Let Us Spray

merging unscathed from child-stardom is a tricky business. Back in 2003, when Vanity Fair featured Hollywood’s nine hottest young stars on the cover, they could not have intended the car-crash effect one feels looking at the same Leibovitz shot four years on.

To the left, we have Ms. Lindsay Lohan of rehab revolving door and falling over fame. Over here, twins Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen have succumbed to eating disorders and audience fatigue. Mandy Moore, though talented, has just made an apocalyptic misstep with License To Wed to dire critical notices. Evan Rachel Wood, the Little Miss Serious of the gang, has done nothing to further her thespian credentials by cavorting in new beau Marilyn Manson’s video. The younger, sparklier Hannah Montana has usurped Hillary Duff. And so on.
Saving the Second Coming Of Lohan, only one figure starts to look like the Girl Most Likely To Succeed. Amanda Bynes, once the headlining comedienne of The Amanda Show, has, at the tender age of 21, graduated from hit TV romps, through money-spinning teen comedies (What A Girl Wants, She’s The Man) to a career-making role in Hairspray, a fantastic new musical-comedy set to rival slumber-party classics Dirty Dancing and Grease.
The film, based on the Broadway musical which was, in turn, inspired by John Waters’ 1988 cult classic, has hugely surprised critics naturally weary of such enterprises following a lacklustre transplant of The Producers and last year’s worthless run through of Rent. Reinvigorating this ailing genre with decent, catchy tunes, goofy charm and Waters’ delightfully camp sensibility, Hairspray features disarming turns from such trusted old hands as John Travolta, Jerry Stiller, Michelle Pfieffer, Christopher Walken and Queen Latifah.
If such illustrious company fazed her, Amanda Bynes isn’t letting on. In fact, sitting in London’s Savoy Hotel, the cutely squirrel-cheeked star couldn’t seem more at ease.
“I had a couple of ‘pinch me’ moments,” she tells me. “But it’s an odd business. Once you’re in it, you’re in it. You stop noticing that John Travolta is dancing alongside you. When I was 13 I had a script for a TV show with my name in the title and I couldn’t believe it and I still don’t. But when you’re actually working, you stop thinking about it.”
If she sounds like a veteran, that’s because she is one. Born in 1986 to Rick Bynes, a dentist who also practiced stand-up comedy, and Lynn Organ, a dental assistant, the young Californian began acting professionally at the age of seven, when she appeared in a television advertisement for Buncha Crunch candies. She had already starred in stage versions of Annie, The Secret Garden, The Music Man and The Sound Of Music when she started training with Arsenio Hall and Richard Prior at comedy camp.
“I just got really lucky,” she says. “I was at the camp for a summer and they were the people who showed up as tutors. But I always loved comedy. I don’t mind being the goofy girl. Every time anyone tells me so, I take it as a great compliment.”
Considering her dad’s own flirtation with comedy, one might be tempted to presume there is a pushy stage parent living vicariously in the wings. But before I can suggest as much, Amanda jumps in with a pre-emptive defence.
“Your parents can help you in your career without being pushy,” says Amanda. “Look at Tiger Woods and his dad. My dad and I have that same sort of relationship. I got into comedy not because he did it, but because we’re really similar people. Everyone who knows us says so.”
Not nearly as zany as her screen roles might suggest, young Ms. Bynes appears to belong to the emerging class of such smart, over-achieving starlets as Anne Hathaway. But where that actress has a reputation for prickliness, Amanda’s polite, diplomat way of speaking seems borne of an absolute reluctance to offend anyone.
“I don’t like the idea of hurting anybody,” she explains. “I know what it’s like to read really horrible things about yourself. I don’t expect to be everyone’s cup of tea. That’s fine. But I don’t understand the need to be bitchy about how other people look or whatever.”
Happily, there hasn’t been too much negative buzz attached to Ms. Bynes. She recently returned to the family home having lived in her own Hollywood apartment for two years. She rarely drinks (“I can’t drink without feeling horrible,” she winces). Her sedate interests include painting and attending to her beloved King Charles Spaniel, Midge. How, I wonder, has she remained level-headed, when so many of her contemporaries have fallen by the wayside?
“I’m not perfect,” she shrugs. “But I come from a good family. It’s that simple. I could never consciously do anything that would embarrass my family. Never. But I think it’s hard for people to grow up in the spotlight. Everybody makes mistakes. It’s hard when you make them in public. And it’s harder for people to forget about them.”
Since celebrating her 21st birthday last April, things are looking up for Everygirl’s favourite Everygirl. She recently made the 2007 Forbes list as the fifth highest paid celebrity under 25. Last May, she was named one of People Magazine’s 100 Most Beautiful People. She has even created Dear, her own fashion line due to hit shelves next month. It’s all rather exciting, but she’s in no doubt what her highlight for 2007 will be.
“I still can’t believe how magical Hairspray is,” she gushes. “I love that dark, sweet humour from John Waters. I love that Wizard Of Oz thing it has. I can’t ever watch myself on screen but that won’t stop me from watching Hairspray a thousand times.”b

Hairspray is released July 20.