Leighanne Speaks Out

Back - Index - Submissions - - What is RSS? Date: Oct 17, 2000 Source: November 2000 issue of All-Stars Magazine Submitted By: Lindsay LEIGHANNE WALLACE: Speaks Out-- On Her Dreams, Her Career & Her Famous Hubby Right now, you probably know Leighanne Wallace as the lucky bride of BSB cutie Brian Littrell. Here's your chance to finally get to know a bit more about the woman behind the myth. Leighanne will be starring in a hot upcoming flick called Olive Juice, and she's been busy as a bee lately trying to juggle her budding acting career with her marriage to Brian. Read on to learn more about the woman who stole Bri's heart-- you'll probably learn to like her! ALL-STARS: How did you get your start? LEIGHANNE WALLACE: I was in drama in high school, but I've been acting in front of my mom and my family since I was a little bitty girl. Putting on plays, making all the family do the plays. It was a disease. I tell everyone I was born with a disease-- it's the actors' disease. AS: Tell us a little about Olive Juice. What kind of character do you play? What's the movie about? LW: It's a romantic comedy. [In the movie] I'm a pretty conservative character, girl-next-door. I'm a businesswoman; I work at a newspaper doing graphic design. My mom lives in Orlando and she's sick, so I'm coming down to see her and I'm trying to plan a wedding, ironically, and my fiance turns into a louse and I end up falling in love with someone else. It's a cute little flick. AS: AJ and Brian have cameos in the film. What kind of characters do they play? LW: AJ is more along the lines of himself-- he's a D.J., and Brian is a carriage driver. He's a horse and buggy driver trainee. He's really adorable. AS: From your point of view, what has the fans' response been like since you and Brian announced your marriage? LW: Surprisingly, really good. I've got a website for Olive Juice, and you can actually write to me on it. I would say that 98% of the e-mails have been really positive. They've all been congratulating. Two are bad, but you're always going to have your bad apples. It's really surprising because I thought the girls were going to get mad, and at first they did, but they've been really great. Now they're asking me questions like, "How did you become an actress?" because a lot of them are into that. AS: Have you had any particularly memorable encounters with a BSB fan, either good or bad? LW: I've had a lot of good. We've gotten a lot of interesting engagement presents and wedding presents. One girl and her mom gave us these matching robes and one says B-Rok and the other says Mrs. B-Rok. It's so cute! We've gotten little bears with wedding clothes on them and we've gotten frames. It's really sweet! These people thought about this. Precious Moments statues. There's one where there's a little boy proposing to a little girl and there's a dog that's supposed to be Tyke with a little ring on his nose. They're really thoughtful. The bad ones usually are when I'm reading e-mails. I've never had any bad encounters face to face. AS: How has your life changed? What are some of the downfalls and perks of being married to someone who's in one of the most popular groups in the world? LW: I guess the downfalls are, of course, no privacy. Trying to go out, go to the grocery store, doing things together. It's kind of hard. You can either get the best of fame or let fame get the best of you. We just concentrate on really trying to be normal and that's hard. People really don't understand that when you're trying to eat dinner or shopping. They don't understand why they can't just come up to you and invade your space. AS: It must have been difficult to maintain a relationship when he was out on the road and you were doing your thing. What advice would you give to people in a long distance relationship to keep it strong? LW: I would say communicate. I guess another thing is to trust each other. If you're going to be in it, be in it all the way. All we had was the telephone-- that was our dates, everything. So if we didn't maintain a good relationship over the phone, there was no way. Also, [you need] a lot of understanding. AS: How did you know that Brian was the one? LW: The day we met, I fought it the whole day because I was thinking, "No, I can't fall in love, this is not right." You know when you meet somebody you feel like you've known all your life? Just his humor, his smile, his eyes, and he just had a great heart and he's a family guy. That's basically what I've always looked for. AS: What's your relationship like with the rest of the Backstreet guys? LW: Everybody gets along pretty well. I guess I'm closest to Nick and AJ because Brian is. I don't see them as much, except when we're on tour. They want to take a break when they're off. If you see somebody all the time, you get away a little bit and do your own thing. AS: What is the most important thing that you want people out there to know about you? Backstreet Boys fans want to know all they can about you. LW: I am not interested in breaking up the Boys. I don't want them to break up-- it's all up to them. I totally support Brian's career and I'm working hard at mine and he supports mine, and he's incredible. He's going to be an incredible husband. I couldn't ask for anything more. As far as [what I want] the girls to know about me, I'm as down-to-earth as I can possibly be. It's really important to keep your ideals and your morals and to love yourself because that's all you've got. There's so much hate in the world and it's so easy to go the other way, so I would just say love all you can. Stay in school, please! There are so many fans who have quit school to follow the Boys and it breaks my heart. I know I didn't go to college because I went straight from high school into acting and I've been studying. I know the best actor is a smart actor because there's a lot of reading involved in acting so if you can't read that well, or if you hate to read, then don't even try it. AS: Where do you see yourself in the next five years? LW: Hopefully, through another movie or two. I'd love to produce and direct. I'd love for Brian and me to be able to do a project together, whether it is in movies or music. I don't want to work him to death! I'll wait until he finishes his album. It's going to be a great album. It seems like it's been a long time, but it's really not. I want to be happy, even though it's taken a long time. I've been an actor ever since I can remember and I know if I blow up, everyone will say I'm an overnight sensation, even though I've been doing this for 10 years. I think I've worked for everything I've gotten. My number one goal in life was just to be happy, and I think I'm there. It's just a good feeling. Comment on this item. 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