Your childhood crush is all grown up and hotter than ever.
As the sarcastic kid sister on ABC’s Step by Step, Christine Lakin made Friday nights appointment television for every pubescent kid with a pulse. And while her network neighbors like Jodie Sweetin and Jaimee Foxworth ended up in rehab and porn, respectively, Christine transitioned into a big screen career that would make any child actor envious. We talked with the star of the upcoming comedy The Hottie and the Nottie to find out what it’s like working with Paris Hilton and stripping down for FHM’s cameras.
You play Paris Hilton’s ugly best friend in the new film The Hottie and the Nottie. Did they just put you in a ponytail and glasses like the girl from She’s All That or did they really ugly you up?
She’s All That, to me, was just a beautiful girl with glasses. This is a girl that’s in a serious, hideous, I’m-a-cavewoman-type of situation. She’s definitely a little worse off than even Ugly Betty. My character, June, has started to lose her hair on the top, so you can see her baldhead through the bits of hair she’s tried to Donald Trump around her head. She’s got a huge mole on her chin that just somehow seems like it’s gotten bigger over the years. She has lots of acne. Her teeth are gray and kind of blackish. We decided she had a lot of problems with hair removal. We figured that maybe she tried to shave, but it didn’t go well, so there are parts that are just bloody and red and razor burned everywhere.
Sounds disgusting. Is it strange going from playing a hideous character like June Phigg to doing a sexy FHM photo shoot?
Yeah, actually. As much as I loved doing the film, after we wrapped I went through a whole phase of wanting to get totally dressed up everyday. But this is my theory; every woman is two hours away from either being a total hottie or a total nottie. I think most of us start somewhere in the middle. Being sexy is about a mindset as well. I had to get myself back into that mindset of, ‘No more June Phigg.’ So there’s a little bit of a challenge.
Was it tough having to look like June Phigg all day?
When we were filming on the Santa Monica Pier we couldn’t close the whole place down, so tourists would be milling around. It was so funny to watch, because they’d see Paris Hilton and then their eyes would drift over to me and they’d make a face like, ‘Ooh that’s terrible. Poor unfortunate girl.’
They probably thought you were the third Hilton sister that no one ever talks about.
Exactly! I was like the ugly cousin.
I’m sure you had some opinions of Paris before you started filming.
When I knew Paris was doing the film I thought, ‘This could either go really well or not so much.’ And from the moment I met her she was an absolute sweetheart. She was really dedicated to making this movie good. She’s producing the film—I don’t think a lot of people know that. She’s really taking a business interest in all of the things that she does. Let’s be honest, she doesn’t have to do anything and the fact that she was like, ‘Look, I want to be good in this,’ I really respect her for that.
People say she’s a lot smarter than she’s given credit for.
I think a lot of times who you see in pictures or who you see on the red carpet is a version of who she is. I was really surprised to get to know the girl behind all those images. She’s actually kind of shy, really sort of childlike, but she has like five businesses. I was exhausted just listening to her schedule. So I definitely think the public has a perception of her that’s not completely accurate.