Sun Times article

[social_misfit]

She's no 'Honey'; Jessica Alba's got a brain
November 30, 2003

Jessica Alba's father would like you to please stop looking at her. Right now. OK, if you must stare at Hollywood's latest sex symbol, Mr. Alba hopes you will stare at her best feature: her brain.

Yes, he's a bit worried about his daughter and all the sharks in Hollywood.

"When I told my mother that I wanted to act, she said, 'It's such a tough business. So hard. So cutthroat.' My father just said, 'It's not a real job. They'll just want to get you naked,'" says Alba with a laugh as she slumps on the couch
in her suite at the Peninsula Hotel in Chicago.

Well, father knows best, sort of. Alba recently posed for Maxim magazine, which bestowed upon her the No. 1 spot on its Hot 100 Babe List.

"Honestly, I don't flash that much in the photo," she says. "My rule goes back to my father. He had to be able to look at the photo without me dying of embarrassment."

Jessica's pop would be proud. His daughter isn't just pretty, but she also has a brain. "I don't just want to play sexy girls. That's nothing for me," laments the current It Girl.

It doesn't help that her long, luxurious chestnut hair and bare midriff are featured in a poster for her new movie, appropriately titled "Honey," opening Friday. Hollywood has already tried to pigeonhole the brunet babe into the category of beautiful but brainless. "They never expect me to be smart," Alba says.

She's had a heck of a time trying to convince some Hollywood executives that having a brain is actually another asset.

"Some people are not even worth trying to convince. Some men who are high up in the entertainment industry have their mind set on what they want me to be," she says. "If you're not some stupid little twinkie, then they don't know how to deal with you. They actually dismiss you."

"I don't care," she insists. "At least, I have my dignity. But I still want to scream that I didn't fall into acting because I slept with the right guy. I've been doing this since I was 12, thank you."

She's doing something right. Alba has her name over the title in "Honey," in which she plays a sexy, sassy, smokin' dancer from the mean city streets who becomes a successful music video choreographer. But trouble ensues when her mentor
insists that she either put out or he will get her out of the business.

No one puts Honey in this kind of predicament, so she grabs her dance shoes, quits her job and opens her own dance studio for inner-city kids, including one played by Lil' Romeo. "It's a dream movie for me because I love to dance," Alba says.

She doesn't even mind dancing with the suits to get what she wants.

"The president of Universal told me about the movie, but the original script wasn't very good. It was very stereotypical and violent with a lot of cursing. I didn't like it, and then the studio said, 'We'll fix it for you.'"

That was fine with Alba, who really did want to do the movie. "In my heart, I always wanted to be a dancer, so this was a way to pretend that I was one."

Her rules of dancing are simple. "You just have to feel the music. I feel it in my stomach," she says. "I've seen many girls just stand there and shake their butts. They look like strippers. I don't like people who dance to get a reaction.
I've seen people just jump around and that's
totally cool. They're feeling it."

Alba's always felt a little bit different. Her exotic looks come courtesy of her mother, who is of French-Danish heritage, and her father, who is Mexican, Indian and Spanish. She had a nomadic childhood, thanks to her father who was in the Air Force. The family lived in Mississippi, California and Texas before finally settling in Southern California when Alba was 9.

At age 12, Alba discovered acting and begged her parents to allow her to take a class. It only took nine months for an agent to notice a local production and sign her as a client.

"Everyone in my family is very creative. They sang, danced and painted," she says. "When we'd go to my grandmother's house, it was a series of little performances. I just wanted to do it in front of a camera."

In 1994, Alba made her film debut in "Camp Nowhere" as an extra. When one of the lead actresses had to drop out, Alba was promoted because they both had the same hair color. After national commercials for J.C. Penny and Nintendo, Alba was cast in the Nickelodeon series "The Secret World of Alex Mack." She also did a stint on the TV series "Flipper."

When the show hit the skids in 1997, Alba returned to films, including "Never Been Kissed" (1999). The movie gave her the kind of public recognition that made her slightly uncomfortable.

"The first time I was recognized, it was really weird. I felt like an imposter or an alien," she says. "I was in an airport and someone yelled, 'Hey, Jessica Alba!' I couldn't stop thinking, 'Did I go to high school with this person? How does she know my name?'"

Her face hit the big time in 2000 when she was cast by James Cameron as a kick-butt female on the Fox series "Dark Angel," which was canceled after two seasons.

"I don't understand why we were canceled because 'Dark Angel' always performed better than the [fellow Fox] series '24,'" Alba said. "I was nominated for every award. The show had solid ratings.

"I think our cancellation was a political thing," she says. "The network and the producers really didn't get along and that killed the series, which made me sad. I really loved that character."

The very single Alba reports that she is focusing on her big-screen career these days. In the next few weeks, she will head to the Bahamas to film a loose remake of "The Deep" with Paul Walker. They play seafaring treasure hunters who have to find their loot and ditch those trying to kill them.

"I can't wait because I have a passion for water sports. I know Paul surfs, but I'll kill him when it comes to scuba diving. Plus, I've done 100-foot cliff dives in the past just for fun," she says with glee. "I plan to go to the set early and start taking underwater photos just to get into the whole mood. Plus, I like to outdo the guys."

Smart girl.
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[rh71]

Good stuff, thanks for posting it.