Still pop’s good girl, Mandy returns to her musical roots — but only on her own terms.
By Brandon Voss
Speaking by phone the morning after she presented at the 2007 MTV Movie Awards, I tell Mandy Moore that it appeared as though she had a pretty good time at the event. “Uh, yeah, I guess,” she says, her voice soaring into an ultra-high register, as if to say that looks are deceiving. “Those things are always so awkward. You’re like, ‘Man alive, what am I doing here?’” And for the record, Paris Hilton’s now-infamous pre-prison appearance at the ceremony didn’t impress Mandy much, either: “It’s so newsworthy, huh?”
What does strike her as big news, however, is how much gay men love her. “You do?” she asks incredulously. “Gosh, thanks!” C’mon, surely the pop-turned-movie star must be conscious of her queer following. “I guess to a certain extent, but I’ve been absent from the music scene for so long, and you’re not as aware of it making films. It’s always nice to hear.” Indeed, Wild Hope, released on June 19, is Moore’s first studio album since 2003’s Coverage. In the interim she’s become better known for movies such as American Dreamz and Because I Said So; her latest, License to Wed, opened July 3, and Dedication, in which she stars opposite Billy Crudup, will hit theaters in late August.
Doesn’t Moore have a gay BFF to help keep her in the fruit loop? “Doesn’t everyone?” she asks with a laugh. “I have quite a few gay friends in my life. One of my very dear friends is someone that I met at MTV when I was 15, and he just became a big brother and a best friend to me. He’s the type of person that you don’t see too often, but when you do it’s like no time has passed at all.”
Moore is better
It almost seems like no time since we were craving Moore’s infectious 1999 debut single, “Candy,” which, along with other sugary early tracks she’s since denounced in the press, won’t likely be revisited when she goes on tour. “With the band and stuff, there’s no way for those songs to sound like they did on the record — and that’s just fine with me!” Though past singles such as “In My Pocket” and “I Wanna Be With You” have been remixed for the clubs, Moore feels pretty confident that no retooled singles from Hope will land on the dance floor. “Someone did a remix of the first single, ‘Extraordinary,’ and it’s the worst thing I’ve ever heard. There’s some music that just doesn’t deserve a remix!”
The 23-year-old promises that you won’t hear her dissing the folksy Hope a decade from now because she enjoyed complete creative freedom on the project, also conceding that she’s a bit of a control freak. “I’m an Aries, so I like to be the leader,” admits Moore, who got a chance to showcase her songwriting skills during a peaceful two-month-long recording process in Woodstock, New York (“It totally brought out my inner-hippie,” she jokes). “It feels good at the end of the day to say, ‘Yeah, I stood my ground, and the album is exactly what I wanted it to be.’”
And she said, ‘No, no, no’
One standout personal track on the disc is “Adore Her,” in which Moore details her odd yet endearing quirks. “I do like chocolate in the morning, and I do drink coffee late at night,” she says, echoing the song’s lyrics. “I’m a little bit backwards, but you gotta put it out there sometimes.” When asked what her most off-putting trait might be to boyfriends, she replies without hesitation, “The fact that I go to bed so early. I’m in bed by 10 if I have it my way, and if I were dating myself I’d be a little annoyed. Like, ‘Really? You can’t be bothered to go out to dinner, see a movie?’ It’s terrible. I feel like an old woman.” But what about those notorious MTV Movie Awards after-parties? “Oh my God, I went home before the show was even over!”
Those sleeping habits might have helped Moore avoid the tabloid-friendly traps in which so many of her peers have fallen prey. “I’m pretty lazy and boring,” she says. “I’m not a big going out person, and that’s where all that stuff stems from. It’s a choice to put yourself out there in that way, and it’s not my cup of tea to go to the opening of an envelope. I know I have an obligation for my job to do certain things, but my private life is my private life. Besides, people don’t really seem to care about me in that respect.”
Of course, Moore hasn’t completely escaped media scrutiny, especially while romantically linked over the years to other celebrities such as Wilmer Valderrama, Andy Roddick, Zach Braff, and DJ AM, which she admits can put a strain on the relationship: “It’s a little bit weird, but the next day [the tabloids] on to something else.” Moore claims not to pay attention to Internet gossip — with the exception of the blogosphere’s self-proclaimed Queen of All Media. “I love Perez Hilton,” she gushes. “I love that nobody’s safe, and he speaks his mind. Other than that, I don’t really keep up with that stuff. But I feel like other than that, you don’t really have to. He’s got his finger on the pulse.”
For the boys
As we near the end of our interview, Moore and I giddily realize that this will be her first cover story for a gay magazine. “I’m super excited,” she exclaims. “That’s awesome!” But with an HX cover comes the responsibility of answering a few silly gay questions. First, does she have any celebrity girl-crushes? “I love Kate Winslet,” she says. “She’s so talented and beautiful. If I had a girl-crush, it would definitely be on her.”
Next, what advice would she have for a drag queen who wanted to emulate her? “Definitely go brunette, not blonde,” she instructs, “because I prefer myself as a brunette. And maybe give yourself a little bit more cleavage than I have.”
Finally, who has been her most attractive leading man? “Man, that’s tough! I think I might have to go with Hugh Grant, but Billy Crudup is very handsome, too.” Sorry, I tell her, but the correct answer is actually Matthew Goode from Chasing Liberty. “Oh, I forgot about Goodie! Yeah, he is totally hot! I’ve been a very lucky girl, haven’t I?”
HX, July 2007.