Getting Cozy with Bedford's "Good Girl"

TVGuide.com: Did you actually shoot Bedford Diaries in New York City? It sure looks like it.
Tiffany Dupont: Yes, we did. We had a studio in Astoria, Queens, but were shooting on location at Barnard [College] and Columbia [University]. Milo [Ventimiglia, Richard], Corri [English, Natalie], Penn [Badgley, Owen] and I kind of had to transplant from California and temporarily live in New York.

TVGuide.com: It's nice to have Vancouver not playing NYC for a change.
Dupont: I know, that happens all the time! [Laughs] I'm not sure where Related shoots, but it's not real [New York City], and you can see it. It has a very different feel.

TVGuide.com What do you think about the lengths to which this show wants to push the envelope? [WB "cleaned up" at least the pilot episode shortly after this interview took place.]
Dupont: I think that there are realistic elements to this show, most definitely. Just being crass is not what we're going for at all. It's more of a very realistic view of what kids deal with at college. In our situation, you're going to actually see that, as opposed to other shows that only briefly touch on it. We dive right in.

TVGuide.com: Good, because you can't have a show about a sexuality course talking in terms of "Mr. Happy" and "My Woo-woo."
Dupont: Nope, nope, [the words have] to be actually said, but we do it tastefully. It's not raunchy at all.

TVGuide.com: Let's get all cerebral for a second: Who is Sarah, besides Owen's older sister and a coed who bedded her professor?
Dupont: Sarah is a very serious, driven "collegiate member," shall we say. She loves the college experience and is sucking up every bit of it. She is president of the student body, very involved on campus and very studious. There's going to be a nice dynamic between her and Owen because she's always been an inspiration to him, unbeknownst to her. But we'll also have the brother-sister fighting thing, where you're dealing with having each other on a campus where she is the "celebrity."

TVGuide.com: What's it like playing one of the more repressed characters on a series with such bold leanings?
Dupont: I actually feel more safe in that realm. I appreciate it. Personally, I'm not one to be so "adventurous" in displaying all of that on camera, so I was kind of glad to be the one that was the good girl. I always play the sweet girl next door.

TVGuide.com: Gee, I hope this Q&A doesn't cut down on the number of guys asking you out.
Dupont: No, no, that's OK! I'm not one to be like, "Let's go for it!" and put it all out there. When it's explicit sex or just hooking up to hook up and see hot girls half-naked, I'm not one to jump on that right away.

TVGuide.com: A-ha, so you are owning up to being a "hot girl."
Dupont: Nooooooo...

TVGuide.com: Bedford Diaries was originally scheduled to premiere March 22, which happens to be your birthday as well as costar Matthew Modine's!
Dupont: I know! We were all very excited to come out that day, but One Tree Hill had a fresh episode [on March 29] that they wanted us to premiere after.

TVGuide.com: How did you and Matthew come to realize what you had in common?
Dupont: I don't know if I looked it up [on the Internet] or whatever, but I went up to him and said, "We have the same birthday!"

TVGuide.com: Did you also tell him that you loved Vision Quest?
Dupont: I didn't. I haven't seen it, so I don't love Vision Quest. [Chuckles] He's a little out of some of our leagues generation-wise I don't know that we grew up watching his films so to me he was just a really great guy who took care of us on the set.

TVGuide.com: You also share a birthday with Reese Witherspoon and William Shatner. Which of those two do you have more in common with, you think?
Dupont: I'm going to go with Reese on that. And there's a good example of someone who has handled herself very well as far as the "physical" elements of this job. I see myself much more that way than the other.

TVGuide.com: You're more Reese Witherspoon than Paris Hilton.
Dupont: Is Paris Hilton even an actress? I'm thinking no.

TVGuide.com: Where do things stand with One Night with the King, the film you shot a year ago with Lawrence of Arabia's Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif? [Dupont plays the biblical Esther, Queen of Persia.]
Dupont: We were supposed to come out this spring, and I think they're debating whether to cut it into two films. They shot enough to possibly do that. That was a lot of hard work in a good way. It grew me up and I learned more than I know how to communicate, just living in India for three and a half months and taking on this character that symbolizes so much and has to go from pure innocence to risking her life for a whole race of people. Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif were wonderful men to be around. Omar was very, very sweet.

TVGuide.com: What's on your TiVo?
Dupont: I don't have TiVo, and I actually don't watch a lot of TV, honestly.

TVGuide.com: Yeah, you seem like one of "those," for some reason.
Dupont: Yeah, I'm more of a reader or a spend-time-with-people person. I like to go out to dinner with friends....

TVGuide.com: I was sweet on a girl in college who, I eventually learned, didn't have a TV growing up. That prospective romance went south, obviously.
Dupont: Oh, no!

TVGuide.com: Leave us with a "shocking" revelation about yourself.
Dupont: I don't know if it's shocking, but I'm the world's biggest klutz. I have been dancing since I was 3 and I have modeled and I have good balance, but you wouldn't know it. Hanging out with me, I do everything from spill food on myself to trip up stairs. I'm the queen of that, most definitely. At the WB party after TCA, I had a Stella McCartney dress on with red cowboy boots, which we all thought was really funny, and as I walked down the red carpet I tripped on my dress and stumbled forward. [Laughs] That was my grand entrance! Classic Tiffany. "Grace" is not my middle name.