What Happened to Rachel Leigh Cook?

Ok, so I decided to do a kind of "Celebrity Disappearing Acts" article, and I have decided to focus on the incredibly talented Rachel Leigh Cook. Cook was a pretty big hotshot during the late 90's, appearing in a handful of popular films, and being hyped like crazy by the media, being declared the 26th sexiest woman of 2002 by Stuff magazine. Yet, for some reason, she managed to completely drop out of the public eye around 2002-ish, despite the name she had managed to create for herself, and the talent she had displayed.


 Where You Might Remember Her From
Rachel Leigh Cook is pretty much known as being one of the biggest badasses of the 90's. She is one of the only people (besides Amanda Stepto) able to successfully pull off the "badass pop-punk chick with a heart of gold" archetype that Avril Lavigne so desperately wishes she could be. Her characters were usually cynical, yet oddly lovable types, whose bad side you really want to avoid lest she kick your ass or destroy your kitchen.

Cook first became well known through this Anti-Drug PSA, where she destroyed a kitchen and struck fear into the hearts of heroin-users and egg-lovers everywhere. I actually think it may be one of the big reasons why so many 90's youth have grown into vegans. Her ability to be so terrifyingly kick-ass is one of the reasons why it is odd that she faded out of prominence so fast.

After the PSA, Cook starred in She's All That which practically invented the pretty girl+glasses= hideous, undatable freak formula that has been used in more or less every bad teen comedy (and a Taylor Swift video) since. This formula allows Hollywood to avoid hiring unattractive women by simply putting glasses on attractive women, and having everyone treat her like she's ugly until she removes said glasses: works every time! Needless to say, She's All That was extremely successful, and helped define the generation.

Cook's final high-profile film was Josie and the Pussycats. Despite lukewarm critical reaction, the film did make tons of money, and was a financial success (and, in my opinion, incredibly awesome), and managed to keep Cook in the spotlight. Josie also starred Tara Reid and Rosario Dawson,  who went on to have huge careers, so the film was clearly a pretty good career move.

Nevertheless, after Josie and the Pussycats, and a guest appearance on Dawson's Creek around the same time, Rachel Leigh Cook more or less disappeared from the limelight. Although she continued acting, she no longer appeared in big-name movies, and the media had pretty much abandoned her. In one short year, Cook managed to vanish from the radars.

Where is She Now?
Voice acting. Anybody who has played the games in the FFVII compilation (or watched Advent Children) has heard her voice recently, as she was Tifa. She has also voiced many episodes of Robot Chicken. Why she has made the shift from live-action idol to voice actress is odd, yet it is quite exciting to see one of my favourite actresses from the 90's being slowly absorbed into the vidjagame geek culture: it allows for an overlap of my two favourite worlds, which I very much enjoy. Overall, Cook's present status is very positive (we'll just ignore the fact that she was in Nancy Drew), however it is still interesting to question what happened to the rising star that was so big during the 90's.

Anyway, there was an example of what this column would be like. Any feedback is appreciated. Did you like it? Did you hate it? Do you want to come over and watch Josie and the Pussycats with me? I want to know!

Also, on a completely unrelated topic, I am officially in love with this store. My friend Megan runs it, and it has some of the coolest stuff, so I figured I'd share it with you.