Whirry Has an Instinct for Lasting Appeal

Mike Mayo

1070 words

20 August 1994

Roanoke Times & World News

METRO

10

English

(Copyright 1994)

Shannon Whirry is the sexiest woman in home video.

Admittedly, that is the opinion of one videophile with a notorious taste for guilty pleasures. But I’m not the only one who thinks so. Two years after its release, Whirry’s video debut, “Animal Instincts,” is still on the New Releases shelf of at least one Blockbuster store. Why? Because it’s still a hot renter. Movies that have such “strong legs” retain their newness.

But why has that one been so popular? After all, there are dozens of “erotic thrillers” out there; films that are much more explicit. What sets this one apart? The answer is a successful combination of star and story which, in the time-honored Hollywood tradition, the producers are trying to repeat with a sequel.

When I first saw Whirry at the recent VSDA convention, I didn’t recognize her. She hadn’t been listed in the advance publicity, and in person, she’s not particularly prepossessing. But when she turns on the charm while signing autographs, she can light up the room. She’s also opinionated and articulate about her profession.

“I’ve wanted to be an actress since I was 13 years old, and I stepped off the stage in my first play,” she said. Right after high school, she went to New York and spent eight years going to acting classes and trying to find work wherever she could.

“Then Steven Seagal came to town with ‘Out for Justice.’ I went to a cattle call and ended up winning the role. I was Terry Malloy, the cocktail waitress. Because the strike was on in New York then, all filming shut down the day I was supposed to start. They took me off to L.A. I filmed there and I never went back.”

It was the same cattle-call process with “Animal Instincts.” “I liked the script, thought there was a lot I could do with it. I thought it was an interesting character if done the right way. She was a sympathetic character, but she could have played as a slut and that wouldn’t have been interesting at all. But I really saw where it could go. I took it and the rest is history.”

But what made it work? What made it sexy?

“All I do is my characters. I’ve made the choices before I do them. I know who they are and I know what’s going on, and all I do is live it through them. I don’t try to be sexy because that’s a trap. As soon as you try to be sexy, you aren’t sexy. The times I’ve tried, it hasn’t worked. So I just have a good time and do what I’m supposed to do.”

It’s paying off. She has more video originals coming up – “an action romance and a black comedy next with no nudity” – and a role in the upcoming ABC mini-series “Texas Junction.”

And what of the new film?

“Animal Instincts 2″ is about what you’d expect of a sequel. It repeats the key ingredients that made the original a hit in a more coherent story, about a woman who becomes involved with a voyeuristic neighbor. Like the first film, it uses the confessional – to a priest or a psychiatrist or perhaps someone else – as a framing device.

If it lacks the freshness of the original, then writer Daryl Haney and veteran director Gregory Hippolyte understand one important fact about this kind of story. It’s not really about sex; it’s about sin, and that’s an infinitely more interesting subject.