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from this interview!
For Clip 1, click here.
 John Russo |
So to actually get through a script that I would consider doing was a plus. And the fact that it’s a true story -- I love doing true stories. There’s something very fascinating about portraying a real life person. I love watching true stories.
I got a lot of flack from a couple of my friends, you know, portraying this bunny. And I’m not condoning what they’re doing. I’m not saying that it’s okay. I’m not giving it my blessing as to what’s going on in this movie, or to how Hugh Hefner lived his life. I’m just portraying Barbie Benton. And it was fun playing her, because she’s so different from my character on GH.
My character on GH, Elizabeth, just had her eighteenth birthday party. Now, I went from fourteen to eighteen in two years. So up until literally a couple of months ago, I had never played anybody older than sixteen. And being able to portray Barbie Benton, when you first see her, she’s eighteen. And then I ended up being twenty-five at the end of it. So that was fun. That was fun getting to play my own age.
FF: You said you got some flack from friends and stuff. What were some of the objections that people were making?
Rebecca Herbst: Just that people would relate me to Hugh Hefner. And I would tell them, I’d use this example: was Julia Roberts saying that prostitution is okay when she was in Pretty Woman? You know? It’s like no.
And of course these are friends that aren’t in the industry, and don’t really understand what we do. I am a Christian, and I have very high morals and standards for myself. And I would never do anything that would compromise my standards. I just wouldn’t do it.
And I always say that I would never do anything that I wouldn’t want my dad to watch. That’s what I base it on.
FF: Right, exactly. I can barely remember Barbie Benton during the time she was around, and on TV and stuff. But she was much more than just a Playmate. She was really very important, not as important as Bobbie Arnstein as far as influence, but she was a very significant person in Hefner’s life.
 Left to right, Rebecca, Randall Batinkoff and Natasha Gregson Wagner as Bobbi Arnstein. Blake Little |
Rebecca Herbst: She was more significant than the movie actually portrayed.
FF: It wasn’t that she was just a passing-through Playmate of the Year kind of thing.
Rebecca Herbst: No, she wasn’t. And the fact that she did wait a whole year before she slept with him. She was a virgin. She was a virgin when she met Hugh Hefner, and she actually, when she met him, she was on her way to UCLA Medical School.
Which a lot of people don’t know. So she was a bright girl. But she just got caught up in the limelight, and enjoyed the Hollywood excitement. And she always had that in her, because she wanted to be a country singer.
FF: I do remember that. But she did very well for herself. I think she ended up marrying a very wealthy guy, and is married and has kids. And so she did all right for herself.
Rebecca Herbst: She did. She always had her level head on her shoulders.
FF: And do you have any particular memories or anecdotes of filming the USA movie that are either funny or touching or ...?
Rebecca Herbst: Well, it was my first quote unquote love scene. It was the first time I’d ever been in bed with a guy on camera. And that was a little different. I guess I was a little nervous about it, but I wasn’t freaked out.
I wish we hadn’t done it the first week of filming, because I really didn’t know Randall Batinkoff, who plays Hugh Hefner, that well. And so having this guy lie very close to me, a guy I didn’t know, was a little uneasy. But he’s so cool it was fine. It was fine.
 Randall Batinkoff. Blake Little |
FF: I thought you were wonderful in it, and I like your last parting glance at him as Hugh. You can see that you’re internalizing that you’re going to be moving on.
Rebecca Herbst: That’s exactly what she was thinking at that point.
FF: It’s a very good scene.
Rebecca Herbst: Oh, thanks.
FF: I enjoyed it a lot. And tell me a little bit about your future goals and plans.
Rebecca Herbst: Well, my contract with GH is up next June. And I haven’t made a decision as to whether I’ll stay with them for another year, or try to spread my wings. But eventually I do want to get out and do other things. I really like all the mediums of this business, except for theater. I would never want to do theater.
But I love doing sitcoms. I would love to do a one hour drama. Of course, feature films are my ultimate goal. I would love to do that. But I’m not in any rush. I’m not in a hurry. If it happens it happens. I’m not the type of person to push my career. I just feel that if it’s meant to be, it’s going to happen.
And also I would love to get my designs kind of floating around, and having people wear them. I think that’d be fun.
FF: So you’re thinking of expanding the line.
Rebecca Herbst: I’m hoping that in all my free time, I’ll be able to sit down and design some more dresses. And ideally it would be great if I could design them, and then have somebody make them for me. Because making them is just so tedious. It takes a pretty long time. Especially because I don’t really know what I’m doing all that much.
I can figure it out, but it just takes a lot of time that I don’t really have, to sit down for ten hours and try to get a dress done. But I hope that one day people will be walking down the Emmys saying yes, this is a Rebecca Herbst design.
FF: I think it’s very cool of you that you do that, because you always see Joan Rivers at the award shows, and it’s like, who are you wearing, and it’s always Armani, Versace, and then, oh, I’m wearing a Rebecca Herbst.
Rebecca Herbst: I know, I know. I would love to do it. It would be great. I’m not going to force it. I don’t want to bite off more than I can chew at this moment in my life.
FF: Sure, sure. But it’s interesting, because I interview a lot of designers, and many of them will painstakingly make every pattern, and do all the fussing over it and everything. And then there are others that will pretty much just do the sketch, and it’ll be executed by others. So I think it’s done a million and one ways. There’s an Australian designer I interviewed, who makes great bathing suits. And she doesn’t draw. She just basically explains it, and then when she sees the prototypes, she makes the adjustments.
Rebecca Herbst: Right. I have a very hard time drawing too. I have a very hard time. I’ve often thought about going to school to take a drawing class, because that’s not a natural talent for me. So it’s kind of hard that I have to verbalize it, and then have my mom or my aunt try to sketch it out for me. Or my grandmother actually; she’s a really good artist.
So it takes a whole bunch of people to get this thing going.
FF: It’s a huge undertaking. You mentioned just a few minutes ago that you don’t want to do theater. Just to follow up: what is it about theater that you don’t have any interest in?
Rebecca Herbst: I have a real fear of getting up in front of people and having to speak. Especially, for example, coming up with my own things for an award. Even when I was in school and we had to do oral book reports, I would always opt to do two written as opposed to one oral, so I wouldn’t have to get up in front of my class. I’m not a good public speaker at all.
And then with theater, yes, I understand that you would memorize the lines and stuff, but it would scare me to death knowing that there’s no one there to yell cut, or okay, let’s do it again. I would mess up my lines, and then not be able to finish it.
And a lot of people don’t understand when I say it, but I love doing sitcoms, because sitcoms are in front of a live audience. But for one thing, you can yell cut if you screw up. Then you can stop and do it again. And that’s a very comforting thing for me.
And also, I consider myself a more subtle actor than a theater actor. I’ve just never had that in me. I took a theater class in ninth grade and hated it.
 Blake Little |
FF: A couple of other questions: I have a very young readership. They range from tweens through college and up to their late twenties. I have also people older than that, but that’s my core audience.
And as a role model, for someone your age to look up to, who has accomplished a great deal, what kind of advice do you have for young women who have certain ideas and goals, or dreams, and how to realize them, since you obviously have been able to do that?
Rebecca Herbst: You know, that’s a very tough question. There’s no one simple or right or wrong answer. I just feel that if you have a passion about something in your life, to pursue it. Let me put it this way: I don’t think it’s a really good idea to pursue a career that you think is going to make you all sorts of money, so that you can get all that money and eventually pursue what your passion is.
Because inevitably, you’re going to get wrapped up in the money, and it’s going to be too hard to pull away from whatever you’re doing to really go after your dream. And I see that happen with a lot of people. And a lot of my friends right now are graduating from college. And they’re going, yeah, well you know, I think I’m going to do this and this and this because it pays this amount. And it’s like no, but what do you really want to do. Well, what I really want to do I couldn’t possibly do. It’s like, well, I don’t see why not, you know. Yes, I started this career at a very young age, and so I never really had to make those sacrifices. I always just kind of fell into it. And it’s been very easy for me.
I mean it’s been tough work, but it’s been easy to recognize what I wanted to do in my life. But I would just say definitely pursue your dreams. Don’t substitute anything else, for the time being, just so that you can have a nicer car or more clothing. You know? Does that make sense?
FF: Absolutely. It’s what I’ve always believed in, and that’s what I’ve followed in my life. Probably to everybody else’s disgust, but it’s made me happy.
Rebecca Herbst: Well, you know what, I’ll tell you, so many people would be so much happier if they just started out doing what they really want to do.
FF: Absolutely.
Rebecca Herbst: Because chances are you’re going to be able to make a living at it. If you have that sort of fire in your heart, that passion for it, you know inevitably you’re going to be able to make it work. Like my mom’s big saying is always, you have the choice.
You have the choice to wake up and be happy in the morning, or you have the choice to wake up and be in a bad mood. It’s like the choice is all yours. And especially with the kids my age, I mean we’re so young, it’s like why not go out on a limb and make that choice now. Instead of being miserable behind a desk that may be paying six figures, but where does your happiness lie?
