THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, April 8, 1995 TAG: 9504070061
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Interview
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 111 lines
SHE'S STILL A 10.
Maybe even an 11.
Fifteen years after she became a national phenomenon in ``10'' - changing both fashion and social trends - Bo Derek is back in ``Tommy Boy,'' the comedy starring ``Saturday Night Live'' players Chris Farley and David Spade.
``I'm barely in it,'' Derek said, modestly. ``I just thought it was time for me to go back to work, and I wanted something light, something that wouldn't require too much strain. I just wanted to get my feet wet again.''
She gets more than her feet wet in the film as Farley's stepmother - a woman who is obviously after Daddy's money. (Big Tom is played by Brian Dennehy who also made his movie breakthrough in ``10'' as a talkative bartender.) In her first ``Tommy Boy'' scene, Derek emerges from a pool, like Venus arising with no need for a half shell.
Derek was preceded into the room by Cifi, her German Shepherd escort, who immediately flopped on the floor and proceeded to snooze.
``He's 4 years old and born in Hungary,'' she explained. She chirped a delightfully flippant little laugh as she added, ``He's attack trained - if you aren't nice to me.''
To meet Derek in person is to prove that the movies don't use trick photography. For the interview, she wore beige slacks and a silk blouse - very much the sportswoman. She looked tanned and healthy, not at all the sheltered hothouse flower.
``It's difficult to leave the ranch,'' she said. ``I think I was born loving horses, but it was during the filming of `Bolero' in Spain that I fell in love with Spanish horses. John and I breed them at our ranch in central California. I'm needed there. I think being there is much more important than just being in movies, but the time comes when all of us have to go back to work, I suppose.''
She's been with husband John Derek, the actor and photographer, for almost two decades. Even though he is almost 30 years older her elder, and everyone said the marriage would never last, they remain together.
Derek's movie career has been one of the strangest in movie history. Offered major stardom after ``10,'' she, instead, followed her husband's orders and made mostly films directed by him. They were soft-focus, slick films that showcased her physical attributes and ruined her career.
``Bolero'' and ``Tarzan the Apeman'' were reviled by the critics but made still made money at the box office. Still, she refused to become a standard movie star; she produced most of her films.
``I'd do anything to keep from acting,'' she said. ``I never wanted to be an actress. I never had any aspiration along those lines. I met John when I was 17. He was 46. I was very lucky, very lucky indeed, to fall in love with someone like him at 17.''
In order to understand Bo Derek's career, and life, you have to understand John Derek. He was born to Hollywood, the son of director Lawson Harris. A darkly handsome man with pretty boy looks, Derek became a teen idol.
He played a juvenile delinquent influenced by Humphrey Bogart in ``Knock on Any Door'' and then was cast as Broderick Crawford's football-playing son in the Oscar-winning ``All the King's Men.'' He was in ``The Adventures of Haji Baba'' (1954), De Mille's ``The Ten Commandments'' (1956) and ``Exodus'' (1960). Along the way, he married some of the world's most beautiful, young women, including Linda Evans (later in ``Dynasty'') and Ursula Andress (James Bond's girlfriend in ``Dr. No'').
``John was born beautiful,'' the current Mrs. Derek said. ``That was his trouble. He never wanted to be in movies. He just did what his father told him to do. When he got old enough to be independent, he backed out. John is not the type to be told what to do - and that's a big part of acting.''
She doesn't agree with the theory, though, that he was her Svengali, the man who made all the decisions in her career. ``That's all been exaggerated. I was the producer of several of my films, and I was a working producer. From the reviews, you would have thought we had committed some crime. When we made `Tarzan the Ape Man,' you would have thought we had desecrated some sacred ground.'' The film emphasized Jane rather than Tarzan and featured a gorgeously photographed Bo in varied states of undress.
In 1979, her face, figure, and hairdo (corn-row styling) took the nation by storm in ``10.'' In that film, Dudley Moore spotted her preternatural beauty at a traffic light. To the tune of Ravel's ``Bolero,'' she offered the middle-aged man sex, but he was turned off by her directness. Critics hailed ``10'' as a meaningful study of middle-aged male fantasy - and of the fact that the unattainable is sometimes best unattained. Women around the world imitated her hairdo and men bought Bo posters.
``The effect of `10' was overwhelming,'' she admitted. ``At the time, I thought I was handling it well, but I wasn't. But I never felt really exploited. The character in `10' was the brunt of the joke - not me.''
She returned, after a decade, to the cover of Playboy last December for a revealing layout of photos taken by her husband.
``John is an excellent photographer, and I had no worry about doing those photographs. John's photographs are beautiful - a kind of love letter to me.''
She's turned down numerous films and TV projects. ``Now, I'm considering everything, including several TV things. It might be nice to go in for a regular 9-to-5 job for awhile.''
For now, she'll be returning to the ranch and her beloved horses.
She awoke Cifi by scratching his stomach. As she made her exit, she emphasized, ``I'm still not an actress. I never wanted to be an actress. It was just a job. Certainly, I'd like to do it well, but it's not my primary job. I guess you could say I'm a rancher, with side jobs.'' ILLUSTRATION: PARAMOUNT PICTURES
Bo, 1995
Derek shows herin a small role in the recently released comedy film
"Tommy Boy".
Bo, 1979
Derek made a splash in Blake Edwards' "10."
by CNB