Christina Applegate is currently promoting her new film Alvin and the Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel where she is lending her voice to the one of the Chipettes in the film.  She tells Parade that her shift in life has changed and therefore her hopes for 2010:

“The things I pray for are a lot different than they used to be. I pray that I’ll find joy and happiness in whatever comes my way rather than being totally focused on getting the thing that will advance my career,” ”It’s not that I’m less ambitious, it’s just that I used to feel that if my life wasn’t a certain way I wasn’t going to be happy. Then I shifted gears in my consciousness. I really accept the fact that my life is blessed and that it doesn’t matter if I’m successful in this business or something else.”

Christina is a cancer survivor after undergoing a double mastectomy in August 2008 when she had found cancer in one breast.  She talks about the new guidelines the government has set out for women and breast cancer detection:

“Don’t even get me started. Look, I just started to sweat. I get a little angry. I don’t mind being outspoken about that. I think that is the most atrocious thing that I’ve ever heard. I was 36 years old when I had breast cancer, and you’re going to have people wait until, like, they’re 50 to get screened? It irks my whole body. I’m telling you it’s not going to
happen. We women will fight against that as much as we can.”

Women (and men) really do need to band together to protest that change.  I’m glad celebrities like Christina Applegate are willing to put their celebrity to use for such an important cause.

The rest of the interview after the break

The secret to changing your voice.
“You have to talk really slow like you just kind of had woken up from a nap. It’s really funny because it’s as far away as you can get from that chipmunk sound. Then, you hear it sped up and it’s perfect.”

If only she could move like that.
“I remember when they showed us the dance numbers for the first time. I almost wanted to cry. It was so adorable and I was so excited. It’s like, ‘Look how great I am.’ And then you have to remember that’s not even us doing anything. It’s all done by the animators.”

But she still might be back on the Great White Way.
“I’m always training just like before I did Sweet Charity on Broadway. I’m back in dance classes a lot now. I’d love to do Sweet Charity over and over for the rest of my life if I could. But if I was going to do another play, I’d want it to be something original, not a revival, because there’s a lot of scrutiny that goes on when you’re trying to fill the shoes of major icons like Gwen Verdon, who starred in the original Sweet Charity. She was a tough act to follow.”

Keeping it clean for the kids.
“I don’t have any children, but I’m happy that I didn’t have to say anything disgusting in The Squeakquelthat would shock kids. We’re strictly PG all the way. When I improvise, foul things often come out of my mouth that aren’t on the page. So I really stuck to the script or there would have been some inappropriate words from my chipmunk. It was good to do something that was very wholesome.”

A silly pet memory.
“I had lots of animals. I had a parrot that could talk. It was a Macaw. He used to tell my dog to shut the door. He’d go, ‘Red Eye, shut the door.’ And the best part is my poor dog would shut the door.”

And a Married with Children memory.
“I was going through the awkward phase that every teenager feels, but my awkwardness–not to mention my bad hair and tight t-shirts–was getting documented on TV every week. But it gave me a chance to get back at this boy I loved so much that I thought I would die. He had been totally ignoring me. After I got Married With Children, I called him up just to see what would happen. He was like, ‘Hey, Christina, we should go out or something.’ Of course, I blew him off.”
Photo:  WENN

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