Liv and Learn

When you see Liv Tyler on tile big screen as elf-princess Arwen Undomiel in this winter's Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, keep in mind that even though she appears to inhabit a world populated by all manner of fantastical creatures—humans, fairies, hobbits, and some breathtakingly creepy monsters—she's often all alone. As in, Tom-Hanks-with-a-volleyball alone. Except Hanks got to costar in Castaway with a spherical object that had a makeshift face and identity. Tyler's costar in Rings, the blockbuster adaptation of the J.R.R. Tolkien science fiction/fantasy classic, was often just a nameless pink golf ball (a "stand in" focal point) that she had to emote to, while being entirely clueless about how the final, digitally composed scene would appear on screen.

"I would feel like such an idiot," she says, "and I'd get so embarrassed doing these really intense scenes where I had to imagine things and be reacting to and even speaking to something that wasn't there."

"I shouldn't be telling you all this," she says, laughing. "But so much of Lord of the Rings is movie magic."

The truth is, even without digital sleight of hand, there's always been something magical about Liv Tyler. The daughter of Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler and Bebe Buell, legendary groupie (and wife of rocker Todd Rundgren, who Liv believed was her real father until she confronted her mother and learned the truth), Liv briefly modeled as a teenager before signing on to do James Mangold's Heavy. Her heartbreaking, understated performance as a small town waitress drew raves at 1995's Sundance Film Festival, and suddenly everybody wanted her in their movies. Bernardo Bertolucci put her on a pedestal in Stealing Beauty, Pat O'Connor made her the center of Inventing the Abbotts, Tom Hanks cast her in his directorial debut, That Thing That You Do!, and Michael Bay chose her to play opposite Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck in Armageddon.

In person, Tyler is, quite simply, stunningly beautiful—flowing chestnut brown hair, sparkling blue eyes, porcelain skin—but she has a girlfriendly, sweet, chatty ease. Life is very good for her right now: She's engaged to Spacehog bassist/singer Royston Langdon, she's renovating her dream house (a landmark New York town house) to share with him, and her paycheck's not bad, either (a reported $3 million for Rings).

And still, her life is more or less normal. She says she mostly likes to relax at home, which is Langdon's apartment while the town house is being gutted. She doesn't get stalked by the tabloids—"I'm kind of friendly with all the paparazzi in New York. They're usually very sweet to me, and if I ask them to leave me alone, they will"— and, unlike most stars of her stature, she almost never travels with handlers or an entourage.

Her glamorous post interview plans, in fact, include shopping for baby clothes (calm down, Liz Smith, they're for a friend's infant) and stopping by a drugstore, which explains the list she fishes out of her pocket at the end of our conversation.

"You really want to know what I'm getting?"

Well, yes.

"Really stupid things. Exfoliant. Razors. Conditioner. Candles. Dental floss."

I notice one more word on the thick, cream colored sheet: "Chanel."

"Oh, this is my new stationery," Tyler explains. "I went up to Chanel the other day to see a friend and this was sitting on his desk. I was like, 'Oh, can I have that, please?"'

It's a convenient metaphor for Liv Tyler's life—even her drugstore shopping list is a luxury item.

THE REAL LIV

"What I don't understand is, when the autograph people approach me, why do they always have the worst pictures of me? Why don't they have any of the nice ones? There's one photo that comes around a lot that I'm sure has my head on somebody else's body. My legs are straddled really wide and I'm wearing a weird little outfit. That one's just scary."

BABY, YOU'RE A STAR

"My first trip to Cannes, for Stealing Beauty, was so strange. We got out of the plane and there were all these paparazzi waiting. I thought, They must be here to see somebody else, because I'd only made a few films, but they started jumping over the luggage carousel in the airport and screaming for me. I stayed in the huge Clint Eastwood suite at the Carlton hotel. It had this really long bathtub where I could really stretch out my legs I thought I needed a cowboy hat. Later, I opened the balcony doors to watch this big fireworks display going on, and I could see this huge billboard for Stealing Beauty, this huge billboard of me, right outside my room. And I just ate my soup from room service, took a bath, and went to bed. I was 18 at the time."

SELF EVALUATION

"I do think of my work and my life as two separate things. I would be lying if I said I'm happiest when I'm working in front of the lights and the cameras. I really enjoy it, but sometimes it's difficult and complete hell. And then, every once in a blue moon, something magical will happen where there's a connection with you and another actor, or with you and the director. And that's when I realize, 'Oh, this is why I love my job so much."'

WHERE THERE'S SMOKE

"I have to stop smoking soon. I promised myself. I smoke about half the pack. When I started, I always said I wouldn't smoke past age 25. So I'm putting it in print so I really have to prove it to myself! I'm going to have to lock myself up for a couple of weeks, like at some fasting farm or something, with strap downs. I mean, if you can go to rehab for drugs, why not cigarettes? They're drugs in a way, cigarettes—they're addictive."

SWEET RETREAT

"I recently went away to a place where you fast for a few days. That was the first time I'd ever done that. It was fun I mean, I hated it and loved it. Roy came with me, which was so cute. All we wanted to do was eat. You just drink lots of liquids, and they give you this green soup every night. It was so good the first night and then by the third night it was like aaaaacccck. But the most amazing thing was that my skin became so beautiful, like a baby's. It was like I didn't have pores anymore—they just completely disappeared. And the whites of my eyes didn't have any veins in them at all. And the ends of my fingernails became really white. Everything felt very alive and I felt really good. And then Roy and I came back home and we ate spaghetti Bolognese and French fries!"

[apologies from the webmaster--there is one other page of this article, which unfortunately I do not have available to scan!]

STEALING BEAUTY

Skin Deep

I'm nuts about my skin. I always have been, since I was really young. I don't think I've ever been to sleep before without washing my face, except maybe once or twice when I've been really drunk. At the moment I'm using products called Jurlique. They're from Australia and they're all natural. I tend to buy too many products and use a lot of products that are too rich for my skin. Now, the key to my face is to use a light exfoliant every morning. And there's this product from Mario Badescu called Drying Lotion, which I call 'Pink' because it looks like calamine lotion. It's a spot treatment you put on with a Q tip. I look ridiculous with pink dots everywhere, but it really zaps pimples and dries them out. Also, there's this stuff by Tracie Marlyn called Firming Serum; it's a purple, thin gel with all these amazing things in it. Since I've been using it, people have been coming up to me and saying, 'Wow, your skin looks really great.' It's brilliant."

Hair Apparent

"I like having long hair. When I cut my hair short [for Cookie's Fortune (1999)], everyone told me, 'Oh, you'll love it, it's so easy.' And it totally sucked. I would wake up in the morning and it would be sticking up all over the place and I'd have to wet it down and blow it dry. With long hair, I just wash it, tie it in a bow, and let it dry. I don't really ever go to the salon. I usually just get it trimmed if I'm working on a movie or a shoot, but that's it. I do conditioning treatments at home. I use Terax. That conditioner is the key to life it's really silky."

Daughter Knows Best

"Every night my dad puts his hair up and he washes his face and brushes his teeth and he has this whole little system. He's pretty cute about it. And look at his skin. Can you believe his skin? Unbelievable. We have debates, because he thinks Clearasil is the best for pimples, and I'm like. 'No, use the Mario Badescu 'Pink'!"'