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Her early experience a testament to
the dangers of premature publicity, Gretchen Mol was all but declared
Hollywood's new "it" girl before her career had even left the gates. After
appearing in only a handful of films, Mol was chosen to star as Matt
Damon's girlfriend in John Dahl's Rounders. A highly touted film that also
starred Edward Norton, it was endlessly publicized before its 1998
release. Mol was made part and parcel of this publicity, and her blonde,
milk-fed looks were the subject of numerous magazine articles, including a
memorably provocative Vanity Fair September cover story.
Born in Deep River, Connecticut, on November 8, 1973, Mol entertained
performing ambitions from a young age, studying musical theatre in
addition to receiving a regular public school education. Following her
high school graduation, she moved to New York, where she did a stint at
the American Musical and Dramatic Academy and began performing in a number
of stage productions. To support herself, Mol also worked a number of odd
jobs, the most fortuitous of which was as a coat-check attendant at a
popular industry restaurant. There she was "discovered" by an agent, who
subsequently got her work in commercials and on the TV sitcom Spin City.
Mol made her film debut with a supporting role as a phone-sex operator in
Spike Lee's Girl 6 (1996) and went on to do bit work in Abel Ferrara's The
Funeral (1996), Mike Newell's Donnie Brasco (1997), and Stephen Kay's The
Last Time I Committed Suicide (1997). Although these projects afforded Mol
the opportunity to work with the likes of Al Pacino, Johnny Depp,
Christopher Walken, Claire Forlani, and Adrien Brody, she was quickly
being typecast into "girlfriend" roles that capitalized more on her looks
than acting abilities. She did do more substantial work in Music From
Another Room (1998), opposite Jude Law, but the film went virtually
unnoticed by critics and audiences.
After 1998, which in addition to the Rounders debacle, also featured Mol
as part of the all-star ensemble cast of Woody Allen's much anticipated --
and much lambasted -- Celebrity, the actress continued to work, albeit far
from the limelight's glare. She again collaborated with Allen on Sweet and
Lowdown (1999), portrayed actress Marion Davies in Tim Robbins'
star-studded ensemble drama Cradle Will Rock (1999), and starred opposite
Ray Liotta and Joseph Fiennes in Paul Schrader's Forever Mine (1999). Mol
also directed some of her energy towards television, portraying Madge
Owens in the 2000 remake of Picnic and starring alongside Madeleine Stowe,
James Cromwell, and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers in Alfonso Arau's 2001
small-screen adaptation of The Magnificent Ambersons.
Mol is currently married to Tod Williams and the couple is expecting their
first child in the fall of 2005. |
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"I wish I could say I have
this kind of big plan, but now, so much of it is what comes along
the pike, and then, you just say, there's something about that role
that just tickles me or sort of feels right."
"I never really have had, at its core, an issue with nudity in films
except that I know when I think it's exploitative and when I think
it's beautiful."
[Of her watching Bettie Page pornographic film loops to understand
her character in "The Notorioous Bettie Page] "I love the loops! I
couldn't take my eyes off of them. It was five minutes dedicated to
the art of the shoe, and putting the shoe on -- but first the
stocking. It was so geisha. There was something so presentational.
Bettie was just lost in her own world, dancing around with this
fringe bikini on, with this weird lamp on the side table." |
