Olivia Lee

[faceless]

'Men don't want women to be funny':The world according to Olivia Lee
The Dirty Sexy Funny star on being mistaken for a serial killer, why Ashton Kutcher is the worst person to have as a boss and preferring English men to American
By Lina Das
15th May 2010
dailymail.co.uk

Say what you like about Olivia Lee, but there's no denying she has guts. The 29-year-old has taken over from Dennis Pennis and Dom Joly as Britain's most intrepid prankster - snaring Jennifer Lopez, Tom Cruise and Teri Hatcher along the way - and has turned her humour into an art form. 'I can get away with more because of my looks,' she admits. 'I'd be lying if I said otherwise.'

Born in north London and trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama, she's known for her outrageous comedy creations such as Miss Single, Bad Date and the splendidly named Door Bitch. Yet she got her big break on The Basil Brush Show - playing the aristocratic fox's girlfriend. Honing her fearless brand of comedy in Channel 4's Balls Of Steel and Olivia Lee's Naughty Bits and Comedy Central's Dirty Sexy Funny, she's now proving a hit in the U.S. as a regular on Jay Leno's The Tonight Show. She's also working on a new film with Ashton Kutcher.

So where did Lee develop such a mischievous streak? Comedy, it seems, runs in the family. 'My mother's always suggesting new pranks,' she says. 'Her best one is: "Wouldn't it be funny if you were in a shop and when you got up and walked away, you had a tail?" She's always trying to get me to do that one.'

A lot of men don't want women to be funny.
Or at least funnier than them. They like it if you laugh at their jokes, but when you start to compete a bit, it tends to separate the wheat from the chaff. My grandma's always saying, 'They don't like to be challenged - let them have the last word.' But I like strong men who can hold their own and enjoy a bit of a challenge. I know I do - I don't want to be with a bimbo.

I was once mistaken for a serial killer.
I play a character on Dirty Sexy Funny called OCD Woman, Octavia Clements-Dunworthy, who is a nut of gargantuan proportions. She's a pedant in terms of tidiness and hygiene, and one time I had her interviewing for a PA at her flat. I asked the woman who turned up for the interview to remove her shoes and put plastic coverings on her feet and then showed her the uniform she was going to wear, which was some kind of surgical outfit. She'd obviously seen a bit too much CSI, because at that point she looked around the flat, saw that every surface was covered in plastic and thought that I was going to kill her and dispose of the evidence. That was the point at which she ran out the door, leaving her shoes behind. I ran after her going, 'It's OK, you're quite safe - it's for a hidden-camera show!' It was the only time we didn't get the release form signed.

Vandalising cars is now part of my job.
I recently did a hidden-camera sketch for Jay Leno where I played an inappropriate tour guide for one of those celebrity Hollywood tours. My character was apathetic and clueless, stopping off to buy alcohol and dishing out useless facts such as 'And this is where I met my ex...' The prank was for me to bump into my ex with his new girlfriend, spot his car nearby and then vandalise it in front of all my tourists. The first time I threw the brick at the ex's car I missed completely, but by the time I got going one of the tourists had phoned the police and another guy was screaming, 'Not his car!'

When I'm all dressed up, I don't look like I'm going to cause any trouble.
It's afforded me the luxury of getting into events or certain situations. If I looked a bit more unassuming, I might have problems. We did this spot on Balls Of Steel where I'd go to red-carpet events and interview the celebrities. Once I was interviewing Jennifer Lopez and I read out a comment in Spanish from one of our 'viewers' (it was 'J-Lo, we love you, but your ass is the size of a truck'). She provided the textbook response - she said she hadn't heard the question. She was very gracious, but then celebrities tend to be. I've never had any comeback or been blacklisted by publicists, and I think they understand that it's schoolgirl humour and all in good fun. Also, I tend to smile my way out of these situations.

I could have been a Bond girl.
As well as comedy, I've also done some serious acting roles, and I was in the running for Bond (for the part of Vesper Lynd in Casino Royale). I got seen a few times, but the role went to Eva Green. I would have loved to have done it, but Bond girls have a graceful beauty, and to my knowledge they've never cast a kooky one. I'd love to do it one day, but I don't think it's my calling.

I call my dad the Old Git, so you could say I've got very liberal parents.
My dad runs the British division of the designer Lanvin and my mum was an actress, so they're free thinkers and creative and have a great sense of humour, which probably helps them understand the job I do. They're always encouraging. My family's Jewish, and Jewish parents are always telling their kids they're brilliant at everything and can do no wrong, so maybe that's where I get the confidence to do what I do.

Once I spent an audition curled up on the floor in the foetal position.
I was doing a sketch for Balls Of Steel, and I arrived at an audition in Hollywood, had a normal chat with the casting director and then, when it was time for me to read my lines, just curled up on the floor and started rocking. The poor man looked very concerned and was standing over me going, 'Are you OK? Shall I get a doctor? Shall I phone your mum?' We couldn't use the footage in the end because I was laughing so much. I am a bit worried that one day my worlds will collide - I'll turn up to an audition for a serious role and meet the same casting director and neither of us will know what to say.

Ashton Kutcher is the worst person to have as a boss.
I'm too busy staring at his face to pay attention. When I did stuff for Punk'd he'd show up for the briefing and I'd be too busy gazing at him to remember anything he said. He's just physical perfection, and what's more he's completely in love with his wife. I've actually got a movie in development with him - it's a bit like Spinal Tap in that it feels real but it'll also involve hidden cameras.

I've given my Twitter password to my publicist and told him to tweet for me.
I'm too embarrassed to tell people what I'm doing, whereas he's very good at going, 'Say that you're on Jay Leno - show off a bit!' I do my own Facebook page, though, and I've got a good few thousand friends. If someone sends a nice email, I like to reply, but sometimes they can get a little strange. One guy sent a message going, 'Hey, I'm funny too - when are we going for that drink?', implying that there was some kind of history between us, so when I didn't reply he sent another message going, 'How very rude of you.' It's a little bit scary and weird. Like I'm actually going to say, 'Ooh, let's meet up on Wednesday, then, shall we?'

I don't know if it's laziness, but I prefer my English boys to American men.
I'm newly single, so I'm just getting back into the whole dating thing, and the few dates I've had with Americans have been, well, dull. I like funny men with an acerbic wit and I've yet to see that in an American guy. I went out with an American the other night, and although he was a lovely guy, as soon as my English friends showed up - all of them men - I started having more fun. That's probably not a good sign for a date.

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