Will your daughter think "Sweet Home Alabama" is funny?
I don't think she'll be seeing "Sweet Home Alabama." She's only three. She doesn't think I'm very funny. She thinks she's funny but that's basically how three-year-olds are. Me, me, me. But she is, she's very funny. She makes me laugh all the time. She does funny faces and she's hysterical.
Is it harder to work being away from your family?
It's a little bit more planning and a little bit more organizing, but it's very doable. I'm very lucky to be able to have my family travel with my everywhere.
What conversations do you and Ryan have about movies you're offered?
He has really good advice about the business. We listen to each other's ideas because we've both been in the business for a long time, so we talk about things.
Is it hard to coordinate your schedules?
No, it's not so bad because you only work a few months a year. It's not like either one of us works constantly back-to-back. We plan to have a lot of time off. We make decisions like that so neither one of us is working at the same time. That's hard on us and on our child.
Will you be involved in any of Ryan's movies?
His movies? Possibly. That would be a lot of fun [to] get to boss him around even more than I already do. "Where were you? You're five minutes late."
Do you discuss with Ryan what you will and won't bring up?
No, no.
How do you feel about him talking about therapy?
Sure, that's his life. He can talk about whatever he wants to talk about. We're pretty honest people. He's from Delaware, I'm from Tennessee, and we don't have a lot to hide.
Do you feel older than 26?
No, I actually feel very much younger. It's very sad when you remind me that I am 26 because I feel like I'm 19.
Are people making too much of your "Legally Blonde 2" $15 million paycheck?
Well, I don't know. I don't read entertainment magazines and I don't read the trades, so I don't really know what they're making of it.
Does it bother you that people know your salary?
I was sort of raised to not really talk about money. I would never ask somebody how much money they're making because it feels a little bit impolite. But, I suppose it's interesting to someone. I think the business side of it is something I don't - fortunately - have to deal with. I have people that deal with that for me. I'd easily do the movie for the same salary that I got before. It's nice to be compensated and be appreciated, and to be acknowledged that you can open a movie. But it's not terribly important. I wouldn't do it if I didn't love the script. It doesn't matter how much money it is.
Where will the sequel pick up?
The sequel picks up that she's a corporate lawyer and that she's graduated, obviously. She's a corporate lawyer who becomes very upset about something that's happening in her town and decides that she's going to go to Washington to try to get this law passed. I don't want to give away too much of it. It's very funny.
It's educational for people that don't know a lot about the government, but it's also very much [a] fish out of water in the same scenario that she was totally out of her element in Harvard. She's really out of her element in Washington, D.C. with a lot of very conservative people who just don't even give her the time of day. It's fun. It's a really good script and I'm really excited about it because it's great to see a woman in that scenario. It's sort of based on the model of "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington."
Is she married?
She's planning her wedding at the same time. She's very busy.
Is Luke Wilson returning for "Legally Blonde 2?"
Yeah, Luke is going to come back.
Will Elle Woods be easy to slip back into?
I don't know. I'm going to go back next week and look at the first one. I've never seen it actually, so I want to see what I did with my voice and that kind of stuff. It's interesting because I work a lot with voice and with physical characterization. I'm actually excited to go back to the sorority houses and talk to those girls again, because I had a really good time doing research there. I'm going to go to a law firm, and I get to go to Washington and talk to some of the lobbyists. It's exciting because I love the idea that she's a character that exists in a very conservative reality but she still manages to be larger than life.
Will you do movies like "Freeway" again?
Oh, sure. I basically see myself as a character actress so I'm always interested in eccentric characters. It was almost harder for me to do a role like this ('Melanie' in "Sweet Home Alabama") where I use more of my own real voice. That's more challenging to me than playing - a Tracy Flick is also a lot of work, but I feel so naturally inclined to do things that are that sort of off-the-wall or larger-than-life. I like that stuff.
Are you conscious of being a role model?
Sure. I think if people are inspired by what you do, I mean, I've been certainly inspired by a lot of people that came before me and it's infinitely helpful when I get advice from them or support, encouragement from them. That would be great if I could inspire somebody.
