Is the millennium funny or interesting to you? No.

So the 90s are a comfortable reference. It’s my youth. Your youth is always something you… No?

Of course. But do you think it stops there, or does it keep going? You in particular because you’re… A 90s icon? I was big in the 90s. Me and my friends always laugh about that. I’m so 90s. What’s wrong with me? [Laughs] Yeah, I never really thought about it. You think I need to move away from the 90s?

You don’t need to move away from anything. I’ve always admired your choices. But they’re so inconsistent.

I never thought so. I always think that they’re so all over the map that I don’t even understand why people think that I’m fashion-able.

But there’s always a wink or a clever reference. Is there? I hope so. You’re putting a lot of pressure on me [laughs].

So you’re not that cerebral about it. No, I’m not. Thank gosh.

What do you think of self-reinvention? As an actress, every role you’re reinventing. And when you’re a young person, you’re constantly reinventing, from a hippie to a new-waver to a skater to a raver, or whatever. Just assuming different identities to find yourself.

You don’t seem like someone who’s interested in reinventing herself. No, I’m pretty comfortable with who I am—for the most part.

What was the role you turned down in Legally Blonde? The Selma Blair character—the bitchy, preppy girl. I wished to God I had done that movie. I really fucked up with that one. Screwed the pooch. And also Drew Barrymore’s Never Been Kissed. She offered me the Leelee Sobieski part, and I should have done that, too.

Why did you say no? I said no to Legally Blonde because I was offered a play in New York, and I’d never done theater, and it was a Joe Orton play [What the Butler Saw]. It was off-Broadway and just something that I really wanted to do. The movie is so amusing and funny, and I can appreciate it now, but at the time I probably thought it was pretty corny.

How close have you come to a Vogue cover? Not very close. Because I’ve never had a big commercial film. I don’t think I’m really an Anna girl, sadly. It doesn’t seem like it. I don’t think that I’m squeaky clean enough for her. Maybe I’m not pretty enough. She likes very pretty girls.

You’re a very pretty girl. Not Sienna Miller–style, though. She puts her on, like, every other week. And what’s her name, with the jaw, the other pretty one: Keira Knightley. She always puts her on too.

You recently worked with Werner Herzog. I worked with him before on Julien Donkey-Boy. He played my father, which was terrifying. I think he was doing some kind of Method shit, because he was really mean to me the whole time and kind of chauvin-istic. So I was really scared about working on My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done. I didn’t know what I was getting into. But we spoke on the phone before, and he seemed very kind and enthusiastic about me being in the project. I showed up and he was very gentle, and it was completely the opposite of the experience on Julien Donkey-Boy.

And David Lynch produced it. Yes. But, unfortunately, he didn’t come to the set.

You should do a fashion collaboration with him. You think? Maybe I’ll look into it.