Shelley Michelle: The Mr. Skin Interview

You were one of the sexy Coconuts in Kid Creole and the Coconuts.
I was with them for nine and a half years, from 1987 on. It was right out of high school, and we traveled all over the world. Now I have my third CD coming out of my own music. But that was a great band.

In my new movie, Galaxy Hunter, I'm doing the thing from my body double to fitness, action-hero star. I have songs of mine in there, and within the movie I go undercover to catch the villain and he's at a strip club. I go undercover as a brunette and dance to my own songs, "Body Double" and "Loving Me Right." It's off the CD My World. It's coming out spring 2005; we're just finishing up.

How did you get into the business of doing the dirty bits in films for the big stars?
I've doubled over one hundred stars, and it was my legs that got me in. I was chosen out of five thousand pairs of legs for Kim Basinger at 20th Century Fox. That was My Stepmother is an Alien and I went on to do Final Analysis with her. But that was my very first one.

Then I did Catherine Oxenberg and Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman and it just snowballed from there. Then Madonna, Barbara Streisand, Anne Archer, Sandra Bullock, I mean, name it, I've done their bodywork.

How does it feel being known only as the body parts of more famous actresses?
That's why I started my agency Body Doubles and Parts--to get us credit. They treat us just as the body. You go in there and look sexier and curvier and hotter and they give you no credit. You get a trailer in the back of the lot and they don't even want to serve you lunch! They just treat you like a piece of meat and they order you up, "OK, bring out the thighs!"

Thanks to my agency we get credit just as an actress would, but I had to start and agency and fight the union for that. I actually invited them down to the set and said, "This is what we're doing. We're not just stunt people." It's been very controversial to get credit for us. In fact I have a book coming out, a pictorial autobiography, and I'm telling different stories about struggling through it with these stars who want to look great but don't admit it's not them.

Is it the stars that have been resistant to giving you credit?
Many times it's the director who has a scene in mind and the star fights him. The director goes and gets a body double so he or she gets what they want out of their film. A lot of times they'll use me over and over again for several actresses within one movie.

I have interesting stories, like when I had to do a love scene with Dennis Hooper for Anne Archer and he tried to continue the scene and do me afterwards. At the time I was, "No, no, no, Dennis, this is just my job!" But afterwards, I was like, maybe I should have gone for it.

He was so enthusiastic that the director said, "Why don't you go ahead and direct this." Dennis was like, OK. But with body doubling it's so technical. I always say if it feels good it probably doesn't look good for camera. You have to have camera angles of your body, and your head has to be up out of it. I can't even tell you how many times I zipped up boots and put on bracelets for Julia Roberts.

Do actresses admit it's not their own boobs onscreen?
Because of my agency it's trendy. Now it's like, "That's not me; that was my body double." Nudity is such a taboo in Hollywood. It's a Catch 22. The studios want the sensuality, but I think because of the Internet if people want to see sex they go on the Internet. But that's not for the mainstream theater anymore. If an actress does do nudity it brands her.

Just [because I did] Playboy exercise-machine companies have turned me down [for jobs]. "Oh, you did Playboy. I'm sorry we can't use you, you did nudity." And actresses don't want to be showing all their goods to the crew members. I can see why. I remember I was doing a scene for Catherine Oxenberg and [the crew] is right there. I can see how the stars don't want to do that.

For me, I've used the body to my advantage. Now I'm into fitness and going to complete Galaxy Hunter with Stacy Keach. And I've always wanted to do Jane Bond, which we're starting the series next year. We start March 2005. It's Lara Craft meets Barbarella-type thing. It's going to be for TV and DVD. The first one is called Galaxy Hunter and it's sci-fi. I don't use a body double and there's a love scene in it. It's a way of showing I'm not just a body; I'm an actress.

Has your body been a hurdle you have to clear to get work as an actress?
I think definitely. I've been typecast as the body. There's no way you can act or even walk and talk because all you are is a body. Hollywood is very harsh about that. But I've proved I can really act as well. I think you have one chance.

There have been movies you've appeared in as yourself, such as Bikini Summer (Picture: 1 - 2), The Naked Truth (Picture: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4), and in Rising Sun (Picture: 1 - 2) your naked body served sushi. So, what's your favorite nude scene?
I think Rising Sun because Sean Connery actually cast me. I was in Aspen, I was skiing, and I met up with him, Sidney Poitier, Michael Caine, George Hamilton, I went to this fabulous party, and he's a leg man. He calls me Legs. Even though I had to go on five callbacks and had to be approved through casting. He was the executive producer of this and he cast me. He said, "I want the famous legs."

I was really a tap dancer in that movie and trained Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa how to tap dance for that movie. They hired me to do that, which was not very fun at all. He ended up being quite the egotist. And he's Japanese and they're not built for tap dancing. They're way back on their heels. Have you ever watched them walk?

Philip Kaufman, he directed that, and he wanted it to look real, so he didn't use sugar-glass when the SWAT team came in through the window and they busted [Tagawa] and he's eating sushi off my body. Tylyn John, she was the other girl, another Playmate, we did that [scene] together. That was real glass and a real SWAT team too. That was probably worth it because I had Sean Connery calling me Legs.

That leads into my next question. You've said people refer to your breasts as The Girls. Do they have any other names of your other body parts?
Sean does. A lot of people call me Legs. When I first started I was doing a music video and they cut everything out except my legs. It was for a country group called Exile. I was so young, and I'm a ballet dancer, I attribute my legs to ballet. I remember I was so upset because they cut me out except my legs.

Speaking of your body of work, let's go to the virtual side of your career. You have a new web site launching?
I have a new site called ShelleysSecret.com. I have a new company; [I'm] building it right now. There's a video channel on it so you can view all forty of my shows that run on Playboy currently. I have a thing called Titty Corner, which is all boobs. I have special galleries. My music videos are there. I think it's going to be a really interesting site because you'll be able to buy videos, stream videos.

I have all the girls, the body doubles from my agencies that have been in my show. And I feature Huston in there because Huston and I did a show called Shelley Michelle and Huston's Wild House Party.

Doesn't sound like you're inhibited about getting naked. Have you always been like that?
I'm a professional ballet dancer. I was with Joffrey Ballet. I've always been very artsy. The body can be used as art. Over the years because of all the bodywork, that's my job, and maybe I've become an exhibitionist because of that. When I started out I was modest, for sure, but the more I got used to it, like, Catherine Oxenberg wanted to see my boobs, approve my body, I got used to it. [Actresses] have been more embarrassed to see me nude than I've been to be naked in front of them [laughs].

Was Julia Roberts shy?
I have a funny story about her. She did not want me touch her bra because I had to wear her clothes. She was like, "This is my bra and you can't wear this. They're going to have to put another one on you. Whatever you do, don't wear my bra." I think because she wanted to look bigger she had the bra enhanced and she didn't want me to know that.

Do you still do body-double work?
No, I'm just running my agency and providing body doubles and going on to my own acting career.

But you're not retiring the body? We'll still get to see you in all your naked glory?
Yeah, this time with face and all!