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HOLLYWOOD -- There was a reason Christine Taylor portrayed Marcia Brady so seamlessly in The Brady Bunch and A Very Brady Sequel.
"I grew up in the '80s as a preppy conservative, like very conservative," confides a bubbly Taylor. "I was so geeky in those Polo shirts."
All-American geeky, that is. Taylor has the looks and charm of a prom queen, and the smarts of a college graduate. Healthy skepticism about the ways of meanies in the movie industry, she's slowly discovering.
Mind you, she's only had six years to assess things, experience the pratfalls, get conned and manipulated.
Taylor refuses to be cynical, however. Instead, she's just happy to be working.
"This has been a crazy couple of years," admits Taylor, who is in her mid-twenties. "The Brady Bunch did put me on the map, so to speak.
"Before that, it wasn't like they were breaking down the doors for me or taking meetings with me."
The studios aren't now either. But her name does get mentioned and she often gets calls for things.
"But I've worked really hard at it, and I think I've been kind of successful with breaking away from the Marcia Brady thing."
Taylor did that on TV. Her short-lived series, Party Girl, had her cavorting as a go-go clubber. Guest appearances on the sitcoms Ellen, Seinfeld, Friends and Murphy Brown continued her trend in alternative Brady Bunch casting.
In movies, too, Taylor is trying for the anti-al-American. She was a Madonna wannabe in Adam Sandler's The Wedding Singer, and she'll be seen next as a dangerously uptight wife in the film Denial.
Still, she won't deny that Marcia Brady is how fans remember her, although Taylor says she's getting "busted" more often for roles she had on Friends and Seinfeld.
"Oh, on Friends," she says, smirking, "I looked like an alien, and in front of the most beautiful people on TV.
"Yes, I was Ross's new girlfriend who shaves her head. Those are kind of fun things to do. There are so few roles that are odd like that."
Except maybe the Seinfeld part, which was peculiar because she played a person who wasn't.
"I almost didn't do Seinfeld. I thought it was just another normal girlfriend part. But it was such a weird episode.
"I was Jerry's girlfriend, his perfect girlfriend, but there's something wrong with her and he can't figure it out.
"I do all the right things, everybody likes me, but I check my telephone messages, and nobody has called.
"When his parents give their nod of approval, Jerry finally dumps me."
She chuckles at the irony. Maybe Taylor is a little peculiar, too. "I only like to play it," she says.
"But I have that all-American face, and sometimes I get told, 'They'll never buy it.'
"Then I say, 'Hey, I'm an actress -- I can totally pull it off.' "
Just the same, Taylor is at a crossroads in her career. She is getting to be a familiar face. She's invited to try out, but sometimes just for the sake of it.
Certainly, the frustration is starting to wear away at her grace and charm, but she hangs in, goes to interviews, and shows up for auditions prepared.
"I do have to work," Taylor says, "and I know that sometimes when I go to meetings or auditions, the role has already been promised to somebody else."
Within limits, Taylor does what she has to do.
"I persevered," she says, "I took the rollercoaster ride of getting jobs, then not working for a couple of months.
"But I have to tell you, if I had a looking glass into the future when I started, I probably would have said, 'Screw this, why do it to myself?' "
So there's more to this career than Marcia Brady?
Taylor covers her face with her hands and laughs.
"Little independents at video stores near you," says Taylor, who uncovers. She's asked to 'fess up. Against her better judgment, she does.
"Oh, let's see," she says, hesitating. "I was in Showdown with some workout guy. The movie was like a B-version of The Karate Kid and I was the damsel in distress.
"I did a kids' movie, Breaking Free, but it didn't even go straight to video, it went straight to the airlines. I was in The Craft, which was a witches' movie."
Taylor pauses. She's considering something.
She slams her hand down on the table in front of her.
"Okay," she says, smiling, "I'll tell you my story."
Here is Christine Taylor's Hollywood minute:
"I don't do nudity. I just don't go in for it. And they always tell you they can shoot around it or they'll get body doubles. But forget it.
"Okay, so one of the most embarrassing movies I've ever done is Night Of The Demons 2. It was a really bad horror movie, but I had just been carjacked at gunpoint in L.A. and I needed a good scream, and I'm a horror fan geek. I guess I thought it would be fun and good therapy, because I could run around and howl and get paid for it."
"So in B-movies you must have nudity. They offered me the lead girl, but I wasn't tempted. You see, her character becomes demonized, her breasts become hands and she kills the guy she's with.
"I'm picturing my grandparents picturing my boobs becoming hands, so I said, 'No.'
"So the director offers me a fun character with only one makeout scene. And I swear to God, this is the conversation we had on the phone.
"He said, 'How about we do some nudity briefly?'
" 'Define briefly,' I said.
"He said, 'How about three seconds of breast and nipple?'
"I said, 'No.' They hired me anyway."
And you happily made enough money to buy a new car.
"From that movie," says Taylor, chuckling, "I made enough money to pay for a month of car insurance."
THE CHRISTINE TAYLOR FILE
MOVIES: The Brady Bunch Movie, The Very Brady Sequel, The Craft, Denial, Over Nite Delivery, Breaking Free, Showdown, To The End Of Time.
TELEVISION: Star of series Party Girl, bit parts on Ellen, Seinfeld, Friends, Murphy Brown.
THEATRE: Westwood Playhouse production of The Brady Bunch.