Are you still concerned about being typecast?
I’m always typecast. No one in Hollywood has a clue as to whether or not I really speak with that accent or not. They think I show up hair and make-up ready that way so… They don’t know that it takes four hours. But yeah, it’s always been a concern of mine but at this point in my career, I’m not a kid anymore. A friend of mine said, “Drea, it’s better to be typecast than not cast.”
You know, I don’t really have that many more years left for me as far as acting goes. I’m not one of those girls who is going to go and lift my face, shoot it up with Botox, have my boobs done, just to maintain, just to keep my face on the big screen or the little screen. I’m going to step away and get behind the camera. I didn’t study acting. I really went to school for directing. So that’s probably where I’ll end up.
Can you use the opportunity to fight for women who feel they have to get Botox and facelifts just to stay on the screen?
It’s tempting to do all that stuff, I just happen to be very afraid of it all. I don’t want to mess with something that was okay. You just don’t mess with what God gave you (laughing). I understand that there are a lot of ‘B’ actors who base themselves on their looks and stuff. But when you get A-list actors who are so incredibly wonderful and talented, I don’t understand why they feel the need to erase all of the life from their face because that’s what makes them so wonderful. If they have the talent to go on, then I feel like it’s your talent people are looking at, it’s not your face.
But you do have the talent so you shouldn’t be made to feel like you have to go behind the camera because you’re time is running out.
Yeah, but Hollywood doesn’t really care for people who aren’t beautiful at certain times, unfortunately. Unless you’re playing a character actor, which I am a character actor. But for some reason I still get thrown into the ‘pretty girl’ role and I’m not really the pretty girl because I don’t photograph. I look better in person. I don’t photograph that well.
You really believe you don’t photograph well?
I definitely don’t. I definitely look better in person. Everyone always comes up to me, all my fans, and they’re always, “God, you look completely different in person.” You know? So…
Do you have directing projects lined up?
I do. I do. My mom’s a teacher and she teaches playwriting, and I take students from her class and take their scripts and develop them. It’s really exciting for me because I really, really enjoy taking something that’s great and making it incredible.
I took one of her students and now she’s my partner. She just writes everything. I got her signed with my agency and she’s possibly going to be the best writer in Hollywood, I’d have to say. Real stories, not crap, you know? Real little stories that mean something. So we’re working on one project right now. I was going to direct it over the hiatus of “Joey” but it’s not a “Soprano” hiatus of a year and a half, so I don’t think I’m going to have the time this hiatus.
Can you say anything about the plot?
It’s such a crazy story that I wouldn’t even know how to explain it. Most directors passed on it because it’s so crazy, so now we’re directing it. It’s pretty good, that’s all I have to say. I come from “Sopranos” and to me that’s the best kind of writing there is. I would never do anything less than that. I would be in other movies that are less than that just for a paycheck, but I would never create or direct a film that wasn’t going to be as good as the writing on “The Sopranos.” I’m kind of a snob that way. I’ve been spoiled by my mother and by “The Sopranos.”
PAGE 4: Drea de Matteo on Her Directorial Debut and Working on a Sitcom vs. Working on a Dramatic Series
