So far, Lili Taylor's career has been a best-case scenario of "Always the bridesmaid, never the bride". She may not be sought after for those million-dollar psychobitch/hooker bartered or battered-wife roles, but as a "character-actor," her dance card is plenty full- and she keeps some very cool company. We're happy to report that she's even grabbing some of those important Art Dyke parts in two current releases. First she appears as playwright Edna Ferber in Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle. Then she does her version of "Lesbo-Flash"- using a camera not her legs- as a fashion photographer in Robert Altman's star-infested Pret-a-Porter. Filming has just wrapped on Abel Ferrara's The Addiction, in which Taylor and Christopher Walken take a bite out of life in yet another vampire flick. Right now she's off to continue her evil ways, joining Madonna and Ione Skye as witches in director Allison Anders' portion of the upcoming Four Rooms.
Discovering much to our shared relief that, that we are fellow insomniacs, Lili and I agree that the only civilized time is in the late afternoon Lili insists on meeting at Cafe Dante, allowing her to literally roll out of bed frm the home she shares across the street with boyfriend, actor Michael Imperioli.
"It's horrible" she replies when I ask her how she adapts to movie schedules, which require her to get up and emote when she's normally in going to bed. "I used to think it was better if I didn't sleep, that my nerves would be more on, that I'd be more uncensored. You're just raw nerves. You react to everything- things are worse when you're tired." I'm amazed that she can keep herself occupied at night without a TV, but while the rest of us are wasting our time dwelling on Lori Davis commercials, Lili's living them. Davis once dyed Taylor's beautiful brown hair red. I'm in awe- "maybe you should pitch for her" I kid.
"No, I don't think I'll do that," she cringes. "Those infomercials are weird to me." So Lili passes her time with chess, crosswords, writing and reading The Nation and Harper's- which, despite her brush with this wonderful world of fashion, is just plain Harper's, not the publication that contains Bazaar or & Queen in the title.
Taylor, 27, came to Manhattan from Chicago in '88. Her family is artistic, eaded by a poet father, with siblings involved in theater, film and dance. By then, she had already done Mystic Pizza and Say Anything and was in an improv troupe with Tim Meadows of SNL. Then she fought with Equity when they refused to let her do a non-Equity play with friends. 'I always said, 'I just want a little bit of money in my pocket and a job." She got a play at The Public. Not a bad start. She joined the theater group Naked Angels. "They took me off the list." she shrugs. "They throw good parties," I offer, "Right, which I didn't go to. So what was I going to get out of it? I mean a beautiful [theater] and it wasn't getting used....until [artistic director] Toni Kotite came in. When I heard they were doing a benefit for a benefit, I said "You're doing a benefit for a benefit? Why don't you do a play? So I started my own company, Machine Full."
"I can never understand how actors can have relationships with other actors when the art of acting is the ability to become someone else." I say, "How do you know who you're dating?" I wonder. Lili laughs. "Good question, especially when you're working on a character." When they costarred as a couple that was abusive to each other in the acclaimed play Aven U Boys, they found themselves fighting with each other at the beginning of rehearsals. "Finally, after a week we saw what was going on and we let ourselves fight for an hour and not take it so personally and understand it takes time to take off the skin and then get back again. You just try to be aware of what's going on."
Filming Pret-a-Porter took three and a half months out of Taylor's life. Originally cast as just a photographer, Lily Tomlin dropped out of her role as a reporter, so the roles were combined. I just saw a rough cut of the film. Even with a father part and constant presence throughout the film, Taylor falls victim to Pret-a-Porter's major vice. It's heavy on actors and light on storylines. Bummer, considering the amount of research she did as preparation. Finding few fashion articles written from a feminist perspective, she turned to Faludi and Wolf for inspiration. We discuss the incredible misogony of the fashion industry. "To condition the models to come out like robots," she says, "is like killing any spirit those particular women have, hence...ours." she shudders. "It's sick, really creepy and dangerous. They're all in it together, the magazines, the clothing, the makeup. It's a multi-billion-dollar industry, and they're going to do anything they can to keep the money coming. [the role of a lesbian reporter for The Times was unrealistic because The Times would really not allow that point of view to be sandwiched in between all the ads." Didn't all the insecurity and use of power in the fashion industry remind her of the acting profession? Taylor says that the actors in the film thought they were better off with Hollywood. Whereas, in modeling, where you're either a supermodel or "a plebian," acting offers a more flexible system. "It's as if they're just a few allowed into that very strict whatever the fad-is-at the time [level] and the rest just aren't anything. With acting, there is that one percent [whose] talent is equated with the money they'll make for the money people, [but] there's a bit more room for people to be doing off-the-beaten-track kind of stuff, and for other kinds of people to get in there...like me!"
"I understand", I assure her. "If you were some insecure, short, balding, ponytailed, 'of a certain age,' Armani-wearing executive's idea of 'fuckable' you'd be treated like Julia Roberts."
"Absolutely. I'm not going to jack them off."
"Yet you end up in the most interesting movies."
"And the more interesting roles I don't have to worry about wanking anybody off. It's a blessing in disguise. I'm so happy about this."
"Lili's first movie was the 1988 surprise hit Mystic Pizza. Her costar was Julia Roberts. The review were glowing for both. Whereas one became America's sweetheart (as well as her subsequent male costars'), the other was courted by critics and arthouse addicts. Lili next stole the wonderful Say Anything, giving John Cusack love advice as she compulsively created guitar-accompanied heartbreak songs about an ex named Joe. In Nancy Savoca's Dogfight, she packed 39 pounds onto her tiny frame to play River Phoenix's entry in an ugly date contest. Savoca's Household Saints had Taylor seeing religious visions while ironing her boyfriend;s )played by Imperioli) shirts.
Taylor loved filming The Addiction, which reunites King of New York cohorts Walken and Ferrara. Taylor plays a philosophy student who gets bitten by page two. The short ("for like zero money") was over in 18 days. "And to not lose the integrity in an 18-day shoot? she marvels. "I saw the rough cut and it's terrific- really simple and honest." "I've met Ferrara and he's totally cuckoo," I tell her. "He's cuckoo," she agrees, but she thought it was a good cuckoo. "There's not a ton of blood and gore- a little bit. It's about the inner kind of hell. No one's ever done a really careful arc of all the stages someone goes trough when they're in the throes of addiction."
In Four Rooms, Taylor joins her fellow witches in search of the elusive sperm"...because one of the girls swallowed, and that's what she supposed to put into the big of 'cauldron.' In April, she hopes to portray Valerie Solanis in I Shot Andy Warhol. Lorena Bobbitt predecessor, Solanis headed S.C.U.M., the Society for Cutting Up Men. "She was the only member." Taylor unintentionally puns. She heard Solanis on tape and found her brilliant and fascinating. "She sounded so normal and reasonable. She didn't sound crazy at all! I'm like, 'How the fuck does her mind work. So it's gonna be really interesting."
It occurs to me that Lili Taylor never has a bad thing to say about anyone...except Faye Dunaway. "Ummm," she says of the Diva, shaking her head sadly. "She's complicated, really complicated." Let's just say that the experience they shared a few years ago while filming Arizona Dreams proved so frustrating that Lili went home and taught herself to play the accordion. Now that's deep.*

The article is accompanied by the full page color cover photo of Lili, from shoulders up, wearing a feathery blue catears-shaped head covering, and a full page color photo of Lili wearing the same outfit, smiing and looking downward. stylist: stephan campbell, hair: gerald de cock/the spot, makeup: christy coleman, assistant: david crossland, photographedat sun studio.coat; dolce & gabbana, hat: james cotrello for anna sui.