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AllSimpson.com is the
unofficial fanlisting for the
beautiful and talented actress
Jessica Simpson. We provide the
biography, discography, latest news,
pictures, and much more. I hope you
enjoy your stay, and come back soon! |
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:: September 2005 :: |
| 11 Sept 2005
---
The Age |
| Jessica's Dukes
Duel |
It was Jessica
Simpson Vs Britney Spears in the audition room
battle of the blonde pop stars.
Both were desperate to play Daisy Duke, but just one
would be selected to slip into a skimpy pair of
denim shorts and star in the Hollywood re-make of
the 1970-80s hit TV show, The Dukes of Hazzard.
Simpson, of course, won.
The story behind how she beat Spears for the role in
the audition room face-off shows Simpson is not as
silly as viewers of her bare-it-all reality TV
program, Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica, portrayed her.
Simpson might not know the difference between
chicken and tuna and she did think buffalo wings
came from buffaloes, but she left her sweet nature
behind as she ruthlessly pursued the Daisy Duke gig.
As a girl growing up in Abeline, Texas, Simpson and
her cousins would pretend to be the Dukes of Hazzard
characters.
Simpson would always be Daisy, so it would be a
dream come true if her first big acting role would
be as her childhood idol.
"I knocked down the producers door," Simpson, the
fire still in her eyes as she recalled her two-year
campaign to steal the Daisy Duke shorts away from
Spears, said during an interview in a Manhattan
hotel.
"I was begging for the role."
Early auditions were a disaster and Dukes of Hazzard
director, Jay Chandrasekhar and producer Bill
Gerber, who adjudicated the Simpson Vs Spears
battle, wondered if Simpson was good enough for the
job.
"She's a pop star and I thought 'What the hell does
that have to do with making movies?"' Chandrasekhar
said.
Simpson, not perturbed, kept turning up for
auditions.
It was leaked to the media Simpson was interested
and may have been offered the part, however when the
story broke she was a long way off from convincing
Chandrasekhar and Gerber.
If Spears had won the role, it would have been more
embarrassing than Simpson's little sister Ashlee's
lip-synching controversy.
"It was already in the press I was going to be Daisy
Duke so I really had to get the role or I'd
completely embarrass myself if I didn't," the
determined Simpson, 25, said.
Daisy Duke melts men by wearing a tiny pink bikini
or microscopic denim shorts, but she also beats up
boofheads in bar room brawls.
It's a role for a big personality, but that's not
what Chandrasekhar and Gerber saw early on in the
audition process when Simpson walked in.
"The truth is she would come in and did some
auditions and they were quiet and small,"
Chandrasekhar said.
"They weren't bad, but they were quiet, nervous and
shy.
"I said 'What's going on?'
"She said 'I'm f***ing scared'.
"I said 'You're not going to get the part unless you
smile and you have to be charming. You already are
charming so why don't you just be like you are. Try
smiling in these four places when you do it next
time'."
Simpson went home and fine-tuned her audition.
She also had a secret weapon - a pair of Daisy Duke
shorts.
When Simpson walked back into the audition room in
the shorts, it was a different person.
It was Daisy Duke.
"She showed up in Daisy Dukes," Chandrasekhar said.
"I looked at her through the monitor and she was
glowing. That's why she is who is she is because
she's got this natural charisma. The first few takes
were OK, then she started smiling and it was better
and the next take was good.
"Then the next was great then I was like 'OK, she
can do it. I know she can do it'."
Chandrasekhar said Spears was also impressive in her
auditions and fitted the part.
Just like Simpson, Spears, 23, was raised in
America's south, in Kentwood, Louisiana, she had a
huge fan base and would also complement co-stars
Johnny Knoxville and Seann William Scott .
"Britney would have been perfect in some ways,"
Chandrasekhar said.
"She's southern and from that world."
But, it was Jessica's time.
"Jessica pursued it in LA and did a great job."
That is not to say Simpson's auditions were
decisively better than Spears.
Chandrasekhar has been to plenty of auditions as an
actor, but he knew it was not always the best who
won the role. There has to be that little bit extra.
"Britney did a good job," he said.
"She really did. The bottom line is, I'm an actor
too. I've auditioned for a lot of movies and I
didn't get it, but I did a great job."
Simpson just had a little extra.
"Jessica was the best in a lot of ways," he said.
"Part of it was her charisma. Part of it was her
look and part of it was her sense of humour.
"If you sit down and talk to her she's really funny
and she's beautiful and has charisma.
"I don't think necessarily you have to be a good
actor."
It was a nervous couple of weeks until Simpson
received the call she had scored the part.
"I was a big dork and I cried," Simpson said.
"I was so excited. It was a whole emotional
experience."
That was not the final obstacle.
Simpson had to get her body into Daisy Duke shape
and that meant hiring a personal trainer, plenty of
time in the gym and a diet without buffalo wings.
"The real work for me was working out with my
personal trainer to make sure I looked good in the
Daisy Dukes, because they really don't cover much,"
she said.
" I worked out two hours a day and cut sugar and
fried foods out of my diet."
The hard work was worth it as Simpson shocked the
mostly all-male crew when she first walked on the
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, film set.
Simpson might be used to singing in front of crowds
of thousands and having her private life with
husband Nick Lachey aired around the world on their
reality TV show, but she said she remains the shy
daughter of a Baptist minister.
Women around the world may have been envious of her
body, but Simpson has never been comfortable showing
it off, whether she is shooting a scene in a film or
video clip or relaxing on a beach during a holiday.
That made it tough when scenes in The Dukes of
Hazzard called for her to wear the pink bikini or
the Daisy Duke shorts.
"Each time I was on set it was all men," she said.
"I would always stay covered up in a robe. I'm shy.
I really am shy. I don't strut around in a bikini.
It's just not me. I don't even do that on the beach.
"When they called 'action' I had to become Daisy
Duke so that was really acting for me."
With her first movie in the can and already making
almost $US90 million ($A118.25 million) around the
world, Simpson is signed up for another comedy
called Major Movie Star.
Simpson stars as a Hollywood actress who is
America's sweetheart, but is not taken too
seriously. The actress is desperate to win an Oscar
for a serious, dramatic role, but misses out and
then hits rock bottom.
It is a fun premise, but it is not Simpson.
Simpson is not interested in playing a painful role
such as Nicole Kidman's Virginia Woolf in The Hours
or Charlize Theron's serial killer Aileen Wuornos in
Monster.
Simpson's role model is Dolly Parton, who bounced
from album to comedies.
"I am really all about making people laugh and smile
right now," Simpson, who is putting the finishing
touches to a new album set for release in November,
said.
"Maybe one day.
"I can't say I won't ever want an Oscar role, but I
don't really take myself serious right now."
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Copyright 2005. All rights reserved. |
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