Actress Bijou Phillips is sick of being bad

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Actress Bijou Phillips is fed up with being cast as the bad girl.

Phillips, 27, who has appeared in a raft of films over the past eight years, says she is always being typecast due to her reputation of being a "wild child" during her teens.

"A lot of the time I end up playing the bad girl. I would love to play the sweet, innocent nice girl down the street, but I don't know if it will happen," Phillips told Reuters in an interview ahead of the June 8 opening of her latest movie, "Hostel II."

Phillips, the daughter of the late 1960s rock star John Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas, became a favorite in tabloid headlines as she hit the New York party scene in her teens after starting to model at age 13 and leaving home.

She gave up modeling at the age of 17 to embark on a music career with her debut album "I'd Rather Eat Glass," a reference to her former profession. She is currently working on her second album but acting is now her main focus.

But controversy was never far behind her. She posed nude in Playboy magazine seven years ago, and pleaded no contest in 2004 to a criminal charges after a fight with Playboy Playmate Nicole Marie Lenz in a Los Angeles nightclub.

Phillips, however, often photographed with sibling "celebutantes" Paris and Nicky Hilton, says her wild days are behind her -- but it is hard to shake this image.

"This has stuck with me and the parts they offer me. There is an image of me out there, but I would love for everyone to let me grow up and play adult roles," she said.

Phillips says she avoids the celebrity scene and has cleaned up her act.

"You have to stay away from people who have that kind of attention. I've been down that road and at the end of the day it only hinders your career," she said.

"When you want to grow up and do some real work the things you did -- even though they did not seem a big deal -- that gave you a bad girl image, reckless, drugs, whatever, do play a part in the long run, and in the end it is hard to shake that."

Does she regret her past?

"No. It is what it is," she said.

"But now I own a house with my boyfriend (actor Danny Masterson), and then I go off and play the bad girl. I would love to play something that I relate more to now."