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July 2005
Dukes of Hazzard : An Interview with Jessica Simpson

Dukes of Hazzard: An Interview with Jessica Simpson, continued

By Wilson Morales

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We've watched you grow up on camera. Are you comfortable with people knowing as much about you as they do? Tell us where you are in your life right now.

JS: Me being open with my marriage and as an individual and letting people enter my privacy, that's what made me succeed. That's what put me here right now and I would - I absolutely do not regret that. But I do think that it's time to make some things more private and sacred and you always feel like now that people are out to get something out of you. But I can't look that way and the - what with the decisions that I make in my career from here on out are decisions that have been brewing for a very long time, but being open with my privacy is what - it made it all happen.


What pitfalls do you want to avoid in your movie career?

JS: A bad script! [Laughs] And that's another thing, that there's a lot of movie projects that I'm looking but there's this one movie called Major Movie Star that is with Billy Gerber, producer, and it's a Goldie Hawn, Private Benjamin kind of role. My mentors are Goldie Hawn, Dolly Parton, - Dolly Parton is my absolute favorite because she's an amazing woman, she's an amazing blonde, great Southern lady, amazing songwriter/singer, all of it. She has her own theme park! She has a legacy, and I hope to be doing the same thing as her.


I'd like to know what's on your iPod and your Tivo at the moment.

JS: Tivo? Entourage and Desperate Housewives, we're waiting for the next season - and Lost! But I don't really have time - I don't have time. But I do know how to work it. I know how to work the Tivo. That's a step. My iPod Š I have a lot of stuff on my iPod right now, because I just finished a record. My new record is going to be called And the Band Played On, and it's an inspiration from everything - from Fleetwood Mac to Patsy Cline, Billie Holiday, Etta James Š really, I can't find music now that I really loved, so I went back to the music that I missed out on, and it's called And the Band Played On because two generations have continue Š


What is your priority right now? Your movie career or your singing career?

JS: It's all a priority. I'm trying to balance everything. I have a workout video that's about to come out. I have a clothing line called Trendy, shoe line that's about to come out. I'm a little busy. But I try to make everything a priority. I put my hands in everything, and I make sure nothing comes out that I don't approve or am creatively involved in.


I read that growing up in a strictly religious upbringing, that being on the set was actually quite liberating. What was the most profound experience for you?

JS: Y'know, it was really just the fact that I wasn't with my family every day. My dad's my manager, and my mom would always dress me. It's a family business, but they didn't come out on set like twice. SO I had those three months to - I was living with my - all my girls - my girlfriends - and just had fun. It was like Sex & the City, but without the sex! My husband was there for a month and a half. But it was like girls night out all the time. It was so fun, so fun. But that's all I was talking about.


Did Willie Nelson ever try to get you high?

JS: No, no, he didn't, because he knows that I'm a singer and he knows that I don't, because we spoke about it. I questioned him: I was like, how do you do that and not lose your voice? I can't even be in a smoky bar and talk the next day.


How does he keep his voice?

JS: I don't know. He says that that cures his voice. [Laughs] No, I don't know anything about - I don't know.


What's your dress?

JS: Dolce & Gabbana.


Are you back with your family?

JS: Well, my mom and I had a meeting on my clothing line last night, so I went to dinner with my mom last night. But we're all over the place. My dad has so much going on that I don't even know how he gets to sleep at night.


What made you want to get into the fitness industry and clothing?

JS: I'm passionate about clothing and I've always put together outfits. I like to make stories out of outfits. [giggle]


And on the fitness side? Can you be a role model?

JS: Yeah, definitely, because I'm "au naturel". I believe in really - I think that when you work - I've gained a lot of confidence in being Daisy Duke because I worked out so hard and I did it all on my own, so it gave me so much more confidence. So it just gives you so much confidence to say, Look what I did.


Set Visit Interview

DUKES OF HAZZARD opens on August 5, 2005


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