Survivor's Colleen Haskell hits the big screen

BEVERLY HILLS -- Where there is a whim, there is usually a way, especially when it comes to what Adam Sandler wants.

His whim? Sandler liked the screen presence of Colleen Haskell on last summer's top-rated reality TV show, Survivor. He wanted to audition her for a role in the comedy film project that he was overseeing as executive producer, The Animal.


Sandler got his way, of course.

"But I don't think they ever expected me to get the part," Haskell says. "He told me he'd get me the audition, but I had to do the rest myself."

She did, to everybody's surprise -- including Haskell's.

The Animal opens Friday. Haskell co-stars opposite Rob Schneider in the farcical fable. Schneider plays Marvin Mange, a bumbling police file clerk and wannabe cop.

After a near-death car crash, the clerk is magically transformed into a super-human when an eccentric scientist replaces his body parts with animal organs. Portraying a tree-hugging local animal-shelter volunteer, Haskell is more or less on hand as Marvin's smiling girlfriend.

Director Luke Greenfield says the cast and crew were impressed by Haskell's determination and willingness to learn.

"Colleen was a natural and she has a real genuine quality to her that came through," Greenfield says.

Born and raised in Bethesda, Md., Haskell admits she grew up in a perfect little Leave It To Beaver family unit. By all accounts, it was uneventful.

She graduated high school in 1994, went to the University of Georgia at Athens, and graduated three years later with a bachelor's degree in theatre.

"I never wanted to act," she says. "I did design and set decorations."

After college, Haskell accepted an invitation in 1998 to join an environmental group working out of strife-ridden Ghana, West Africa.

"I thought it would be a real good challenge, and I would get to do some volunteer stuff," she says. "So I took off by myself to West Africa."

Her mom wasn't pleased, and even Haskell started to wonder about her adventure.

"We had a layover at the Ivory Coast before we went to Ghana. The entire plane of passengers got off except me," she says. "That's when I first said, 'Where am I going anyway?' "

No major incidents, no worries. And as Haskell says now, two months of the gruelling Ghana experience sort of prepared her for Survivor, which she signed up for when she returned to her home base in Miami.

"I don't think anything could prepare me for what happened after the TV show. Nobody told me it was going to be that big, because I guess they didn't know," she says. "It was a bizarre, bizarre thing."

She says some of the post-show offers were incredibly peculiar, hinting but not revealing what they were.

"But I did turn down Playboy," she says, smiling. "I was in a bikini on TV. I thought that was enough."

Two weeks after the first Survivor show ended, Sandler called and the rest is Haskell history. Well, a chapter of it anyway.

Looking back on both experiences, Haskell says Survivor's Malaysian island and Hollywood have a lot in common.

"You get thrown into a world you know nothing about, and you learn real quick."

She was cautious on set, but admits that the business side of show business was frustrating her at first.

"It's a completely different environment," she says of the movie industry. "In the real world things are done differently. It's unique in the movie industry, with agents setting up deals, lights, hitting the mark, turnaround, learning the talk.

"And Rob," she says of Schneider, "was really patient with me. I thought of him as my acting coach. He let me do as many takes as I needed, and made me feel like I could do anything if I really worked at it."

Basically, she was asked to portray "the sweet, nice girl I was edited into on Survivor."

So you're not sweet?

"Not that sweet," she says.

In a week or so you can add The Animal to the list of things she'll be famous for.

"People really feel they know me well from Survivor," she says. "They are always coming up to me, sometimes when I'm not expecting it.

"Like, I'll be in a dressing room in a store when I'm trying something on. I've had people look in and say, 'Hey, you're that girl from that show.' That's kind of weird."

It might get weirder yet. In the meantime, she's got her graphic designer portfolio all set to make the rounds.

"I'm not comfortable with the fame business or the actress business, and I don't think I'll ever be comfortable with it," she says.

"I just keep saying to myself, 'I'm only 24 years old and I've been given a strange opportunity.' So I'm trying to make the most of it."

Haskell says she wouldn't do another Survivor -- at any price.

"It's not a great idea to put 16 people on an island and have them fight for money," says Haskell, who watched the second Survivor instalment only occasionally.

Sensing her opportunity for some playfulness, Haskell says, "Let me help here by answering the rest of your questions before you ask them.

"My legs are better, lots of cools scars. And yes, we ate the rat, and it tastes like duck ... I do see some people from the first show but not very often. I think of it as more like summer camp. You say 'Hi' and move on.

"And what's my advice to the new Survivor people?"

Haskell can't help flashing that shy grin that won over TV audiences across North America last summer.

"Get a movie deal," she finally says. "There's nothing like it."

Rob Schneider talks to AllPop