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Enough with the B-movie, robo-babe thing. Action actress Yancy Butler has moved on to a real part - Steven Bochco's Brooklyn South

GQ: Your two previous hour-long dramas, Mann & Machine and South Beach, both tanked pretty quickly. What interested you in doing the new Steven Bochco cop series, Brooklyn South? 
Yancy: Being part of an ensemble, sharing the weight. I never worked less than sixteen-hour days on South Beach . I also have an interesting story line. Something tragic happens to my fiancé in the pilot. I hope I don't just sit around moping for two years. 

GQ: Any revealing JC Van Damme anecdotes you'd like to share from you time together on HardTarget? 
Yancy: He has a fart machine. He thought it was the funniest thing. It got put away, and then Wilford Brimley discovered it and all hell broke loose. He'd tell some poor PA to go pick something up, and then he'd let it rip. It got so bad, the medics were passing out antacids. 

GQ: Boys will be boys. What was your favorite toy as a child? 
Yancy: My dad's drumsticks. 

GQ: Your dad was the drummer for the Lovin' Spoonful.
Yancy: They broke up about a year before I was born. My father tried musical theater - he was in Hair - and then did construction for twenty years. 

GQ: How did growing up in New York's West Village in the '70s shape you? 
Yancy: I think you learn a lot of things earlier than in suburbia just to survive. It was rough. My junior high was dreadful. I see a lot of my fellow alumni on America's Most Wanted.

GQ: Were you a troubled youth? 
Yancy: I got a youth delinquent card that went away when I was 16. I wasn't allowed to attend my eighth-grade graduation, because I got in a fight with another girl. My father and I drove by my graduation and Bronx cheered everybody. 

GQ: Did you have to grow into your eyebrows? 
Yancy: It was either that or they consumed my face. Unibrows unite! They're very practical. When I work out, it's like having a built-in sweatband. I still get makeup artist who want to apply an eyebrow pencil. I'm like, Are you kidding? 

GQ: At what age did your voice grow the husk? 
Yancy: Around 10. It's my mother's voice. One fortunate thing about growing up quickly is that had I not stopped going to clubs when I was 14 and almost stopped drinking when I was 15, I would have gotten out to Hollywood and just lost my mind. 

GQ: When did you find time to lose your virginity? 
Yancy: While watching Mary Tyler Moore at 3 A.M. I was about 14, and my friend's brother said something as romantic as, "Do you want to do it?" And I said, "Sure." I remember thinking, I hope this gets better. 

GQ: At what point did you decide to become an actress? 
Yancy: I acted a little in college [Sarah Lawrence], but I didn't make that decision until it came time to pay back my student loans. I was told I was too short to model, so I decided to give acting a try. 

GQ: Are you surprised that most of your credits are in the action-adventure aisle? 
Yancy: I actually don't know how it happened. You work out to play an android in Mann & Machine, and then you go for a meeting and get another physical role, and it just keeps going. 

GQ: Your role as Wesley Snipe's skydiving sidekick in Drop Zone was originally written for a man. 
Yancy: That's why Wesley punches me out in one of our first scenes together. I was really happy they left that in. She deserved it. 

GQ: Have you ever taken a swing in real life? 
Yancy: I haven't been in a fist fight since that one in eighth grade. I've spent a lot of time and money trying to keep my anger in control. 

GQ: What's the most important thing you've learned in therapy? 
Yancy: Patience. And giving myself more breaks. Nobody is perfect all the time.

GQ: What's the most embarrassing thing you've been asked to do on a movie set? 
Yancy: Climax. It was for an HBO film I did called The Ex. 

GQ: Hardest thing you had to do to get a role? 
Yancy: Dance to a song from The Mambo Kings for a ballroom dance film. They wanted to see if I had any rhythm. I felt like Steve Martin in The Jerk. 

GQ: What's the biggest misconception people have about you? 
Yancy: That I'm as tough as the characters I play. I can be extremely vulnerable. People are tough on me because they think I can handle it.

GQ: Do you consider yourself a hard target? 
Yancy: To say I'm the easiest person to live with would be a lie.

GQ: What makes you difficult to live with? 
Yancy: There's no milk for tomorrow, and I want you to leave. That kind of thing.

GQ: What's the worst pickup line you've ever heard?
Yancy: On an airplane: "Do you want to go into the bathroom?"

GQ: And your response? 
Yancy: "Not on your life. I'm already a member of the mile high club, thank you very much. Enjoy the movie." 

GQ: What book has influenced you the most? 
Yancy: The Catcher In The Rye. I read it at 14 and identified. Like Holden, when I was 12, I looked like I was 18. 

GQ: How old do you feel now? 
Yancy: I'm the oldest 26-year-old I know. A lot of experience has been crammed into a short amount of time. Some days I feel a good 65, 70. Like I want to lie down.

GQ: Do you have a favorite Lovin' Spoonful song? 
Yancy: Yes. Do You Believe in Magic? 

GQ: And do you? 
Yancy: "Believe in magic in a young girl's heart" was my high school yearbook quote. They let me attend that graduation.