Interview: Richard A. Martin
Photography by Robert Maxwell

For the last several years, Olivia Wilde has inhabited celebrity purgatory. That is, she's just recognizable enough that when she appears on screens you've thought, "Oh, it's her…that hot girl…the one that looks like Jenna in the face, and Paris in the waist…what was she in?" Then you recall, "Oh, that's right, she was the lesbian love interest on The O.C… Funny, I'll never admit that I knew that to another man." Then your mind drifts, and you think about something else—Jenna or Paris, perhaps—but you never place a name to her seductive face. Well, that, good people, is about to change. Olivia Wilde is set to ascend to the A-list thanks to a key role in the ensemble cast of Nick Cassavetes's whiteboy Menace II Society, Alpha Dog, in which she holds her own alongside heavyweights like Bruce Willis, Sharon Stone, Justin Timberlake, and Emile Hirsch. In fact, her final scene, in which she emasculates an on-the-run Hirsch for not being able to, um, perform—even after some inspired fluffing—is one of the film's most memorable moments.

However, Alpha Dog is just the beginning for the 22-year-old Phillips Exeter alum, who, surprisingly, comes from a lineage of revered journalists. The Washington, D.C., native is set to star opposite Paul Walker later this year in The Death And Life Of Bobby Z, as well as in Crash director Paul Haggis's new TV show, The Black Donnellys. Complex had the good fortune to catch up with Young Blue Eyes at a mansion in the Hollywood Hills and discuss her rising star, her naked ambition, and whether Emile is a meal.

COMPLEX: Well, let's start with the scene that everyone's gonna be talking about, with you and Emile Hirsch in a motel room bed. How was the vibe when you had to do that?

OLIVIA WILDE: What made me decide to go all out in that scene and take off my clothes was the fact that Nick is so smart and not at all sleazy. I trusted his judgment. He wasn't gonna make me do it just to add something to the scene. I loved that the scene wasn't about the nudity; it's about belittling his manhood. And I love the fact that I'm like sitting back with my boobs out, smoking a cigarette, and completely insensitive and hard. I found that really powerful, as opposed to having it be a more voyeuristic scene about the nudity. It felt more real and interesting, and raw and fun.

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