Dear Bre,

To stay in shape, I work out daily. I do an hour of cardio each morning, be it swimming or riding the stationary bike or using the stepmill at the gym. I can no longer run because my knees wont allow it. I also lift light weights 3 times a week, and do yoga a couple times a week. Although it is important to remain limber, but I do yoga because I have a chronic lower back issue, and yoga is the only thing that keeps me pain free and not needing to visit my chiropractor (my chiro, by the way, is Dr. Franco Columbu, who was Arnold Schwarzenegger’s training partner and who trained me for my role as an aspiring bodybuilder in the 1984 tv movie, Getting Physical).

Diet is very, very important when it comes to health and fitness, and I fall short here. I love sugar and battle not to eat too much. Luckily it is my only vice: I don’t smoke, don’t drink soda, coffee nor alcohol, and I don’t eat meat. I don’t like fried food much either. I do like vegetables, but not fruit! I am the only person I have ever met that isn’t keen on fruit. To help me get enough protein in my diet and to help me not eat too many sweets, I have a nutritionist, Cathy Sassin. I write down what I eat every day and she looks it over and we discuss it every 2 weeks or so. I have been seeing her for almost 10 years, because I believe that there are challenges that each of us cannot tackle alone, and healthy eating is one of those areas for me. She rocks – very non-judgmental and encouraging.

I am so glad that you enjoyed my film The Paperboy. It has done very well over the years. I shot it in 1993 in Montreal, and am still in touch with the lovely Marc Marut, who played the paperboy so brilliantly. I went on to do another movie with my co-star,William Katt (Piranha 2), and worked with the director, Douglas Jackson, 3 more times.

Thanks for writing.

Alexandra

Hi Arron,

I am very happy to see that GM is making a Plug in Hybrid like the Volt, which will go 40 miles on batteries and then an onboard motor will charge the batteries up if you go need to go farther. I, however, do not plan on purchasing it, since that motor uses gasoline. There is a reason that oil is a “fossil fuel”, folks – it is OBSOLETE.

Although I am happy that the price is going to be a somewhat affordable $25,000- $30,000, I am dismayed that GM says the Volt will be on the market in 2010. What are they waiting for????? I drive a full electric that gets 100 miles per charge on battery technology that is 10 years old, and they are making excuses about how hard it is to fit batteries and a motor in a car that will get only 40% of the electric range? It sounds like they are stalling to me and I wouldn’t be surprised if production of the car is pushed farther and farther back, because I don’t trust the big auto manufacturers one bit.

I would buy another full electric vehicle from GM in a heartbeat, if they came out with one. The EV-1 was a masterpiece, and I will always be grateful that they were the one big car company that had the balls to bring out an EV that was designed from the ground up to be an EV – not a conversion like every other car company put out to fulfill California’s clean car laws in the 1990s (Ford Ranger, Toyota RAV4, Nissan Altima, Honda EV+, Chevrolet S-10).

I am completely happy with my EV, and thrilled that it doesn’t use gasoline. I charge at night with green power purchased from my local power company. I am satisfied with the range I get; it is all I need. Ian would give up his Prius for a Chevy Volt, though, so perhaps we will have one in the family at some point! I do believe in supporting cleaner technologies, so even if a plug in hybrid isnt perfect, it is important to show that cleaner cars are important to us consumers by purchasing the best of what is available. It encourages auto manufacturers and our governments to go farther and invest more into cleaner and cleaner vehicles.

I am glad to hear you enjoyed Who Killed the Electric Car? so much. And thank you also for your supportive words.

Alexandra

Escape to Nowhere is also known as Spectre, and when we were filming it had yet another title, House of the Damned. We shot in the town of Spiddal, near Galway, which is on the west coast of Ireland, on the Connemara Coast. The cast stayed at the “Spiddal Holiday Homes” which are still there. Roger Corman, the producer, was building a big studio there because it was inexpensive to film in Ireland. The arts minister was from the Spiddal area, so he made sure tax incentives were given by the Irish government for filming there. The funny thing was that a lot of the Irish crew had very little experience – my makeup artist was a 40 year old housewife who never had worn makeup herself and had never had any training, so I ended up doing my own makeup which was nervewracking as I never wore much myself unless I was working, so I was almost as inexperienced! But it worked out – less is more!

Ireland: What a fantastic country! I couldn’t get over the stone walls – they are everywhere, apparently because all the trees had been chopped down for firewood (they used peat from the peat bogs there now, instead), so the walls were made of stones. Also, very few traffic lights and a lot of “roundabouts” (traffic circles)– they were new when I shot there in 1995, and the Irish either loved them or hated them – supposedly they kept traffic flowing. I loved them because they were different!

The coastline was beautiful there – rugged. I was there in November and December, so not very conducive to swimming although we did go for a midnight skinny dip once!

Ian and I were not used to the pub culture at all, because we don’t drink, but pubs are a very important part of Irish social life. I didn’t get to the northern part of Ireland at all, but the Connemara Coast is really lovely. We saw a couple beautiful castles, and the countryside is so different from anywhere in the United States. The Irish are very, very nice.

Have a wonderful trip to Ireland! I know you will have a fantastic time.

Alexandra