Jessica Alba is the cover girl for the December issue of Elle Magazine. Yes, I wrote “December”. The issue usually devoted to coats and winter and Christmas, and most magazines use some kind of red or green motif. Not Elle. Not when you could do a cover shoot like everyone spends their Christmas holiday on a tropical island, and that they need to do their shopping in November. Ugh. Resort wear. Anyway, despite my griping about the summery feel of the shoot, the actual photos are lovely. Alba is turning into a pretty good model – now let’s see if she can act her way out of a paper bag. That might take two brain cells to rub together, so let’s go to the interview excerpts:

On balancing motherhood and work:
“The time I’m not spending with my kid has to be worth it, so when I sat down with my agents after I was ready to go back to work, I told them: It’s all about the directors.”

On her choice of roles:
“I know I haven’t been swimming in the deep end with some of the movies I’ve done. I wasn’t trying to. I knew what they were.”

On her personality:
“I’m shy. I don’t like being the center of attention. But when I do comedy, I lose all inhibition and introspection. I no longer care.”

On criticism: “I’d been so afraid of criticism ever since I was young. Every time I’d get a critique or some redirection, I’d always just take it very personally, but now I have no problem with it. It’s just a chance to try things a different way. To play more with a character. It also gives me a chance to have some input, to use my voice.”

On not respecting screenwriters: “Good actors, never use the script unless it’s amazing writing. All the good actors I’ve worked with, they all say whatever they want to say.”

[From Elle]

That last quote is the one that made my eyes roll back like I was convulsing. “Good actors, never use the script unless it’s amazing writing. All the good actors I’ve worked with, they all say whatever they want to say.” Are you f-cking kidding me? Granted, there’s a lot of crap in Hollywood, and yes, some really dumb scripts get green-lit. But how is Jessica disrespecting screenwriters going to help her career? And why is she trying to take “all the good actors” down with her? And why does Dame Alba think the crap she comes up with will be so much more elegant and smart than whatever team of hacks is re-writing Alba’s latest dumb rom-com? It’s one thing if Meryl Streep wants to change a line to make it funnier. It’s quite another thing for Dame Alba to basically say that all “good” actors make sh-t up when they’re working with a script they don’t like. How about this – if you don’t like the script, don’t make the damn movie.

Photos courtesy of Elle.