Carly Pope TV’s hottest bookworm has made reading much more than fundamental. The 20-year-old star of Popular, the WB’s ratings-busting teen soap, is a little different from her fresh-faced goody-goody character Sam McPherson. And while she lives in Tinseltown for her exploding career, she longs for her native Canada. “I try to go home once every six weeks,” she says. “At least they have seasons there, not just this perpetual sunshine.”

So how Canadian was your childhood?
Well, my dad built igloos and taught us how to play hockey. My mom taught me how to brew maple syrup.

That’s sarcasm, isn’t it?
You started it. Actually, as a child, I always wanted to be a fly girl from In Living Color. My friend and I were like, “We have the sass, we have the attitude.” We created all these dance routines and forced people to watch us during class. We were 10 and thought we were so sexy! We eventually got detention for being so disruptive.

Did your school in Canada have a particular brand of bullying?
The most I remember is when boys used to pants us. As 8-year-olds, we used to wear elastic pants, and boys would try to snap them off. Even then, I thought it was a little eager.

Your screen debut, Cowboys and Aliens, was filmed in Romania, the home of the gypsies. Did you wake up one morning to find everything had been stolen?
No, Eastern Europe was cool, though there were rabid dogs everywhere. I used to ride them to work, ha ha! Every morning, I’d strap on my chain-mail armor and my helmet…

This year you’re in Finder’s Fee with James Earl Jones. Did you ask him to do a Darth Vader impression?
Are you kidding? I was so scared, I could barely speak. But I enjoyed filming in Vancouver, and the film is exciting. Make sure you watch two scenes in particular – the only one’s I’m in!

When do you feel the sexiest?
Ironically, it’s the morning. There’s something so endearing vulnerable, natural and kind of messy. Having said that, there’s scaffolding all over my building at the moment, and I woke up the other day to find about 30 workmen looking through my window.

Nice.
And they weren’t very nice or attractive men either. Thank God I wasn’t nude – or wearing my Mountie suit.