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The vision of Caprice Bourret shoehorned into teensy silver hot pants and slathered in baby oil would be a dream come true for any red-blooded man. For a girl, though, it's the stuff of nightmares, especially when you've turned up to interview said vision wearing horizontal stripes - fashion's equivalent of widescreen. If ever there's a time to dress in top-to-toe black, it's the day you're meeting Caprice.
But Caprice is having a fat day too. 'I'm really struggling with my weight,' she sighs in her Clueless drawl, and prods her stomach. 'I have to watch it all the time, but especially when I'm happy. Goddamnit, I'm so bloody happy right now I've gained 10 pounds. Can't I have something dysfunctional in my life to get rid of them?'
Caprice is joking, of course. She's delighted with the direction her life has taken since she silenced the critics with her recent turn in Rent. 'I took the part of a diva and turned her into a really funny character,' she says. 'I think I'm a good comic. You've either got timing or you haven't.'
Rent's producers learnt all about Caprice's 'timing' when she started calling hourly to beg for a part. 'I was on the phone to them constantly,' she admits. 'They weren't 100% sold on me. They only took me at the last moment and I had to learn the whole musical in a week. I had to audition like everyone else and even then they weren't 100% sold, so I just kept calling.'
With Rent, Caprice finally got the opportunity to prove she was more than just the sum of her body parts. 'Everyone was expecting me to have my boobs pushed...