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Craft Servicing

The award-winning indie convert tells EW Online that young actors should concentrate more on their craft than on getting magazine covers

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Marissa Roth

By Josh Wolk

Josh Wolk

Josh Wolk is a senior writer at EW and the author of ''Cabin Pressure: One Man's Desparate Attempt to Recapture His Youth as a Camp Counselor''

Ally Sheedy -- a veteran of '80s young Hollywood as a star of ''The Breakfast Club'' and ''St. Elmo's Fire'' -- revived her stagnating career when she won an Independent Spirit Award for her role as a drug-addicted photographer in 1998's acclaimed indie ''High Art.'' Since her resurgence, she's been quite outspoken about her long-simmering frustration with what she considers Hollywood's superficial value system.

Sheedy will still accept the occasional TV movie, like Monday night's true-life suburban rape drama ''Our Guys: Outrage in Glen Ridge'' (ABC, 9 p.m.), but she is extremely wary of making any more studio films. ''I don't trust a lot of Hollywood people's motivations,'' says the actress, who appears in the upcoming indies ''Sugar Town'' and ''Autumn Heart.'' ''In the independent world, you're generally working with the writer and the director, who love movies and just want to get the movie made. It's very different from Hollywood, where they're looking at movies to make money. Quality doesn't seem to be high on the list of priorities.''

A quick glance at this year's film releases shows that Hollywood's top priority right now is churning out high school movies like ''10 Things I Hate About You'' and ''Never Been Kissed,'' and in the process hyping young ingenues like Julia Stiles and Katie Holmes as the Next Big Things. Sheedy, 36, tells EW Online that she tried to avoid the Young Actress publicity mill when she was a member of the Brat Pack (she frequently turned down offers to pose for magazine fashion spreads, for example). And she urges today's starlets to do the same.

''It's not that actors are victims of some big marketing campaign,'' Sheedy says. ''You have to agree to do it. And I question why someone would be so willing to sell themselves as a product right now and not really look at the long term. I don't know how many of these people really love acting and want to stick it out and how many are (just) interested in a lot of fame and publicity.''

Posted May 10, 1999 | Order Article Reprints