“Yes, we deliberate. There is a real deliberation process,” actress Selma Blair, a juror at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, tells USA TODAY’s Donna Freydkin.

Blair posed with Abbie Cornish and Kristen Bell at Chanel’s annual Tribeca Film Festival dinner Wednesday night, honoring artists including Yoko Ono and Spencer Platt (not Pratt).

Blair’s favorite film so far? Ed Burns’ latest offering. “I loved Eddie’s Nice Guy Johnny. It was refreshing to see a comedy,” she says. As for Chanel, Blair said she wears the brand “all the time. I am a fan of the quilted bags and I do have my most favorite Chanel bag. I haven’t worn it yet — it’s too perfect. So, maybe if I ever get married again I’ll wear that as my bouquet,” she said with a laugh, a reference to her short-lived marriage to musician/actor Ahmet Zappa.

From USA Today

It’s always a big step for someone whose best-known work is on the movie screen (Hell Boy, Hell Boy 2 and Legally Blonde), to suddenly do live theater — but for Blair, it’s bigger than most.

She’s scared to go onstage, but she picks a show when she shares 90 continuous minutes of duty with Fleischer who plays Doug. She’s not a big fan of ick, but gore and vomit are crucial parts of the plot of this dark comedy by playwright Rajiv Joseph.

Blair and Fleischer, who most recently starred in Joseph’s play Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo (and who, if you Google, you can see in a guest role of Timmy the soldier on Jericho), sat down with Hair Balls to answer a few questions between shows. They’re relaxed and clearly friends; knew each other before this play, and seem in some (but not all) ways close to the characters they play: the outgoing and athletic Doug who gives too much for love and the more tightly-wound Kayleen who loves and cares, but perhaps not as much, and who cuts herself.

The play bounces back and forth in time as the audience learns of one injury after another that each of the leads incurs from the time they meet at age 8 to when they are both 38.

The injuries are horrendous and have earned the play its mature advisory from the Alley. At the same time, while extreme, they are more than suitable metaphors for the way people have of hurting each other in relationships.

“I think the ick factor of the play is something that keeps the audience visually in check. It keeps testing them. Where did those scars come from?” Blair said. “I’m not an ick fan. I had trouble even looking at him when we were first dealing with the prosthetics in the rehearsal process, just dealing with any blood is very frightening to me.”

In contrast, Fleischer said he felt right at home the first time he covered his face in blood. “I come from the horror movie background so I love that stuff. I put the stuff on and I think that’s great. I love putting that stuff on.”

But Blair is nothing if not a trouper: “I keep my scars on to stay in Kayleen’s skin when I’m not at work and then just touch them up before shows.”

The length of the one-act show is tough, both agree.

“Having done a bunch of theater before, this is the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” Fleischer said. “It basically is a one-man show where you’re lucky enough to have somebody else out there where if you start faltering at all or if your energy starts to drop, you can look at the other person and pick it up.”

“Rehearsal itself was really exhausting to me, but the payoff is so important,” Blair said. “It’s a blessing to get to do a play like this with Brad and with Rajiv’s words. I love this play but it does require an endurance I need to find and it’s an important play and I need to do it justice eight times a week.”

Fleischer was an easy pick for his role, but playwright Joseph said they tried out several actresses for the Kayleen part before they found Blair, who wanted this role for a lot of reasons.

“This play is so close to me. This is a huge huge factor in my life, this play, and it was something I also wanted to prove — can I do this? I’m terrified of stage, never really sure if I’m a good actress or not and this is a play where you get to figure it out; you get to work through a lot of choices and do it so many times.”

At this point, Fleischer broke in to say: “I can tell you exactly why she got it … We walked in and Selma is nervous and I was nervous for her and we started and …all of a sudden Selma says ‘I’ve got to stop,’ and blood’s coming out of her nose. For no reason at all, blood’s coming out of her nose.”

“I look over to Rajiv and he sits back and goes ‘Oh, my God’ and was just smiling and I’m thinking ‘Rajiv, you can’t start smiling when someone’s bleeding out their nose.’ And Rajiv says to me, ‘Are you kidding? This is Kayleen!’ ”

Gruesome Playground Injuries runs through Sunday, November 15 on the Neuhaus Stage at the Alley Theatre, 615 Texas Avenue. For tickets, go to www.alleytheatre.org or call 713-220-5700.

From the Houston Press

What adds to the impact is that it’s based on the true story of the mother of actress Lori Petty, who both wrote and directed the film. Parade.com’s Jeanne Wolf found out that Blair was shocked by some of her scenes.

A character you love to hate.
“I wasn’t doing a likable portrayal of this woman. There wasn’t any point in sugarcoating it because this really happened. There were not really any redeeming moments. Lori’s mom was neglectful, hurtful, narcissistic, drunk, drugged and selling her body. She just was not getting it together for herself or her kids. That’s a pretty hateful place to be, but I really believe drugs and alcohol do that to the extent that you’re abusing them. I know plenty of damaged people and I’ve had my own moments of being a really damaged person.”

The downside of making her believable.
“Some people kind of got angry at me. At a screening I got some comments like, ‘How could you be so awful?’ I guess that’s a compliment because I was really just acting, actually. Horrible things happen to people. People go through dark periods. People do horrible things to other people. But I think this was also a story of redemption.”

See photos of Hollywood mothers and daughters

The real life happy ending.
“Lori and her mother have a good relationship now — a supportive relationship. Things have changed and her mother has finally gotten it together and is so supportive of Lori. Knowing that allowed me to play her as kind of truthfully and really kind of ugly as I did because I knew she wound up on the other side.”

Lori Petty behind the camera.
“Lori is a very outspoken woman, so she wasn’t going to just pussyfoot around something if I was really kind of mucking it up. She can talk about anything or tell you to get the ‘bleep’ out of her business. She’s not a shrinking violet. But that made me feel comfortable because I knew exactly where she was coming from.”

The booze flowin’ in the Poker House wasn’t exactly 100 proof.
“We were just drinking ginger ale. It’s always ginger ale or they have that near-beer like ‘O’Doul’s’ or something. But if you down like six of those it’s like the equivalent of one beer, I guess.”

As for the non-stop smoking.
“When you smoke in a scene, I’d rather just smoke a regular, darn cigarette. But they have these weird herbal cigarettes—especially for kids that are smoking in scenes—which are really headache-inducing and awful.”

And they’ve become a taboo prop.
“Cigarettes are a lovely crutch for an actor but they’re so not politically correct anymore. You’ve automatically made your character a villain if they smoke a cigarette. I get it. They’re very unhealthy.”

Who she’d most like to play in a biopic.
“I would love to do Courtney Love. I ran into her once – I’m sure she doesn’t recall it – but she was joking like, ‘Oh you should play me in a movie.’ And I was like, ‘Oh my God, that’s so great.’ I mean, I looked nothing like her at the time. Maybe now I do. But you know it was just crazy.”

From Parade

The back-nine order for the UMS/Reveille-produced comedy, an U.S. version of the hit Australian half-hour, follows a Nielsen uptick Thursday night when “Kath” drew 5.5 million viewers, 2.3 ratings in 18-49.

While it has slipped following its strong premiere, “Kath & Kim” has consistently retained all of its “My Name Is Earl” lead-in among adults 18-49. In its four airings to date, “Kath” has averaged 2.6/ 6 in 18-49 and 6.0 million viewers overall.

“‘Kath & Kim’ is a show we love and believe in,” NBC’s exec vp Teri Weinberg said. “We have incredible confidence in the creative auspices of this show and we believe it’s a perfect fit with our Thursday-night comedies.”

“Kath” stars Molly Shannon and Selma Blair as an iconoclastic mother-daughter duo.

Michelle Nader, who adapted the Australian format, is exec producing with the original series creators and stars Gina Riley and Jane Turner along with Rick McKenna and Howard T. Owens.

Makeup, however, is an entirely different matter for the self-declared “poor applier,” who sticks with basics like nude lipstick and pink blush, and ducks whenever she sees a liquid liner. “I avoid anything difficult,” she says.

Blair’s signature look: “A rosy cheek, a smudgy eye, a lot of mascara–I look like a doll that has too much makeup on, and I love it!”

Have you always been a beauty chameleon?
(See the rest of this interview and another picture after the jump)

In high school I would mess with my hair and makeup all the time. I used to wear a shirt that said “Ms. Clairol” because I changed my hair color so much. I was blond for a long time, then what my mom called “barnyard red.”

Do you still dye it yourself?

Only when I have to cover up stray grays. And I’ll just use whatever color I find in the grocery store that looks good on the box, like Preference by L’Oréal–because I’m worth it [laughs]. But for my platinum hair, I went to Sheri at Román Salon in L.A. She was a saint. I had just dyed my hair dark brown, so she had to very slowly strip out all the color so that my hair wouldn’t burn off.

And the cut–are you keeping it short?

I tend to like my hair whatever way it’s not, so now I miss it being long. I think I’m more approachable with long hair. When it’s short, I come across as being artsy and weird.

What’s your typical makeup look?

I used to wear a lot of red lipstick, and when I got a pimple, I’d cover it up with eyeliner to turn it into a beauty mark. But everything has changed since I hit 35. I’m at an age where any makeup that’s meant to look “slept in” really looks like I slept in it. That’s for youngsters! Now less is more. I don’t like to wear concealer or anything. I’d rather have uneven skin than feel like my face is cracking from too much foundation.

Then you must be serious about your skin care.

I go to a spa in L.A. called Kinara for its Skin Care BootCamp. You go once a week for 12 sessions and they’ll look at your skin and tell you how to get it in better condition. They really helped me a lot. I also stay out of the sun.

Any thoughts on Botox or plastic surgery?

I wanted to get Botox once to make me feel younger. But I don’t really have [enough wrinkles] to justify it yet. As for going under the knife, I can’t say I wouldn’t, but I haven’t thought too much about it.

Egyptian Magic cream is my saving grace for everything. It works for my friend’s baby’s bottom, and I can also use it instead of Chapstick.

So what’s next?

I’m really excited about having a perma-tan and wearing long highlighted hair extensions for my role on “Kath and Kim.” And I’ve been gaining weight for the part by eating a little bit more of what I want and not moving around as much. I’ve already put on 15 pounds, and I’ll probably gain another 10. It’ll be a whole new me!

Will this be your most drastic transformation?
Actually I wore huge prosthetic boobs for a John Waters movie. They were glued on every day by a really handsome guy, but ripping them off every night was definitely outside my realm of comfort. After those bosoms, I didn’t mind being flat-chested anymore!