By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
April 28, 1996
The truth about actor Ben Chaplin? His character may fall for the tall blond in “The Truth About Cats and Dogs.” But he goes for smart and funny.
“People are so preoccupied with the way they look, and looks are just a small aspect of any person,” Chaplin, 26, said, having high tea at the Ritz-Carlton. “In my eyes, women who are smart and funny and confident have always been the most attractive ones. They just have this air about them that makes you want to be with them. I think there are plenty of women who are beautiful on the outside and lost on the inside, and their beauty ultimately isn’t nearly as interesting.”
In the comic “The Truth About Cats and Dogs” Chaplin plays Brian, who is smitten with radio talk show hostess Abby Barnes (Janeane Garofalo). After Abby, a veterinarian, helps him solve a Great Dane problem, he asks to meet her. Afraid he won’t like her Plain Jane looks and never actually intending on following through on the meeting, she describes herself as tall and blond. When he shows up at the station looking for her, she asks her friend Noelle (Uma Thurman) – who happens to be a tall, blond model – to pretend she’s Abby.
The problem is, while the real Abby and Brian fall in love over late-night phone conversations, he believes that her brilliant mind comes in a stunning, 5-foot-10, 120-pound package.
Just more proof that Hollywood is obsessed with youth and beauty and, if truth be told, Chaplin knows he probably wouldn’t have landed this plum role had he not been so photogenic. But fear not. “Everyone’s always telling me to work out and get a body, but as long as I’m healthy, I don’t really care. I’m not an action hero.”
Though Chaplin has worked extensively in theater and television in his native Britain, the dark-haired actor is a newcomer in the United States.
He had a small role as Anthony Hopkins’ footman in “Remains of the Day,” but “The Truth About Cats and Dogs” is his first U.S. film.
Chaplin has a girlfriend, but his London roommate is his 16-year-old cat, Oi, about whom he has no secrets to share.
But Chaplin does recall a time when he had so little money he had to sell a concert souvenir to pay for food.
“I had gotten this guitar pick at a New Order concert,” he said. “And I was saving it because it was so cool. But another kid offered me five pounds (about $8) for the pick, and I sold it. It would’ve been nice to have kept it, but it was nicer to eat that night.”
