Yes, I Interviewed Brittany Murphy

By Heather Huntington on December 21st, 2009

When I first moved to Los Angeles just over three years ago, I was working full-time as an entertainment journalist, which means I spent my time seeing movies, reviewing movies, and interviewing the people who made movies.

It was an awesome job that I loved, and one that gave me the privilege of meeting a lot of actors, directors, and anyone else that the average bear doesn’t have access to. One of those people was Brittany Murphy.

It was maybe my 3rd or 4th day at this job and my first junket, for a little ensemble indie she was in called The Dead Girl.  To say I was nervous was an understatement.

Murphy wasn’t my first celeb interview – the way things played out, that honor went to Giovanni Ribisi, who it must be said here, was absolutely lovely to me. The junket went on smoothly. I was sent from room to room, Kerry Washington (gorgeous), Marcia Gay Harden (serious). “Hello, I’m Heather, this is my first day,” “Wow!”, etc. And then: gridlock.

Brittany Murphy, the ‘big’ interview of the junket, wasn’t there. Time went on, and an increasingly bigger backlog of journalists congregated in the hallway outside of the room where she was supposed to be, waiting, waiting, waiting. Publicists made excuses, telling us she’d be here any minute.

I didn’t know at the time, but this is not the way things usually go at junkets. While not all celebs enjoy doing press (in fact, I can imagine, many think of them as quite the drag), most nut up, show up, and are nice while they are there. Not only is it in their best interest to make a good impression on the press that is going to be promoting their projects, but more to the point it is just general human politeness that most people do have. Those that break this protocol make for favorite stories among industry people.

Murphy did eventually show up, with what I recall struck me as an entourage (probably of assistants and such) trailing her through the hallways. She was far more done up than the other interviewees. Everyone is always made up nicely for the camera, but less than a year out from my own wedding, I remember noticing that she was wearing the individual fake lashes that take hours to apply.

Because of the backlog, she was my last interview of the day. By now, I was old hat. Well, maybe not, but I wasn’t sweating as much when I went in to talk to people. She was perky, professional, gave good answers, and interested in the fact that it was my first junket – everything you’d expect.

As I was getting ready to leave, she came out of the hotel room to go to the bathroom and stopped to talk to me.  She told me I would have a good career as a journalist, that I made her feel very comfortable and listened to, and THAT was important. She went out of her way to wish me well, and assured me that she wasn’t ‘just saying it,’ that she meant it. It was really nice.

I will admit, it’s weird that someone I met and was so full of life, has died. That said, however, having heard shop talk even that day about Murphy’s unreliability and possible drug use, I can’t say I’m totally surprised. But whatever the cause, it’s sad.

For another take on that day at The Dead Girl junket, check out Greg Ellwood’s (formerly of MSN) more-insightful-than-I-could-ever-be article for Hitfix here.