The James Bond 007 Dossier

Wild Thing

For Denise Richards, there’s no time like the present

PHOTOGRAPHY BY STEPHEN WAYDA

Throughout her career Denise Richards has embraced uninhibited and often outre parts. She battled giant space bugs in her breakout role in 1997's Starship Troopers, then went on to play a murderous Lutheran beauty queen in Drop Dead Gorgeous and nuclear scientist Christmas Jones (who shows James Bond that Christmas comes more than once a year) in The World Is Not Enough.

But in her role as a trust fund nympho in Wild Things, Denise, along with guidance counselor gone bad Matt Dillon and goth fox Neve Campbell, set the standard for on-screen three-ways. Never in the history of cinema has an actress worn 750 milliliters of champagne so well. When we sat down with this radiant 33-year-old. our first question was. naturally, about her spectacular sapphic liplocks. Those were the only love scenes I've ever done with a girl,” she says. "The director said. Please have a drink before you do the pool scene.' so we went into Neve’s trailer and made margaritas. We just went for it. We had to." Now that Denise is married to Charlie Sheen, are the sex scenes more awkward? “I had more fun doing one with Neve than I have with a guy,” she says. 'With a girl you can be comfortable and laugh or say, Hey, I don't want this part to show. Can you move your hand?' She's a much better kisser than some of these guys, and her lips are softer. But Charlie and I don't get jealous. I’m sure if I had an explicit love scene coming up we would discuss it at length, but we haven't come to that bridge yet."

“I’m spontaneous,” Denise says. "I love going from one thing to something else and not knowing what I’m going to do next."

Sheen has been so supportive that he encouraged Denise to pose for playboy only a few months after the birth of their daughter, Sam. “He's been a fan of the magazine for years and thought it would be pretty cool to have his wife in it,” she says. “I thought it was the perfect time in my life to do this, and it pushed me to get my ass in shape!" Denise and Charlie met on the set of Good Advice but didn’t get together until she did a guest stint on Spin City. “We we re smitten with each other when we first met," she says. "There was a huge attraction, but the timing wasn't right." The two had a blast spoofing Signs in Scary Movie 3, and Denise has appeared on Charlie's latest TV show. Two and a Half Men. She’s clearly Charlie's angel, but she doesn't take credit for taming the former wild man. "He straightened out before we met and had been sober for three years.' she says. “He was definitely in the right place to meet someone and settle down. Our daughter brought out more playful sides in him. For example. Charlie was filming Sam's birth, and I thought he looked sexy in scrubs. I said, 'You've got to take these home with you.' He did. so now we can play doctor. We’re best friends and lovers, and I really think we complement each other."

“I found out early I could make more money modeling than I could waitressing and scooping Haagen-Dazs. But I always wanted to be an actress.”

We’ll be seeing a lot more of Denise, which—as our island adventure makes abundantly clear—is a good thing. She plays John Corbett’s high-maintenance wife in Elvis Has Left the Building, a wedding planner in Lifetime's I Do (But I Don't), a salesgirl in Fat Albert and a wide-eyed innocent who gets lured into a call girl's world by Daryl Hannah in the provocatively titled Spanish film Whore (Yo Puta). “I got to work with a talented female director and do something different." Denise explains.

“I don't have any regrets about the things I've done in my life,- she says. With that attitude, she’s perfectly equipped to handle Hollywood or, for that matter, a day at the beach.

[Source: Playboy Magazine, December 2004. Copyright © 2004 Playboy. All rights reserved.]