She breezes into an L. A. coffeehouse in a leopard top, rainbow leggings, and shiny black knee-high boots. Which is enough to momentarily stun the barista in the middle of steaming milk. But he's not gawking at Anna Friel because she's famous. She's done a bunch of movies, sure, and back home in England she's been a novelty celebrity since she had British television's first notable lesbian kiss on the soap Brookside in the early nineties. Despite her role on ABC's recently canceled Pushing Daisies, you might have become aware of Anna Friel only right now, in this magazine, through these delightful photos. That's fine. You've still got a few months until June, when Friel, thirty-two, will be chased by dinosaurs, Sleestaks, and Will Ferrell in Land of the Lost, and everyone will know who she is. Enjoy your time with her now.
ESQUIRE: The kiss.
Anna Friel: Yes, I'm a lesbian icon. Which is not a bad thing. But as an actress, you don't really distinguish. It's like, "Oh, there's a supple pair of lips."
ESQ: That's got to be weird to be a lesbian icon at sixteen when, you know, you're not a lesbian.
AF: It became odder when I went to a Catholic college. The nuns would get asked if I'd had affairs with them. A guy would come over with a rose and he'd say, "Oh, it's not from me, it's from that girl over there."
ESQ: But it didn't scare you away from sexually charged material.
AF: No, not at all. In The Tribe, the first film after I left Brookside, I had a greasy threesome with Jonathan Rhys Meyers and another actor called Jeremy Northam, and we were literally in a bed for two days.
ESQ: And in the Broadway version of Closer, you played the part that Natalie Portman played in the film. Did you do that dance?
AF: Oh, my God, ours was like ten times more controversial. I had to balance on a seat like this. [Leans back.] And my legs were up, and I had a man sitting with his head all up in the middle of me. It was very daring. People would slam their seats up and storm out of the theater. And we'd get people in little brown macs [trench coats]. "Oh, he's here again, is he?"
ESQ: Bigger prudes: Brits or Americans?
AF: I think the Brits are adventurous — it's just that we don't talk about it. But compared with the French, we're not as sexual. Or the Italians.
ESQ: Always the damned Italians.
AF: Seriously. You can feel the sexuality dripping off their bodies. You walk down the street in Rome and you feel dirty. "Eh, ciao, principessa, figa, figa!"
ESQ: You speak Italian chauvinist?
AF: I speak fluent French and a bit of Italian. It would be some gorgeous man walking past, so you don't take offense. But "Oh, darling, fancy a fuck?" doesn't quite go down as well.
ESQ: There's no Sleestak love story in Land of the Lost, is there?
AF: There is a romance between two Sleestaks.
ESQ: But no sex between you and the Sleestaks, right?
AF: No, that'll be in Land of the Lost 7.
ESQ: Are you ready to be as famous here as you are in the UK?
AF: The paparazzi here have just started to follow me on my runs. But I think that's just because Lindsay Lohan has moved three doors down.
ESQ: Then you still get hit on for being beautiful, not necessarily for being famous. What's the best approach?
AF: Depends who you are.
ESQ: I'm me.
AF: The last really good one was, "This is really bold, you'll probably absolutely say no, but I just wanted to sit and talk to you, and the minute you get bored, I promise I'll stand up and walk away." That particular guy was really nice. I gave him about fifteen minutes.
RELATED LINKS:
- WOMEN WE LOVE: Find Them All Here
- MISS ACCESSIBLE: Anna Friel, A Woman We Endorse
- FUNNY JOKE: ... from Anna Friel
