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Bijou Lilly Phillips (born April 1,
1980) is an American actress, fashion model, and singer. Some of her
larger film roles include Bully, Havoc, Hostel: Part II, and Tart.
Phillips was born in Greenwich, Fairfield County, Connecticut, and is the
daughter of John Phillips of The Mamas & the Papas and his then-wife
Geneviève Waïte, a South African model, artist, and actress. The youngest
of John Phillips's children, she has one brother, Tamerlane, and three
half-siblings: Mackenzie, Jeffrey, and Chynna. After her parents split up,
both were found unfit to have custody of Bijou and she was placed in
foster care with a family in Bolton Landing, New York. She lived there on
and off, doing extended visits with her parents, who had both gotten
houses in the area. Her father won custody when she was in third grade and
she moved with him to Long Island.
At 13, Phillips moved to New York City to be a model. She appeared on the
cover of Interview magazine and Italian Vogue (twice) and did a number of
ads for Calvin Klein. At 17, she got a record deal and began working on
her album I'd Rather Eat Glass, which was produced by Talking Heads' Jerry
Harrison. She was later cast in Black and White by director James Toback
and garnered glowing praise from critics for her performance. Later,
director Larry Clark cast her in Bully, and she won a role opposite Jeff
Bridges and Kim Basinger in The Door in the Floor, a film adaptation of
John Irving's novel A Widow for One Year. She starred opposite Anne
Hathaway in Stephen Gaghan's Havoc, directed by Barbara Kopple. Her
portrayal of Lorna Doom opposite Shane West in What We Do Is Secret, about
the seminal punk band The Germs, also earned her glowing reviews. Other
films she has done include Choke, with Angelica Huston and Sam Rockwell,
and the comedy Made for Each Other, with Chris Masterson. She was also
cast as Nancy Spungeon in a biopic about the Chelsea Hotel directed by
Abel Ferrara.
Her debut album, released in 1999, was titled I'd Rather Eat Glass, She
toured with the Lilith Fair music festival in 1999. As of 2007, Phillips
is working on a second album and has posted several demos on her MySpace
page.
In 1999, Phillips had a brief cameo in the film Sugar Town, playing a girl
wanting an autograph. That same year, Phillips appeared in Black and White
as Charlie. In 2000, she played Estrella Starr in Almost Famous. Beginning
in 2001, Phillips got bigger parts, including a supporting role in Bully
and starring roles in Tart and Fast Sofa.
Later film appearances include Octane, What We Do Is Secret, and Hostel:
Part II, for which she was nominated for Scream Queen in the 2007 Scream
Awards. Her most recent starring roles are in Dark Streets and a remake of
It's Alive. She also has an uncredited cameo in the as-yet-unreleased
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Undead. Philips will star alongside Danny
Masterson, in the 2009 drama The Bridge to Nowhere.
In 2004, Phillips began dating That '70s Show actor Danny Masterson; the
couple met at a poker tournament in Las Vegas. The couple announced their
engagement in March 2009. Both Phillips and Masterson have been described
as devout Scientologists. |
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On music: "Music is real; it's
something you can touch and feel. It moves you - the bass literally
shakes you and rocks you from the inside. Music makes your soul feel
amazing while you're performing it. It's not air, it's not wind,
it's not anything like that. It's solid. It's thick. It's like
summertime in New York."
On being world-weary: "I never had innocence."
On modeling: "It was like, I wanted to go swimming in the ocean, but
I was jumping up and down in a puddle."
"Bijou Phillips- you never knew what the f**k she would say or do
next. There is no line between her unconscious and her articulation
of it and her behavior. She is a genuine psychopath. I say that with
affection and admiration, because she's also incredibly smart and
talented, so she knows how to amuse and how to get and hold
attention. If she were just a psychopath, you wouldn't want to use
her; you'd just be bored. But she is always amusing and interesting,
and if one thing isn't working she has a good sense of it, and she
just starts on something else." - James Toback |
