Amy made a name for herself by playing good girls in Varsity Blues (1999) and Outside Providence (1999), but nowadays she's doing even better being bad. The 24-year-old blonde with an infectious smile and an easy laugh can be seen on the hit television series Felicity as Noel's new love who gets pregnant by another guy. She recently played a second-rate model caught up in drugs and cult religion in the NBC miniseries The '70s, and now in Road Trip, playing at theaters --- as a girl who likes to videotape her sex life.

Some may recall seing her in a more risque role in Varsity Blues, but they're wrong. "People still think I'm the one who had sex with a guy and lots of whipped cream," she says. "That girl was actually my friend Ali Larter. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that we're both blond."

Road Trip gives Amy her first topless scene, opposite hunky Breckin Meyer. "I'd never done nudity before, so I was a little nervous," she admits. "Then the director, Todd Phillips, told me that he would never forget watching Phoebe Cates drop her top in Fast Time At Ridgemont High (1982). He said it changed his life. I guess that made me feel better" (editor's note - I would assume that director Phillips, thanks to Amy, recently experienced yet another change of life). ...... Amy did check with her mother first. "She said, 'If you think it's the right choice, then you should do it'" Amy says. "I was just so glad she didn't become overprotective."

Road Trip is a teen comedy of errors that casts Meyer as Josh, a college student who has cheated on his significant other with Beth (Amy). The videotape of their amorous encounter is accidentally mailed to his girlfriend at her Texas college, so Josh, and a few buddies hit the road to the Lone Star State, determined to intercept the incriminating tape.

Co-starring as Meyer's bizarre roomate is the widly unpredictable MTV comic Tom Green. "We didn't know what to expect from Tom," Amy says. "We were all a little nervous that he might be trying to pull some gags on us during a scene. But he was really very nice and low-key. But after the camera stopped rolling he'd get a little crazy."

Most of the rest of the Road Trip cast are male, but Amy says that wasn't a problem. "Fortunately, there weren't any big egos," she says. "I felt completely at home, because growing up I was sort of a tomboy. I was the one skating with the boys. I even played Little League with them. I was the only girl on the team, and they called me 'Smarty Pants.' So I've never had any trouble getting along with a bunch of guys."

She may be a budding movie star with two hits behind her, but Smart says that so far it's television that has given her whatever recognition she enjoys. "I get recognized a lot for Felicity," she says. "I guess people sort of get hooked on their favorite series and watch them religiously. When fans of Felicity see me, it's like they know me." Her character on Felicity has forced Amy to deal with the issue of teenage pregnancy, which she says has been a real eye-opener. "I met some single young women who kept their babies," the actress says. "I used to wonder how they could make that kind of mistake and get pregnant. Now I'm much more forgiving, because I realize the love they feel for that child. I have a lot more compassion, which was a huge learning lesson in itself." So was playing a pregnant character. "I had to put on this pregnant suit," she says. "just looking down at my big belly was wild and kind of exciting. I want to have kids eventually, and so I'd go, 'Wow, this is what I'd look like.'"

Amy and her brother, Adam, had a thoroughly conventional upbringing in Topanga Canyon, California. "I was very shy," she says. "I was always watching one of my friends, Vinessa Shaw, who started acting when she was very young and ironically, got the good-girl role in The '70s. First I studied ballet, and when I danced on stage I loved the attention. Then I finally took the leap and enrolled in an acting class, and I was hooked. Her first career opportunity, however, came as a model.

"Vinessa Shaw suggested me as a replacement in a photo shoot," she says, "and I got the job. Suddenly I was getting assignments to travel places like Italy, France, Mexico and Tahiti. I wasn't a cover girl, but I was able to pay for my first car and my first apartment." "I never worried about getting pigeonholed as a model," she says, because i wasn't getting that much attention."

Amy made her acting debut in a small part in an MTV "Rock The Vote" promo, and went on to minor roles in Starship Troopers (1997) and The Last Time I Committed Suicide (1997). Then came Varsity Blues, and the wheels of celebrity began to turn. "I'm still close to my parents," she says, "and they help keep me grounded. But they get a kick out of what I'm doing. For instance, NBC put a huge '70s billboard on a building in Burbank. It was almost six stories high. My father called me up and said, "I brought my cameras to work. Let's have lunch and take a few pictures.' He was posing me in front of this billboard with a picture of me on it," the actress says. "It was so sweet."

Another grounding influence in Amy's life is her boyfriend, actor Branden Williams. "We've been together for a long time," she says. "It's nice to be with somebody who understands this business. If you don't, I think you could become incredibly insecure in a relationship with an actor." Actually, Smart says, despite the cliche of the neurotic actress, she considers herself perfectly secure. "Sometimes you just have to take charge," Amy says. "I remember that, when I was doing Felicity it looked like it would conflict with The '70s. I really wanted the chance to play this wild party girl on the miniseries, but I also knew that getting pregnant on Felicity was something I had to do. Finally I called up J.J. Abrams, the Felicity producer and I told him I really wanted to do both and I needed him to help me. That little phone call kept me on the show. I realized how important it was to speak up and not get caught in having an agent or somebody else speak for you. I charged ahead, and I got what I wanted."

"The other thing I've learned," she says, :is how the best people, especially some of the legends are really just people. You have the larger-than-life image of them, and then you realize that they're not trying to be that way. It actually brings up my own confidence. You realize they're just people too. And if they can do it, maybe you can too."

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