http://www.menasuvarifan.com ============================================== Good Morning America Online - January 30 2000 http://abcnews.go.com/GMAMovies/SpecialFeature/suvari010130.html ============================================== A CHEER FOR THE BAD GIRLS! Written by Chris E.S. Johnson "I freaked out. I was like, 'Put me down!'" That's Mena Suvari, pompom girl extraordinaire, on her first human air toss. Suvari and crew checked into a cheerleading camp for a stint, in preparation for her latest film, Sugar and Spice. "The first time we threw Mena up in the air for a stunt she screamed and ran off," the coach has recalled. She got over it. In this very unladylike black comedy, the tight bond shared by five high school cheerleaders is strengthened when one of them becomes pregnant. Between schoolwork, cheerleading, and Lamaze class, the squad plots a bank heist to ensure the baby's financial future. "It's a big quirky comedy. Nothing should be taken seriously," Suvari says. "Yeah, we're not trying to promote teen pregnancy, that's for sure," costar Marla Sokoloff (Dude, Where's My Car? and TV's The Practice) adds. Short Skirts "I dreaded that damn outfit," Sokoloff says of the required uniform. "I was petrified when I saw it … It barely covers your butt." "Obviously there's a fascination with cheerleaders," Sokoloff says. "That's a draw for the film … A lot of guys are going to want to see Mena in a cheerleading outfit." But, she adds, "it wasn't intentional." Right. Some details were intentional, however, like cleavage. "We all have these huge boobs that are not ours," Sokoloff reports. "We put those in when we're wearing the uniforms," Suvari explains. Digging Holes Suvari's only 21, but she's taken a long path from childhood to the acting role that had her stuffing her bra. Suvari says she wasn't always on the actor track. "I wanted to be an archaeologist," she says about her life at 7 years old. "I dug a 3 foot ditch … I found a bullet … Then I wanted to be a paleontologist." And an astronaut. And a doctor. But all that was before the Rice-a-Roni commercial she did when she was 13. Then came more commercials, a little modeling, some television work (including episodes of ER and Chicago Hope) and bit movie roles (Slums of Beverly Hills, Kiss the Girls). But it was back-to-back performances in American Pie and American Beauty that changed things. Her turn as a vampish cheerleader in the latter earned her a British Academy Award nomination, as well as plenty of obsessive fan Web sites. Her Own Cheerleader In the midst of all the hubbub that accompanied American Beauty, Suvari slipped away with her boyfriend, cinematographer Robert Brinkmann, to get married. They're doing just fine, although Suvari says it's sometimes difficult to get through a movie rental together, what with an actor and a cinematographer in the same room. "We try to talk about it after," Suvari says. "We both kind of see the same things," but not always. "He sees things sometimes that I have no idea what he's looking at." One thing Suvari is seeing, however, are more and more film roles.