Cover Girl: Bijou Phillips on Stuff Magazine

Bijou Phillips latest work can be seen in the upcoming movie Hostel: Part II. Unfortunately, the model/musician/actress had a few harsh words for the people she encountered while filming the movie in the Czech Republic. Here's her recent interview for the June issue of Stuff magazine.

STUFF: You got to shoot Hostel: Part II in the Czech Republic. How was that?
BIJOU: The people in the Czech Republic are fucking assholes. Every person from every country that’s gone to the Czech Republic thinks the people there are assholes.

Don’t hold back! What about them is asshole-ish? I was smoking at the time, and smoking is allowed everywhere, and I went into this T-shirt shop. This guy was like, “Hey, get the fuck outta here with that!” I was like, “Dude, if you don’t want me to smoke in here, there’s a better way to go about it.” He was like, “Fuck you, I don’t care, you bullshit American…blah blah blah blah.” I was just like, “Fuck you, you fucking piece of shit!”

So, we guess you’re still pretty riled up about the whole thing.
Everyone working on the movie was getting mad at me, like, “Look, they’ve been very oppressed. They were communist. They’ve had a hard life.” I just screamed, “No!” I recently finished shooting a movie in Bulgaria, and those people were ruled by the Turks for 500 years, and then they were under the thumb of Russia until 1989. So, look, there was communism there, and they’re not all a bunch of assholes.

Aside from the asshole Czechs, how was shooting the movie?
Sometimes it would get a little dark. I think everyone’s got their own bag of shit to bring to the party, and whenever you work with actors, you’re dealing with people who are a little different. It takes a lot to do this job. When I was a little kid, and my sisters Chynna or MacKenzie would be working, I always looked at it as this glamorous thing where they got to be princesses all day. I grew up to realize that it really takes a lot out of you, and you have to confront a lot about yourself and about what you’re willing to do when it comes to being vulnerable in front of people that you don’t know.

So being tortured wasn’t pleasant for you, then?
It was horrible, because up until that point, we had been making a comedy. Basically, the movie is about three girls who are enjoying a semester abroad. Then they get led to and trapped in the hostel, where they are tortured. I had to go into such a horrible place mentally to shoot those scenes. Every day for a week, I would go into the room, be strapped down, and I’d have to scream and cry—with tears pouring out of my eyes—all day long. You go into some really primal places. I found that the majority of the time we were filming those scenes, all I was thinking was, I want my mom.

Yikes.
After Eli would yell, “Cut!” for lunch or something, it would sometimes take me 20 minutes to stop crying.

How do you get back to normal?
I love mountain biking—it really clears my head. When I got back to the States, I went to my favorite place to ride, which is up Park City Mountain in Utah. I bike along this one ledge where there’s just a little track and a sheer drop. So I’m going, like, 20 miles an hour—full speed—over rocks and bumps. I could easily die.

And this relaxes you?
I do it because I’m crazy, and I love it. I get the biggest rush out of it.

Both Hostel movies involve a certain amount of seduction. Murder aside, do girls have any tricks we don’t know about for seducing guys?
Well, there’s this one trick—I’m not supposed to talk about it—that all women have decided never ever to tell a man. But now I’ll tell it: Women wear special bras that make their tits look bigger than they really are.

What?! Really?
Yes. It’s called the Wonderbra. So, guys, don’t ever get fooled again. When she takes it off, there’s not gonna be much there. Now you know.

Are you worried feminist groups will get all up in arms about women getting tortured in this flick?
No, because I think it’s good to show that this kind of thing could happen. People need to be a little more aware.

So Hostel: Part II is really just a big PSA?
Exactly. They should play it in schools. I think it should be mandatory viewing for all children. Seven-year-olds, 8-year-olds—they need to know this kind of stuff. I think parents, if they really care about their kids, will take them to see this movie. “The more you know,” right?

Photo from Stuff.