We’ve got “three small words” for you: Josie (and the) Pussycats reunion.
That’s right, Rachael Leigh Cook and Missi Pyle, who starred as Josie McCoy and Alexandra Cabot in the 2001 cult musical comedy, are back on-screen together for the first time in more than 20 years in the new globe-trotting rom-com A Tourist’s Guide to Love. Cook plays Amanda Riley, a travel exec who goes undercover on a group tour in Vietnam after a bad breakup sends her into a spiral. Pyle, meanwhile, plays Amanda’s best friend and boss Mona, whose ruthless banter and no nonsense attitude might sound more than a little familiar. “If Alexandra Cabot grew up, she’d be Mona,” Pyle tells Tudum.
Best known for her signature skunk-streak hair, the über-rich twin sister of Josie and the Pussycats manager Alexander Cabot (Paulo Costanzo) stole scenes as a spoiled and mildly evil foil to Josie and the gang. And an unpredictable one at that.
Missi Pyle, Paulo Costanzo, Rosario Dawson, Rachael Leigh Cook, Tara Reid and Alan Cumming in Josie and the Pussycats.
“I remember Missi improvising things that made all of us absolutely cry laughing,” Cook tells Tudum about working together the first time around. “An especially brilliant moment from her is when my character is having a big revelation about the conspiracy that is afoot, and Missi completely steals the scene by paying attention to nothing I’m saying and silently sneaking up behind me, plucking a hair from my head and inspecting it. I remember watching playback on the monitor absolutely in awe.”
Looking back, Pyle now sees her character’s cattiness as stemming from a deep sense of insecurity. “In her heart, she just wanted to be any of the Pussycats,” she says. “If they had asked her, she would’ve flipped over a million times and said yes. But that wasn’t her story. [In A Tourist’s Guide to Love,] Mona is that grown-up version who’s now just allowed herself to be whoever she wants to be.”
Playing the tough woman on the outside looking in has become Pyle’s on-screen trademark. “I knew as soon as I read the first draft that I wanted Missi Pyle to play the part of Mona,” says Cook, who also produced the new film. “Missi has a perfect irreverence to her that gets away with everything. We needed an actor in that part who could convey a lot of identity in a small amount of screen time, and there are few on-screen personas as potent and satisfying as Missi’s in the industry today. To me, having Missi open the movie signals to the audience that they’re in good hands and in for a great time.”
Rachael Leigh Cook as Amanda in A Tourist's Guide to Love.
Pyle adds: “I love playing those characters because they’re what we all have inside of us, that deep need for someone to just say yes.” Stepping into Mona’s stilettos in A Tourist’s Guide to Love meant getting the opportunity to explore a new side of herself –– someone comfortable in their own power. “Mona is really fun,” she says. “She’s a little bit of a baller.”
And then there was the free trip to Vietnam… “I’ve never been anywhere past Western Europe, so just being in that part of the world was such a gift,” she says. “That’s by far the coolest thing about being an actor.”
Still, for Pyle, the real draw was the chance to reunite with Cook. “Working with Rachael again was pretty exciting,” she says. “I’ve seen her here and there throughout the years, and I’ve always loved her. She’s hilarious. She has a very dry sense of humor and she’s obviously beautiful and soulful, and I love what’s she’s done: She’s created this whole world for herself. I’m just floored and blown away by her. She’s doing something that a lot of other actors, myself included, have yet to do. She’s blazing her own way.”
Tara Reid, Rachel Leigh Cook and Missi Pyle attend the world premiere of A Tourist’s Guide To Love.
Ahead of filming, the two got to celebrate their reunion by hanging out in Hanoi, where Cook’s character starts her journey. “We just walked through the streets, and it was incredible seeing all these marketplaces,” Pyle says. “Josie and the Pussycats was one of my very first movies ever, so it’s nice to be with her again now after we’ve both had huge life experiences. We’re both moms and got to talk about where we were in our lives. It was just a lot of fun.”
So much so that Tara Reid, who played drummer Melody in the film, wanted in. The band got back together for a photo (above) when Reid joined her former co-stars on the red carpet at the premiere of A Tourist’s Guide to Love in Los Angeles.
Below, watch Cook and Pyle together again in an exclusive clip from A Tourist’s Guide to Love, now streaming on Netflix.
