Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, September 22, 1995 TAG: 9509220045
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CINDY PEARLMAN NEW YORK TIMES SPECIAL FEATURES
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Case in point is the much-talked-about new film ``Showgirls,'' which stars Elizabeth Berkley as a stripper named Nomi Malone. The role required the young actress to display a lot of skin - as well as a good sense of humor.
Even when she wasn't on camera, Berkley had to put up with things that were, well, a bit out of the ordinary.
``I'm standing there on the set in pasties and a G-string and the Teamsters [who were working on the film] are throwing dollar bills at me,'' she says with a little laugh during a telephone interview from Los Angeles. ``Of course, I gave them their money back.''
The NC-17 rated film, which opens today at the Grandin and Terrace theaters, focuses on a young woman's quest to become the star of a Las Vegas topless show. Berkley's character lap-dances her way to fame.
She describes her character as ``a tough yet vulnerable girl who comes from a dark past. Instead of allowing it to destroy her, it fuels her.''
Whatever happened in this dark past, Berkley insists, is top secret.
``I just basically play a young woman trying to find her [self],'' she says.
The girl also happens to be a stripper.
``[Director] Paul Verhoeven told me it's not really about the stripping,'' Berkley says confidently. ``It's really about women in power. These strippers are like sharks and angels at the same time. They are in control.''
``I really liked the S&M production number,'' says the actress whose prior claim to fame was playing a wholesome high schooler on the TV series ``Saved by the Bell.''
``There is this scene where all the girls are in dominatrix uniforms with black silver studs all over the leather straps. We also have thigh-high boots....
It was actually a lot of fun.''
Not all of Berkley's scenes were so enjoyable. The worst, she says with a sigh, was ``the lap dance'' scene.
``I guess the only bad part of filming this was that I had to be completely naked. No G-string.''
Berkley says she did not have to act out this difficult nude scene during any of her auditions for the role.
``I was never ever asked to take off my clothes during the auditions,'' she says vehemently.
During her four call-backs, the emphasis was always on her acting, not her body.
``I read the sex scenes aloud, but again I kept my clothes on,'' she says.
So when was the first time she had to take it all off?
``We had a few weeks of rehearsals where I learned the choreography. It was my first real experience dancing [erotically],'' she says. ``I was dancing in my bra and it felt weird.''
So while standing there among some 20 other female dancers, Berkley decided to strip everyone of their inhibitions.
``I said, `Look guys, we gotta get used to it,''' Berkley recalls. ``I told them, `Today is the day. On the count of eight, I'm gonna take off my top and you guys have gotta do it with me.'''
And they did.
``It was actually very freeing,'' she says. ``A few days later I did my first scene in the movie with a man. I'm standing there, dancing topless, and I had no inhibitions.''
Well, almost none.
``I did go over and watch myself on the playback monitor. I said, `Gee, this is on film. Forever.' But you gotta go with it.''
And go with it she did. In fact, Berkley became so comfortable that after a while she was walking around the set au naturel.
``I wasn't really embarrassed. This is work,'' she says. ``We were artists.
Berkley says she learned a lot from the women who take off their clothes for a living.
``I went to the strip clubs to learn the moves. For a lot of us women, I think there is a curiosity about what goes on in these clubs,'' she says.
Berkley has been dancing since she was a little girl growing up in the small Michigan town of Farmington Hills. Back then, she was ``a total goody two-shoes.''
She started her career as a model, then began traveling to New York to act in theater productions. At 13, she went to Los Angeles to visit relatives.
``I started taking acting classes out there and I was hooked,'' Berkley says.
Then she got her break.
``I played an orphan in [an episode of the TV show] `Gimme a Break.'''
And then, in 1989, came ``Saved By the Bell'' in which she starred as a sweet high school girl named Jessie.
When the show ended, Berkley decided to leave TV to concentrate on features.
``I like to explore characters,'' she says. ``To me, acting is the art of discovery. I like to discover parts of myself that I didn't encounter before.''
by CNB