In Step With RLC
-By James Brady

Everyone kept telling me how young, delicate and shy the actress Rachael Leigh Cook was. So, as I waited for her in the lobby of Manhattan's SoHo Grand Hotel, I didn't know quite what to expect.

Well, Rachael is small(her own take is, "I'm not small, I'm space-efficient"), quiet rather than shy, and absolutely lovely, with deep brown eyes and dark, dark hair framing the kind of face Florentine painters put on Madonnas centuries ago.

Ms. Cook is just 20 and looks younger, but she already has made 17 movies, worked in TV and posed (with a dog) on a Milk-Bone dog-biscuit box as a small child in Minneapolis. Last year came her breakthrough film, She's All That, co-starring Freddie Prinze Jr. It was one of the few teen flicks which was not only a hit but also got a respectful critical reception.

"That film really made a lot of money," said Rachael, "so it gave me a lot of opportunities. And it's a sweet story." What's Prinze like? "He's the antithesis of every actor. He likes to play laser tag and read comic books. Freddie is the reigning prince of romantic comedies."

Rachae's next film is Blow Dry. It has a mostly Brit cast and is set in England against the unlikely background of a hair-dressing contest. "I have a really good feeling about it," she said. "The director, Paddy Breathnach, was great. I don't want to jinx it--but, yes [eyes widening as she spoke], it could be my best film. I have such high expectations."

When did she decide to pursue acting? "When I was in a small film, 26 Summer Street," Rachael said, "a beautiful, simple story. I was enigmatic and shy, and it was only an 11-minute film. A mamager heard about it. She was looking for kids in Minneapolis who could act."

Does she choose a film project by reading the script? "No," said Rachael, "the genre, the people involved or the character--if any one of those is strong enough, wow! I jump right in."

Has she ever written anything? "I wrote a one-act play in high school, A Broom With a View, a black comedy," she said. "No, I didn't act or get to direct. I was away. But when I saw it, I knew I could never be a director, because I nitpick. I want everything to be as I see it in my head."

But Rachael has become a producer. She'd just returned from Toronto, where she was shotting a film with the working title Tangled. "It's a $3 million independent film and my first co-producing venture," she said. Does that mean Rachael put up some cash? "No, I invested by attaching myself to the project early. I had to fight with the investors to get the actors we wanted." Now, I ask, does this young star sound particularly shy?
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