Interview

MKO: You know, I was never challenged. The movies we did after Full House were written for us, they were made for our audience. I knew that there was something I liked about acting, but by the time I went to college it had been forgotten. So I enrolled at William Esper [Studio for Acting] in New York, and I loved it. It takes you back to the basics. That's when I knew I wanted to keep doing that.

CB: There was a moment, then, when you really didn't want to act again.

MKO: Oh, for sure. When I was 16 or 17 I said, "I'm done. I'm exhausted." But then three days go by and you're ready to work again.

CB: I was looking through the inventory of movies that you and Ashley have made, and they aren't simply light, teenagey productions. You're all over the world. In one there's a jewel theft that forces you guys to go into the witness protection program. In another you track down Caribbean smugglers. They seem like pretty arduous films to make.

MKO: Yeah, and we filmed each one in something like two weeks, never more than three. We had to be prepped. It taught me a lot of discipline . . . It taught me to be present, because when you're rushing to get a movie done you can't spend all day on one scene. We'd go over the lines to memorize them, and we'd get a point whenever we got them right. When we'd get to a hundred points we were allowed to pick something from a gift shop. Say we were in Canada at a hotel. I always chose a pack of gum.

CB: I get the feeling from you that your parents were very supportive-not typical Hollywood parents who were ruthlessly running your careers.

MKO: They were really great, making sure we got the same amount of attention and had after-school activities, and they also made sure we went to a regular school. And I'm grateful for that because I feel like . . . Well, there are a lot of memories there that you would miss out on.

CB: I know you also have a place in L.A. and you go back and forth a lot, but do you think you've made New York your place?

MKO: I'm definitely bicoastal, but I have to say, it's easier to live in New York than in L.A. I feel like people respect other people's space a bit more here.

CB: I was worried that New York was becoming like L.A.-no more just letting everyone alone.

MKO: Everyone has the right to that freedom, right? Everyone has that right. It's freezing in New York right now. In L.A., it's sunny. But I would choose freezing over being followed.

CB: It's kind of impossible not to ask you how you feel about the world prying into your personal life. How do you deal with it? Do you just say, "Okay, I'm not going to take any of this personally. Fuck them."

MKO: I definitely don't take any of it personally. You learn how to have a sense of humor pretty quickly. I honestly don't keep up on it unless it's something that would hurt someone else. I can take care of myself, that's not the problem. But it's just not fair to bring anyone else into the picture.

CB: I was going to try to go the whole interview without asking you about the media. But of course I Googled you to check what the gossip had going. I saw a recent one that actually speculated when you and Nate [Lowman, the artist and Olsen's current boyfriend] were going to get married. It said, "Can we expect the marriage vows soon?" I thought, Jesus Christ, that's dating pressure.

MKO: [laughs] And you know Nate . . . It's one thing after the next, the most far-fetched thing that could possibly be said has already been said. There's nothing I can do about it really. They have the freedom to write whatever they want.

CB: Yeah, it's the first amendment.

MKO: I don't know. I wish it weren't so abused.

CB: When I saw you last summer, you were in a new apartment in New York. You were saying that you like to keep moving, that you haven't found one place yet that you want to stay in permanently. Do you think of yourself as an itinerant person?

MKO: I like change. I've never really had much consistency in my life, you know, from everyday work to my living situation to whether or not I'm going to be in L.A. The one constant thing in my life is my friends and family, which is all I need. But I've been in the same place for a while now, since last year, so that's a start. I kind of settled there and I'm happy for right now.

CB: You're a renter, right?

MKO: Yeah, I rent. It's hard for me to figure out where I want to be. But it's definitely in New York. I feel like New York throws different challenges at you and you can be more creative.

CB: You're a big fan of art. You really like Richard Prince, for example. But has dating Nate brought you into the young art scene here a bit more?

MKO: Not necessarily. It's always fun to welcome new people into your life. When dating anyone or becoming friends with anyone who has a different profession, a different life, it opens doors. All my friends here do such different creative things. It's so awesome.

CB: Well, you do a number of creative things. I hear that your clothing lines, The Row and Elizabeth & James, are breaking into menswear. Was that a natural progression?

MKO: I think that was our strategy from the beginning. We also have shoes coming out-they're going to be beautiful. Everything's looking pretty solid.

CB: How do you find the inspiration for a season?

MKO: An idea will come, whether it's from a movie or a person or a character or a place . . . Then we go through color, silhouettes, and fabric. We sort of put it all together, finding the common threads.

CB: Was there any iconic man you were referencing for fashion with the menswear line?

MKO: For E&J, we found a picture of a man from an old magazine and started from there.

To read the full Mary-Kate Olsen interview pick up a copy of Interview magazine's March issue.

Did you miss last month's cover story? Click here to read Lindsay Lohan's interview with Lauren Hutton.