The young and beautiful actress Alanna Ubach is now appearing in MGM's "Legally Blonde." Audiences know her best as Noreen in "The Brady Bunch Movie." "I play the sorority sister and best friend of Reese Witherspoon in 'Legally Blonde.' It's a comedy, so I thought of every single dork, every ditzy cheerleader I knew in high school and I put them all together as my character!" Ubach said with a laugh. "It's a good film."
Ubach is a California native. "I was born and raised in Downey, California. I went to college for five minutes and then I started working and acting." The brunette beauty loves being an actress. "It's like Halloween every time you get a chance to perform. I get to dress up in costumes and play different parts. If you play a serial killer, you don't end up going to jail. If you play cheerleaders in college you don't have to do the homework. So, it's a great thing."
Ubach is proud of her Latin background. " I'm a Puerto Rican through and through, but I wasn't born in New York," she said with a chuckle. "My dad thought he was being cool moving from San Juan to Los Angeles. He thought he'd stand out as the only Puerto Rican in Los Angeles. Little did he know he'd fall in love with my mother, a Mexican from Sinaloa. So, I'm really half Mexican and half Puerto Rican."
She studied at the Lee Strasberg Institute, the famous and well-respected acting school. "Following in the footsteps of so many great actors used to give me goose bumps. But now I know what it's like to be unemployed. I thank God I have a career. Now I get goose bumps getting hired to do what I love to do."
She has a long list of credits behind her, so she isn't out of work very long. "I do have my moments when I 'll go months without working because the parts I really love to do and put my heart into happen about three times a year. In between I'm doing whatever it takes to get enough energy to perform my next gig."
Her ambitions for an acting career are wide ranging. "I want to do it all-drama, comedy, musicals. Right now I'm trying to work on the sketch type of part and get on a show like 'Saturday Night Live.' I really love comedy." Would she do a film just for the money so she could eat? "If I were homeless and were offered a part in 'Casablanca Part II' or 'Titanic Part II' I think I would do it!" she said with a laugh. What is the best thing about being an actress? "You can hide behind a really intelligent writer's words and they make you look good. You don't really have to be that smart. I can walk and talk and I have a voice and I can make money off of it. Of course it's only five dollars a picture!" she said with an impish twinkle.
On the flip side, there are some minuses to the acting profession. "The worse thing about being an actress is that if you are really smart, no-one will ever know about it." Does she watch her weight like the current syndrome of skinny actresses? "That's what they have seamstresses for! If a woman is comfortable with herself I think that's what radiates. I think the moment you start questioning your body and looks is when you get into trouble. Inevitably you don't work and you're unhappy with yourself and never satisfied with your performance. Classic stars like Marilyn Monroe, Lana Turner and Ava Gardner were curvy and comfortable in their skin. They were absolutely gorgeous." It's not easy to tell if a script is good just by reading it. 'Yes, that's true. You can't tell until the editor does his work on the film. That's why you don't even have to be a good actor to look good on screen. In the end, the editor can make you look good."