Lindsay Lohan: forget those Hilary and Colin rumors—one of the movies' biggest rising stars goes on the record

Interview, June, 2004 by Lynda Obst

LL: Well, it's realistic. That happens if you lose sight of who you are. You get caught up.

LO: Like with the "girl world" rules in the Movie--first you buy them, and then you learn not to. It's the same with the Hollywood rules.

LL: I don't know what the Hollywood rules are exactly, but I know I don't like them. For instance, I had friends in town recently on spring break. They wanted to go out every night, and I wanted to show them a good time. So I took them out, and the paparazzi started taking pictures of me and then they call my publicist and say, "We're going to write a story on her, and we're going to call her the new 'It party girl!'" Just because I'm 17 and I'm having fun, they start saying I'm trying to be older, partying and going crazy. I don't even like to drink!

LO: Your mother worked in show business for a while, right?

LL: She was a Rockette.

LO: Oh, that's fun! That must be where you get your kick.

LL: [laughs] My mom is the coolest ever--she's just like me, and she's really understanding. She's kind of like all my friends.

LO: Did you get any insight into her by playing a middle-aged woman with a teenage daughter in Freaky Fr/day?

LL: I didn't really base my performance on her. I just tried to talk slower and act more mature overall, like in the way that I carried myself. I guess to help create the character, I did kind of use how she would talk to me when we were fighting.

LO: Well, I'm sure she knows the pressures of working and keeping the hours you do. She prepared you for this. A lot of surviving in this business has to do with being ready for success. No one tells you that what comes along with it are 800 paparazzi.

LL: I don't mind paparazzi--they're just doing their job. For me to go, "Oh, my God, they're so annoying," would be obnoxious and unfair. I mean, I kind of asked for all that when I got into this business. It's just upsetting when people start making things up.

LO: Like whether or not you gave Colin Farrell your phone number. [Lohan laughs] These are the sorts of things people need to know.

LL: I know, right? I actually wasn't even on the studio lot when the press said I did that. I met him at a friend's house for the first time after all that happened. It's so ridiculous.

LO: But it's everybody's fantasy, so you get to live it out for them. That's one of the things that our movie stars do for us.

LL: I don't even like when people use that word to describe me. It's a compliment, and I'm completely honored that someone would say that about me, but I don't want people thinking I'm any different than anyone else.

LO: How did you get started as an actress?

LL: It's something I've enjoyed doing for a long time. My mom got me involved with Ford Models when I was around 3 years old. She knew people who worked there, and they were like, "Oh, bring her in." So I started by doing that, driving into the city from Long Island with my mom and auditioning for stuff--I would beg her to bring me. I was really comfortable in front of the camera, and it was fun. For a while, I didn't get anything, and I remember saying to her once that if I didn't get the commercial I was trying for, I'd never act again. I ended up getting it, though. It was my first, for Duncan Hines. Since then I've kept acting. I got a part on Another World, and then I left that to do The Parent Trap [1998].