Shakefire had the opportunity to speak with Rachael Leigh Cook on her upcoming film Bob Funk. We chatted about her role in the film, working on the set, video games, and a whole bunch of other stuff...

[Shakefire]: So tell us about your character in the film?

[Rachael Leigh Cook]: I play a character named Mrs. Thorne, I'm sure she has a first name but I can't remember if we ever decided on one. She's sorta the defacto love interest in Bob's very screwed up life. He is a self destructive, crass, mildly alcoholic, futon salesman who works for his mother. That's the premise of the film. It's about how he gradually gets demoted through the company and through a lot of soul searching and strange events along the way begins to slowly change his ways.

[Shakefire]: What was an average day on the set like for you?

[Rachael Leigh Cook]: It was fun. The place we shot the majority of was probably just stuff in the office and it was cool because we were all sorta dressed really corporate and we could just walk around people who had real jobs who I'm intensely jealous of a lot of the time and just pretend that we work in an office nearby. People would say like, "when are they would stop that construction on 3" and I'd say, "Yeah, I don't know. It's making me crazy." I really like pretending to be part of that culture that's so important.

[Shakefire]: You have starred in a slew of genres from thrillers to action and quirky comedies like Bob Funk, including indie and big budget.  What do you prefer?

[Rachael Leigh Cook]: I'm really open about what I do. I guess the only thing I've avoided aggressively is serious horror and really gory stuff. That stuff creeps me out because if you play somebody that lives I'm always afraid that someone will finish the job and come kill me. That's the only thing that I absolutely rule out. In terms of drama versus comedy, I think comedy's harder. I'm shooting a test pilot currently. It's where the network doesn't want to commit to making a full pilot so you get a little bit of money but Rob Riggle was doing it and I really wanted to work with him. He brought in this comedy dream team and I felt really intimidated being around all these people. I really don't feel like I completely have my footing in comedy but that's what I want to get better at. That's sorta my goal right now.

[Shakefire]: You have done a lot of voiceover work for video games, do you have any in the works now?

[Rachael Leigh Cook]: I'm doing an awesome animated show that's also for Seth Green and Matt Senreich's company that do Robot Chicken over at ShadowMachine but we're making a show called Titan Maximum. So that's not a game but it is a show about a giant robot so I'm excited about that. I think people might like that too. In terms of games, I don't know if there's any more Final Fantasy, I also voiced a game called Yakuza, and the Final Fantasy character also carried over into Kingdom Hearts which is kinda cool. I don't really know anything about gaming but I want to because I got a lot of friends who are into it, especially my brother.

[Shakefire]: Your husband, Daniel Gillies, has his directorial debut coming out next year, in which you star. Can you tell us about the film and how was it working with him in that capacity?

[Rachael Leigh Cook]: My storyline with that is that I play a Kindergarten teacher who is sorta like carrying a secret. You don't really know what's going on. There's just something strange about her and she starts dating the father of one of the kids in the class and she gets really attached to this kid and you don't know why. It's sorta strange. The other part of the story is Daniel's character. He plays a writer who can't really write whose American who has run away to Bogota, Columbia. He's had some success as he wrote the equivalent of Where the Wild Things Are or even a Shel Silverstein kinda thing for younger audiences but kinda legendary and then disappeared. It's about his sorta unlikely friendship with this 15 year old prostitute girl in Bogota and she sorta becomes his muse. You learn why he's disappeared the way he has. It's largely her story.

It was our first feature working together. We both worked on a mini-series called Into the West but we hadn't worked together before. You know, we run lines, but that was sorta a normal thing being married to a television actor but he wrote this script a while ago, found funding for a lot of the movie to be done and we just started shooting. It takes place between a half to three quarters in Columbia and we haven't shot that part yet. We've only shot the part in Los Angeles so that's been the process for him. I'm pretty deeply entrenched and more on the front lines of what it looks like to get a film made than what it years ago. I used to just get a call, read a script, take the job, show up on set. Seeing what he's gone through has been a real adaptation to me. The story's incredible.

I think if anything, I went out of my way to keep things as cool as absolutely possible. I didn't want anyone thinking that because we're married that we can't work together and keep it professional. I'm easy to work with, I'll be honest. I never make a scene or whatever but I went out of my way to keep things cool and he did too, absolutely.

[Shakefire]: A number of your movies have since become cult hits, including Scorched and Josie and the Pussycats.  In the future, at the end of your career, would you be happy knowing if you were a cult star?

[Rachael Leigh Cook]: Ahhhh, yeah, that would be amazing. You know, cult has really negative connotations but anything that people just plain enjoy, I think is awesome. I think that my ego would say like, 'what do you mean?" Have you ever seen that movie The Room? I consider that a cult film so it's like what does this mean. But so do a lot of things that are awesome.

[Shakefire]: Do you have any ideas of what you're dream role would be?

Not right now. I should probably be more focused and try to think about that. I'm sorta shifting into producing a little bit. I found a script that I really like. I won't get into specifics but I'm hoping that we can shoot sometime next year. I just started talking with a friend of mine about developing a show for The Food Network with another friend of ours. Just totally random things. I guess I want to try my hand at the other side of things. I love what I do; I just want to diversify it.

Be sure to check out Bob Funk when it hits store shelves this week!