Josie's Top Cat a Real Doll

Rachael Leigh Cook got a kick out of being a member of an all-girl rock band in Josie and the Pussycats. However, the 21-year-old actress had mixed feelings about becoming a modern-day Barbie.

"They made dolls of us that are so real they're scary," she says of the very anatomically correct figures modeled after Cook and fellow Pussycats Tara Reid and Rosario Dawson. "They actually scanned us with a computer to get the shapes right. You sit with this thing spinning around you that's like a cross between a make-up mirror and a microwave. I just kept thinking, 'Try not to look weird.'"

Well, that experience was not nearly as grueling as the one that transformed her from being a brunette to a redhead — another Josie requirement. "To get my natural brown to flaming red took a lot of hair dye," sighs Cook, whose big break came opposite Freddie Prinze Jr. in the 1999 romantic comedy She's All That. "After a while I really thought I might end up becoming bald. It was not fun."

Still, Cook admits that she'd do it all again — although judging by Josie's abysmal box office performance over the weekend, it's doubtful she'll get the chance. "They're talking about [a sequel] and we signed a contract," Cook reveals. "Actually, I've gone on record as saying I hate sequels. Unfortunately, I said that in front of Sly Stallone, which I guess wasn't very diplomatic of me. But I would do another Josie in a minute."

Next up for Cook are Texas Rangers, a western co-starring Dawson's Creek hottie James Van Der Beek, and the crime thriller 29 Palms, in which she plays a waitress. "It felt strange, because I wore the same outfit for the entire film," she laughs of her Palms role. "In Josie, I think I went through more than 20 outfits — and some of them were pretty tight. My waitress dress was very comfortable."