Smallscreen News

Christie Brinkley talks Billy Joel, playing Roxy and being 57

By April MacIntyre Feb 16, 2011, 3:42 GMT

09/27/2010 - Christie Brinkley - 25th Annual Great Sports Legends Dinner to Benefit the Buoniconti Fund - Arrivals - Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, Park Avenue at 50th Street - New York City, NY, USA © Charles Norfleet / PR Photos

Christie Brinkley is hitting the Great White Way for her turn as Roxy Hart in "Chicago."

At fifty-seven years old, Christie Brinkley is ready to embark on a new chapter in her life…starring as Roxie Hart in the Broadway musical “Chicago.”

In an interview with “Access Hollywood’s” Shaun Robinson, the excerpts below reveal how she’s redefining the rules about aging in Hollywood, her admittedly awkward “Uptown Girl” strut, and how she met her now ex-husband Billy Joel.

To see Access Hollywood’s complete interview with Christie, tune in Tuesday, February 15, 2011 Access_Hollywood 

ON DEFYING HOLLYWOOD’S RULES ABOUT AGING:

SHAUN ROBINSON:
I’ve got to tell you, folks never believe your age...

CHRISTIE BRINKLEY:
I can't believe my age. I mean, I look at that number and I'm like, you know what? Nuh uh. I just can't-- the number doesn't fit.

SHAUN:
You just celebrated your 57th birthday.

CHRISTIE:
Oh you had to say it! Oh! Oh! ((crosses Shaun)) When I started modeling they used to say ‘They'll chew you up and spit you out, by 30 it's all over.’ I want to live every day to the fullest; I want to enjoy this time because, as my parents say, ‘the golden years suck.’

CHRISTIE IS TAKING ON A NEW CHALLENGE…SINGING AND DANCING! SHE MAKES HER BROADWAY DEBUT IN APRIL AS ROXIE HART IN "CHICAGO"

SHAUN:
I think the audience is going to say ‘Christie Brinkley, she's beautiful…but can she sing?’

CHRISTIE:
Well I kind of said that too…I kind of feel like this offer came out of the blue, and I would be absolutely crazy, and I would wonder for the rest of my life if I said no.

SHAUN:
You not only have to sing, you have dance too. You've been in music videos…in ‘Uptown Girl’ you were dancing a little bit in that.

CHRISTIE:
It was the hottest night in the summer and with every step my high heels would go down into the pavement. So, I'm not quite as bad as I was in ‘Uptown Girl’

SHAUN:
When you look back do you think you were bad in ‘Uptown Girl’?

CHRISTIE:
Well, I can see me kind of going ‘Ugh! Get that shoe out of the pavement!’ You know?

SHAUN:
I want to know what the reaction was from your daughter Alexa Ray and your ex Billy Joel, a music icon.

CHRISTIE:
You know what? I just got an email from Billy last night saying ‘Congratulations, you are going to be great I'm coming to the show’

SHAUN:
Are you nervous about performing in front of your daughter and Billy?

CHRISTIE:
Are you kidding? Billy and I would be cooking in the kitchen doing Broadway shows all the time, singing and dancing. And Alexa and I have picked right up, and the two of us sing and dance. No, we're constantly singing. It's truly a musical in our house.

MEETING NOW EX-HUSBAND BILLY JOEL AND ACCIDENTALLY CALLING HIM ‘JOE’

SHAUN:
Billy told me about the day that he first met you. He said it was in a little piano bar in the Caribbean and he was playing the piano and he looks up…

CHRISTIE:
…And I told him to scooch over! And I started singing!

I remember I didn't know what to call him because I didn't know if he was from the south and I was supposed to say Billy Joel. I just called him Joe. I said, ‘You know, you look like a Joe to me.’ I remember having a little anxiety over that because I knew that he was supposedly very famous, but I had been living in Europe and so I wasn't all that familiar.