A PRESTIGE HONG KONG EXCLUSIVE
BACK IN THE SPOTLIGHT
by Mariel Rittenhouse

Is right now one of those times?
Yeah, you don’t get much sleep. No you don’t . . . it’s the day-to-day. The last project – when I was in Europe doing a promo – by the time I finished my day I was so exhausted and everyone would e-mail me and I would just have a list of things to do before I could go to bed and I found myself getting only, at most, three hours, sometimes literally only one hour of sleep. Then I would have to get up, go to a photo shoot and do interviews the following day – and it was like that the entire time. But it’s work that has to be done.

When you’re off, is life a little more manageable?
Yeah, it definitely gets lighter. There’s always something going on. It still gets lighter and that’s probably when it gets a little boring. Then I’m ready to get back to it again.

As a Jackson, was entertainment the only plausible trajectory or did you want to be something else when you were young? I heard you wanted to be a jockey?
Yeah, I started riding when I was five. I’ve been so scared to get on a horse since what happened to Christopher Reeve. That really frightened me. That could be me, that could be anyone. I wanted to be a racing jockey when I was a kid, and when I was in high school I wanted to go to college to study business law. God saved me, or my father, I should say, saved me and said, “Nah you’re not going to do that.”

You started your career as a TV actress. Was it daunting to make the transition as an adult into films?
When I was 10 I started to act. It wasn’t difficult [to make the transition]. A lot of things happened to the kids I was around, like Todd Bridges, Gary [Coleman], Dana [Plato], and everyone would say to me, “Why hasn’t something like that happened to you?” I’ve just been thankful and never tried to think about it. I just thank God. Everyone’s life is different. Not to say their parents raised them incorrectly, but I think a lot of it does have to do with their upbringing. But then again, you never know what that person is going through, how it affects them. One minute you’re adorable, you’re cute and you’re working, and you go through your adolescence and you’re not quite as adorable because you’re a little awkward and you feel like no one wants you anymore. And you’ve got pimples. It’s not easy being a teen. And then you’re not getting the parts you were getting. So I think a lot of times you can internalise and say, “What’s wrong with me? What did I do?” But it has nothing to do with you – how do you explain that? I’ve just been very fortunate because at that point I started into music – that’s how the energy transitioned for me.