Homing in on Katie
by: Jamie Diamond

Katie Holmes is hot! She's our cover model and she's the star of Teaching Mrs. Tingle and Dawson's Creek, with an ex who's one of Dolly's most requested pin-ups. What is it about Katie?

As the cameras roll, Katie Holmes - the tomboy-beautiful Joey Potter on Dawson's Creek - scrunches down beside a campfire in Capeside, Massachusetts (really Wilmington, North Carolina). The scent of popcorn wafts through the air and in the background of this carnival scene, clowns stroll among children clutching balloons. Close to Katie sits Nick Stabile - an actor with sparkling eyes - who's playing a photographer. He's gazing into her eyes, smitten. "Are you even aware of how beautiful you are?" he asks. The long-legged, Bambi-eyed knockout seems oblivious.

"You have these unbelievable sensuous lips," Stabile says, locking eyes. "Could I..." Katie moves towards him. "...Photograph you?"

Spurned again! Unrequited passion is the engine that drives on Dawson's Creek, Channel Ten's cheeky take on normal hormonal school students. Katie's love for the camera, though, is very much requited - Hollywood is captivated by her expressive beauty. The first time she auditioned for a movie - with no acting experience - she won a role in The Ice Storm. And she was cast for Dawson's based on an audition videotaped in her Toledo, Ohio, basement.

"I can't really sit here and say, 'Oh, poor me," says 20-year-old Katie in her little girl voice. "And yet, sometimes I'll be talking to someone and start to think, 'Maybe I have a friend here'. Then she'll ask for my autograph - and it's as though I have a wall around me. But I do understand how people fall in love with characters and confuse them with the actors."

Has she done that? "Oh, sure." She says, blushing. "With Brad Pitt. I watch his movies and I think, (she waves) 'I'm here, call me'."

You did things backwards - you got an acting job first, then became an actor.

"I was extremely fortunate. I didn't have to live in LA for years, wait tables and go on thousands of auditions. I also didn't have the advantage of that experience. I'm always watching myself, nervous - I really have no idea what I'm doing. I hope I'm achieving professional status. But a lot of days I feel like, 'What am I doing here?'."

What made the producers cast you as Joey Potter in Dawson's Creek?

"I'm a lot like Joey and I think they saw that. I come from a small town, I was a tomboy, Joey tries to be articulate and deny she doesn't have a lot of experience in life. Joey is learning, as I am. Her life parallels my life, which is all about new everything - new relationships, personas, perceptions - and about being guarded."

Do you sometimes feel other actors are jealous of your rise?

"At first, I felt bad because I didn't have to struggle. But, you know what? I can't help the fact that it happened. This was meant to be. I hope it happens for other people. But I can't say I'm sorry I didn't suffer."

Sanity begins at the Holmes'

Back on the carnival set, Katie grabs two dill pickles from a hot-dog vendor. "I'll forever wage the battle of the thighs," says the 175cm beanpole. I long to lecture her on the nutritional value of condiments, but I figure she has a mother for that.

Katie was raised in a strict family, the youngest of five (she has one brother and three sisters). Of her dad, a lawyer, she says, "He was a college basketball player. He's aggressive, but underneath, he's a teddy bear." Of her mum, she says, "She's tall, beautiful and ingratiating." When Katie was 10, her mum sent her to modeling school, "To expose me to a certain type of grace". At 16, Katie attended a national modeling convention in New York with her mum. "I also read for a commercial - and blew it. I came home feeling I hadn't lived up to the challenge. I began to concentrate more on acting. But I didn't allow myself to think anything would happen. I thought, 'Acting is fun. Finish your homework'."

Two years later, after being accepted into Columbia Uni, the straight-A student won a role in The Ice Storm. Then hit the jackpot with Disturbing Behavior, her latest release, Go, and the upcoming Teaching Mrs. Tingle.

Where did your talent come from?

"As the youngest, I watched my brother and sisters. When their friends came over, I'd sneak up and listen. I'd go to the kitchen to find out what they did to get in trouble - so I wouldn't do it. I was observant. I think that helped with acting. I love creating this other world, and not because mine is so terrible."

It must have been some audition tape!

"When mum and I taped auditions, we'd go to the basement. For Dawson's, I did two scenes from the pilot. In the second, I had to ask, 'When do you masturbate?'. I said that to my mum! I think we bonded."

The basics of Katie

The next morning, when I meet Katie in a Wilmington cafe, she's deeply immersed in a newspaper. The headlines are all about President Clinton's troubles. Katie, wearing a grey turtleneck that makes her eyes look as grey as the sea on a cloudy day, mentions the article, but as soon as the interview starts, Katie averts her eyes, and plays with her lips and stammers.

Did going to a girls' school shape you?

"Very much. Our self-image was not on how boys perceived us. We wore uniforms, so we didn't worry about how we dressed. Everything was about academics. But, in hindsight, I think we missed out socially. We came out of school and it was suddenly, 'Oh, my God! Boys!' - I was all about, 'How do I look? What's he thinking?' We weren't used to being around boys in a normal setting and seeing them as friends."

What kind of guys did you like?

"I fell for the unattainable, popular athletes. Occasionally, I'd talk to one of them on the phone. But no big romance for me.Dances were just terrible - we'd have to ask the boys! You felt like a bundle of nerves - 'Who's going to ask this guy to the dance?', 'Well, you took him last time, it's my turn'. The you'd have to phone, which was worse - 'Hi, what are you working on? Listen, do you want to go to this dance? OK, bye. See you in three weeks'. It made for a horrible evening."

Last year, you dated Joshua Jackson, who plays Dawson's self-depreciating jester, Pacey. Is it hard to work together now that you've broken up?

(Katie does her best imitation of calm.) "No. We're great friends. we did date. We fell in love. And I love him and now we have a friendship, which is nice. (She looks pointedly out the window.) So, isn't it pretty out today? (It's raining.)

You told me that you're reserved. Where does that come from?

"My mum. She's very reserved, that's kind of like being a lady to her.She instilled that value into us. (Katie suddenly drops her face into her hands.) Oh, this is too hard. We're trying to define too much. I don't like going into this. I feel like I'm in therapy."

OK, let's talk about Joey. Both you and she have a tentative quality.

"I'm not all together. My friends in college feel the same way. All 20-year-olds finding themselves. But it's strange for me to have this role reversal, to wonder what college would be like, instead of wondering what kind of job I'll get after college."

Hollywood Highlight

Katie appears in Teaching Mrs. Tingle, playing an over-achieving high school senior who'll stop at nothing to graduate as class valedictorian (head of the class) - and this includes kidnapping the history teacher (Helen Mirren), who stands in her way.

Written and directed by Kevin Williamson (the genius who not only created Dawson's Creek, but also wrote whopper teen hits Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer), this black comedy also features Barry Watson and Marisa Coughlan. (The studio, sensitive to the shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado, changed the movies title from Killing Mrs. Tingle to Teaching Mrs. Tingle.)

After all of your TV experience, what was it like to work on your new film, Teaching Mrs. Tingle?

"Maybe, because I made it through working with such a seasoned actor as Helen Mirren, I felt like I grew up during it. I was away from everybody at Dawson's and doing this on my own. Now I have more confidence."

The screenplay describes the high school student you play (Leigh Ann) in Teaching Mrs. Tingle as, "smart and reserved with deep, lonely eyes that see much farther than most 17-year-olds. A quiet beauty, hidden under a teenage awkwardness". Is that you?

"Definitely the smart part! (laughs) I'm kidding. But I do think that I'm pretty reserved and quiet, and I still have that teenage awkwardness."

After the interview, Katie perks up again and heads to the studio for another day of filming the angst of girls who look like angels - "Maybe I'll have some popcorn," she calls over her shoulder. "And live dangerously."