Morissette

Web posted on:
Tuesday, January 26, 1999 1:44:06 PM EST

This interview is part two in a two-part series
From Correspondent Mark Scheerer

NEW YORK (CNN) -- To call Alanis Morissette goal-oriented is an understatement.

At 24, she has recorded two major albums, laid down several hit songs and emerged from a two-year withdrawal from the public eye sans clothes.

No stranger to the camera -- she was a child actor on Canadian television and made numerous music videos, including the surprising, nude appearance in "Thank U" -- Morissette has recently set her sights on a film career. Her first role: God.

Kevin Smith, director Of "Clerks," "Mallrats" and "Chasing Amy," was chasing Alanis in hopes of casting her as God in his next film, "Dogma."

"I had just gotten off the road, and I was tired, and I didn't think I'd be of any value to him," Morissette says. "I said no at first, but then as I kind of rejuvenated, I checked back in with him and he still hadn't cast the role of God. And I said I'd love to do it and I did."

But what of the people who "star" in her songs? Morissette's ferocious put-down of an ex-lover in "You Oughta Know" triggered a guessing game as to the real-life target of her scorn. In a new song, "Unsent," she sings to five more ex- boyfriends.

"I did call some of them," she says. "They were all very appreciative of my having called them. But they all said, 'You wrote the song, keep it intact and thank you for calling.'"

Morissette says people close to her aren't worried they're going to wind up in one of her songs.

"I think the way that I write is specific enough to resonate with me and personal enough to essentially write itself, but not so specific that I would actually invade on someone's privacy," she says.

For about two years after "You Oughta Know" and its sisters on her last album, "Jagged Little Pill," hit the charts, Morissette kept a low profile. But starting this week, she will be touring in support of her new album, "Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie."

She is giving up some of that jealously guarded privacy now, giving interviews where before, she was unavailable. It's partly to plug the album, partly because she says she's ready to do it again.

"I'm talking about a new record, absolutely, sharing my new expression and at the same time, I'm not as self-protective as I was before," she says. "I don't treat people at arms length and I'm a lot more open and a lot less afraid at this moment."