By SEAN DALY Special to the Daily Press
For Dominique Swain, the wake-up call came just over one year ago.
“I got hammered at my boyfriend’s birthday party in front of about 150 of our closest friends and I fell down some stairs,” the actress recalls. “I think my reputation was becoming pretty horrible.”
Swain, 21, first gained attention for her portrayal of a 12-year old nymphet in director Adrian Lyne’s controversial 1997 drama “Lolita.” As a teen, the Malibu native became a regular on the Hollywood party circuit, and developed a nasty drug and alcohol habit.
“I had this boyfriend who was physically abusive and sold narcotics,” she admits. “I was subject to both of them. I got pregnant and disavowed everyone I cared about. But I got out of it.”
These days, the statuesque red-head is clean and sober.
“I don't drink at all anymore,” she beams during an interview to promote her latest movie, “New Best Friend,” which opened Friday.
A former valedictorian at Malibu Park High School, Swain acknowledges, “It is really easy for young stars to be irresponsible and for it to be accepted. I have seen some of my best friends piss their careers down the toilet.”
That’s one reason Swain remains concerned for her friend Tara Reid, who has recently been struggling with her own reputation as Hollywood’s biggest party girl.
“I think she makes herself out to be that way,” she notes. “I don’t really want to talk about her, but I hope she is OK.”
Swain also hopes Reid will heed one piece of valuable advice: “There’s always another young actress to come up in your place when you start slipping.”
Swain and Reid starred together in the 1999 indie film, “Girl.” The two starlets even shared a brief girl-on-girl kiss — something Swain has incorporated into several of her subsequent films. In “New Best Friend,” she engages in several lesbian scenes with co-star Rachel True.
“I had just turned 18 (when the movie was filmed), so I challenge any 18-year-old not to go hog wild and try everything,” she smiles. “But I think having a female director (Zoe Clarke-Williams) was instrumental in my feeling comfortable with the scenes.”
Swain says she is not sure how her current boyfriend, filmmaker Dean Paris Gavopolis, will react to the material.
“He’s always been really positive and supportive,” she says. “And so has my family.”
A thrill-seeker by nature, Swain began her show business career as a stunt double for Quinn Culkin in the drama “The Good Son.” Later, she landed the role of John Travolta’s daughter in “Face Off.”
The sister of actress Chelse (”The Virgin Suicides”), Swain was born in August 1980 near the Fairfax Avenue exit on the Santa Monica Freeway.
“My dad delivered me,” she shares. “The headline in the newspaper was: ‘Dad David Delivers Daughter Dominique In Datsun.’ For years, I was contemplating whether they named me Dominique just for the alliteration.” (Sean Daly is president of Showtime Entertainment and a Santa Monica-based writer.)
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 15, 2002. Read the original PDF.