Philly.com - February 15, 2001

Tattling with. . . Rachael Leigh Cook

Rachael Leigh Cook

"Josie and the Pussycats/Long tails and hair to match/" Remember that Saturday morning tune from the '70s? No? Get with the pop culture groove. Yes? Well, good news: The feline band is back April 6 as a live-action flick starring Rachael Leigh Cook as Josie McCoy. Don't know Cook? She was the geek-turned-babe in "She's All That" and she first hit the MTV crowd with her gritty anti-drug TV spot. Armed with a frying pan, the Minneapolis native bashes up a kitchen and refers back to the anti-drug mantra, "this is your brain on drugs." Tattle caught up with Cook, 21, during rehearsals for the NBA Team Up Celebrations celebrating teen youth in Washington, D.C.

Q: Tell us about "Josie and the Pussycats."
Cook: I saw it on Saturday and. . .It's a lot of fun, it's just a great time, it's just feel-good girl power, you know?

Q: Do you have any desire to be a rock star?
Cook: If I ever did, it's all over now. It's nerve-wracking being up there before thousands and thousands of people. It's not really my style. But it was a lot of fun.

Q: Do you sing your own songs?
Cook: Nope, can't sing at all. This girl named Kay [Hanley]. . .she was in a band called Letters to Cleo. She did the voice. It's actually a logical match for what they said I would sound like in the event that I could sing. So it's cool.

Q: What song takes you back?
Cook: Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Under the Bridge" takes me right back to my first big kid party that I ever went to when I was about 13. I think it was my first boy-girl party. . .I still associate that full album with being in 8th grade.

Q: "Friends" or "Survivor," which do you watch?
Cook: I would have to go with "Survivor." I've only seen the show twice but I'm in.

Q: Why?
Cook: It's fascinating. I don't know, I know what's going to happen on "Friends" you know . . .It's always the same thing. "Survivor" is unpredictable.

Q: You were a model for Milkbone Dog Biscuits?
Cook: When I was a kid. Yeah.

Q: What was that about?
Cook: I don't know . . .It was a really good gig. It was really a good job to get out of Minnesota. It was actually in the stores until I was about 16.

Q: What's after "Josie?"
Cook: I did this project that's still untitled actually, but that I co-produced with Tapestry Films. It stars Jonathan Rhys-Meyers. . .It's going to be really good. I think we might want to run the festival circuit with it.

I did a movie called "Blow Dry" from Miramax about two British national hairdressing competitions. It's coming out soon. They are releasing it in Europe first, but then it's coming over here. It's by the writer of "The Full Monty."

Q: What's "Josie"'s plotline?
Cook: Three girls who are the best of friends [and] who love music find themselves sort of unwittingly enveloped in this huge plot to control the minds of the youth of America via pop music.