20 Questions: Shelley Hack

charlie's newest angel talks about life here on earth--and the enviable problems of being both smart and beautiful

We sent Los Angeles free-lancer David Rensin to meet with Shelley Hack on a typically beautiful Southern California afternoon. His report: "I was waiting in her living room, sipping a glass of wine, when I heard a piano tinkling faintly in the background. The sound was familiar, but before I could determine whether it was Bobby Short or Mel Tormé playing, Shelley breezed in, wearing abbrèviated khaki shorts and a simple white blouse. She flashed that smile. I stood. I began to sing. . . ."

1.

[Q] Playboy: Do you like being a TV star?

[A] Hack: Yes. I've got two parking spaces with my name on them. It's wonderful. Someone on the set asked me if I was scared, but it never even occurred to me. Before joining the cast, I thought the show was very well produced. Really, it's a wonderful tongue-in-cheek fantasy; three terrific-looking girls running around packing pistols. And it's funny.

2.

[Q] Playboy: Kate Jackson was always called "the smart one." What do they call you?

[A] Hack: Well, I am the one from the East, the one who went to Smith--which I did in reality, too. I can do with my character what I want. We play it in terms of my being well educated, knowing Latin and other languages, but I'm also trying for a bit of goofiness.

3.

[Q] Playboy: Aren't you really overducated for the show?

[A] Hack: No, I'm educated for life; Charlie's Angels is part of life.

4.

[Q] Playboy: You majored in history at Smith. If you taught contemporary American culture, how would you explain the Charlie's Angels phenomenon?

[A] Hack: For obvious reasons, it is a product of reflex thinking in a culture that is working harder and harder for the dollar. During the Depression, we went to the movies; now we watch TV. The show has something for everyone. Women watch because they want to look like the Angels. The show represents a total fantasy that isn't so far out to lunch that it's science fiction. I mean, the Angels aren't untouchable types. They're not the kind of invulnerable beauties that you see in the fashion magazines.

5.

[Q] Playboy: You've had your picture in fashion magazines.

[A] Hack: Yes, but I never looked quite so haughty. Once, on a promotional tour, I was talking with a guy at a radio station and he wanted to know why my Charlie perfume commercials for Revlon were so successful. I suggested we make it the call-in question, because I was curious myself. The women respondents said that this girl walking into a restaurant alone--which most women are afraid to do--looking chic, but not too chic, seemed like somebody they would like to know or to be. I was their idea of a modern, liberated but not threatening woman. The men thought I was someone they would like to go out with; again, modern, not brassy and someone who, if they met me, would talk to them. Men complain about women who can't talk.

6.

[Q] Playboy: How did you get to the top of your profession?

[A] Hack: If you mean modeling, I was a success because I was hard-working, professional, bright. I looked at the business and identified the markets. I knew the key was that they always wanted someone new. I decided to hit one market one year, then cut my hair and hit another, then let it grow and hit television. I thought it through. The game plan can apply to any business, but especially to one where you're the product. You just have to become objective about yourself.

7.

[Q] Playboy: Have you ever been dumped by a man?

[A] Hack: Yeah. I'm always the one who sticks it out in a relationship after I should leave. By the time he says that we should end this thing, it's always a good idea. I guess I'm ready, too, but I really find it hard to hurt someone's feelings.

8.

[Q] Playboy: Are any of the guys who left now calling back?

[A] Hack: I don't know how they'd get my number.

9.

[Q] Playboy: What's your idea of a fun date?

[A] Hack: A fun person to have dinner with. Or lunch. Or to go to the beach with. I can have a fun date just sitting in the living room, talking to someone, if he's interesting. I've never felt the need, especially after I became successful, to have men take me out to a fancy dinner or something. I could just as well eat a hamburger and have some good laughs.

10.

[Q] Playboy: What kind of guy do you like to date?

[A] Hack: Offbeat, bright, funny ones. Never macho types. I find intelligence and a certain sexuality intriguing in a man. I like someone who knows where he's going and has a definite sense of himself.

11.

[Q] Playboy: Your business is high-pressure. What do you do to blow off steam?

[A] Hack: I jog, I read. Most recently, The Snow Leopard. I'm also reading Path Between the Seas and a history of the French Revolution written according to the theory of historiography. It deals with history in terms of individuals and small, pivotal moments. I like European and ancient history the best. My thesis at Smith was on the plan drawn up by Count von Schlieffen that got Germany into all that trouble in World War One, when they violated the neutrality of Belgium. . . .

12.

[Q] Playboy: Ah . . . when did you first realize you were good-looking?

[A] Hack: What a strange and weird question to ask. When I was younger, I was taller than all of the boys. I've really never thought of myself as anything special. I became a model at 14, so I must have looked OK, but when you do it for so long, you get very objective about your looks and you don't sit around thinking, Gee, I'm attractive.

13.

[Q] Playboy: Gee, you're attractive. Is it tough to be both smart and beautiful?

[A] Hack: Thank you. I don't know quite how to answer that. It's nice, but I find it strange that people find it a strange combination for an attractive woman to also be well educated, well read, intelligent and have an inquiring mind. Of course, I can speak in words with more than one syllable!

14.

[Q] Playboy: What do you think of your film If Ever I See You Again?

[A] Hack: Do I have to answer that?

15.

[Q] Playboy: OK, what kind of music do you listen to?

[A] Hack: Classical. I like Telemann, Purcell, Beethoven, Bizet. I like Mozart in the morning. (concluded on page 241) Shelley Hack (continued from page 167)

16.

[Q] Playboy: What is romance to you?

[A] Hack: A friend of mine lit up the Eiffel Tower for five minutes at midnight on my birthday. I wasn't even there. I was working at Zuma Beach on a Charlie's Angels episode. But that was the whole point. It was just about the most romantic thing I'd ever heard of. I loved it. I'm also the kind of person who believes in relationships. I have had some terrific ones and I hope to have more. Besides, I don't party a lot.

17.

[Q] Playboy: Why not?

[A] Hack: I don't see any reason to change my lifestyle. When I lived in New York, I had a farm Upstate. It was terrific, not chic. It's in a depressed area where they do dairy farming, and though it's poor, it's nice, beautiful, basic Americana. I could jog down country lanes in the quiet, fresh air. I had a little World War One reject jeep with no top that I used to take into town for supplies and food for the ducks.

18.

[Q] Playboy: What's the most embarrassing thing that ever happened to you?

[A] Hack: It happened on the first talk show I ever did. I'm nearsighted and though I wear contact lenses now, I didn't then, and I didn't want to wear my glasses. To get out to the sitting area, you had to push through a door, walk two steps down, six steps over to the seat, take one step up, turn around and sit down. I did that all before the show, practicing, and had it down perfectly. When it was my turn to go on, I was standing by the door, looking into the monitor. They were kind of sweeping the audience. I was squinting, watching, fascinated by what they were doing. Then there was this awful silence. I was supposed to be out there! So I went slamming through this revolving door, which, of course, hit me in the butt and propelled me off the podium. I crossed the stage and looked, but they had moved the seats. I found them and headed in their direction, which was toward the right wing, and as I came shooting out, the guy introduced me as, "Here's Shelley Mack!" I had this incredible urge to go "Na-na-na-na-na-na" and forget the whole thing.

19.

[Q] Playboy: What gets you mad?

[A] Hack: Seeing people who can't fight back get kicked around and hurt--old people, children, animals. No one has ever kicked me around. I can fight back.

20.

[Q] Playboy: How does a girl like you get to be a girl like you?

[A] Hack: Wheaties for breakfast.