Wing Chun: The first question seems to be, how did you get involved with The Skulls in the first place? Toque: There were a lot of rumours going around that there might be a movie filmed at the rowing club. I, of course, went straight to the people who were apparently responsible for the casting. I begged to be in it to the point where I was almost in tears. The casting guy told me that they didn't want any girls as coxies because in Ivy League schools, boys coxie boys, unless the crew is shit, of course. He told me that he would do everything he could to get me in, though. I asked him about three times a day, not only because we were supposed to get $400 for being in the movie, but also because it was a movie with Joshua Jackson and (sigh!) Paul Walker. Anyway I finally got a call that said that I had to be at the rowing club at a certain time and date and that is when I peed my pants. WC: Not literally, though. I assume. So then, they cast real rowers? T: Yes. WC: But Joshua Jackson is obviously a lot shorter and lighter than the crews with which you've coxied. How did the movie people get around that? T: He's not so much shorter but he sure was a bigger wimp. He would walk around with his sexsuit [the unitard rowers wear to race] pulled down and all of the guys would make fun of him behind his back. He was such a wuss that on one of the three days we were filming, he had his double row for him while he got massages because he was "sore." To get around his wimpery, the casting guy asked for only lightweight guys. If you were more than a hundred and forty-five pounds, you couldn't be in it. Some sneaky guys got through, but, whatever. WC: In real life, though, Joshua Jackson is way too small and flabby to be on a crew, much less a stroke, right? T: That is very true. WC: Now that you've seen the movie, what do you think of the depiction of rowing? Is it pretty realistic, in your opinion? T: The whole rowing scene where everyone is actually rowing in eights is pretty good because we had ropes taped to the bottom of our boats so they'd go slower while keeping a high rate of speed. The problems were where seven seat (the rower behind JJ)'s oar lock broke. After it broke seven was unscrewing the oar lock and still had the oar in it. I've seen things like that happen and the oar flies into the water almost immediately. And in Canada, the guy wouldn't have jumped out. I'm not sure why we don't do it. But in the States they do it because of weight issues. Whatever. I don't always get what they do down there.
That big erg thing they made [that's the ratchet-y rowing machine Jackson uses at a couple of different times in the movie]: What a load of SHIT! I have coxied for eight seasons now and I have never heard of one of those or seen one. Maybe it's an Ivy League thing, but as far as I know, that's poo, and they just built it for him to use because it looked somewhat cool. WC: Okay, enough about the boats. Let's talk about the stars. What was Joshua Jackson like? Did you have any one-on-one interaction with him? T: JJ was so nice. He was very humble and would talk to anyone and gave autographs and took pictures. He was really great. I did have a very embarrassing moment with him, though. The day that he didn't row, he still hung around. While the film people were off with what they called the "hero" boat (because JJ was in it and that crew had to win) the rest of us had nothing to do. I was really nervous but, armed with a pad of paper, I walked up to him and asked if I could have an autograph. Once he made one out to me I asked for a few nameless ones for you to give out as prizes on what was then Dawson's Wrap. As he was signing the papers, he flipped to a page that already had writing on it. My boyfriend at the time used to write "Toque smells" on random pieces for my parents and me to find when we wrote notes to each other at home. This one, though, happened to say, "Toque smells a lot." JJ looked up at me and laughed. He asked me about it and, extremely red, I explained. If that weren't bad enough, when I went to talk to the casting guy (sitting to JJ) at lunch the day, JJ asked, "Have we met?" and I said I was the one who wanted all the autographs. He said, "Oh yeah, Toque, right? You're the one that smells!" I had to choke back the tears as I said yes. Again, he laughed. Whether or not it was *at* me is unclear. I have to hope that he was just being funny. WC: In real life, is he cute? T: Well, he's cute, for a crater-face. His skin was really bad. Sure I have a bunch of zits right now -- WC: -- as do I -- T: -- but we're not movie stars, so we're allowed. He, on the other hand, is supposed to look good, always. He does look good, but that is because he has a pound of make-up caked on his face and neck. Sorry, Josh, but EW. WC: Did you happen to tell him that your sister writes snotty recaps of his show and posts them on the internet? T: The only time we talked about it was when I told him why I needed extra autographs.
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WC: How about Leslie Bibb [who also plays Brooke on Popular]? Is her head that skinny in real life? Did you talk to her at all? What was she like? T: She's grosser than that in real life. I have nicknamed her BGT, which stands for Big Grey Teeth. I think that's pretty self-explanatory. I can't belive that she, of all people, was cast as the hot girl. I was looking at her and thinking, okay, you have a skinny figure, but that is because you are strictly composed of iceberg lettuce. She was sounded pretty dumb, too. She would walk around the club with an umbrella. Come on, now, BGT, haven't you ever seen the sun? Oh no, wait, you haven't, which explains your disturbingly white complexion. WC: And Hill Harper [who plays Dr. Williams on City of Angels]? Considering he was the least famous guy among the leads, did he seem to have some awareness that he wasn't really such hot shit? T: He thought that he was the greatest on the set. It got to the point where BGT made fun of him by reminding him that he was third on the "roll call" (or whatever it's called). One day he didn't feel like coxying, so the casting guy (he was the one on the dock with the big stupid cream-coloured hat) asked who would coxy the crew. I volunteered and was sent off with the crew (minus JJ) to shoot the scene where the oar lock breaks. I was treated like a real movie star for two hours. It was great. WC: I understand that you have some strong feelings about Paul Walker. Please elaborate. T: Every time I look at the picture of him, I just melt. I think that he is the most beautiful man I have ever seen in my life. I even had the pleasure of having him place his hand on my bum to slide me closer to him for the picture. I can't even think of words that will describe my teenaged feelings towards such a sexy stranger, so I won't. It wouldn't do him justice. WC: What did you think of the movie as a whole? T: The movie sucked. It was melodramatic and well, stupid. I can get over it enough to buy it though. WC: Did it make you want to go to an Ivy League school? T: I wanted to try to get a scholarship to an Ivy League school before I had my petite role in the movie. I didn't want to go to an IL school because I could end up with a "soulmate," but because I wanted the prestige on my diploma. I'm over that now.
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WC: Cool. Having done this, do you think you'd like to be in another movie? T: I would love to be in more movies. It was the best and most memorable experience in my life, ever. I could have been a great Claudia on Party of Five. WC: Maybe just another movie with Paul Walker? T: That would be like icing on the cake. WC: Maybe just the back seat of a car, with Paul Walker? T: I would do anything he wanted me to. WC: Well, that really says it all. Thank you for your time! Say hi to the cats for me.
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