Splendor In The Grass

by Lorna Koski

� Scene April/May 1987

Transcribed and sent in to Lisa Bonet Online by Purr_11, member, Yahoo's Lisa Bonet/Lilakoi Moon Club

The Huxtables may be America's favorite wholesome, happy family,but it's prettiest daughter is about to shed her squeaky-clean image in a big way.As Denise Huxtable, Lisa Bonet's greatest sins were borrowing her farhers clothes or shoving her sister,but,in her new film, Angel Heart, she's Epiphany, a field worker who had a baby at 14 and goes on
to a torrid romance with a private eye,even froliking in the nude .

When asked whether she thinks her Cosby Show fans will be shocked, she says,"Yeah. If they're reacting to Denise, they're going to be surprised. But both characters are inside of me. that's the scary thing."

Although Bonet, who s 19,plays the perky, frivolous and pamped Denise to perfection, her own upbringing wasn't exactly Leave It To Beaver." I was the square peg in a round hole in every respect.," she says." My parents are divorced," she adds, explaining." My father is out of my life now. My mom's family is white, and they're Jewish, and my mom wanted me to bas mitzvah,and I was like,'No,no no-no can do, Mom.' I used to think it would be easier if I was just one thing or another. When my mom and I would walk in public, holding hands, we would get looks that would kill, like we were doing something dirty."

She admits that times have changed, but she's concerned these days about being typed."Jennifer Beals is mulatto, but since she played nothing in Flashdance, she doesn't have a label. But because I'm on the Cosby Show, I'm 'Lisa Bonet black actress,' In Angel Heart, though, I play opposite Mickey Rourke, so it'll be interesting to see what happens." Bonet's fine-boned face suggests she was a heartbreaker, but she insists it isn't so." I was so hideous from the frist grade until 13. I didn't have one single date during high school." She had few friends and spent many Saturday evenings at home watching TV. Not any more. Lisa Bonet seems the television teen queen most likely to succeed in transforming into a sultry film star. Angel Heart, directed by Alan Parker, features Rourke as Harry Angel, a private detective hired by the enigmatic Louis Cyphre, played by Robert De Niro, to find a big-band singer Johnny Favorite. Charlotte Rampling is Margaret Krusemark, Favorite's former fiancee and Bonet, as Epiphany, is his daughter. The film is set-and was shot- primarily in New Orleans.

Asked whether she found the idea of working with such a distinguished group
intimidating, Bonet says,"Yes!" immediately, and dissolves into giggles.

Then she adds, " I was just afaid of people watching me and judging me. But Mickey was really generous and made me feel more comfortable." On the set, she says,"He was vey provocative, screaming at me to get to react, or saying something that he knew would piss me off" to get the right emotion for the camera.

She was also a bit thrown by the pace of movie- making. " I'm used to,' Okay, we have 23 minutes. No pauses! ' Alan had to keep taking me to the side and saying, ' Lisa, this is not TV. We have more time. Take your time.' "

But Bonet is bound to be in television-land for some time to come. In May, she will begin filming her own series, tentatively titled It's a Different World. In it, Denise Huxtable goes to college, rooming with two other girls. " When I did the pilot I learned a whole different
side of her. I thought she was a responsible person, but I found out she was just a flake. her
grades are really bad. She's intelligent, but she doesn't have her priorities straight."

Bonet herself is clearly no flake, but she bares more than a few traces of the flaky Age of Aquarius. She tends to refer to "energy" a great deal and spent two weeks in India recently at the ashram of her guru. " The frist thing you think is ' Gosh poverty,' but no one's unhappy. I
find it really impressive that people can exist like that, and I think we're such babies. We can't live without our hair dryers." Her current beau is also an acolyte: " We met in upstate New York, and he's still in India. He once wanted to be a swami."

Bonet grew up in Los Angles and will return there when her new series starts, but she definately doesn't love L.A. " It's a seductive little town. And at the gym, it's like showtime, competition.... My friend had the perfect line - we were drivng along after a concert, and she said, 'All these people look like extras.' "

Like so many ambitious teenagers, Bonet has already mapped out the rest of life. She plans to work only for the next 10 years, doing television, movies and perhaps some theater." I want to make enough money to raise my kids the way I want and to travel. If I lived abroad. I'd like a castle in Spain."

These days, she admits, most of her friends are in show business, but Bonet is not at all entranced by the antics of the Brat Pack. " I think it's good that young actors can work," she says," but at the same time, I think that what Emilio Estevez has done is disgusting. I think a film should be a piece of art, and I remember reading an interview where he was gloating that he was the frist out of everyone to be able to do everything. That's not the point! The point is to create something magnificent and exquisite and intelligent, not to write, produce, direct and stick your fiancee in a film."