The Olsen Twins New York Minute

THE OLSENS TAKE THE BIG APPLE BY STORM.

Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen Interview by Paul Fischer in Los Angeles.

You've got to hand it to those Olsen girls. Just shy of their 18th birthday, and these twins have more money than God, are CEOs of a multi-million dollar corporate empire, and have time to star in a movie, prepare for college in New York and buy a new place. Their first theatrical movie in quite some time, New York Minute, casts the twins as 17-year-old sisters Jane and Roxanne Ryan, adversaries who begrudgingly journey together from their Long Island home to New York City, where meticulously prepared overachiever Jane (Ashley) is due to deliver a speech to qualify for a prestigious college scholarship abroad. Meanwhile, laid-back punk rock rebel Roxy (Mary-Kate) hopes to get backstage at an underground music video shoot and slip her demo tape to the band. But Roxy's and Jane's plans go wildly awry when a mix-up involving Jane's precious day planner lands them in the middle of a shady black market transaction. Pursued by an overzealous truant officer (Eugene Levy) and accused of kidnapping a Senator's dog, the Ryans must find a way to work together to thwart the forces threatening to jeopardize Jane's college dreams and ship Roxy off to a convent school.

Clearly reluctant to talk about their lives beyond the image, PAUL FISCHER spoke to the pair in Los Angeles, before Mary-Kate's current hospitalization.

It is hard to tell this pair apart. Mary-Kate is the thinner one, a fact that was unnoticeable at the time the pair were in a Los Angeles hotel trying to generate interest from their New York Minute film. These are two girls, who at the time we spoke, were shy of their 18th birthday, who may be in control of their fortune, but had a clear reticence in talking to the media about much at all, it seems. Preferring to poke fun at their image by hosting TV's Saturday Night Live, rather than attend their own senior prom, Ashley says "It was actually a big decision for us - do we want to do Saturday Night Live or do we want to go to our Senior Prom and we waited, but you don't really get the opportunity to host Saturday Night Live during Sweeps week that often?"

The girls do look alike and talk alike, completing each other's sentences yet seem to have lack a sense of humour about their 'twiness', something that changed hosting this popular American sketch comedy show. Prior to this interview, journalists were warned that the twins we're doing all they can to shed their twin persona. Mary Kate begins by responding "It's so funny like now it's ----"followed by Ashley: "Everyone missed all those articles for the past 10 years," referring to that plethora of reportage about Mary-Kate and Ashley, referring to them in articles as a single entity. Offers Mary Kate: "Yeah it was kind of something that came out like 10 years ago so I think to be honest it's not a big deal, it's just I think we like to be referred to by our names." Her sister agrees. "I mean if you can respect us as business execs and powerful young ladies and all these other things then we feel like, well, maybe you guys can look at us also as individuals."

Yet in doing press for New York Minute - in which they play twins with varying differences - the pair was still more than happy to do interviews together, "so we can split up the questions," both sisters say in perfect unison.

Publicly supportive of each other's lives, they offer a smile when asked what the greatest period they spent apart, though not quite sure of the finer details. "3 weeks I think and that was when Ashley went to camp and I went to a different camp. I went to a riding camp because I horse back ride - I haven't for a couple of months because I've been so busy. Right?" Ashley says "Yeah, camp. I went to a regular camp. No I went for 2 weeks. I signed up for 3 weeks which I shouldn't have done because I'd never been before but it wasn't my thing," Ashley insists.

Now 18, the twins say that being 18 is more about what is happening at their time of life. "It's just like the timing right now is everything is just happening. Everything is changing, the movie comes out, we're going to host SNL, we're moving away, moving to New York and going to university", says Ashley. "I guess I think we kind of look at it as the second or third chapter of our lives," adds Mary Kate. "I mean adulthood, we've kind of lived that business part or that after college you figure out what you're going to do with your life or maybe before but for us we already know what we want to do and we've already accomplished business things and what we want to do for our future that I think for us is the time to explore everything else," she continues. Asked what is left for the pair to accomplish as they approach adulthood, Mary Kate says "I think we'll always create different things and always make different goals for ourselves. Right now I think it's just getting to college and getting through all these interviews. We know what we want our ultimate goal is, we still want to stay in business, want our company to grow, expand it and want to go off and do acting." Mary Kate says that that they can get bigger, but in different ways. "We will figure that out as we go along. I mean we're not here with a specific plan, in that we didn't do this movie, it was never planned, we knew we wanted to …" Ashley continues: "It's kind of like how our whole career has been just doing certain things has opened up different opportunities and we just kind of take them as we go along and create different things as we have certain opportunities. We just take them and we started the process of looking for a good script probably 2 years ago, so it just kind of all is falling into place right now."

The twins also have boyfriends, but try as the media does; getting them to open up about their private lives is tough. They concede that the challenge for them is simply "We don't answer questions when it comes to interviews. I mean there is nothing we can really do about that," says Ashley. "If they're going to write a story they're going to write the story whether it's true or not," Mary Kate adds. "I think the trick is for us, is to try to stay out of the public eye when we're not working and we don't like to really talk about our personal lives because you can only keep so much to yourself."

Asked how they can possibly keep themselves grounded, Mary Kate's philosophy is simple: "We've grown up with a huge family and with the support of each other. We've also been able to go to school at the same time which is our number one priority and still is, growing up. We were never thrown into the situation in the middle of our lives, but grew up doing it. This is all we know and some people who were thrown into it don't really know what to do or how to react and this is just kind of natural for us. I know that sounds weird but it is."

It is that support for each other that will see the twins survive adolescence and current health problems that are part and parcel of self-image. Ashley's recent decision to cancel a promotional trip to Australia, exemplifies that closeness.