Party of One

Poor Lacey Chabert! On Party of Five, she's the lost sibling whom nobody understands. And in her feature film debut, she's the sibling whom nobody understands who's also lost in space.

by Michelle Cruickshank

Lacey Chabert would probably disagree with the assertion that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. The adolescent star of the hit television show Party Of Five and now the big budget movie version of Lost In Space recently got wind of a young American girl who's lifework is devoted to imitating the pint-sized celebrity. And, far from flattered, Chabert finds it all a little frightening. "They knew everything!," she exclaims, incredulous. "My weight, my height, family names, family history, where I'm from, where I live now. The most bizarre thing is that people you don't even know, know so much about you. I mean, most of it's pretty positive, I think. But it's kind of scary."
The reason Chabert finds the devotion of some of her fans difficult to comprehend is that she sees herself as "nobody special". It's a refreshing outlook to have. But in Chabert's case, it's also naive because, at just 15, she's now had success on TV and in a major movie, as well as on the stage. While normal teenagers are being given detention, she's receiving awards and accolades, jet-setting around the world, while her peers are begrudgingly studying geography. And while other girls her age are only daydreaming about the glamorous lives they hope to lead as adults, Chabert spends her days surrounded by the very people her friends pin up on their bedroom walls.
Talking with Chabert in a cosy Auckland hotel room, it becomes obvious that, although her accomplishments are impressive for someone not yet old enough to have their driver's license, Chabert's real strengths have little to do with any achievements in the fickle world of show business. Warm and engaging, she immediately works to set everybody at ease, especially during the photo shoot, which is fun for everyone involved. She's funny and sweet without any hint of pretension or falsity. As she readily talks about her life in the limelight, you feel almost like you're chatting to a close friend, rather than interviewing a celebrated actress.
Born and raised in the small town of Purvis, Mississippi, with her two older sisters and younger brother, Chabert's career began at the tender age of five with formal singing lessons and commercials. At nine, she received her first big break during a family holiday to New York when she won the role of Cossette in the Broadway production of Les Miserables. Her parents, although apprehensive, supported Chabert's aspirations and the family moved to the Big Apple, where Chabert played Cossette for two years, finding time to also become a junior vocalist finalist on Star Search '91. When the family moved from New York to California, Chabert made the transition from stage to television work, taking the part of Bianca in All My Children, appearing in several made-for-TV movies and, of course, securing starring roles in Party Of Five and now Lost In Space, her feature film debut.
After working so much with adults for the last decade, it's little wonder that, like Claudia Salinger, the character she plays in Party Of Five, Chabert herself is older and wiser than her tender years. That maturity, both professional and personal, isn't lost on her colleagues. "She's great," enthuses her Lost In Space co-star Matt LeBlanc, also in Auckland recently to promote the film. "She's like a grown-up professional in a little kid's body."
Despite maintaining that she's just a normal teenager, Chabert does concede that she's more mature than her birth certificate would suggest. According to Chabert, the reason is two-fold. Firstly, she explains that her family is very close, so she spends a lot of time hanging out with her sisters Wendy and Crissy, both in their 20s, and that their maturity influences her behaviour and outlook on life. Secondly, Chabert attributes her maturity to playing characters involved with complex issues. "I think with acting you have to dig so deep into your soul that you find out things about yourself," she reasons. "You experiment and you have to investigate yourself. It's not in any weird way but you have to find these emotions and these personalities."
Of course, while maturity is something every teenager struggles to obtain, the danger is that Chabert is growing up too fast. Hollywood is littered with tales of child stars whose initial success becomes their downfall. Firstly, there's the Drew Barrymore school in which someone who is thrown into an adult world at a very young age, samples its fruits a little too early and a little too heavily, with disastrous results. Then there's the Macaulay Culkin situation, whereby the father takes total control of the young star's career, succeeding only in flushing it down the toilet. The third scenario, championed by Michael Jackson, sees the child-star grow up bitterly regretting losing their childhood, doomed forever to relate only to chimpanzees or other fallen stars.
"I don't go to normal school, so I'm not going to have a prom and things like that," explains Chabert. "But I think it's a small sacrifice."
As much as her schedule allows, Chabert tries to do the things any normal teenager would. She listens to music with her friends (Savage Garden and Natalie Imbruglia are her current favourites), goes shopping, watches movies and plays with her two dogs. She tries to think of acting as a passion and a pastime, rather than the be-all and end-all of life. "Any job, if you become so obsessed with it, you basically forget who you are," she argues. "I have friends and I have a life other than just going to work. I do have other things and I think that's how I'm grounded. If this was to go away, I'd still be a happy person."
Perhaps it's because she's been involved in the entertainment industry for two thirds of her life, or maybe that she's obviously been raised to be confident about herself, but Chabert is adamant she won't stumble into the enticing trappings of success. "Hollywood sort of comes with this whole Hollywood scene," she says. "This pressure of having to look a certain way, be a certain way, fit into this sort of click. And I'm not into it at all, actually. I think it's important not to be because people who do that sort of alter their own character and don't stay true to themselves for the sake of being accepted into something. And thats a very scary thought because I've seen people and I know people who have fallen into that and I think it only leads to destruction."
Chabert also has the safety net of a loving family to protect her from the sleazy side of the industry. Her mother, Julie, has made looking out for her youngest daughter a full-time job, spending her days on the Party Of Five set and wherever else Chabert's acting or promotional duties take her, including Auckland. Chabert explains that her parents are definitely not pushing or pressuring her and that their bottom line is always her happiness. "Their main concern is if I'm having fun," asserts Chabert. "There's always this question everyday, literally: 'Are you having fun? Is this still fun?' They don't want me doing it unless I'm having a great time."
Also, her family insist on treating Chabert as a daughter or sibling rather than as a star. Her success doesn't entitle her to any special family privileges and most of her earnings are locked away in a trust fund until she's older. "You know, it's no big deal," she explains with a dismissive shrug. "I'm just Lacey to them and it's just sort of my hobby, so it's not that big of a deal. Which is the way I want it to be."
Similarly, and even more surprisingly, Chabert's friends are also not overwhelmed by having a celebrity in their midst. "My friends have never been weird about me acting," contends Chabert. "It's like we don't talk about it very much. I'm just Lacey to them, which is nice. They watch the show occasionally. The only thing they ever ask about is Scott Wolf," she laughs.
Scott Wolf was also a popular topic during Chabert's visit to New Zealand. Breaking away from the inevitable print, radio and television interrogations, Chabert found time to attend a question and answer session with Epsom and Auckland Girls Grammar School students after a special screening of Lost In Space. Obviously relishing the chance to talk to girls her own age, Chabert proved her insistence that she's just a normal teenager by joining in with a gushing analysis of the pin-up heartthrob. "I thought he was going to marry me one day," she giggles, a little embarrassed at her admission. "I was, like, totally delusional."
Of course, after four seasons working side-by-side with Wolf, she's gained a little more perspective. However, as she settles into her tale about meeting Leonardo DiCaprio in a hotel lift after the premiere of Lost In Space, it's obvious that even her privileged position doesn't leave Chabert immune from acting as star-struck as any other 15-year-old. "I was completely mortified," she winces. "I'm pretty good at keeping my composure and I have never not been able to keep it together. But I was so in shock that I was just crying," she laughs, adding that she couldn't manage a single word and had to be counseled by her sisters over the telephone to get over the ordeal.
Actually, even if Chabert had been able to pull off an award-winning performance in nonchalance, it wouldn't have done her any good. Although her likeness is doubtlessly worshipped in living rooms and bedrooms around the world and, as the internet attests, she inspires thousands of adolescent admirers, Chabert is a no-go zone for boys — at least until September. "My dad's always said I'm not allowed to date until I'm 16," confides Chabert. "But now that I'm almost 16, he wants to move it up to, like, 35 or something," she laughs, feigning mock persecution.
While she's counting down the months, Chabert has to make do with living that part of her life through Party Of Five's Claudia, who is about to pause long enough in her seemingly endless stream of tragedies to meet her first boyfriend. "Poor Claudia," sighs Chabert. "She needs some therapy!"
While any direct comparisons between Chabert and Claudia are tenuous, they do share the common bond of existing in the adolescent limbo between childhood and womanhood. "That's where I can definitely relate to my character," agrees Chabert. "I definitely don't have the confidence I had two years ago. Everything's changing really fast. Claudia's pretty insecure and searching for her own identity, which I am as well."
Growing up in the public eye isn't easy for Chabert either.
"I'm growing up in front of everyone," frowns Chabert. "People are very critical. They notice every different little change in you everyday. People pick up on everything. It's hard to separate yourself from the real you and the you that people see and to remember that this is just their opinion. There's good criticism and, you know, I'm totally open for criticism. If there's something I can change for the better, great. But when it's things you can't help, it's very hard to overlook. For example, some people don't exactly love my voice and people say mean things about it. It's just hard because it's upsetting and it bothers me. I think it would bother anyone. But you have to separate yourself from it and say, 'Okay, this is one person's opinion', and move on. I think it's better not to read these things. It's healthier not to know."
Of course, that kind of intense attention has a flip side. For Chabert, it's the knowledge that young people are identifying with her and her characters and even learning something about growing up.
"I know from the letters and stuff I get from people my age, they say that my character dealing with something helped them deal with something in their own life," explains Chabert. "It's very scary and it's a lot of pressure because what you do seems to be so important."
Despite the pressure to be a role model and the inevitable criticism she encounters because of her career, Chabert loves what she's doing. It's not only the fame, fortune and personal enjoyment she derives from acting which keeps her invigorated but the sincere thought that her acting spreads joy. "My parents have always said: 'You leave an influence with everyone that you come in contact with.' And I hope that I can leave a positive one."
Chabert's costume in Lost In Space definitely proves she has progressed some way in making the awkward transition from child to woman. The skin-tight lycra suit, which she had to be glued into and cut out of everyday, was her least favourite part of her motion picture debut, although not the most frightening. "At first, I was a little intimidated," she concedes. "I was pretty scared, especially of Gary Oldman [who plays the evil Dr Zachary Smith]. His films and his characters are so intense and I've never seen someone so versatile. I was wondering: is he really like these psychotic people? And I found out he's a completely real person."
Unlike most of her co-stars, Chabert is too young to have any fond memories of the TV series. "I didn't know what Lost In Space was," she sheepishly explains. "The morning I was going to read for the director, Stephen Hopkins, at, like, 5:30, 1 got up to watch it on cable, barely holding my eyes open. And Penny wasn't even in the episode!"
That didn't really matter because the revamped, '90s Penny is very different from the sweet girl of the '60s. She's also very different from Claudia, something that appealed to Chabert. "I wanted to get a movie and I was just trying to find something that was different from Claudia. Being on a show that long, it's important to be versatile and let people see you in a different way and perceive you in a different sense. I thought Penny was different. I thought she had different problems," Chabert laughs, before adding: "It's definitely more interesting to play a character with complications."

Lost In Space opens nationwide July 2; Party of Five returns to TV2 later in 1998.