Bundyology - An Interview with Christina Applegate

Loaded (Magazine):
Interview with Christina Applegate

Last update February 23, 1998

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From LOADED

Issue 39 (July 1997)

DO YOU THINK THE SUCCESS OF THE SHOW IS PERHAPS BECAUSE THE BUNDYS ARE TRUE TO LIFE?
I think there are a lot of things you can attribute the success of the show to. When we came out on the air, it was the time of The Cosby Show, Family Ties, Growing Pains - happy shows. It would make you wanna commit suicide or something, watching these perfectly happy families. Also, in our third season, this woman from Michigan, Teri Racolter [wrong spelling by the magazine, it's actually "Terry Rakolta"], made a big stink about our show and that's when we really hit. It washer whole littleorganization of people who didn't think that what we were doing was appropriate. I'm sure there's still a lot of people who won't let their kids watch the show, of course, cos it can be crass but that's just the way it is. We came along and set the path that it's OK to be disgusting on television.

DO YOU KNOW ANYONE WHO'S ACTUALLY LIKE THE BUNDYS?
Not quite that extreme! I think, no offence to the Mid-West, but I think you would find more of this kind of family in rural Mid-Western cities. I mean, Los Angeles - everybody's cool and fashionable and everything. But I mean everybody's got a little bit of this because we just say things that people think. Everybody' in the family is rude, ha ha.

ARE YOU COMFORTABLE WITH YOUR ROLE?
Of course. She's become a part of me, she is a part of me, but obviously she's just one facet of my personality.

WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU'RE NOT HERE AND YOU WANT TO GET OFF AND RELAX?
Well I go to church and take a lot of spinning classes which I don't know if you have in London yet. Spinning - it's a stationary bike class, it's like a racing bike and it's all music-driven. That's what I do, a lot. It's like therapy.

DO YOU EVER GO TO CLUBS?
I used to go to the "Three of Clubs" a lot actually, after the show on Friday and I love that place, it's just dirty, great people and great music. It's the nicest vibe of any bar in Los Angeles I think, because it's not pretentious, you know. It's definitely suited for the nightcrawlers and it's not about who's there and fashion. I haven't been there in a while, but I don't go out, I really don't any more. I go and eat, I go to restaurants, but that'sabout it. As I'm getting older, I have to go to sleep a lot earlier than I used to be able to go to sleep. I still need 10 hours of sleep. All I do is I work, I exercise, I go to dinner with friends and I go home and I play with my animals and rent movies. Any excuse to stay home, and I'm really happy.

WHAT ARE YOUR BAD HABITS?
Smoking cigarettes. Here it's like a taboo, my god, they hate people who smoke here. You light up a cigarette, people just stare you down and leer at you like, "Your killing me."

DID YOU GROW UP HERE?
Uh-huh. I was born and raised in Los Angeles, one of the very few natives that there are. Almost everybody with an attitude is usually from somewhere else.

WERE YOU HERE WHEN THE EARTHQUAKE HAPPENED?
Uh-huh. I was here when the fires happened, and the riots and the floods.

ALMOST BIBLICAL. ARE YOU RELIGIOUS?
I belong to a church but it's not a religion really. It's called Heape-unconditional love - and it's a metaphysical church, it's more spiritual and more Eastern philosophy than anything else. We do study the teachings of Jesus but we also study the teachings of other great teacher’s though out the centuries and it's more about meditation and love and things like that.

DO YOU THINK AL WOULD MAKE A GOOD SPIRITUAL LEADER?
No. Definitely not!

WHAT DO YOU THINK WOULD HAPPEN IF THE BUNDYS BECAME THE FIRST FAMILY?
I think our first family is kinda close to the Bundys now! No, I'm kidding. I think it would be a much better world if they were. Th price of beer would go down, you'd see a lot more strip clubs around, and scantily-clad women, and I'm sure prostitution would become legal. But I don't know if that makes a better world.

WHAT ABOUT IF KELLY WAS PRESIDENT?
Everything would have to be shiny and pretty. The vice President would be a stud muffin, most definitely. It'd be a happy world, cos she's a happy girl.

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