THE INSIDER: HILARY DUFF

The actress likes skinny jeans, Bonnie Parker, and Passion Pit...just like us.

Here’s what you may know about Hilary Duff: Disney Channel princess, chart-topping singer, gossip rag regular.

But that’s not all. The 21-year-old actress loves leather jackets, teenage rebels, and Passion Pit. Which makes her a lot more similar to us than we thought. Just days before she joins the AIDS Walk in New York City, we caught up with Duff on the top of the Empire State Building to talk about giving back, joining the cast of the Bonnie & Clyde remake, and partying to killer indie rock. Turns out, this is one good girl who just might know a thing or two about playing bad.

Our generation sometimes gets a bad rap for not being very involved in volunteer work—do you think it’s deserved?

I think it needs to change. It’s nothing I want to shake my finger at, because you don’t get results that way. As a young person, life is stressful; your job is stressful, trying to have any type of social life is hard, you’re tired at the end of the day, you never have enough money to get this or that. We do a really good job of having sob stories for ourselves, when there’s a lot more need out there and a lot more people who have it harder than we do. Doing really simple things can actually be fun and be so rewarding. I don’t want to keep beating it into people, but it’s true. If you find one thing you feel passionate about, give back or volunteer once a week.

What will you be listening to when you’re completing the AIDS Walk this Sunday?

I love MGMT; I’m still really into them. I like Kate Nash, I love Lily Allen’s new record, I still love Morrissey—he’s my all-time favorite. And I really like this new band Passion Pit.

Your line for DKNY Jeans, Femme, comes out this fall. What can we expect?

We did two pairs of jeans this season—it’s kind of a selfish line, because it’s skinny jeans, which look the best on me. One thing I wanted was multiple-size belt loops, because sometimes I want to wear a skinny little belt wrapped around a million times, or sometimes I want to wear a really fat one that won’t ever stay in place, slung low. So it just has a lot of options. There’s other stuff, too, like little shrunken leather jackets. I wanted the stuff to be smart.

What was your inspiration for the line?

Just normal girls. I’ll be walking down the street and think, oh she looks cute! Especially being in New York is nice, because everyone has such unique styles. And it’s not people who have a ton of money or have a huge closet, but it’s people wearing what they love and having a unique way of putting it together. That inspired me.

You’re about to start shooting for The Story of Bonnie and Clyde. How is it preparing to play Bonnie Parker?

I’m really excited! I think it’s going to be really beautiful. We’re shooting in the South, and we want to really show how hot and dry [it is]…and the clothes! It’s a tragic love story, and that’s what we want to get across. And, also, how young they were. People don’t realize that they were, like 18 years old doing this. In the version in ’67, with Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty, they were already adults, but Bonnie and Clyde were actually teenagers. So they were very ahead of their time. They were rebels, you know?

Is it harder or easier to take on a role that’s already been established?

I think that it’s a mixture of both. Obviously Faye Dunaway was amazing in that version, but I don’t want to be exactly like that. I’m trying to do as much research as I can on who Bonnie was. She was a very sweet, likeable girl that the whole town loved, and she was always daydreaming about who was going to come take her away, and how she was going to have a life that means more. So she is kind of the girl-next-door that got herself in a lot of trouble.

Are you anything like Bonnie?

I think that it’s going to be really fun, because she is different from me. I think I have a sane outlook on life, and don’t really get myself in too much trouble!
REBECCA WILLA DAVIS

For more info on AIDS Walk, visit aidswalk.net.



This story was published on May 15, 2009.