Q 13

PLAYBOY: What leaves you breathless?

Kim Basinger: The outdoors. Christmas. Watching my animals. A field full of pumpkins. The first days of fall. Sometimes it makes me crazy, like I'm zipped all the time, like I'm a fool. I dance around the pool and play with the dogs.

Q 14

PLAYBOY: Whom do you trust?

Kim Basinger: Very few people in life can really be trusted. That's unfortunate. I work in a strange business, and trust is a word not even in the vocabulary. I trust some members of my family, but that's about it.

Q 15

PLAYBOY: Where is location hell?

Kim Basinger: The Santa Fe desert at night and Buffalo, New York, in the winter. Everybody thinks Santa Fe at night must be warm and wonderful, but it was freezing. And pouring rain. And we'd chosen summer clothes to do Fool for Love. We also had a moth infestation: Millions of bugs, like The Birds, would come down. We'd have to turn out the lights for two hours. I hate location. I like my house. I want to be with my animals. On location, I put pictures of my dogs all over the wall.

Q 16

PLAYBOY: Defend your Hard Country co-star, Jan-Michael Vincent.

Kim Basinger: Against the critics or against all the charges? [Laughs] I love him. People have called his style macho, but I think there is an incredibly sensitive--almost strangely sensitive--very misplaced human being underneath it all. He's always been popular, but in an unpopular way. He's always had crowds around, but his crowds have changed. First it was surfers, then cowboys. He was just all over the place. He had a great sense of life at one time. He was more silent, more stable, with his marriage and his child and even his meditation. But sometimes, instead of your getting caught up in it, it catches you by the neck. In Jan's case, that may be what happened. His career and everything grabbed him by the neck and pulled him into wrong things. The other night, I watched another news story about Jan's troubles, and it was unbelievable. How many times can they report on one case? He's not in the news for nothing, but it's for less than they're making it out to be. He didn't pull a gun on the world. He was a bad boy, but it's not everybody's concern.

Q 17

PLAYBOY: What was the last thing that made you so mad you broke it?

Kim Basinger: The kitchen cabinet. The handle comes off and the door sticks. So finally I grabbed the door and just ripped it right off with my bare hands. It would have been an easy little job to fix. But I just got crazy. [Laughs] I bent it backward so it popped off.

Q 18

PLAYBOY: You've kissed your share of leading men. What's your advice to future co-stars on the art of kissing? How do you like to be kissed?

Kim Basinger: Have clean, wonderful breath, needless to say. A mouth is so attractive if it's clean and wonderful. And don't slobber. That's sickening. I think a guy ought to develop his own style. If he doesn't know how, he ought to practice. There is absolutely an art to it. But very few people in the world really know how to kiss, and I'm not sure there are many people who really like it. That's the most important thing. You have to think it's as good as what's coming later.

I like to be kissed with caution. And passion. Kissing is almost more fun than anything else. It's the sexiest part of the whole thing. It's where you can pay the most attention. It's also the chanciest thing you can do. It takes guts to kiss somebody and to be a good kisser.

Q 19

PLAYBOY: What sort of present from a man makes you suspicious of his motives?

Kim Basinger: [Laughs] A surprise package from the drugstore. You get corny things. I get suspicious when it's a note hand-delivered by his chauffeur. Or roses. Roses are nice, but most of the time, the intentions are not real. Actually, I've never really gotten a present from a guy except in the sixth grade. I got a floppy-eared dog that said THE GEORGIA BULLDOGS on it, and I still have it right in my room. I got it from Charles Birch--and I think his intentions were very admirable. Come to think of it, I once got a pair of hanging legs from a man. It was half of a body, stuffed. A dust catcher, It made me wonder what his intentions were.

Q 20

PLAYBOY: What are your three rules for happiness in Hollywood?

Kim Basinger: Be sincere with yourself. Find someone with whom you can laugh. And don't listen to any of the bullshit said or written about you.