Friday, July 12, 2002

LISA RINNA TALKS NICK FURY

By Rob Allstetter/The Comics Continuum

SURREY, British Columbia -- Lisa Rinna played Val, the agent and love interest in the 1998 Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. movie -- scheduled to be rebroadcast on Saturday at 9 p.m. and 1 a.m. on SciFi Channel -- but she originally wanted to play the villain of the film.

"I was petitioning to play Viper," says Rinna, the pouty-lipped actress who these days is returning to her soap-opera roots on NBC's Days of Our Lives. "When I was reading the script, that's the part I thought they wanted me to come in on. So when I read the script, I read it through Viper's eyes, which is very different than Val's point of view."

Rinna went so far as to sell herself as Viper in the audition.

"When I went into the room [to audition], I tried to sell myself as Viper," she says. "I dressed up in a unitard and the whole bit -- making myself as tough as possible. I even went to a kick-boxing class right before so I would be really pumped up. And the minute I walked in, there was nothing I could have done. Their minds were set. I was Val and Val alone, but I can see why."

Ironically, the role of Viper went to Sandra Hess, a good friend of Rinna's with whom she had never worked.

"She's better for it in many ways," Rinna says. "She's Swiss, so she can do the German accent, which is important. I don't quite look like an Andrea Von Strucker -- as much as I tried to convince them that I was, they did not buy it. They had read the comic books."

For Rinna, Nick Fury came at a perfect time in her career.

"A while ago, I set some goals for myself, or thoughts on what I might like to do," she says. "I said, 'If I do a movie during hiatus (from Melrose Place), I'd like to do an action movie.'

"I told that to my manager, and she said, 'It's not that easy to do.' So, when this came about, I went, 'Yeah!' "

Rinna says she immediately reacted to the script, written by David Goyer, the writer-producer of the Blade films.

"My manager had read it and liked it, but wasn't trying to sway me," Rinna says. "She said, 'Let me know what you think.' I really enjoyed it and saw myself doing it."

Rinna said she liked the strong nature of her character, who has a romantic past with Fury.

"Val can be a tough cookie. She works around all these men and in order to get any kind of respect, she has to be," Rinna says. "It's really interesting what it has brought out in me and what that brings to Val. After a while, they just get all intertwined. I don't know which is me and which is Val."

Rinna read numerous Fury comics in preparation of the role. "I researched a lot," she says. "They were well written, had a sense of humor and I enjoyed them very much."

And is the film faithful to those comics?

"I think we're really faithful to it," she says. "We've created three-dimensional characters. These people have feelings, they have relationships and they interact with each other. I think that's what you have to do to bring it to life and make people interested and care about you.

"We're bringing this to life in a very realistic way as opposed to an over-the-top way. It's set in basic reality, therefore you won't laugh at it and go, 'This is silly.' You'll care about the characters. It's not campy."

Rinna said she was impressed with the scope of Nick Fury.

"There's a lot of money behind it for a TV movie," she says. "It looks great -- every bit a feature film."