"That was the hardest part of my job," Nichols confesses, chatting with reporters during a recent press event at Beverly Hill's posh Four Seasons. "At one point, I had to send the boys [Richardson and Olsen] away. They weren't nice to me when they knew that I was laughing and once you've got the giggles, just looking at them [is] really difficult. So I'd have to send them away or make them close their eyes."
Not that that did any good, mind you. "And if I made them close their eyes, then they would start doing sort of weird, poking things to each other, so I would turn around and have to be all serious and say, 'Lloyd! Harry! What are you doing here? I've been kidnapped!' And you can see it in my eyes – I'm just trying really hard not to laugh, because 20 takes later, the camera crew hates me and I'm about to be fired."
Fat chance of that. Though she's a newcomer to Hollywood – Dumberer marks her first major role – this recent Columbia grad knew how to handle herself during the film's Atlanta shoot, and says that she used the experience as an opportunity to learn. "I was a sponge for the entire time I was in Atlanta and freely admitted that I had no idea what was going on," she says. "I had never done a big film before, I had never been the lead in a film before and any advice anyone wanted to give me, I was more than willing to take."
Nichols' other challenges during filming included obstacles of a more physical nature. One of her big scenes is a car chase wherein Jessica tails a school bus. And though many of the major stunts in the scene were handled by a double, Nichols herself did end up behind the wheel. "Basically, my stunt double was a very broad-shouldered, dark-skinned, dark-haired man. Very nice guy, Bob, he was a great guy. However, from about 500 yards away, you could tell that that probably wasn't me," she explains. "I mean, I'm slender and about six inches taller than he was and I have fair skin."
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After it became apparent that the double wasn't going to work for some
of the closer shots, Nichols agreed to give it a try. "So...they're in the
bus, I'm behind them, [director Troy Miller] is on the walkie-talkie
that's sitting next to me. And the stunt guy's lying in the back. He's a
lot of help right?" she laughs. "And I was on the walkie-talkie with Troy.
Troy would say, 'OK, Rachel, speed up real fast and get as close to the
bus as you can!'"
As the sequence continues, Nichols is supposed to swerve off to the side.
"I'm driving and swerving to the side and tires are screeching and then I
actually ran into the bus, which is the take that you see in the movie,
which was an accident," she says. "I wasn't supposed to run into the bus.
I hit the bus and initially got really embarrassed. All the [kids] that
were on the bus started laughing at me. And Troy came out screaming
at me. 'How could you do this? Do you know how much money we've put into
this prop?' Now I'm near tears...and Troy starts laughing at me. Because
that's the way Troy is. He pulls you along to the last second. And he was
just like, 'I think we're gonna try to use that take.' My dad's gonna be
so unhappy, he paid for defensive driving and look what I did!"
Still, Nichols relished the opportunity to play a character like Jessica,
an aspiring journalist who works for the high school newspaper. "Jessica
gets to be the best of both worlds, basically, which is the initial appeal
of the character," she says. "She is sweet and she's nice to everyone, and
she's the hot chick in high school, which I would love to say that I was,
but I definitely wasn't. But she also gets to be smart, and that was
really important to me."
So if Nichols wasn't her school's resident hot chick, what was she? "My
mom uses the euphemistic phrase 'a late bloomer,' which meant that I had
uncontrollable arms and legs, I had very long appendages," she says,
stretching out her arms to demonstrate. "I took several years of very
highly structured dance classes for me to be able to control myself. And I
was a klutz! I was best friends with everyone and every boy that I ever
had a crush on wanted to date my best friend."
We're guessing that all of that's about to change – especially considering
the fact that Nichols' most talked about scene has the actress sharing an
onscreen smooch with co-star Mimi Rogers. Naturally, this begs the
question: Is Rogers a good kisser? "Oh, yes," says Nichols. "I told
everyone from Playboy to the Family Channel yesterday that she has
soft lips and good breath and it was great. It's actually the most fun
scene to talk about, so I don't mind talking about it or answering
questions. As long as we don't get into the nude mud wrestling scene,
'cause that got cut out..."
Wait...what's this about nude mud wrestling? "They had to take it out,"
Nichols demurs. "Wanted to keep that PG-13."
After being quizzed on the subject for a few minutes more, Nichols finally
admits that she's just teasing. "I was kidding," she says, grinning.
"There really was no nude mud wrestling! As much as I would love to tell
you that [there was]."
Hmmm. Looks like she's pretty good at that straight man thing after all.