Interview With Rachel Nichols

Rachel plays Jessica, the ambitious school reporter anxious to find evidence of wrongdoing by the school's nefarious Principal Collins (Eugene Levy). She is a former model for Guess Jeans and Abercrombie and Fitch, and has appeared on MTV and in HBO's "Sex in the City."

This is a sequel to a hugely successful movie. Did you feel any pressure that came along with that?

Rachel: Initially yes. Initially you get this script that says "DUMB AND DUMBER 2" and you go, "Wow, that's kind of bold." And you wonder how they were going to pull this off. The script was funny. They seemed to have good people lined up to do it. And then when I got to the set and met Eric, he was this well-built, tan, sexy, sweet, surfer boy. And I said, "Excuse me, who are you, what's going on?" He said "I'm gonna play Lloyd Christmas." And I thought, "Oh my good god, how is this going to happen?" And I didn't recognize him the first day in make up. That was the hardest thing to sell, basically, that they were going to find two guys that were going to look like a young Lloyd and Harry. Then that wasn't really a burden anymore, because we just believed it, and we just went on to make the funny comedy that it is.

Have you seen the original?

Rachel: Of course. Not only did I see it, but I had a younger brother so we owned it.

Is Mimi Rogers a good kisser?

Rachel: Oh yes. I told everyone from Playboy to the Family Channel yesterday. It's actually the most fun scene to talk about, so I don't mind talking about it, and answering questions without getting into the nude mud wrestling scene, because that got cut out. The make out scene wasn't added to the script until after I signed on. But she was so sweet that it didn't make much of a difference.

What were some of the scenes that got cut?

Rachel: Oh good lord, where to begin? There was a couple of different things I saw at the first screening, which was much longer. There was a musical number with Lloyd's dad [played by Luis Guzman] talking about "getting some" on his date with Jessica. The intro was a bit longer, actually, like there was this big steadicam shot that went down, and they changed a bunch of things around, I think they tested a bunch of different lengths. I had one scene with Cheri Oteri where I asked to go on the field trip and she told me no. And then you get to see me go out to the bus and follow them with my car. There's one scene I know will be on the DVD. Lloyd and Harry go to the gas station at night. You see a cut from it at the end in the bloopers section. Harry is dressed like a queen. Well, that scene was actually really funny. And Eric [who plays Lloyd] is dressed like a ninja. They are creeping up on the gas station. That should definitely be on the DVD.

And why is Harry dressed like a queen?

Rachel: Because he, obviously being the special, slightly weird individual that he is, he was told to dressed "not to be seen". So of course Harry shows up dressed like a queen. So Lloyd says, "I said 'dress so not be seen, not dressed like a queen.' " And Harry's like, "Oh, it was really hard getting my mom to lend me her drapes." So he's got a tiara on and very blatant curtains sort of wrapped around his shoulders.

What was it like being the straight person through all of this madness?

Rachel: At one point I had to send the boys away because they weren't nice to me when they knew that I was laughing. Just looking at them became very difficult so I'd have to look away or make them close their eyes. And then they would start doing weird poking things to each other. So when you hear me say, "Lloyd, Harry what are you doing here, I've been kidnapped by Principal Collins..." you can see in my eyes I'm just trying really hard not to laugh. Twenty takes later, the camera crew hates me and I'm about to be fired.

What's the role of women in movies like this?

Rachel: Jessica is the best of both worlds basically, which is the initial appeal of the character... because she's sweet and she's nice to everyone and she's the hot chick in high school, which I'd love to say that I was, but I guess I wasn't. And she also gets to be smart. And that was really important to me, because a lot of time, the high school girl who's the object of everyone's affection is either really rude and bitchy... or she's dumb as nails. And I was happy I didn't have to be either one of those. Which is nice for younger girls. She edits for the newspaper. She's ambitious, motivated, and cute at the same time.

How was it that you weren't hot in high school?

Rachel: I was, as my mom puts it, a late bloomer. Which meant I had uncontrollable arms and legs... I had very long appendages, and it took several years of highly structured dance classes for me to be able to control myself. I was a klutz. I was best friends with everyone, and every boy I ever had a crush on wanted to date my best friend. Except now, when I go home. That's the fun part.

How did the casting process go for you?

Rachel: I was out here from New York and I'd auditioned on and off, for about a year and a half to two years. So every time I was out here, I had a boyfriend living here at the time, I would audition. And I went in and met with John Papsidera [the casting director]. Of course, it's the day that I'm late, I'm a complete disaster, sort of un-showered and scraggly... I'd just woken up and everything's going wrong. I had a 10 minute conversation with him and he was fabulous. And I told him that I had to take off Sunday to be back in New York on Monday. He said, "Well, today's Friday. Tomorrow night you're gonna have to meet Troy Miller [the director], because I really want him to meet you before you leave." And I thought to myself, "Oh, that has to be a good sign." And so I met Troy, and talked to him for a long time about Jessica, and then flew back to New York. Two weeks later, I flew out to test with Derek Richardson, who, when I met in John's office, I said "Oh, you've got to be playing Harry." And we tested together and then, I think it was two weeks after, I was moved to Atlanta. It was a typical casting process, where you go from the casting director to the director to read for the producers... stuff like that. It was atypical for me since I ended up with the job.

Looks like in one of the outtakes you got hurt in a collision with Derek. What happened there?

Rachel: Derek, as sweet as he is, doesn't know his own strength. I'm walking to him in my initial opening scene where you meet Jessica. And she walks up to him and Harry's supposed to bump into her. Well, it was on a bit of a grade, and I was walking up the grade and he walked into me, knocking me off the set, basically. And I think you can hear Troy saying in one of the outtakes: "Don't hurt the girl! Don't hurt the girl! If she's down, we're out." He would really deck me sometimes, and I'd get knocked on my ass.

You're a Columbia grad. Did you study drama?

Rachel: Actually, I studied economics and psychology. I studied drama while I was at Columbia, but since I was paying for the Arts and Sciences undergraduate program, I took classes there too.

Had you ever seen any of Bob Saget's stand up comedy before you had to work with him?

Rachel: I hadn't actually seen any of it, but I'd heard about it, he's friends with the director. He had one of the funniest parts. When he comes in and he's meeting Harry for the first time... who's yelling obscenities at me and then eats pads of butter.

Did you do any of your stunt driving in the scene where you're chasing the bus?

Rachel: I actually had to do a lot of the driving, which wasn't in my contract. Basically, my stunt double was a very broad shouldered, dark-haired, dark skinned man. He was a great guy, however, from about 500 yards away, you can tell it wasn't me. So what happened was, after they did the jump with the car, they tried to have me do some of the other driving. Troy said "We can see his dark eyebrows," which wasn't working for them, so they said, "Can you drive?" And I said "Oh good lord, yes I can." Troy shot it so that they were driving in the bus and I was in the car driving behind them. Troy's on the walkie talkie sitting next to me, and this stunt guy's like lying in the back, which is going to help, what's he gonna do if we're in an accident? So I'm on the walkie talkie with Troy and he's going, "Okay, speed up real fast and get as close to the bus as you can." So I'm driving and the tires are screeching and I actually rammed into the bus, which is the take that you see in the movie. I wasn't supposed to run into the bus. I initially got really embarrassed. All the special needs kids that were in the bus started laughing at me because I actually hit the bus and Troy came out screaming at me. "How could you do this? Do you know how much money we've put into that prop?" Now I'm in tears, and he's starts laughing, because that's the way Troy is. Then he's like "I think I'm gonna try to use that take."

Do you think you could handle the next "FAST AND FURIOUS"?

Rachel: Exactly. "Hello Paul Walker. Here I come with my station wagon."

What kinds of doors has this film opened for you?

Rachel: You know, it's done a lot of good things already and it hasn't even come out yet. It was a very good learning experience, which I think is very important, and it was a very easy set to learn on. I was a sponge the entire time I was in Atlanta. I freely admit that I had no idea what was going on, I had never done a big budget film before. Any advice anyone wanted to give me I was willing to take.

Do you have anything lined up for your next film?

Rachel: Nothing definite. I've been doing exactly what Eric and Derek have been doing, reading a lot of scripts, figuring out what's next.