EXCLUSIVE: Monet Mazur Gets Stoned

There are The Beatles and then there are the Rolling Stones - everyone has this debate on which band is the best. But, there's more to the Stones then meets the eye; before they became a mega success, one of their original members died. Brian Jones helped form the band and was said to have overdosed and passed away.

The truth comes out in the new film Stoned, starring Leo Gregory as Jones. Also starring in the film is Monet Mazur as Anita Pallenberg. Anita was Brian's girlfriend, then she was Mick Jagger's girlfriend, then she was Keith Richard's girlfriend (and actually had two children with the guitarist).

I had the chance to speak with Monet about the role. But what makes her even more close to this story is her father, Ruby Mazur, designed the now infamous 'tongue and lips' logo used by the Stones.

Here's what she had to say:

Did you know the story of Brian Jones before taking this role?

Monet Mazur: No, here I was I thought I knew so much about rock and the Stones and I was a huge fan. When Stephen (Wooley) asked me to do the movie with him, it wasn't until I read the script that I found out there was this whole story how it was his band. He was the catalyst to make the Rolling Stones as big as The Beatles, but then he got kicked out of the band. I found out he was an addict, how he met Anita; I was reading the script and it was all new information for me. I realized I knew who Anita was so I kind of put it all together.

How did you get involved in this film? Did you know Stephen before this?

Monet Mazur: No, I received the script from Stephen with a note on it telling me he read about me in a magazine article, he thought I looked like Anita. Then, he got to the part about my dad and the Stones logo, and just thought this was all too coincidental. He wanted me to fly out to London and meet with me; I didn't have to read it, I said 'yes' immediately.

What is your fondest memory of the Rolling Stones?

Monet Mazur: I hate to disappoint you, but I never met them. My dad did that way before I was born, and I didn't even know he did that until I was a teenager and it actually meant something.

How was it working with David Morrissey?

Monet Mazur: Well, I didn't get to work with him that much; it wasn't until we got to Morocco, which unfortunately was the end of the shoot, that I really got to hang out with him. I thought he was just fantastic as an actor, as a human being; I just love him! We were eating lunch one day and he was talking about having to go back to LA to shoot Basic Instinct 2. I couldn't believe they were doing that because Sharon Stone in that movie (Catherine Tramell) is one of the people I based this character of Anita off of. It was so blatantly sexual and that was so much of who Anita was that someone said to me that I have to play her like Basic Instinct.

Did you get to meet Anita or get to know her?

Monet Mazur: No, I did want to meet her, then I didn't want to meet her because I was playing this very specific time in her life when she was at the key hey day of hanging out and being crazy. I didn't want her ideas of that time to influence what she felt about that period now or what she thought of Brian now because it didn't pertain to the character I was playing. I'm playing someone real, but to play someone real and still alive is pretty scary.

Was there music played on the set at all?

Monet Mazur: Yeah, that's kind of funny; I had this one song that Stephen seemed to play every time I was in a scene, it was just put everyone in that vibe. It was sort of Anita's anthem.

Why do you think there is such a controversy about this film? The tagline is 'It's the movie the Rolling Stones don't want you to see.

Monet Mazur: Well, I guess it's because it's sort of the untold story of the unsung hero, probably a time in their history they've moved beyond. Obviously, there was controversy when it first happened that he drowned and had an overdose and apparently he was drowned by mistake and killed.

Stoned opens in select theaters March 24th, and will come to other cities in the coming weeks; it's unrated.