By BETSY PICKLE
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Elaine Hendrix won't be home in Los Angeles this weekend to see how her new movie, "Coffee Date," fares in its debut. The actress will be back home in East Tennessee for a date with her dad and other cancer survivors at the 13th annual Buddy's Race Against Cancer.
Hendrix says she's "probably going to do part of one of the walks," but mostly she's coming to support her father, Tom Hendrix of Halls, Tenn., and encourage participants in the 5K run/walk.
Tom Hendrix, a basketball standout for the University of Tennessee in the 1960s, got a break in dealing with his prostate cancer.
"He caught it real early," says Hendrix, who was born in Oak Ridge and grew up in Knoxville, Morristown and Atlanta. "His dad got it way before they had the technology to detect it.
"My dad was very well aware that he had to be on this because he was a high candidate."
Hendrix, who has starred in such films as "The Parent Trap," "Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion" and "What the Bleep Do We Know!?," always makes time to help a good cause, and cancer philanthropies are high on her list.
"Animals, kids and cancer research are what I'm an advocate for," she says.
She and Lea Thompson did a duet at the What a Pair benefit for breast-cancer research earlier this year. Hendrix, 35, has performed each of the four years the benefit has been held.
"This year we raised something like $500,000," she says.
That's more than double the cost of "Coffee Date," which is opening on a few screens in the country this week before slowly rolling out.
"We made this movie with, I think, around $200,000," says Hendrix. "So many indie movies are just bad, but I think this one is actually really good."
"Coffee Date" is arriving in theaters at the same time as many films being touted for Oscars, but Hendrix thinks there's room for both.
"Our film is so funny," she says. "It's lighthearted but it's also poignant in a completely non-preachy, fun way. (It's) going to give people a break from all the heavy Academy stuff."
In "Coffee Date," a divorced computer programmer (Jonathan Bray) is set up on a blind date _ with a gay man (Wilson Cruz) _ by his jokester brother (Jonathan Silverman). After their initial awkwardness, the two men realize they have a lot in common and become friends, leading to much confusion and consternation among the straight man's co-workers and family.
"People can either choose to fixate on the gay aspect of it or they can look at all the different questions that it brings up and all the different stereotypes that it confronts," says Hendrix.
Hendrix plays Cruz's protective roommate and best friend, Bonnie. In addition to acting in the film, she also served as an associate producer. Her duties included recruiting several cast members and doing press and marketing.
"I didn't actually help with any of the physical production stuff on this project," she says. "There's a few others in my chute right now that I will be doing a stronger producer role in."
Hendrix says she finds producing satisfying.
"It's different," she says. "One moment I love it, and the next moment I remember why I'm an actress.
"It's such a completely different hat to wear. ... I like having to think about budgets and write letters and make lists and be a little more methodical because acting can be just so abstract and emotional and so creative and unstructured. I do like it. It's kind of creating a nice balance for me."
Hendrix, who appeared on a recent episode of "ER," has several films in the works, including "Good Intentions," due to shoot in Atlanta next year. But the one film that keeps drawing her attention _ and bringing her fans _ is "What the Bleep," which was recently revamped into a three-disc special-edition DVD. She even has a song on the soundtrack.
"I've never been so involved with a movie in my entire career," she says. "It's been so wild."
