October 15, 1995 Shannen Doherty is no longer a reckless teenager, no longer much-hated Brenda from Beverly Hills, 90210, no longer much in the news.

She has been no longer married to Ashley Hamilton for a lot longer than she was married.

But the busy actress is far from forgotten. Even the customs people found "To talk to Shannen Doherty" sufficient explanation for my trip, and offered cautionary quips.

And she has not lost her cat-fight spirit. "Those stories!" she hissed in response to an unavoidable question. "Half of you journalists wrote them. What is your explanation? I don't owe anyone an explanation. You owe it to the people you are writing to to get the true facts. And that was the disappointing thing to me, there was so much poor journalism involved. I feel I got a very bad rap, and there was a big lack-of-respect issue."

How does she fight back?

"By staying true to myself, and ignoring it: I'm not the one who has to live with the lies."

She also continues to reinvent herself on screen. The occasion for our encounter is Mallrats, opening Friday. Doherty is part of the ensemble that writer-director Kevin Smith assembled for the follow-up to his ultra-low-budget hit comedy, Clerks.

"Shannen was someone I never thought of," says Smith. "Not because I didn't think she was talented, but it never occurred to us to think about using people with names.

"And then when we heard that Shannen wanted to come in and read, it was like, really? Shannen Doherty? Bring her in! Tell your friends! For the kitsch value alone ..."

He laughs, then cuts himself off sharply. "When she read, all of a sudden it went from being kitschy to being logical. Her delivery was so rapid-fire, it melded so well with her character, that after she left, it was like, that's it, she's wonderful."

"I've always talked fast," she says. "It's horrible when I go in for looping, I can't even keep up with myself. I think it's a Southern thing." Shannen is from Memphis. "All the Southern women I know just sort of plow right through things."

Was Kevin Smith trepidatious?

"Yeah," he says, "everyone around me in the support system pointed out that she comes with baggage: She's a bitch!

"But I could care less. All I cared about was that she learn the dialogue the way she did in the audition, and hit her marks, and play that role - she could burn down the effing hotel for all I cared, once we were off-set.

"But even before we got to Minneapolis (the title mall could be anywhere, it happens to be in Eden Prairie, Minnesota), she was like any of us, there was no diva posture. All through rehearsals she like didn't push herself away from everyone else, she incorporated into that whole ensemble piece.

"I really wish I had nasty Shannen stories to tell you, 'cause it would make for excellent press, but there's none, and I haven't had time to make any up yet."

And she refuses to help him. "Mallrats was probably the most fun I've ever had on a movie," she says.

On screen she gets to be a bitch, as Rene. For example, "When a girl says it's a nice size, it's a nice way of saying it's small."

Says Doherty: "My personality in Mallrats is a tiny bit more brasher than I am, I think, and she's very witty. I imagine her dad sitting in this big overstuffed chair with this beer belly, ignoring her mom, who is ripping him to shreds, and Rene going, `Yeah, Mom, go for it.' Rene is fierce in her own way."

So why is she attracted to a slacker in the movie?

"I don't know. I don't know. I never figured that one out. That's just, you know, a man writing a script."

And in character, well, she has one hot little sex scene in an elevator with first-time actor Jason Lee, who is more familiar to real-life mallrats as a professional skateboarder. He recalls that scene as "a little nervewracking."

Says Doherty: "That's the difference between a first-time actor and someone who's been doing it for like 14 years. Like kissing a strange man is no big deal, who cares? My boyfriend doesn't react horribly to it, so if I don't have to care what he thinks, it's just part of the job.

"But Jason was really nervous. And it was really funny to play around with him and say, `You've got to get more into this - it's not looking real.' And he'd say, `Hunh? What??' But his girlfriend was there, and I'd say I was just joking. We all tried to make it as easy as possible. He'll get used to it."

If anyone is going to get used to Doherty it's Kevin Smith. He says: "I think Heathers killed the teen angst movie for a while." But he doesn't blame castmember Doherty specifically.

She finds him "really easygoing, really open to suggestion, but knows what he wants. And so young - 24 - my age, that's unbelievable."

Other roles have broadened her sense of self. I ask: Which have taught her the most? satisfied her the most?

"Satisfied me the most? Probably Margaret Mitchell.

"Taught me the most? so far? 90210. Positively? Little House. That's much more the way I grew up. All the projects I've done since 90210 have been pleasures. God forbid I say `never' another TV series, but!! ..."

The SHANNEN DOHERTY File

AT 10: First TV role, for Michael Landon on Father Murphy, then as Jenny Wilder in Little House: A New Beginning.

AT 15: Second TV series, Our House.

18-22: Brenda in Beverly Hills, 90210. Breakthrough movie: Heathers, also Freeze Frame, Blindfold: Acts Of Obsession.

23-24: William Friedkin's Jailbreakers, the title role in Margaret Mitchell, now Mallrats.

NEXT: Gone In The Night, a true-crime miniseries. Still 24.


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