Well I've worked with Peter before [on High Spirits] - he would have been
Well, I've worked with Peter before [on High Spirits] - he would have been so boring."Of course, some might see Tilly's attitude to her fellow actors as a little disloyal. How else, for instance, to read Tilly's Woody Allen stories? Tilly was one of a handful of stars who were "allowed" to ad-lib in Bullets over Broadway She and Chazz Palminteri, as she says, "had a ball" Others weren't so lucky "Woody wouldn't tell them directly," she says earnestly. "He'd come up to me" - Tilly puts on a conspiratorial whisper - "and say, `When so and so starts ad-libbing, don't answer him' or `Push so and so out of the door sooner, before he comes up with any more of those ad-libs!'" She has the grace to give an anxious giggle "Probably I was very unpopular. I was Woody's hall-monitor, basically."It all makes sense when you remember Tilly's desperate need to be singled out. In the same way, she required reassurance on Bound that Violet was the leading part (originally she wanted to play Corky).
"The Wachowski Brothers told me, `Violet's the real part here, she's the one pulling all the strings.' And it's true," purrs Jennifer "Violet's the real mystery. With Corky, once you've figured her out, there's not much to her."If Tilly sounds a little insecure, it's easy to guess why. When she was six, her mother decided she was rotting in the California suburbs, divorced Jennifer's father and hitched up with an impoverished hippy. Of her childhood, Jennifer will only say, "We moved around all the time and there was a great deal of turmoil."Having her own, successful identity has clearly been crucial in restoring a sense of order. The current confusion between her and Meg is thus doubly ironic. "It's so frustrating, because I do all this stuff like going on chat-shows and then people think it's Meg," moans Jennifer.
"It's like I'm doing publicity for my sister!" She claims she can't understand why they get confused: "We look nothing alike." (Not true: Diane Arbus would have loved them.) Nor does she think they have similar personas: "Meg's more ethereal, more the child-woman."To demonstrate this point, Jennifer describes taking Meg to see Bound "Meg doesn't like violence. She's going, `Oh no, I don't think I can watch it...' So I say, `Meg, I'll sit behind you and tell you when something bad is coming up.'" What happened? Jennifer smacks her lips in disdain "She didn't trust me. Turns out she had her eyes closed during at least a quarter of the movie!"It's the sweetest of double-acts but, clearly, adjustments are still being made to the script. In typical breathless fashion, Jennifer notes, "When Meg was really famous - I mean, not that she still isn't..." Her voice trails off.