> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Pop star is squeaky clean and ‘such a girl’ - URL: https://www.smdp.com/pop-star-is-squeaky-clean-and-such-a-girl/ - Published: 2004-01-09T16:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-23T03:29:44.000Z - Author: Dan Dunn - Tags: Entertainment, Santa Monica, #archive-import At 19 years old, pop star and actress Mandy Moore still lives with her family and regularly says things like “skeevy” and “stupid and stuff” in interviews. It’s quite refreshing, really, especially now that many of her contemporaries seem hell-bent on one-upping Guns & Roses for their “Behind The Music” special. Girls like Britney and Christina may have gone wild, but Mandy has maintained a squeaky clean image since bursting onto the scene with her debut album “So Real” in 1999. Moore plays the president’s daughter, Anna Foster, in her latest film “Chasing Liberty,” which opens today. She chatted up a roomful of scribes recently about the film and other matters that are, well, kinda stupid and stuff. QUESTION: The media, her parents and the Secret Service agents who are assigned to protect Anna constantly monitor her. You’ve been famous since before you were old enough to drive — how similar has your celebrity experience been to hers? MANDY MOORE: I don’t have people hiding in my bushes trying to take pictures of me, and I don’t travel with bodyguards. I don’t think I’d ever want to live that lifestyle. I’m very much allowed a private life. People give me my space and my time, and let me go out to dinner with my friends or whatever. I have my independence. I go out by myself without feeling scared. Q: Some of your contemporaries haven’t been so lucky, though. Why do you think that is? MM: For some reason, people have left me alone, and I like that. I wasn’t Britney or Christina, and I didn’t have to grow up in the public eye, and have every bad outfit or everything I said thrown back in my face. People just didn’t care. Q: What interested you most about “Chasing Liberty?” MM: It’s so the type of movie that I would go see anyway if I wasn’t involved in it, because I’m such a girl. I gravitate toward these films, and I love the feeling you get watching these people fall in love onscreen. Q: You mentioned that your friends and family have yet to see the film. How do you think your boyfriend (US Open tennis champion Andy Roddick) is going to feel about all the close encounters onscreen with your co-star Matthew Goode? MM: It’s got to be awkward. I would feel weird if I saw him kissing someone. It’s only human to feel that way. I’m just lucky the situation’s not reversed, and that he plays tennis and doesn’t have to kiss anyone. So there! Q: How about your father? Is he OK with it? MM: You don’t want to think that way about your little girl. My dad’s pretty protective in that sense — not overprotective like my father in the film, but it’s difficult for him to see certain photos of me looking (sexy) because, you know, you always want to regard your little girl as your little girl. Q: So who would rather be sitting next to in the theater when you watch the film — Andy or your dad? MM: I wouldn’t want to sit next to my dad. He’s pretty conservative, so I’m not sure how he’s going to feel about some of it (laughs). Q: Your films to date have been geared largely to a teenaged demographic. As you prepare to turn 20 years old, are you looking forward to taking on more mature material? MM: I’m very happy that I’ve been a part of making movies for people my age that have something positive to say and aren’t necessarily like every other teen film. But I know there comes a point where I can’t play 17 or 18 anymore, nor is that challenging for me anymore. So I think this might be the last movie I do that caters to that audience. *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 9, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/010904.pdf?ref=smdp.com)