28
TheStation Elevenstar thought she had her whole career figured out.
In 1991, Lori Petty was already a star.
In her downtime, the then-28-year-old paged the script forFree Willy.
She was confident and talented, athletic and in-demand.
Her co-stars already included Geena Davis, Robin Williams, and Patrick Swayze.
She had very good reasons to believe the scripts would never stop coming her way.
I’m very blessed, she says.
I’m highly blessed and highly favored.
Its not just an act.
In fact, she still lives right next door to them.
She might not like the beach, but shes found community on Venices basketball courts and its crowded boardwalk.
She loves biographies of historical figures in particular: Babe Ruth, George Washington Carver, Amelia Earhart.
It just fascinated me like, how do people live?
What do they do?
How would you describe yourself at 28?
Girl, that was 30 years ago.
I had to IMDb myself and Google myself, which I don’t do.
And you’re correct that 28 was humongous.Point Breakcame out.
I was filmingA League of Their Own, thenA League of Their Owncame out.
It was like breakfast in London, lunch in Rome, and dinner in wherever.
It was just nuts.
We didn’t even have to touch the ground.
You’d get out of the plane, and there’d be a car.
You would just get in the car.
And I was like, “No, I want to touch the ground.
Come on, lady.”
But yeah, it was just magic.
It was the first time I’d been to Europe.
And I was so thankful.
And I’m just so thankful.
This is so cool."
I didn’t take any of that for granted at all.
Do you remember having the thought, Ive made it?
I had the sense.
Well, here’s the fucked up part.
This is my job.
That’s just what I thought.
And I’m like, “Why not?”
If I just keep doing them back to back.
And then I getFree Willynext, and so these are four iconic movies.
And so it didn’t work out that way.
And obviously it’s because of the way Hollywood is built and structured.
How do you mean?
When I madeA League of Their Own, I was 27 playing 17.
I was a little kid, and inPoint Break, it was [director] Kathryn Bigelow who castme.
And there’s nothing wrong with blonde girls with big tits.
There’s nothing wrong with them.
The norm for a leading lady is to be this woo-woo person.
And I’m more athletic and not a woo-woo person.
I can’t stand the sound of a hair dryer, it just drives me crazy.
And then I didn’t work untilTank Girl[released in 1995].
Do you wish that at 28 you knew what you came to understand about Hollywood?
Or are you glad for this period when you were hopeful and optimistic?
I wasn’t hopeful and optimistic.
I was confident, talented and happy.
And I can do anything you ask me to do.
I can do it.
So, no, I just didn’t know that was going to happen.
How would you know?
And I went, and I auditioned, and I left.
They chased me down the street, because I didn’t leave any [contact information].
I don’t know what I’m supposed to do!
They’re like, “Oh my God, sit over there.
We have to get her an agent.”
And so that was fun.
So they don’t all like it when you don’t do what they want you to do.
What memories stick out fromPoint Break?
Patrick, Keanu, all the Chili Peppers and me?
Everybody’s just wet and naked and changing clothes and surfing and playing football.
It was the funnest.
I think it was the Chili Peppers that rented a house at the beach.
It was just full of sand and clothes and boys.
We had so much fun.
And I’ll never forget this.
So we were in Honolulu… not Honolulu.
I don’t know.
It’s this big pink, beautiful castle of a hotel.
They take me to my room.
The fucking drapes are flinging through the open windows.
I called downstairs, and I said, “I’m in the wrong room.”
They were like, “No, that’s your room.”
I said, “Well, where does the queen sleep when the queen comes?
I can’t be in the queen’s room.”
They were like, “Ms.
Petty, the queen is not coming and it’s your room.”
I mean, I was just so grateful.
I was born in a trailer park in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
I would not be a human being if I didn’t ask you what Keanu Reeves was like.
Just sweet as pie.
It’s taken care of."
And I said, “Who was it?”
They go, “We can’t tell you.”
You know what I mean?
That’s that guy.
He’s the guy.
He’s just this sweetie pie, honey bunch.
And I’ll tell you more stories.
So there’sthis scene where we wake up on the beachafter we supposedly made love.
Keanu goes, “Oh, I’m late.
And then Kathryn [Bigelow]s like, “Reset.”
And she looks at me and I look at her.
I’m like, “I got it.”
Because that was too short.
She shared a look.
So he gets on top of me again, gives me a kiss.
He says, “I’m so late.
I’ve got to go.”
Well, what you might’t see off-frame is I put my fingers in his belt loops.
Now watch next time.
He tries to get up and I pull him down.
But you’re able to’t tell I pulled him down.
It looks like he dips back in.
So he laughs and kisses me again.
And so then he goes.
That was a fun trick to just pull Keanu Reeves on top of you several times.
Do you still surf?
I did not like surfing even when I was surfing.
I mean, I pretended I loved it.
Oh, here’s a good story.
Being old is fun then it’s possible for you to tell all your stories.
I don’t go in the sun.
I don’t like it.
And Kathryn Bigelow says, “you gotta get out in the sun right now.”
Because I’d sit under an umbrella, I’d sit under a tree.
I’d sit under whatever.
So she would say, “Get out there.”
And then I’d go hide somewhere.
So the makeup artist said, “Look, Lori, just come in 20 minutes early.”
And she’s like, “I’ll just glisten you up.”
And so we did that the whole movie.
I was like, “I am not laying in the sun.”
I don’t like it.
And then you go to Ohio to makeA League of Their Own.
Thirty women playing baseball all day, every day.
And with Tom Hanks and David Strathairn and Penny Marshall and Jon Lovitz.
Okay, I’ll play.
You know what I mean?
It was just so much fun.
I grew up playing sports, so the baseball was nothing to me.
What was set like?
Did it feel like you were making one of the best sports movies of all time?
You were so focused.
There are no rules it’s what touches people’s hearts.
We’re now in the fourth generation of people watching this goddamn movie.
Take out goddamn, because it’s not a goddamn movie.
Because it’s literally four generations of people who have watched.
I see little two-year-olds dressed up as Kit and Geena for Halloween to this day.
So no, we didn’t know that.
We just did it, and we loved it.
There’s nothing, not one negative thing I could say about that movie.
It was just fun, fun, fun, fun.
And back then they used to pay you properly.
And you’d get per diem, which was cash.
But we were just working all the time or sleeping so there was nothing else you could really do.
I would take these little envelopes of money and put them in my Nike bag.
I clean out the bag.
There’s like $20,000 in these little yellow and blue envelopes.
I just freaked out.
I was like, “Oh my God.
It was really funny.
But we just had a gas.
Ive read you shared a trailer with Madonna.
Was that intimidating at 28?
In 1992, were already post-Blond Ambition Tour.
Since you know that, you probably know what Penny told me.
She’s like, “You are going to share a makeup trailer with Madonna.”
I mean, and this is when Madonna was like the height of Madonna.
This isTruth or DareMadonna.
So I said, “Penny, why?
I’m not even famous.
What are you talking about?
Put her with Geena.”
She’s like, “No, you’re free to handle her.”
I was like, “I can handle Madonna?
And she just meant you’re not going to be intimidated.
You’re not going to be weird.
You’re not going to be a crazy person.
So we were cool.
I said to [Madonna] one day, because it’s just me and her.
She’s sitting there half-naked, getting her makeup done.
I’m sitting there, not half-naked, getting my makeup done.
And I said, “Did you always know you were going to be Madonna, homie?”
And she goes, “No.
I didn’t know.
Are you kidding me?”
And it’s true, she didn’t.
She would run eight miles before work.
We would show up to work asleep.
She wanted nothing but to be great in the movie.
She just wanted to work her butt off.
She never wanted to hang out, though.
And I think it was because she was just on the Madonna train.
Let me keep it moving.
You sound like you were a very self-assured 28.
But would you have any advice or reflections for your 28-year-old self?
I really did enjoy it, every drop of it.
We were poor, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
But that’s just, like, the other road.
I mean, I got great grades and shit, but I knew I could dothis.
And I knew I wanted to make people happy and I knew I really enjoyed making people happy.
And I really enjoyed making people laugh.
I mean, come on.
I’m like, “Who doesn’t fucking what!?
I love you, too!
Come here, I’m going to literally hug you!”
So I get to love people.
To make people happy is the best job in the world.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
This article was originally published onJan.
