Nineteen-year-old Rachael Leigh Cook has been busy--having appeared in 11 low-budget independent movies in the past three years and venturing into mainstream films with the newly released She's All That. This coming-of-age tale is the perfect vehicle for the gamine Cook, with its My Fair Lady type storyline. Cook--a dead ringer for Winona Ryder--brings a raw energetic talent and charm to the role of teen outcast Laney Boggs. The Movie Guys talked with Cook about her first major film role and how her character reflects her own high school experiences.

The Movie Guys: Tell us about your character Laney Boggs.

Cook: Laney is militantly anti-social. She's completely against anything popular and against anything that stands for social acceptance. She's a nonconformist and a crazed artist.

The Movie Guys: She looks and sounds like Daria on MTV.

Cook: Yeah. She's one of my influences, I have to say. (Laughs)

The Movie Guys: Why does she have such low self-esteem?

Cook: Only about her appearance, otherwise she knows that she's a genius. You're supposed to feel sorry for her, just because she's not pretty, but she wouldn't want your pity.

The Movie Guys: How does she hook up with the most popular guy in high school?

Cook: Through a bet. Zak (Freddie Prinze, Jr.) makes a bet after his ultra-popular girlfriend dumps him, that he can make any girl a prom queen. He picked me. Actually, his friends picked me, because I looked like the hardest subject. Then, wacky high jinks ensue.

The Movie Guys: So, men are pigs.

Cook: Would I say that? No. Laney would. I think anyone is capable of being a mean person, but I wouldn't pin it on any one person.

The Movie Guys: She's All That sounds like My Fair Lady meets Cinderella.

Cook: It is more My Fair Lady. The thing is, Laney doesn't want to change. It's brought upon her. She becomes more accepting of people...through her emotional metamorphosis, she changes physically, because she has more respect for herself and she leaves herself open for change.

The Movie Guys: Her best friend and confidant is the school fat kid Jesse Jackson (played by Elden Henson).

Cook: Don't you love his name! She's the only girl in her family and she didn't grow up with a mother and Jesse feels that all girls are evil. He's the only one she can talk to.

The Movie Guys: Laney is raised by her father, a pool man. How is her relationship with her father?

Cook: She raised her younger brother and she's the kind of teenager where your parents can embarrass you horribly at any given moment. Her father being Dr. Pool makes it kind of rough, but she couldn't care less.

The Movie Guys: Kevin Pollack played your father. Did he do any impressions on the set?

Cook: He is hilarious. We had to go around and around the block for that opening shot of him dropping me off at school in the van...Every time we did, Kevin would become someone else. One time he was Robert DeNiro, then he was Christopher Walken, the President. He could become anybody.

The Movie Guys: Which clique were you a part of in high school?

Cook: I was only in high school for about six months before I left to do acting. I worked with tutors and teachers from everywhere, but it wasn't in regular school. I didn't find my clique, if it was out there. I would have been one of those student government kids.

The Movie Guys: You worked with Freddie Prinze, Jr. before in The House of Yes. How was working with him a second time?

Cook: We didn't have any scenes together in The House of Yes, but we were in the film together. He is so good. We just found this project to do together and it worked out great. This was my first starring role in a mainstream film, but I've done a lot of independent flicks.

The Movie Guys: What was the first shot you did for the film?

Cook: It was in the fast food restaurant I worked in--where I had to wear a pita hat. (Laughs)

The Movie Guys: This was Robert Iscove's first feature film as a director. What can you tell us about his first effort?

Cook: A lot of people who've done more films don't know as much as Rob. He's done countless films for TNT and other television work and it's pretty much the same thing but a wider release. He was really a great director, because he knew the script inside and out. We would be doing one scene, and he would say, "Now you know, we haven't shot the scene before this yet, but remember in that scene you're feeling that your character doesn't know what's up." He really keeps you in tune and we made a sequential movie that made sense all the way through.

The Movie Guys: What day on the set did you dread?

Cook: The weirdest part of the shoot was being at the school prom for a week and a half. We shot the prom forever. (Sighs) We were in the Cerritos Art Square. It was ridiculous. We were in our prom outfits for 13 hours a day for 12 days.

The Movie Guys: Have the comparisons with Winnoa Ryder started yet?

Cook: Yeah. I'd say so. People ask me that, and am I supposed to say that's bad? Someone who's known for being, not only really talented, but really pretty. How could I mind? I just think it's so ridiculous when people say "the next." What kind of society do we live in where someone is considered over the hill at 25? It's horrible.

The Movie Guys: How are things going on Dawson's Creek?

Cook: Okay. I'm only on two episodes for the season.

The Movie Guys: What's next for you?

Cook: I have a film at Sundance this year called The High Line. Then, I'm going to try to find more good roles out there and hopefully get them.

The Movie Guys: She's All That, from Miramax Films is playing nationwide at theaters everywhere.