Hangover star Graham talks bodies and babies

IN The Hangover, Heather Graham plays a stripper escort, a role that appeared to come naturally to the 39-year-old beauty.

It was the role that launched her career, and in many ways, Heather Graham is Rollergirl from 1997’s Boogie Nights.

Like that wide-eyed, star-struck kid from Paul Thomas Anderson’s wonderful trip through San Fernando Valley’s porn industry of the 1970s and early ’80s, Graham’s move into the world of filmmaking didn’t exactly come with a seal of approval from her parents, James and Joan, two Irish Americans who had raised their daughter in the strict Catholic tradition.

They didn’t raise their daughter to start dating the 44-year-old James Woods when she was barely out of her teens.

Having started acting whilst still in high school, Graham dropped out of the University of California at Los Angeles early, to pursue acting, a move that finally paid off with the critical and commercial breakthrough, Boogie Nights.

It’s a role that won the young actress enormous acclaim, and roles in such big-budget outings as Lost In Space (1998) and Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999).

Graham has never enjoyed that kind of acclaim again, as the movies themselves (Say It Isn’t So, From Hell, The Guru, Hope Springs, Miss Conception) proved increasingly unpopular, and a TV vehicle last year, Emily’s Reason Why Not, was cancelled after four episodes.

Not that Graham looks all that bothered when I met up with her in Dublin’s Merrion Hotel earlier this week. Even though her role as a stripper mum is little more than a cameo, Graham’s latest movie, The Hangover, is sitting at No 1 in the US. A

And her boyfriend, Yaniv Raz (the writer/director of the upcoming Son Of Mourning, starring, yep, one Heather Graham), is out at the Guinness Brewery, soaking up Ireland for the first time.

Playing the carefree Jade (who sees stripping “as a great way to meet clients”) was plainly a blast for Graham. This could be Rollergirl, 10 years later. Or Austin Power’s old sidekick, Felicity Shagwell, giving up guns for poles. Or the regularly naked Mandy from Hope Springs. Or the permanently randy Alice from Killing Me Softly. Or Justine, the sex-shop clerk, from The Oh In Ohio. I’m beginning to see a pattern here.

“Well, I’m dedicated to my roles,” Graham states, her tongue taking up residence in her cheek. “I spent 10 years as a stripper to prepare for The Hangover.”

The nudity does seem to come incredibly easy though.

“I guess I just find those kinds of roles more interesting, and I just think sexuality is really interesting. I do think there are a lot of funny things about sex. I think it’s a great subject for humour. I just thought of Jade as this new age hippy stripper, who believes her body is her gift to the world, and now she’s ready to settle down.”

So, it’s autobiographical then? Heather Graham is ready to settle down, have a kid?

“Maybe,” she pauses. “Maybe I am, actually. I guess you relate to things that are going on in your life. My best friend has the most amazing kids — I’m so in love with her kids — but some babies are so obnoxious, and two of the six babies I worked with on the movie, they would just cry so much. I didn’t feel all that maternal after that.”

Like most sensible parents, James and Joan Graham weren’t too happy to see their little girl quit college and run away to Hollywood, and it’s a doubt that they haven’t quite let go of yet, it seems. When I ask Heather Graham if her parents are okay these days with the career she’s made for herself, she replies curtly, “they try to be supportive”. What about that strict Catholic upbringing. That would explain a lot, I say, and she laughs. “Look at those crazy Catholic girls!” she says. “They’re the craziest girls of all.” Was the move to Hollywood a rebellion against that strict Catholic upbringing?

“I guess it’s hard to look at yourself from the outside and be so objective. ‘Oh, are you rebelling against this?’ I guess this is just who I am. And I guess there’s just something about sexuality that I find interesting. And I’m a woman. You look at the roles for women — it’s not like there’s a lot of choices out there. Not many war movies. Yeah, I don’t know, it’s hard to be completely objective, to figure out, well, did my upbringing make me who I am, or is this just who I am?”

Our time is nearly up. Graham tells me she’s been to Ireland before — “once I came with a boyfriend, and I worked in Belfast for two months. When I was a kid, just out of high school, I came here with my sister, and we just drove up and down the west coast. We went from Donegal down to the Beara Peninsula. So, I’ve been here twice.”

That’s actually three times. But no bother. Does Graham know where those all-important Irish roots hail from?

“They’re from Cork,” she smiles, “although I’ve never figured out exactly where. My dad is completely Irish, and my mum is half-Irish, and she’s also got German and Scottish blood. I feel completely Irish though”.

“Germany? Ugh! Sorry, Germany...”

The Hangover is now showing in cinemas