I STUMBLE INTO THE TIME CAFE, a bit distracted from having just read about the latest atrocities taking place around the world. I shake off the news, reminding myself that I'm about to interview one of the most celebrated actresses of our generation. Waiting to confirm the reservation with the hostess, I scan the room and find Lili Taylor already seated, early for our interview.
Lili snuggles up to a steaming cup of tea as she very deliberately flips the pages of an oversized book. There is no hint of the tough-as-nails kidnapper in Ransom here No nod to the sexually predatory art dealer from Pecker. Nothing at all reminiscent of the jittery radical in I Shot Andy Warhol. Surprisingly, Lili seems childlike, tucked away in the far corner of the room, her head peeking up over the overbearing banquette that curves around her.
Lili's smile radiates as we greet each other, her ponytail bobbing up and down with each shake of my hand. As she closes her book, I see the word 'Palestine' emblazoned in bold letters on the cover. It's very clear that this actress has more on her mind than stardom. A veteran of a life-long battle to stay true to her personal convictions, Lili Taylor has spent her fair share, deep in the trenches, fighting an industry standard that hardly affords actresses roles outside the realm of the sterotypical. And, suffice it to say, she's won and made us all proud.
When I tell Lili that the theme of BUST's relaunch issue is "Fight Like a Girl," she nods eagerly and smiles. Best known for playing non-conformist characters, it's only after we've finished discussing the soft-spoken actress's career struggles and political views, that I can see the loose thread that ties Lili Taylor to the tough women she's portrayed on film. With her mind bound firmly to her heart, Lili is proof positive that to fight like a girl means stockpiling our most powerful weapon: knowledge.
What would you say you've fought hardest for in your life?
It hasn't felt like one battle; it's felt like a continuous fight, on a quiet leverl, for my independence or my integrity or my beliefs or my truths. Sometimes it's an anner fight about doing someithing I don't believe in. Fighting to stick to my guns with my beliefs or whatever. Fighting on a quiet level for my artistic stuff, I guess.
How do you resist taking the safe and easy way? What gives you that strength?
Some of it is just grace, in a way. It's a blessing that's bigger than me. It's just a gift. Not that I am gifted, but a gift in the sense that I just know that I won't do something, and I feel it with all of me, like "No way" I do feel that it's that people cultivate or nourish from within. I don't meditate or pray really. But I try to have contact with something higher, something bigger than me. I let that move through me, and that's not easy because I keep getting in my own way.
How did you get into acting?
Before I could talk, really, I knew that was what I wanted to do. I actually got started earlier than I wanted to. An agency in Chicago had asked a drama teacher in my high school to send a couple of students to an audition. I went, but ended up in agency instead of the casting location. At the agency, they were having very private auditions with the director. Since I was already there , they said I might as well just see him. I ended up getting called back and they they signed me. I guess I was kinda lucky. But it was tough because when I went to school, the had a policy that you couldn't work outside of school. I ended up getting kicked out. So it didn't end up like I thought it was going to. I originally thought I need all this training.
You said when you were little, you knew you wanted to become an actress. You're not a typical actress.
What drew you to that?
I thought I wanted to do theater. Somehow I got this notion in my head that theater was a more pure form of acting. I didn't think I was going to do film at all. I admired the old fashioned film actresses like Bette Davis, from the '30's and 40's. But a lot of the reading I'd done w ason the theater actresses like Geraldine Page and Julie Harris. A lot of my energies went to reading great old stories.
Have you gone out of your way to find the parts that you're really proud of?
I think I went out of my way. That was certainly a part of that fight not to go for the easy, light thing. For most of the things I've done, I feel proud. For the most part anyway. There are a couple that are like, whatever.
Tell me about your episodes on HBO's "Six Feet Under."
I've just done one and I am doing three more. I don't know much but I do know I'm Nate's friend from Seattle. I'm not sure where I'm going to go, but I know it;s going to get interesting.
I know you have a couple of projects that are about to hit. Tell me about Slipping Down Life.
Slipping Down Life is now available for distributors. Guy Pierce is in it, which is great. He's doing so well. It's a film that's very important to me, so I'm really excited.
What character do you play?
Well, it's adapted from an Annie Tyler novel. I play a character who projects a lot onto this singer. She's very shy. She goes so far as to carve his name into her forhead, except she does it backwards because she's looking into a mirror. It's quite a desperate act but it's a catalyst for her to find her own inner strength- just a funny means to that.
What else do you have coming out?
I just heard that Julie Johnson is emerging from the quagmire.it's been in for a while. In that I play a numb housewife. Eight pages into the script she breaks down. And that's where the door opens. She wants to go to school. She wants to learn. She has a best friend who's played by Courtney Love. They're both Jersey housewives. My character kicks her husband out and ends up having a relationship with her best friend. I don't think Julie Johnson is a lesbian, she's just coming into her own. That was a role I loved. Anytime something stops working for somebody, they have to change- that big spiritual epiphany breakthrough- I really love it.
Are there any roles you have been offered that you wish existed?
I wish more complicated parts existed. Not that playing a prostitute is up there on my list. Last spring I played a very complex character in a play, she became a mother at a young age, she was struggling with an addiction, and she was extremely sexual. I would imagine she was a sex addict. That was her defense and her way with coping with her sexuality. That's the sort of character I would like I would like to play on film.
In the beginning of your career, you've said the feedback you got was that you were very good, but weren't as attractive as they wanted you to be. Is that a correct summary?
It's always more subtle than that. It's more like [my agent will tell me], "You were excellent but I think they were looking to go more in the direction of..." Subtext: pretty.
Do you feel that's changed over the years for you? Do you think that's more of an obstacle for, say a 20-year-old actress?
Maybe, actually. Probably because the parts, when you get older, you can have more possibilities. So I'd say yes, it's loosened up a little bit.
Sharon Stone, in a New York Times Magazine interview, once gave you career advice that suggested more low-cut dresses. Was this for a movie premiere?
I think it was overall advice.
Oh, so she meant all the time? I see you haven't taken that advice.
No. If that works for her, that's fine. But that's a part of that inner fight, and I know I'm not going to go that way. It's not me. And that's what I've got to be at the end of the day- or else I'm nothing.
After you played the part of Valerie Solanis in I Shot Andy Warhol, so many people began to assume you are a radical feminist. Are you a feminist?
Oh yeah. I'm definitely not radical, but I'm a feminist.
How are you active as a feminist, apart from your fighting to play the parts you've played on film?
I'm not active in anything political, per se. But if Roe vs. Wade got more threatened than it is now, I'd be marching. I marched at the last big one. If certain things got pressed up against the wall, I'd be there for sure, but I am feminist in my interests; the books that I read and the actions I take are on the level that says we should be entitled to the same things as anybody else.
You've actually said that "our scope of females history is limited."
Our stories haven't been told, no.
Do you feel that's changing at all for the better?
I think it's going to take another 1,000 years or something like that (laughs). I do think it'll take a while because it's been a long time that's there's been a repression of the feminine, and I think even men suffer from it because they repress it in themselves. I think we are getting there, but it's going to take a long time.
Relating to what's going on in the world, do you find it offensive that women's rights and equality are geing used to justify further violence?
I think it's disgusting. Like all of a sudden we care about the Afghan women? It's so transparent.
Would you like to generally sum up how you feel about what's going on in the world?
Well, I'm glad I'm not the president who had to make these decisions, because they're tough. But every day that we're not invading another country I'm extremely thankful. That's been my big fear- using this Afghanistan agenda to abuse our power in other countries. i'm just glad that hasn't gotten going the way they were hoping. I'm disapointed that the hawks have totally conquered the doves. I'm just hoping we start getting honest about how many civilians have been killed in Afghanistan. I hope they get take to task on it.
Do you think feminism can be instrumental in any way to achieve a non-violent resolution?
Well, they have let two women onto the [interim cabinet] out of 30 [members], while Afghanistan is 52% women, so that's showing we're not quite there yet.
We were talking about looks playing against actresses who are not necessarily supermodels, but are very talented. Do you think the use of the veil to conceal a woman's beauty is the flipside of the same coin?
Interesting. In the last issue of the magazine Adbusters, there was an amazing picture of a woman in a burqa and the next picture was this 65-year-old woman in the hospital room recovering from plastic surgery, and I thought, "brilliant, brilliant!: That speaks a lot about repression. That's what's twisted about America. I'd rather take that blatant propaganda- at least use the devil as you know it, and you know what you're getting- but here, it's so insidious.
There's also been a lot of backlash in feminism, especially in oversexualizing women and packaging it as some sort of freedom. It's confusing for young women.
Exactly. It's bullshit. Look at all those men's magazines that have exploded. Movie-wise, the main thing is that a girl's got to do Maxim. I've heard women get pressure beyond belief to do those sort of covers.
What's the role you're most proud to have played?
Valerie [Solanis from I Shot Andy Warhol], just because the amount of work Mary Harron had done and the amount of research gave so much to me. Valerie was so complicated. I really enjoyed delving into that psyche and seeing how that ticks. And seeing how a woman can become so damaged.
Did you read the S.C.U.M. Manifest?
Oh yeah! I found that to be where a lot of the answers were also about her. She meant it to be funny, that's the thing. And it was very funny. She was paranoid schizophrenic. She was sick and didn't get treated, that's what broke her.
Do you ever think about leaving acting?
I'd say about twice a year I think about leaving acting. Maybe once a year I really think about it. Ideally, you'd love to work with children, or do something good in the world. But really, I'd like to become a Jungian therapist. I'd want to go to Switersland, to the Jungian Institute. I love psychology, that's why I like acting. I love Jung; I love myths and fairy tales. I feel good when I'm reading that stuff, or I'm working on it. Maybe some day later in my life I'll do that.
I heard you were working on a documentary about your parents. Did you ever finish it?
I had written something for them. It would have been documentary-style, but it would have been a scripted piece of fiction. But we didn't do it, no. People liked the script and everything. It's just hard to get things going with your parents. Al that family stuff gets in the way.
Your image seems so pure. Does Lili Taylor ever do anything bad?
Do I do anything bad? Oh my God [laughs]! I have demons, obviously. I struggle with things inside of me. Externally, I fall down and make mistakes. I can't think of any classic sinful things: I don't drink and I don't smoke (Lili quit smoking not too long ago). I drink a lot of coffee, though. I guess my struggles are more internal. Some of the main ones are with trusting myself. I need to start believing in myself more and not questioning myself so much. Some of that stuff is earned; you don't just have it one day. You have to go through a lot of stuff to get that, and I think you get it as you get older. I don't feel very pure and good.
Do you ever want to have children?
Oh sure. I would like to have kids. I just have a few kinks to work out to get around that. I guess my goal is to decrease their number of years in therapy.

The article is accompanie by the full page color cover photo of Lili seated in a white blouse and blue jeans; a full page color photo of Lili staning against a fence post, wearing an open blue denim jacket, with hands in the pockets of her blue jeans; a full page color photo of Lili standing by a wall in blue blouse and yellow pants with folded hands, next to a radiator heater; a small color photo of Lili and Guy Pierce in Slipping Down Life; a full page color photo of Lili leaning against a large sofa-type seat, wearing a striped blank pants suit- Oh yeah. I'm definitely not radical, but I 'm a feminist.