Rae Dawn Chong's first picture, at 19, was Quest for Fire, in which she introduced ancient man to the missionary position. Her most recent film is Soul Man. In the intervening five years, the daughter of comic actor Tommy Chong has graced Arnold Schwarzenegger's Commando and Mick Jagger's video Running Out of Luck, as well as The Color Purple, Choose Me and Beat Street. We asked Contributing Editor David Rensin to do for money what we'd gladly do for free: meet with her. "I found Rae Dawn in the kitchen," Rensin recalls. "She grinned, giggled and said she was a big fan of 20 Questions."

Q 1

PLAYBOY: Are good looks a curse or is that just a myth propagated by good-looking people?

Rae Dawn Chong: They can be a curse. However, unattractive people are much more obsessed with looks. In Hollywood, unattractive and powerful people can be the most cruel about looks. Especially people who do casting. Last night I saw Charlie Sexton, the young musician. He's so good-looking. I don't remember listening to a note of his music until I'd heard about seven songs. And then I thought, Oh, yeah, music.

Q 2

PLAYBOY: How would you describe yourself to a blind man?

Rae Dawn Chong: A lot of times I act like a blonde. There's a lightness about me. I'm very open-faced. I have sort of round features, but they work somehow. I smile a lot. I have a wicked sense of humor. I have a good mind, but I don't like to bore anyone with it. And I love to laugh. I've got a mass of curls, this smooth skin that's a neat color, and I'm all lips, teeth. I'm just a bunch of smiles.

Q 3

PLAYBOY: Who has the best set of lips you've ever seen?

Rae Dawn Chong: My favorite lips on a woman--Kim Basinger. She's got killer lips. And on a guy, Charlie Sexton by far. He's been mentioned twice. I'd better mention my boyfriend quick before I get kicked out [laughs]. He's got the best lips that I've leaned into lately. Mick Jagger, of course, has the most famous lips, but I don't think they're the prettiest. The most beautiful belong to Helena Bonham Carter. Like Genevieve Bujold's, her mouth is so attractive and alluring.

Q 4

PLAYBOY: You've done lots of screen nudity. Does it bore you yet?

Rae Dawn Chong: Yes, totally, absolutely, 100 percent. Even seeing a boob or a guy's butt is just boring. We've all seen it. We go home to it--we are it. Suggestion is the art of eroticism. Last Tango in Paris is probably the last successful movie where it was just out there--a classic on every erotic front. 9½ Weeks was a bust. I'm anxious to do a real erotic script with no sex in it. You can seduce an audience without taking anything off, just like you can seduce a man without taking anything off, without even touching him.

Q 5

PLAYBOY: You went pretty far in the full-length video for Running Out of Luck. How do you remember the experience?

Rae Dawn Chong: Oh, God, it's almost like porn on my part. I hated the whole love scene. That was always a bone of contention. But I was stuck in the middle of nowhere with these guys, Mick and the director, Julien Temple. I was always promised it was going to be dark lighting, but when we got going, they took advantage of me. I probably should have stopped and said, "Look, this is just too much." But then, in terms of the context of my character, she would have done it. It was just too bad that we didn't have candlelight. What can I say except that I did it? I'm not embarrassed. It wasn't totally disgusting, and it wasn't Inside Rae Dawn Chong. It was no worse than what Sonia Braga did in I Love You or anything else, and we certainly don't think that she's a walking putana. We think she's brilliant. So I'm not going to say, "Oh, it was just terrible and awful." It was what it was. But I learned something. If I work with a director who wants to do some sex scenes, I hope that he'll understand if I say, "Let's make this hot; let's not make this gross."