Garofalo Likes Comedy Roles, Despite Fact They Are Romantic
Janeane Garofalo crosses her legs and, for a second, it appears as if a rubber brick is flying through the air.
It’s her shoes. Garofalo, a woman so short she might not meet the height requirements for roller coasters, is wearing enormous platform sneakers, shoes so thickly soled that she almost appears to have strapped furniture to her feet - rubber ottomans, perhaps.
“These are my Spice Girl shoes,” she says casually, lighting a cigarette. And, indeed, the shoes would look right at home on the feet of those half-naked pseudo models who make up the British singing group.
Shoes aside, however, Gen-X comic-turned-actress Garofalo has little in common with the sexy sirens of song. Or sexy sirens of anything. In fact, she is painfully uncomfortable with the very notion of sexiness, which is somewhat ironic considering that she’s forging a career in romantic comedies.
In “The Matchmaker,” which opened Friday, Garofalo plays a jaded New York careerist whose heart is pried open by a handsome Irish rogue during a trip to the Emerald Isle.
Like the woman she played in the sleeper hit “The Truth About Cats and Dogs,” her character in “The Matchmaker” is crabby and cynical - an unlikely candidate for unbridled passion. But that’s what appealed to her, Garofalo says, since she’s not exactly a puddle of emotion.
Q: How hard are romantic scenes for you?
A: I get so embarrassed. My stomach is in knots, even if I just have to kiss someone. I’ve never had to be in bed with anyone, per se. And if I get that hepped up over a kiss, I don’t want to know what I would be like. There’s people watching. It’s weird. It’s such an unnatural situation.
Q:What’s your relationship to fashion?
A: None.
Q: None?
A: Very casual? I guess my relationship to fashion is that I have a certain style of dressing that is very common New York Village style. I look like everybody else where I live.
It’s actually a very common mode of dress everywhere. When I started this way of dressing in college, it wasn’t quite as prevalent. A lot of it has to do with what music you listen to. And I started getting into the alternative music scene in college in the ‘80s, which back then was the Cure and R.E.M. And you go to shows and you’d see people dress like this.
Q: Are there times when you go to something like the Emmys when you want to put on a satin Vera Wang gown?
A: No. Absolutely not. I don’t look good in that stuff. I don’t have the body for it. But also I make a personal choice not to do it. Fashion ignores me. I ignore it. Fashion has no use for most women. I have no use for it.
Q: But you’re an actress.
A: But I don’t utilize sexuality ever as an actress. I’ve never done anything exploitive. Not that anyone has asked me to. I’ve never used anything other than myself. I’ve never tried to get over on another level. I don’t have the ability to get over on another level. So I’m not saying it’s totally noble. But it’s not a choice.
Q: Do you feel uncomfortable with people looking at you in a sexual way?
A: Yeah. Not that they do. But the few times nerd guys do … you know, weird letters from prisoners. I don’t like that.
I’m embarrassed in my personal-life sexuality. I’m embarrassed by public displays of affection.
Q: It’s funny you’d end up in romantic comedies.
A: There’s really very little else out there comedically. That’s what you’re sent - romantic comedies. That’s the market. I would love to do (Ethan and Joel) Coen brother comedies or Woody Allen. But you’ve got to deal with what you’re given.
Q: Are women as funny as men?
A: The perception is that men are funnier, and that’s an evil conspiracy by writing and producing and hiring and casting. Parts are better-written for men, and more of the joke lines go to men. And in casting, the rules for women are very different: Not only do women have to be very funny, but very good looking. Whereas the guys just have to be funny.