Jessica Simpson - Battle Of The Blondes
Battle Of The Blondes
By Peter Mitchell
It was Jessica Simpson v Britney Spears in the battle of the blonde pop babes, with both desperate to play Daisy Duke in the Hollywood re-make of the 1970-80s TV hit The Dukes of Hazzard.Just one would be selected to slip into a skimpy pair of denim shorts - known as Daisy Dukes - with Newlyweds star Simpson emerging victorious.
The 25-year-old might not know the difference between chicken and tuna and she did think buffalo wings came from buffaloes, but she left her sweet nature behind as she ruthlessly pursued the Daisy Duke gig.
Growing up in Abeline, Texas, Simpson and her cousins would pretend to be the Dukes of Hazzard characters, with Simpson always playing Daisy.
"I knocked down the producers' door," she said.
"I was begging for the role."
Early auditions were a disaster and director Jay Chandrasekhar and producer Bill Gerber, who adjudicated the face-off, wondered if Simpson was good enough for the job.
"She's a pop star and I thought 'What the hell does that have to do with making movies?'" Chandrasekhar said.
But Simpson kept turning up for auditions.
When media reports surfaced that she was interested and may even have been offered the part, Chandrasekhar and Gerber were still unconvinced.
"It was already in the press I was going to be Daisy Duke, so I really had to get the role or I'd completely embarrass myself if I didn't," Simpson said.
Daisy woos men with her tiny pink bikini and microscopic denim shorts, but she also packs a punch in bar-room brawls.
It's a role for a big personality - but the producers didn't see that in Simpson.
"The truth is she would come in and did some auditions and they were quiet and small," Chandrasekhar said.
"They weren't bad, but they were quiet, nervous and shy.
"I said 'What's going on?'
"She said 'I'm f***ing scared'.
"I said 'You're not going to get the part unless you smile and you have to be charming. You already are charming, so why don't you just be like you are. Try smiling in these four places when you do it next time'."
Simpson went home and fine-tuned her audition, unveiling a secret weapon - a pair of Daisy Dukes.
When she walked back into the audition room in the shorts she had become Daisy Duke.
"I looked at her through the monitor and she was glowing," Chandrasekhar said.
Chandrasekhar said Spears was also impressive in her auditions - and fitted the part.
Just like Simpson, Spears, 23, was raised in America's south, in Kentwood, Louisiana.
The Toxic singer had a huge fan base and would also complement co-stars Johnny Knoxville and Seann William Scott.
"Britney would have been perfect in some ways," Chandrasekhar said.
But it was Simpson's time.
Chandrasekhar has been to plenty of auditions as an actor, but he knew it was not always the best who won the role.
"Britney did a good job," he said.
"She really did. The bottom line is, I'm an actor too. I've auditioned for a lot of movies and I didn't get it, but I did a great job."
Simpson just had a little extra.
"Part of it was her charisma. Part of it was her look and part of it was her sense of humour," Chandrasekhar said.
"If you sit down and talk to her she's really funny and she's beautiful and has charisma.
"I don't think necessarily you have to be a good actor."
It was a nervous couple of weeks until Simpson received the call.
"I was a big dork and I cried," Simpson said.
But that was when the hard work really began - she had to get her body into shape, which meant hiring a personal trainer, plenty of time in the gym and a buffalo-wing-free diet.
"The real work for me was working out with my personal trainer to make sure I looked good in the Daisy Dukes, because they really don't cover much," she said.
"I worked out two hours a day and cut sugar and fried foods out of my diet."
The hard work was worth it, as Simpson shocked the mostly all-male crew when she first walked on the Baton Rouge, Louisiana, set.
Women around the world may have been envious of her body, but Simpson claims she has never been comfortable showing it off, which made it tough when she had to don the pink bikini or the Daisy Dukes.
"Each time I was on set it was all men," she said.
"I would always stay covered up in a robe. I'm shy. I really am shy. I don't strut around in a bikini. It's just not me. I don't even do that on the beach.
"When they called 'action' I had to become Daisy Duke, so that was really acting for me."
With her first movie in the can and already making almost $US90 million ($118.25 million) around the world, Simpson has signed up to star in the comedy Major Movie Star as a Hollywood actress who isn't taken seriously.
The actress is desperate to win an Oscar for a serious, dramatic role, but misses out and then hits rock bottom.
But Simpson isn't interested in taking on painful roles such as Nicole Kidman's Virginia Woolf in The Hours or Charlize Theron's serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Monster.
Her role model is Dolly Parton, who bounced from country music to comedies.
"I am really all about making people laugh and smile right now," Simpson said.
"... I can't say I won't ever want an Oscar role, but I don't really take myself serious right now."
The Dukes of Hazzard opens in Australia on September 15.
Source: News.com.au
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