Olivia Wilde is undoubtedly beautiful, duh. She was ranked #1 on Maxim’s Hot 100 last year, so obviously the guys like her … a lot. But as a million interview headlines will forever proclaim, Olivia is more than just a pretty face. She has style, grace, humor, intelligence and heart, oh! and she can act (for realz). Olivia isn’t ever going to be one of those actresses who play a mildly altered version of themselves, which might be part of the reason why she isn’t 100% a household name yet.

She’s played a tough blue collar Irish Catholic Hell’s Kitchen (NYC) bartender mixed up in the world of organized crime in ‘The Black Donnellys,’ a young and sick doctor on ‘House M.D.’ and been in gritty, dark critically acclaimed films like ‘Alpha Dog’ and broad comedies like ‘Year One.’ She’s diverse and if her previous work hadn’t proved it to you yet, ‘TRON: Legacy’ is sure to tip you over the edge.

I met up with Olivia at her hotel, by the time I got into the room and set up my recorder the conversation was here:
Olivia Wilde: Oh, I love your boots!
Me: Thank you! I love yours! (hers, also lace-up) I love lace-up boots.
Olivia Wilde: Yeah, me too. That secretly have zippers.
Me: Oh, I know. ’cause there’s no way–
Olivia: Yeah, there’s no way– I actually have my shoes that I wore in ‘Cowboys and Aliens’ that have–I have them here somewhere (we’re in Olivia’s hotel suite), but they actually are the hook and eye kind that you have to lace up. And it’s, like, how did these women spend 20 minutes each morning putting on their boots?! (laughing) and then their corsets?! They needed good girlfriends.

Okay and here is where the ‘official’ interview started…

Me: Totally! So, I have to ask about your blue dress last night? Was that Tron inspired?
Olivia: That’s Opening Ceremony for Tron. That’s the line that Opening Ceremonies is doing for Tron. That’s so cool that it made you think of Tron ’cause that’s what It’s supposed to do.

Oh! I saw that they were doing that, that’s awesome
Yeah, they did a whole collaboration and It’s really cool because there’s that dress. There’s all sorts of other cool things like really good stuff that I didn’t expect to love so much. So, that was my little Trony moment. To watch the film for the first time, I felt like I should be wearing something Tron-esque.

How was it watching it for the first time?
Well, you know, it’s nerve-wracking watching the movie for the first time with so many other people, you know, because you just feel sort of worried at every moment, are they following this? Did this work? Do they like this? But it played really well in the room and I was just blown away by it. You know, I felt like there were so many elements to the film that I’d forgotten about. So when I got to see it all together, I was, like, “Oh, yeah, that scene. I love that scene! So, I was really pleased!

So where did you grow up?
I was born in New York City, but then I moved to Washington D.C. when I was four. And so spent a lot of my formative years in Georgetown.

What’s your family like?
My family are amazing. They’re all journalists. And my grandparents, uncles, parents are journalists. But my sister is civil right lawyer in New York and lives in Brooklyn. And my brother is still in high school. He’s 17.

When did you first know you wanted to act?
I knew from a very, very young age. Acting was always very therapeutic for me. And as a kid, I had a lot of, kind of, erratic energy. And I had a very overactive imagination. And I don’t even know who, for the first time, said, ‘you should be an actress.’ But I was young enough that by the time I was seven, I was absolutely convinced it was going to be my career. When I was ten years old, I went to the taping of Saturday Night Live for a birthday present ‘Cause it was my favorite show. Although, I must not have understood any of the references. But I was peering over the bar looking at all the actors running in between the sets. And I just – it just became so clear to me that this was my future. That this playful activity could possibly be a career. Just the concept was so exciting to me. And, you know, at that point, I just wanted to go into comedy. I wanted to be on SNL as a cast member. So I went to my mom at ten years old and said, “this is what I want.” And she said, “great, well, you’re going to have to go to Second City and you’re going to have to audition” and she took me seriously. And I think that’s what always kind of helped propel me and take myself seriously is that I had supportive parents that were in no way pressuring me to do anything. But if I declared that I wanted something, they took me seriously. And that is often what it takes when you decide to be an artist. Because the world seems sort of pitted against you. It seems like a silly thing to do. And an impossible thing to do. So having people who take you seriously in that desire is very important.

Do you remember who the host was of SNL that night?
Yes. It was Heather Locklear. And Janet Jackson was the musical guest.
(Note: That was Season 19, episode 20 on May 14, 1994 … in case you were curious)

Do you remember the first celebrity you ever met?
First celebrity I ever met was … well, my parents had some really interesting friends. When I was really little, I met Mick Jagger, kind of too early to understand the significance of it. And actually at that SNL visit, I had a brownie eating contest with Chris Farley and he was so sweet. It was at the after party and he probably could have been hanging out with his cast members and having fun and talking to adults, but I was sort of hovering over the sweets. I was kind of a chubby kid.
(laughing) And I was hanging around the brownies. And I was sort of taking one and taking another one. And he came over and grabbed a handful of brownies and stuffed them in his mouth. He kind of looked at me, like, ‘it’s on.’ And so I grabbed some and put them in my mouth and he made me laugh so hard. And I remember realizing, like, “Wow, this cool celebrity who I just watched do this amazing work on the show is a real human being and is so kind.” I think a good celebrity to meet at a young age.

That’s awesome and crazy! What were you like as a teenager?
I was – well, it was interesting ’cause I was a combination of two different types of people. ‘Cause I’ve always been very focused on what I want. I knew I wanted to be an actor and nothing was going to deter me from that. But my path wasn’t always straight and narrow. I was kind of a rebellious kid. I went to boarding school, not because I was rebellious, but it was an amazing boarding school that I worked very hard to get into called Phillips Academy in Andover (Massachusetts). And I went there for their arts program. But I was often breaking rules, often kind of rebelling in my own way. But never really in an interesting way. I never, like, you know, got arrested or anything like that. But I didn’t really understand the concept of containment. I just wanted to do what I wanted when I wanted and to be free and to travel and to see this and do that. And I always had the sense that like I only had so much time to experience everything, which is what happens to teenagers. And you have to realize, you have so much time.

Yeah, i can see that.
But, just work at school now because that’s what’s important. That’s what’s going to lead to your greater future. That’s what I tell my brother now who’s 17. I’m like, “have fun later, Work now.” Because there’s just a weird kind of phenomena that when you hit puberty and you’ve had this adrenaline rush and you’re like, “I know who I am now. I’m figuring out my identity. I want to experience everything at once. And it’s a good thing to discover yourself, but not if it leads you to getting into dangerous situations or getting in trouble … So I was kind of, like, a mild rebel. A rebel who was still in a boarding school in Massachusetts.

Ha, yeah! So, what was the first part that you got that you were, like, “okay. I’m on my way now”?
Well, I’ve been excited to get every part I’ve ever gotten. But which one really felt like it was changing things? You know, I remember when I did–first time I really came into contact with, like, celebrity or the concept of it in my own life is when I did a year on ‘The O.C.’ And when I did it–When I agreed to do it, I didn’t understand how big the show was. And I remember the first time I was in an airport after my episodes had aired. And people were coming up to me and calling me by my characters name. And I was, like, “whoa.” I had no clue. But that wasn’t really the moment when I felt like I was on my way. That felt like, you know, a part of the discovering process. I think this past year has been transformative for me in so many different ways. And I think Tron was really a crossroads for me. That was really when I started moving at a different pace. And had access to different roles. And I got the chance to work with different, really exciting people. And I feel like Tron was a game-changer for me.

How about outside of acting, what are you really interested in?
Gosh, well, I’m very interested in philanthropy and politics and I have an organization called Artists for Peace and Justice. And we just launched the youth initiative which is real exciting. It’s called Young Artists for Peace and Justice.

And the whole idea is to bring our movement to the college and high school-aged people around the world. And to empower them to declare themselves agents for change. So what we do is we build schools in Haiti. So the broader conversation is more about ending poverty. This generation — generation wide, ending poverty. And we will do that, we believe, through education. Empowering young people around the world to be future leaders of their own countries.

So Artist for Peace and Justice has been in Haiti since 2008 supporting primary schools. And now we’ve just built the first secondary school for the poor. The only secondary school for the poor of the slums of the area we were in. And I was just down there this week visiting the kids, the new 7th graders. And it’s something I feel very passionate about, very excited about because our perspective is an optimistic one. You know, obviously, there’s incredible devastation and suffering in a place like Haiti.

But what we see if the potential in these kids and their drive and desire to learn and to change their circumstances. So the exciting thing about the movement is that we are trying to bring that kind of optimism and mobilizations to the masses, to young people who can do so much through social networking, through energizing their own small communities. We saw with the Obama campaign. It was something that should not be underestimated. The power of young people who mobilze and stand up for what they believe in. So it’s also, I think, going to be the defining characteristic of generation wide–changing the world. Philanthropy being something not just for the wealthy. But being a part of participating in movement and poverty to end, you know, animal cruelty. To end whatever it is that you feel passionate about changing. I think there’s kind of been a revolution in cool. Giving a shit is cool now.

Yeah, it actually is. It’s great that the tides are turning.
And that’s a good sign. And that’s something that I’m very inspired by. And so when I’m not acting and working on my own career, that’s something that I spend a lot of time doing. Tonight actually, after this, I’m going to USC to do a presentation about ending poverty with these really cool other young philanthropists who have a group called Global Poverty Project. And so I really try to balance those two parts of my life. It kind of keeps me sane.

That’s awesome. Can I do a couple… (here’s where we get interrupted and the (very nice) powers that be tell me it’s time to wrap up) Can I do a few really quick answer questions? (they say ‘yes’ … toldja they were nice) Favorite book?
Probably The Great Gatsby.

Word you or phrase you use too much?
Sort of.

Best vacation you’ve ever taken?
That’s a good one. Um, Thailand until I got Dengue Fever.

Oh, God. (In case you don’t know what Dengue Fever is, here are the symptoms: Sudden fever with headache, muscle and joint pains, a severe bone pain that gives it the nickname break-bone fever or bonecrusher disease, distinctive retro-orbital pain, and a horrible rash. In other words, really bad news and not something you want whist on vacay.)

Are you a one-on-one person or a group person?
One-on-one.

And what do you want for Christmas?
Sleep (laughs)

Ah, good one!

Hopefully Olivia will get some sleep over Christmas because after that she’s back to shooting one of about a billion films including ‘Now’ with Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried, ‘Butter’ with Hugh Jackman, Jennifer Garner and Ashley Greene, ‘Cowboys and Aliens’ with Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig and ‘The Change-Up’ opposite Ryan Reynolds.

Olivia Wilde may not be an otherworldly creature like she plays ‘Tron,’ but she is definitely about to be a really big star. And you can see what we’re talking about December 17th when ‘Tron: Legacy’ hits theaters.

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