Rebecca Gayheart

Currently: Charming audiences as the hopeful Shelby in the Broadway mounting of Robert Harling's Steel Magnolias co-starring Delta Burke, Christine Ebersole, Frances Sternhagen, Marsha Mason and Lily Rabe.

Hometown: Pinetop, Kentucky, a small coal mining town. "It's a sweet little Southern town, but there is nothing there," Gayheart says. "I watched my older sister and older brother both get married really young to their high school sweethearts and that just wasn't the thing I wanted to do. I wanted to be an actress, so I moved to New York when I was 15."

Fresh-Faced: While Gayheart is now a recognizable face for her acting roles in TV's Beverly Hills 90210 in which she had a breakthrough guest-starring arc as the doomed bride of Luke Perry's Dylan McKay, Earth 2, Wasteland and Dead Like Me and a number of films, it was her work as a model that first paid the bills. "Modeling kind of allowed me to live here," she states. "It wasn't bad. It's kind of hard on your esteem, for me it was at least. I couldn't wait to stop! Still I'll be walking down the street and some guy in his 30s will yell: ‘The Noxema girl!' And I'm like, ‘Do you realize that was like 18 years ago?' I mean, they ran the commercials for forever. So it doesn't seem like it was that long ago, but it was. I would like to pretend that I am still 18, but, I really can't."

Wanting Magnolias: Gayheart earned acclaim for her performance in The Last Night of Ballyhoo in Los Angeles, but she had little other stage experience when she heard about this mounting of Steel Magnolias. "I didn't think there was any way I was going to get this part. I said to my agent: ‘They are going to get some Broadway actress to do this. But, can you PLEASE just get me in a room with them? Please?'" She got in the room in Los Angeles and, then again, a few weeks later in New York. "I had such a great experience in New York, when I got on the plane to go back to L.A., I prayed, ‘Please, God… if it is meant to be, I'd be more than happy to get this role!'" A little while later, it was hers.

It's A Helluva Town: Gayheart, who married actor Eric Dane in October, had been living in L.A. for some time when she got cast in Steel Magnolias. "New York is the greatest place ever," she gushes. "L.A. definitely has its pluses—the weather is great, you have a car, that sort of stuff. But there is no edge, no flavor. People are kind of phony out there… I hate to say it, but it's true. Of course, there are phony people everywhere, but you really get a dose of reality in New York every time you exit your apartment."

Playing it Straight: There are many laughs to be had in Steel Magnolias, but not a lot of the one-liners come from Shelby. "When we first started doing the play, I was like, ‘Oh my God—I don't have any of the funny stuff. People are going to hate me! My shit is not funny!' But I realized my job in this play is just to create this girl who is really positive and real." Of course, Gayheart does get a few chuckles when she rolls her eyes. "The trap for this character is to make her sugary sweet, I try to stay away from that," she cracks.

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow? In Steel Magnolias some of the actors have their hair washed onstage and Gayheart is thankful she escapes that fate. However she does, at one point, have to wear a very short 1980s-inspired wig, which covers her trademark long curls. "I have never had hair like that," the actress notes. "Before we started rehearsals, I thought: ‘That moment when I see it in the mirror will be really organic because I'll see me with this hair and that will be shocking.' Then the director [Jason Moore] said: ‘We are having no mirrors. The fourth wall is your mirror.' And I was like: ‘Great… OK…' But I've seen it--it's not a great look."

My People: Magnolias is attracting an older crowd, not exactly the type of people who watched Gayheart in the film Urban Legend. "I think I am supposed to be getting other people to come," she laughs. "The people that are coming are not really my fan base. I just did The Carson Daly Show—I was like, ‘OK young people, get your ass to the theater!'"

The GREAT White Way: "I am loving every minute of this. I am working with these women I am huge fans of, and I am learning so much. It's awesome. To me this is what acting is all about. It's such a perfect medium. Everyone else up there is used to it, and I am like the kid in the candy shop."