‘Groundhog Day’s’ MacDowell No Longer Pigeonholed

The box-office smash “Groundhog Day” has a karmically stalled weatherman played by Bill Murray waking up to the same day--Feb. 2--over and over and over and over.

But for actress Andie MacDowell, the weirdness started even before she won the other lead as a cool-headed television producer, when her future co-star got her home telephone number.

“He kept calling my house after I did the interview and before I got the job. I was very intimidated because I was fearful that if I did something wrong it would jeopardize my job,” MacDowell said. “He’d call and say things like, ‘Do you drive a four-wheel drive?’ Or, ‘Do you know how to drive a stick shift?’ He’d leave messages like that.

“Definitely he’s odd. More than a little odd. He’s just an odd character.”

The 34-year-old actress discussed her new film during a recent interview, sipping vegetable juice laced with cayenne pepper to battle a cold.

MacDowell’s sultry elegance contrasts with Murray’s goofy wit. His character, Phil Connors, attempts to escape from the spiritual snag that has him trapped in Punxsutawney, Pa., where he’s sent to cover Groundhog Day, while trying to woo Rita (MacDowell), his producer.

Their relationship develops agonizingly as Connors slowly transforms from self-centered hedonist to sensitive, caring guy. In real life, MacDowell said she was immediately comfortable with Murray and the two quickly became friends.

On the set in Woodstock, Ill., Murray made sure MacDowell didn’t lack for gifts on her April birthday.

“He gave me this box of birthday presents,” she said. “You know the things you put on the front of your car to keep away deer? They kind of make a high-pitched noise. He gave me mud flaps for my car with Yosemite Sam on them. He gave me a work belt. He gave me a magnetic key holder. Just a box full of stuff, this huge, gigantic box.”

It’s been four years since MacDowell shot to the top of the Hollywood actress heap with her performance in Steven Soderbergh’s low-budget success “sex, lies and videotape.” The film brought a bevy of offers and MacDowell went on to make “Green Card,” “Object of Beauty” and “Hudson Hawk.”

In recent years, she’s slowed down to enjoy time with her family.

“I think a lot of times people who jump from one movie to another don’t enjoy their private life. It’s a great way to escape reality. But I enjoy my life.

“I did three movies in a row and that was horrible. It was a horrible experience for me. I enjoy my work more when I take care of my private life.”

She lives in Montana with her husband, musician and former model Paul Qualley, their two children, 3-year-old Rainey and 6-year-old Justin, six horses, four cats, a rabbit and two dogs.

Qualley recently renovated the log cabin in which they live, about 18 miles down a dirt road from the nearest town. They share the property with a pack of wolves.

Country living is nothing new to MacDowell. She was born in the small mill town of Gaffney, S.C., and grew up in both Carolinas. She dreamed of being an actress but never thought it possible until modeling took her to New York.

“The environment I was in in the Carolinas, you don’t really think about having a job as an actress.

“It wasn’t like growing up someplace like San Francisco where it (acting) actually could be a reality. There weren’t any actors around me to really inspire, to make me think this was something I could really do. The kinds of things I thought about doing were special education, something a little more normal.”

Unlike other former models, MacDowell doesn’t complain about what a grind it was posing. She said she kept sane by viewing it as a business rather than a lifestyle.

“It was exciting. I’m from a very small town. Not many college students know what they want to do. For me, it gave me the opportunity to go to Paris for a year-and-a-half. I learned to speak French. I traveled all over the world. What an opportunity.”

Her acting career didn’t come as easily. Her debut film, “Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle,” was a flop. It proved especially humiliating for MacDowell, whose Southern accent was dubbed over by actress Glenn Close.

Her next film, “St. Elmo’s Fire,” was a step in the right direction. But it wasn’t until her portrayal of a sexually repressed housewife in “sex, lies and videotape” that the world took notice of something deeper than MacDowell’s good looks.

“I think I had been pigeonholed in a position of somebody who couldn’t do anything. It was just fortunate that it (“sex, lies”) turned out to be as good as it did. It saved me a lot of time and trouble.”