Jessica Alba, sweet as pure 'Honey'

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Interview: Jessica Alba, sweet as pure 'Honey'

By Larissa Barlow
Staff Writer

Jessica Alba is not a mutant, at least, not anymore.

And even then, she only played one on television.

In a fuzzy gray sweat suit, big puffy hat and rainbow scarf, she looks nothing like her mutated alter ego, Max, who she played for two seasons on FOX's "Dark Angel."

Now with leather cat suits and government conspiracies behind her, she's heading back to film after her TV stint that made her a star.

Alba is once again in the leading role, this time as the title character in "Honey," the story of a streetwise dancer striving for fame in a difficult and shady industry. But this marks the first time she'll have an entire film riding on
her shoulders, which you'd think would be more pressure than a show.

"'Dark Angel' really prepared me for it because that was a big job and each episode was like, $2.3 million, so at the end of the day it was more expensive and more at risk than 'Honey.' [But] there's always the pressure when you're
in every scene," Alba said.

But the question is not can she carry a film, it's will anyone care she's back on screen?

Since "Dark Angel" closed production, Alba has been all but absent from the screen, except for her unwitting participation on "Punk'd," when a nude man while shopping for clothes bothered her.

"I'll get him back when he forgets about it all," said Alba laughing. And other than her tabloid favorite romance with on again off again former "Dark Angel" costar Michael Weatherly, she's been lying low.

Bille Woodruff, a popular music video director and friend, who was the one that set her up to be Punk'd, with his debut as a feature film director, "Honey."

Alba is quick to show that she's not just a pretty face when talking about her drive effort to improve the film that will be her return to the screen.

"I sat down with Bille and said, 'if I'm going to do this movie, its got to mean something,'" she says with conviction.

Alba said the original idea didn't include the positive messages "Honey" has now and many adjustments to the title character are due to Alba herself.

"Originally she rode a motorcycle," Alba said rolling her eyes, recalling that her characters in both "Dark Angel" and "Idle Hands" rode one.

"That's so cliché, nobody in New York who is struggling is riding a fricken motorcycle. It's completely ridiculous."

She also softened the characters attitude and curbed much of the ghetto speak that at first ran rampant through the film. Hearing her talk about the changes she made shows the level of dedication one might not expect from someone in her position.

It would be easy for her to simply accept any role that came her way without question, but she seems to have a drive to make positive work.

"I just wanted it to have integrity and I just wanted people to have a good time," Alba said. "It's not the deepest movie in the world and yeah, you know the story, but at the end of the day you're having a good time."

That good time stretched out to the set of the film where Alba realized her dream of being a dancer, even if it was only for a movie.

Her extensive training for the role allowed her to complete nearly every dance aspect shown.

"I had a double and I think they used her for three seconds," she says with pride.

One scene they certainly didn't use the double for was when Alba had to perform a rather seductive dance routine. "All of a sudden there were way more crew members,"

Alba laughs recalling the incident.

"I was so nervous and I didn't want to leave my trailer and Bille said, 'I'm going to give you some Courvoisier,' so I could get up the nerve to get on stage because I was totally freaking out," Alba said.

However, she turns slightly solemn when asked if "Dark Angel" fans will ever see her as Max again in a big screen version of the James Cameron created show.

"Jim and I talked about that a couple times, but I don't think so," she said.

Alba is off to bigger things now and will continue making films after "Honey." She's already set to star along side action heartthrob Paul Walker in "Into the Blue," a remake of the 1977 film "The Deep."

Beyond that, any future films depend on the success of "Honey," and if fans can see her as anything other than a genetically enhanced fighting machine.

Maybe they'll settle for a dancing machine, instead.
http://southend.wayne.edu/days/2003/...alba/alba.html