Summary: Short interview with Laurie Holden from Bikini Magazine, July 1999, pp.52-53. Laurie talks, among other things, about the joys of messing with people's minds. Transcribed by Deslea.

X-Tra Special Saucy
Bikini Magazine, July 1999, pp.52-53
By Paul Semel


Laurie Holden is full of it. Not that the 26-year-old actress would lie to your face if you were lucky enough to get that close ("I never lie to anybody," she insists), but the normally nice girl really enjoys messing with people's minds.

"It's the mischievous kid in me," she confesses during dinner at LuLu's Beehive in Los Angeles. "Sometimes I just do it to see if people are listening. But I'm also the most gullible person in the world. You could tell me anything and I'd be like (affects a dumb voice) 'Really?' So I like shaking things up because I think people do that to me.

"I was working on this one show," she recalls, "and I told the powers-that-be that it would be a great tie-in if I did a Playboy spread. You should've seen the looks on their faces - it was priceless. They were like, 'Are you serious?' and I was like, 'No! What are you, kidding? I would never do that!' I mean, I've done love scenes, but nothing where you've seen the goods."

And what goods they are. When Laurie mentions that she wears a bikini while enjoying such watersports as jetskiing, waterskiing, and swimming, every guy in earshot perks up. Coupled with her penetrating eyes and devillish smile, it's enough to make any man feel like a beast next to Laurie's beauty.

Yet she says that guys aren't beating down her door. Which - she'd like you to know before you buy a plane ticket to L.A. - isn't a problem at the moment. Citing her recurring role on The X Files and her frequent appearances on the recently cancelled Magnificent Seven, Laurie confesses that she's such a workaholic right now she probably wouldn't notice someone hitting on her.

"But then," she adds, "I'm not the dating kind of person. I'm very good in love, but I'm also very good by myself, and I'd rather be alone than dating just for the sake of dating."

When she is in the mood for some lovin', Laurie's not what you'd call the superficial type. "It's not a looks thing," she explains. "It's whether they're funny and smart. Smart, funny, and kind."

Speaking of smart, Laurie has shown such an affinity for number-crunching (she finds numbers "therapeutic") that her business manager has offered to hire her at his firm if ever she decides to hang up the thespian gear. Which, she says, isn't likely. Even though she grew up in the acting boonies of Toronto, Laurie's been a lifer in the biz ever since her dad, director Michael Anderson, cast her as Rock Hudson's kid in The Martian Chronicles, the 1980 TV miniseries based on Ray Bradbury's classic novel.

"It's so funny," she laughs, "I knew nothing about acting, but I was such a know-it-all. Rock would say the wrong lines, and I'd be like, (in a nasally kid voice) 'You said the wrong line! That's my line!' He was like, 'Where'd you get this kid?'" This, of course, isn't the story she tells.

"When people ask how I got started," she says, grinning that devillish grin, "I always say, 'You know, Nude, Nude, Nudes by the airport...?'"

-- Paul Semel