that's when it ends up fun."