Deanna Russo (Sarah Graiman) was interviewed for the September 2008 issue of Maxim. The PG-13 rated photos accompanying the article are available on Maxim's website.
HEAT of the KNIGHT
Despite cameos from the Hoff and a talking car voiced by Val Kilmer, the new Knight Rider's true star is the formidable Deanna Russo.
By Allison Prato
Great news for anybody who's stuck in the '80s: NBC is bringing back Knight Rider, the iconic TV classic, with a Transformers-like KITT, balls-to-the-wall action, and a leading lady who's hotter than any babe from Dynasty. Her name is Deanna Russo, and after a recurring role on The Young and the Restless and guest spots on everything from N.C.I.S. to CSI, she's finally in the driver's seat.
We hear you've been doing tons of fight scenes and weapons training. If a crazy KITT lover attacks you in a dark alley, how will you defend yourself?
My character is known for her kicks and excellent marksmanship. If the attacker is far away, I'll shoot him down, and if he's close, I'll kick him to the ground. In other words, she's not just the good-looking girl in the corner who cries and doesn't know how to defend herself. I'm gonna pick a fight with the boys. I've been learning a mix of everything from karate to kick boxing to doble olisi.
Never heard of it, but it sounds terrifying.
It's a Filipino martial art. You have two bamboo sticks, and you can do some gnarly shit with them. You take someone out, or, if they have a gun, you can disarm them in half a second.
For all the Knight Rider fans out there, how can you assure them you guys aren't butchering the franchise? The most important part of Knight Rider was the car, and we're putting it on the highest pedestal we can-honoring it as this incredible machine. Nowadays, everybody has a talking car, with GPS systems and OnStar, but this KITT is on a whole new level. For example, he's able to morph from a truck bed back into a Mustang.
Yeah, and my character borrows a lot from Jennifer Garner in Alias. She's a spy, and she's not only in there with her fists but also very intelligent, and she understands every aspect of KITT, so she can fix him and recalibrate him.
Do you still remember the first car you ever drove?
It was a 1992 Hyundai Excel I got from my cousins. It was white plastic with a manual transmission. I grew up a farm in New Jersey, so when I was 14 I learned to drive a stick comfortably around the grounds. When I finally got my license, I found out it's one thing to drive on a farm with wide roads, but it's another to drive a stick in vehicular traffic. I sucked.
Did you get a lot of speeding tickets?
I have a lead foot, so yeah. I got busted once on my way to visit my brother in college, and I was devastated. I was probably doing 80 in a 55, which was impressive, because my car only had four cylinders.
You couldn't get out of the ticket by sweet-talking the cop?
Not that time. When I first moved to L.A., I would flirt with cops who pulled me over, smiling and asking stupid. It didn't work-I still got tickets! Then one time a cop pulled me over and started writing me a ticket, and I was like, "No-no-no-no-no!" He was a motorcycle cop, and he was wearing these awful knee-high boots, which I couldn't stop staring at. He noticed, and I think he was embarrassed, so he goes, "Yeah, I know, they're ugly." And he let me off. When I started modeling, I kept my portfolio on my front seat so taht anytime I got pulled over I could whip it out.
Suckers.
Right? Guys are turned on whenever women play with big toys like cars. Maybe there's some sort of phallic thing with the stick shift. If they see a hot chick playing sports or doing something aggressive, but with long, manicured nails, they seem to think that's sexy. Or maybe it has something to do with the fact that we're better than they are [Laughs.]
Have you ever been on a date that went horribly wrong?
God, which time? I drank too much on a date one time because I was way too nervous. That was embarrassing. It was in New York, and I wound up in Grand Central Station at 4 A.M., calling my dad in New Jersey to pick me up. Classy, right? But my dad was cool about it. I'd had at least four gin martinis, and I was literally hung over for four days. Needless to say, I don't drink gin anymore.
Knight Rider begins September 24 on NBC.
