Interview excerpts

"The freshest face on TV" -- profile of Jenna Elfman.

Issue date:
January 30 - February 1, 1998

Interview with Jenna Elfman

These excerpts are from an interview conducted by Gayle Jo Carter, USA WEEKEND's entertainment editor.

What "Dharma & Greg" is really about: "It's about truth. It's about what really is."

On being on a successful TV show: "It's exactly what I wanted. I always wanted to do a show. Since I was born I wanted to entertain and communicate. I wanted to communicate so bad ... my sixth-grade math teacher taped my mouth. I'm still out to get her. It was very traumatizing."

Don't judge a book by its cover: "I love finding out I'm wrong about what I assumed somebody was by looking at them."

On her friends: "We're all actors, and we're all such ass-kickers in life. We work our asses off and we have very clean ethics. We don't do any drugs. We don't party. Every now and then you have some wine."

On the Roman Catholic Church which she was brought up in: "I would have so many questions. I was the big question-asker growing up and there would be some answers for me, but then I would have other questions and there'd be no answer. I wanted answers. I had definite viewpoints and questions and things I wanted to know about it and I couldn't find all of my answers."

On turning to Scientology: "It was everything I had been looking for, answers to questions I have been asking forever. They finally got answered for me. And it wasn't 'These are the answers; you have to believe them!' It's not what Scientology is. Scientology is you coming up with it on your own. It's information on life, research that L. Ron Hubbard found to be true. I read it and it was true for me, too. I applied it to my life and it worked for me. I started to feel better."

On tabloid tales: "People who know me know who I am, and that's all that I care about. I set enough of an example on my show ... if people want to write about me, I don't care. Because then, like, a week later someone else is the big story. That's like worrying about kids talking about you in high school. Who cares?"

On mom and dad: "My parents raised me in such a wonderful way. They set a good example about trust and being honest and working hard."

How women in Hollywood are treated: "I think you get what you put out. I think if you got some criticism on something, you're going to get that from people. I mean you can't have what you criticize."

On landing the lead in Ron Howard's "Ed TV": "I'm stoked to high heaven on that one. Absolutely thrilled."

On whether she can make a successful leap from the small screen to the big screen: "Hell, I'll learn from everything. I try not to worry or go into fear on that because then you're going into scarcity of, like, 'Oh God, what if?' I have never been that kind of person. To me, that's a middle-class safety attitude. 'What will the neighbors think?' Or, 'What if I can't do it?' Who are you to think you can't do something?"

On true love: "I think there are several you can find that you'd be matched up with nicely. But you're lucky to find the best one of those -- I've definitely."

When are the kids coming? "I say about two or three years. I definitely want to have my first or at least be pregnant by the time I'm 30."

How to be a good parent: "Support and admiration and love and really teaching them [kids] to be responsible for their actions, to help others and give, give of their presence."

On success: "To me, it comes down to a game. Life is a game, and this is also what I think happened to River Phoenix. Someone who is so talented. Say you set some goals for yourself and you achieve them. It doesn't stop there -- especially people who are very able and talented and smart and gifted. They need to take responsibility for creating new games for themselves. Then you achieve them and create a new game. River Phoenix didn't create a new game for himself after he had all those things. Then he turned to drugs. You know, when you're achieving your goals, that's a lot of sensation."

The difference between Jenna and her husband, Bodhi Elfman: "When I get food or clothing or anything that I love, I wear it right away or eat it up right away. Like when your friends in school brought brownies for their birthday, I ate it all. And there would always be the girl next to me who saved hers, and it killed me looking at it on her desk. Well, Bodhi is the person who saved the brownie until the end of the day, teasing everyone. I'm the one who scarfed it down and wished I could have seconds."

On women's lib: "I'm not the kind of girl where I am the woman banner-carrier. I believe that if you make the man the king you are that much bigger as a queen. I don't think giving power to men takes away your power as long as you're maintaining your power. A lot of people come from scarcity, which makes you hold on to things real tight. I think people who aren't very confident as a woman really have to hold on to their womanhood and prove that they're a woman."

Key to lasting love: "Keeping the communication clean and open and safe for the other person. If they're saying something you don't like, let them say it, having an understanding that you would want the same respect. Just let them say it before you even open your mouth."

Pet peeve: "I hate people who make fun of other people. It makes me want to strangle people."

If she hadn't made it in Hollywood: "I'd be a housewife and have kids, entertain, decorate my home."

What her husband's uncle, legendary film music composer (and the Boingo in Oingo Boingo) Danny Elfman, said to her: "At Thanksgiving I saw him and he said, 'Yeah, now I'm getting questions. "Is Jenna your sister? Is she your daughter?" I want to strangle them.' "