Poppy - actress Poppy Montgomery - Interview

Interview, April, 1999 by Jane Adams

Actress Jane Adams knows all about Happiness (she starred in it) - here she tells us about Poppyness

Poppy cheers me up. I first met Poppy Petal Montgomery at the audition for the TV series Relativity (1996-97). I was instantly attracted to her exuberant, elfin quality. Immediately after the audition, we were told we had the roles. I was feeling both pleased and a little lest when Poppy led me to the bar in the ABC complex, where we stayed laughing and talking for hours. I had no sisters growing up; Poppy played my sister on TV - and in real-life she has become like a sister to me.

The best way I can describe Poppy is to refer you to a passage from David Malouf's novel An Imaginary Life (Vintage, 1996): "Scarlet. A little wild poppy, of a red so sudden it made my blood stop. I kept saying the word over and over to myself, Scarlet, as if the word, like the color, had escaped me 'til now, and just saying it would keep the little windblown flower in sight. Poppy . . . just a single poppy, a few blown petals of a tissue fineness and brightness, round the crown of seeds. Where had it come from?"

Poppy was Diane Keaton's daughter in February's The Other Sister and is a blonde bombshell in this month's Life, starring Eddie Murphy. She can also be seen in the forthcoming indie film The Space Between Us.

JANE ADAMS: Tell me about your brothers and sisters.

POPPY MONTGOMERY: All the girls are named after flowers: Rosie Thorn, Daisy Yellow, Marigold Sun, and Lily Belle. And then there's my brother, Jethro Tull. They're all in Sydney. Every time I go home they're mortified by my newly acquired American accent.

JA: What's your mother like?

PM: My mum is a cross between the two characters in Absolutely Fabulous. She says things like, "Sweetie, baby, not a good look. It's very non you." She also says, "Stop talking about the names I've given my bloody children, will you? It's getting boring."

JA: What's her name?

PM: Nicola.

JA: Hello, Nicola. Sorry we discussed your children's names. Poppy, what made you decide to go to L.A. and be an actor?

PM: It just happened. I was working for my dad at one of his restaurants and he fired me because I was rode to a customer. My boyfriend and I broke up, and I was like, That's it, I'm going to the States. I went to Florida first and then I took a Greyhound to L.A. Originally I wanted to go to acting school in New York. Then I read about Bob McGowan, who had been Julia Roberts's manager, in this book called How to Make It in Hollywood. I called him up and in this thick Australian accent said, "Hi, I'm Poppy." He said he didn't represent unknowns. So I sent him a head shot every day. Eventually he signed me by fax from New York. Peg Donegan is now my manager. She's like family, which is really important to me.

JA: To me, you feel like a sister.

PM: I remember your audition for Relativity because you had to pretend you were on the toilet.

JA: Relativity was the first time either of us had ever done series television. It was a great learning experience, just to be in front of the camera every day no matter how you're feeling, no matter what's going on, and to learn it's not something to fret about. That show was unique. Most casts aren't friendly. We became each other's lives.

PM: The schooling I got on that show was incredible. It taught me to rely on my instincts. Because some of the best work I do is when I don't have time to prepare.

JA: I think we all played mother roles to each other.

PM: You and I still do.

JA: It's so great when you work with other women and they're supportive. All of my very close girlfriends are actresses I've worked with.

PM: See, I have found there's never been such a feeling of non-competition between women as there was with you, me, and [costar Kimberly Williams] on Relativity. It's so great when it happens. And it's so bittersweet when it ends.

JA: What are the pressures in Hollywood?

PM: The darker side is that it doesn't always come down to how well does this person portray this character. It often comes down to, Are her boobs big enough? Is her hair the right color?

JA: And yet, what I grew to respect and understand is that a lot of those considerations are very real. If I was producing or directing something, they are the same considerations I would have.

PM: But that's where the actor has to learn to disassociate to a certain degree. I have to learn that it's not a personal attack on me.

JA: You're required to be vulnerable and open, and yet tough enough to withstand rejection after reJection after rejection.

PM: What helps me is reading people like Eleanor Roosevelt - the things she said and wrote - finding strength in other people's strength.

JA: What do you think about sexual stereotyping in Hollywood movies?

PM: I think that talent will win in the end. Initially, yeah, you may lose roles because they want a girl with huge, perfect breasts and an amazing body. But sexual stereotypes are surpassed constantly.

JA: Always, because what I've seen in my own life and on the screen or on TV is that there's an idea of sexy - until there's a new idea of sexy.