Hatcher Breaks From Mold In ‘Prisoners’

Gee, Teri Hatcher seems pretty cheerful this morning considering that her marriage is falling apart and she just cavorted in a tropical resort with a strange man, and she is suffering from anorexia, and she lost her virginity to a holy man, and she is about to give birth to an alien baby.

“I haven’t checked the tabloids this morning, so I’m not sure how my life is going,” the actress says with a laugh and a bit of a sarcastic tone. “I feel pretty good, but I won’t know for sure until I read the rags.”

Hatcher, the sweetly dispositioned Lois of the TV series “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman” and the murderous temptress of the film “Heaven’s Prisoners,” which opened Friday, is the latest in a long line of Hollywood types whom the tabloids have deemed prime for media slaughter.

The alien-baby thing is a slight exaggeration, but the tabloids have had a field day speculating about Hatcher’s alleged anorexia (she denies it), her failing marriage to actor Jon Tenney (she says the marriage is fine), her house-hunting habits (she says she’s looking for a house for the couple, not just for herself) and her virginity (her high school boyfriend sold his story to a tabloid for $15,000).

“I was hurt and frustrated by the stories in the beginning, but everyone kept telling me that it was a good thing, because it meant I was happening,” Hatcher said as she munched her way through a sizable lunch, casting doubts on that anorexia rumor.

Hatcher, 31, said she suspects the problem with the tabloids began several years ago when her high school sweetheart and his wife, also one of Hatcher’s closest friends in high school, sold their story.

“Some reporter got the notion that I had lost my virginity to this guy, and he convinced him and my girlfiend to sell some story for $15,000. It caused me great pain to know that someone that close would sell my friendship for a lousy $15,000.

“But ever since then, the tabloids have decided that I’m a worthwhile target. And I imagine they will keep it up until some editor gets bored with it.”

Well, if they found the sweet Teri Hatcher interesting, wait until those tabloid editors see her in her latest movie role. Hatcher, who has shown a remarkable flair with comedic roles in films such as “Soapdish” and “The Big Picture,” does a complete turnabout in “Heaven’s Prisoners.”

Alec Baldwin is a tough, hard-driving ex-New Orleans cop who retires and opens a fishing business on the bayou. Eric Roberts plays his childhood friend who has grown up to become a ruthless local mob kingpin. Hatcher is Roberts’ Cajun wife, who may be even more amoral and violent than her husband.

When Baldwin’s character is introduced to Hatcher’s character, she is standing naked on a balcony. She is neither embarrassed nor concerned that she has been discovered this way.

“In this movie, I felt the nudity was important to this woman; I felt it said a lot about her psyche instantly that no dialogue would ever be able to do. It nailed her so specifically, and I hope audiences see it that way rather than just seeing Teri Hatcher naked.”

Hatcher was raised in the Silicon Valley in Northern California.

She majored in math at junior college and studied acting at the prestigious American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco. She attended an open casting call with a friend one day and immediately found herself in the acting profession.

“The Big Picture” was her first foray into films, and it seemed her movie career was just taking off when she got the plum role as Lois Lane in “Lois & Clark.”

Hatcher looks back on that opportunity as a blessing and a stumbling block to her career.

“The pilot script they showed me was much more realistic, dramatic and adult than the series turned out to be,” she said. “It looked more like an episode of ‘NYPD Blue.”’

“It was supposed to be a 9 p.m. or 10 p.m. show, but then ABC put it on at 8 p.m., and it became a family show. I am not saying I haven’t enjoyed working on the show, but it is not the show I would have signed on to do.

“I’m not miserable, and I know I’m a better actress now than I was when I started the series four years ago, but I have these moments of great panic about growing old on ‘Lois & Clark.’

“For that reason,” she said, “I look very carefully into what projects I do during my hiatus. In that way, I thank the TV series. It has superpowered me into making decisions I might not ordinarily have made. I’m pushing myself because I want to do things that are different than what I do on TV. That’s how I ended up in this movie; it’s so different than anything I’ve done. It’s definitely not Lois Lane.”