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The
life of the humble superhero sidekick can be a tough one.
Maybe afflicated with a speech impediment, or slightly clubbed
foot, it's their job to bumble through the show, making the
chisel-jawed hero look cool, before obligingly being killed
by the bad guy in the second-to-last reel, giving the good guy
justification to go pop the evil dude. Not so the helpful
chums of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, the Scooby Doo-style
gang back up her demon mashing with an impressive arsenal of
book learning, lycanthropy, spell-weaving and finely tuned quips.
And the female alumni of Buffy's troupe of pals are anything
if not pleasing on the eye: boasting ex-FHM cover star
and now Angel regular Charisma Carpenter, feisty rogue
slayer Eliza Duskhu and computer nerd/witch/lesbian and, as
FHM's incredible pictures prove, beautiful Alyson Hannigan.
However, the venue for FHM's shoot turned out to be something
of a surprise for the flame-haired vixen. "I was
in my underwear in my old high school!" she laughs, after
spending the morning at home hanging antique pictures.
"Man, was it strange. It was kind of like that nightmare
where you wake up in your underwear in your old high school.
It was very surreal, like standing up in my government class
with my bra hanging out!"
Born
in Washington DC in 1974, Alyson's family moved to Atlanta soon
after she was born. She spent her childhood there, before
moving out to LA to join her father when she was 11, where she
filled her time doing TV and magazine commercials.
"That's
how I got started, I absolutely adored it," she says.
"My dad was living in LA at the time so I came to visit
him, and my mom was bored with Atlanta, so we moved out so I
could pursue my acting career, it's always been my passion."
The
advert work led to TV appearances in American TV shows such
as Roseanne, Almost Home and Touched By An
Angel and the movie My Stepmother Is An Alien, before
Alyson landed the plum role of Willow Rosenberg in the hugely
successful Buffy the Vampire Slayer. So did all
this attention make for a "difficult" upbringing?
"No,
because when I was a kid doing commercials in Atlanta, it wasn't
as common as it is out in California," she says.
"It was a hobby - it wasn't something which ruled my life.
I also played soccer for ten years, so sometimes I had soccer
practice and sometimes I had an audition."
You're
a fan of the beautiful game, then?
I
was over in England in the summer and Euro 2000 was on, and
that was just so exciting. It was so nice to go to a pub
and watch it with people who knew what was going on.
What
position did you play?
I
played centre-forward and then goalie. But I wasn't too
fond of goalie because I wanted to get out there and do stuff,
unless we were playing like a really hard game, where you'd
get a lot of action. Goalie's a frightening position,
but man I could punt a ball, I had a great kick.
Talking
of which, we hear you're not a bad kickboxer?
I
really just did it for a little bit, and then gave it up.
I tried it and it was fun, but I really didn't have the time
to put towards actually doing it well. I've done karate
more than I've done kickboxing. I like karate more: kickboxing
is sort of like using your legs as a bat, but there's more of
a variety of blows in karate.
So
if you were set upon in the street, do you think you'd be able
to see the ruffian off?
I
think if I was mugged on the street I'd definitely use kickboxing.
I'd just be kicking like a soccer player really. I'd be
kicking the ball as hard as I can.
In
FHM's 100 Sexiest Women In The World 2000, you achieved
a very respectable new entry at 91, beating such female perfection
as Demi Moore, Natasha Henstridge and Mena Suvari...
I
got in there though.
Indeed,
so have you got any tricks up your sleeve to help bump yourself
up the list next time?
Oh
man, I gotta think of something. Well, I'm wearing better
bras this year - maybe that'll help. Before, I haven't
been wearing bras, and now I'm wearing good bras, so I've got
more boobs going on - it's all because of the bras, baby!
In
the show, you're currently in a relationship with a lady.
What's your idea of the perfect romantic evening with a man?
Probably
cooking a nice meal. If it's a perfect evening then we
could go swimming and it won't be cold and we'd just have a
good time. It wouldn't matter what we do. I could
be totally satisfied just hanging out at my home. And
listening to good music.
And
what kind of tunes would be warbling along in the background?
Right
now I'm really in love with Travis. I just love them.
I caught the last show that they did in America and they were
brilliant. A guy at work game me a bunch of B sides and
live versions of some of the songs they've done. I think
their album did pretty well over here. They do a brilliant
version of Britney Spears' Baby One More Time.
It's so hilarious.
Buffy
fans are known for being somewhat excessive. What's the
strangest thing a fan has ever done?
Well,
funny you should ask. I don't want to refer to her as
a mad fan, but the strangest thing happened to me about three
weeks ago. This girl is like, really, really, sweet, but
she showed up at my house. I have no idea how she found
my house, which is also a little frightening. But she
showed up at my house with a horse! And I'm like, "Oh
hey, look! Somebody has brought a horse to the neighbourhood,"
which was very odd. My boyfriend went outside and she
said, "Hi, I have a delivery for Alyson," and he thought
maybe someone had hired me a horse to ride or something.
So when O went out there she's like, "I'm a horse trainer
and I've trained this horse and I want to give her to you."
I just couldn't understand why she would want to give away this
beautiful horse. I told her it was very generous, but
if there was a contest to win a horse I couldn't enter the contest
because I can't have a horse. As much as I love them and
they are beautiful, I just don't have the time. And she
was such a sweet girl. It was very surreal.
Your
current squeeze is Alexis Denisof - who plays upper-class English
twit Wesley Wyndham-Pryce in Buffy - so do you have a
special place reserved in your heart for the English man?
I
definitely do. Although he's not technically English.
He was born here, but moved to England when he was 17.
He lived there for 15 years.
What
do you like about the British male?
Even
when they're rude, they seem polite. And the little kids
- I so want to have an English baby. I'll have a baby,
send it over to England, get the accent and then get it back.
They're so sweet.
One
of your boyfriends before Alexis was called Ginger Fish; don't
you ever yearn for a man called Bob, or Mike?
Well
I've dated so many Jasons. For a while that's all I did.
It's ridiculous. In high school and in college all I seemed
to meet were Jasons.
You're
in a bar and you spot the person you lost your virginity to,
what would you say to them?
I'd
probably just say, "I'm so much better now! You have
no idea what I've learnt!"
Is
there a particular part of your body that you love or hate?
Well,
I've always been insecure about my very, very, very white skin.
Maybe
you should move to England...
Exactly,
it would be so nice that I wouldn't feel like a freak.
See, I do need to move to England. I think I will.
It'll be a long commute, though.
In
American Pie, you utter the infamous line, "One
time at band camp, I stuck a flute in my pussy!" - were
you embarrassed at all at saying it?
God
no! I fricking loved that script as soon as I got it.
By the pay-off at the end, I was just like, "Oh my God,
I have to do this." It was just so funny. Even
at my first day at work I had this whole band camp dialogue
in the classroom, and by the end of the day, all the crew people
were reciting my lines back at me. So I thought, "Okay,
I think I'm doing something right here." Little did
I know that I'd be hearing this for a long time. I did
warn my mother before she saw it, but the main person I was
concerned about was my grandma, I didn't want her to see it.
In
the breaks from filming Buffy are you making any more
movies?
I
did one that seems to have fallen into an abyss, called Beyond
The City Limits, which was a little independent movie.
It was a nightmare to shoot because the producer and director
were constantly fighting and it was completely unorganised.
Alexis was also in it and he and I would go into each other's
trailers and go, "Oh my God, what have we done? We've
made a huge mistake, this is the worst thing ever!"
So that's probably never going to see the light of day.
I was a recovering heroin addict who befriends Nastassja Kinski's
character. It just went terribly, terribly wrong.
What
movie roles would you like to go for?
Well
right now they're talking about a sequel to American Pie,
and I just read the script and it's excellent. I thought,
"Oh come on, how can my character possibly be in the sequel?"
But they really did make it work. And I think it actually
has more shock value than the first one. But if there's
an actors' strike, which looks like it may happen, I think a
lot of people will be doing theatre. I want to rent a
Winnebago and drive around the country - I want to go and see
all the really cheesy sights, like the world's biggest thermometer.
I think I should write a guide book because I have the appreciation
value for cheesy things. I've already actually been to
the world's biggest thermometer - it's big, probably like a
hundred feet high. I wanted a picture of myself with it.
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