After a hugely messy and nasty divorce from charlie sheen, Denise Richards is no stranger to chaos, but the Bond girl says she has great respect for her Ex, even as she gets on with her life

Sometimes the people who pay for a crime aren’t the criminals.

In Madea’s Witness Protection, Tyler Perry’s latest addition to his Madea franchise, Denise Richards plays a pampered housewife married to a not-so-bright corporate finance executive (Eugene Levy). When the exec discovers that his company is laundering money for the mob, he agrees to cooperate with the FBI.

The family joins the witness-protection programme, and their FBI agent (Perry) temporarily stashes them at the Georgia home of his Aunt Madea (also Perry) — who, as all Perry fans know, is a very large, highly opinionated African-American woman who doesn’t take much guff from anyone.

If Richards had to relocate, with whom would she want to be quartered?

“Madonna,” the actress says, speaking by telephone from her Los Angeles home. “I’ve always admired her and how she’s evolved over the years. She’s a hard worker and seems like a great mom. I wouldn’t mind staying at her house.

“Or maybe Steven Tyler,” she adds. “With him I’d want to raid his closet.”

The 41-year-old Richards may have spent her formative years in small-town Downers Grove, Illinois, going fishing with her father, but these days quiet and calm aren’t high on her list. Since marrying Charlie Sheen in 2002, bearing him two daughters — eight-year-old Sam and seven-year-old Lola — and then very publicly divorcing him in 2006, she has gotten used to chaos.

Last July, as a single parent, Richards adopted a third daughter, Eloise, who is now a year old. However, Sheen remains an ongoing part of her life.

“Charlie asked me to do an episode of Anger Management,” Richards says, referring to his FX series. “We thought it would be fun, and it was. We had a great time working together.”

She appears in Episode 2 as the ex-wife, business partner and possible love interest of Sheen’s character, and may return in later episodes. Which may seem strange to outsiders, given their contentious divorce and the accusations of infidelity, violence and drug abuse which flew back and forth at the time, but Richards says that it wasn’t really that strange.

“It was more odd 
for people watching us film it than it was for us,” she says. “We’re used to ‘us.’ People don’t know what goes on. They’ve seen us at our daughters’ soccer games or on vacation together. We have a great relationship and friendship, and respect for one another.”

Their daughters are, of course, the heart of that relationship.

“I said to Charlie, ‘It’s not about us,’” Richards recalls. “It’s about the kids. We need to suck it up for them. They didn’t ask for this. It’s not fair to them.

“I can’t imagine growing up in a broken home,” she adds. “My parents stayed married till my mom passed away. Charlie’s parents are still married. I feel such guilt and responsibility. We have to be grown-ups and put personal stuff aside about each other, even if we have to pretend.”

Richards credits her parents with drumming into her the concept of doing the right thing. “They raised me with morals,” she says. “I needed those lessons along the way. As an actress, you expect to have a lack of privacy. But, when you go through difficult times, it’s hurtful when people are speculating about different things.”

Richards decided to address those issues, and more, in her memoir, The Real Girl Next Door (Gallery Books, 2011).

“I didn’t go into a 
whole lot of detail,” she says, “but I didn’t try to hide things. I’m very honest about my life and my shortcomings. I’ve found that, if you share a little bit about yourself, the audience and fans can relate.

“I lost my mom to cancer, and I was open about that,” adds the actress, whose mother died in 2007. “I’ve talked about divorce and raising my kids. I’ve adopted a baby on my own. I don’t try to pretend everything’s OK all the time. We all have struggles and challenges, but I try always to have a positive outlook.”

After years of having her tumultuous private life interfere with her acting career, Richards has changed her approach.

“I used to set five-year and 10-year goals,” she says, laughing. “Now I just want to keep on a path of doing stuff I find inspiring and challenging while being there for my kids.”

Her newfound flexibility meant that, when Perry called and offered her a role in Madea’s Witness Protection, she was able to head to Atlanta to begin filming only three days later. The film opens in the US today.

“What I love about Tyler’s movies is that he always has a strong family message,” Richards says. “I teach my girls to behave a certain way and be kind and polite. There are consequences when they do something wrong.”

Perry is a one-man cottage industry, writing, directing, producing and starring — often as several different characters — in a series of films that have made him one of the most recognisable stars in Hollywood ... even if it’s Madea who is really the face people remember.

“I liked watching Tyler switch into playing all his characters,” Richards says. “One day he was Uncle Joe, the next he was the FBI guy. On the days he was Madea, there was so much makeup and prosthetic work.”

As a director, Perry is known for one-take scenes and for a willingness to improvise born out of his years in touring theatre.

“Tyler really keeps his actors on their toes,” Richards says. The biggest shock, however, came when Perry asked Richards to do a scene in a Tyler Perry voice. “He threw that at me on the spot,” she recalls. “I’m glad I didn’t have time to think about it, because I would have stressed myself out.”

Richards, who moved into acting after a successful modeling career, made her acting debut on an episode of Life Goes On (1990), then went on to a series of television guest appearances and lead roles in a few forgettable films such as Tammy and the T-Rex (1994).

Her breakthrough came when director Paul Verhoeven cast her as an interstellar fighter pilot in Starship Troopers (1997). The next year she starred in the surprise hit Wild Things (1998), Neve Campbell and Matt Dillon, and then was cast as comely nuclear physicist Dr Christmas Jones in The World Is Not Enough (1999). Being a “Bond girl” was something she wasn’t quite ready for, Richards admits. “I learned so much from that movie on a personal level, being able to travel all over Europe for six months,” she says. “I wasn’t prepared for the backlash. I was surprised people would say things like, ‘A scientist wouldn’t wear hot pants.’ It’s a Bond movie!”

Since then Richards has appeared in a few films, mostly B-movies such as You Stupid Man (2002), Elvis Has Left the Building (2004) and Blonde and Blonder (2008), though she did have funny cameos in Love Actually (2003) and Scary Movie 3 (2003). Most of her work has been in television, including recurring roles in Two and a Half Men (2003-2011) and 30 Rock (2012), not to mention her own reality show, Denise Richards: It’s Complicated (2008-2009).

As she juggles her career and three children, Richards is trying to figure how to reconcile some of her previous work with the lessons she wants to teach her daughters about being women. “I never say anything about being skinny,” she says. “I talk about doing exercise to be strong and healthy. There are times when I feel like a hypocrite. They come to photo shoots with me. It’s tricky teaching them not to care what they look like when they see someone dress me and do my hair and makeup. I tell them, ‘It’s my job.’”

That job has left her with some other things that Richards will need to explain. “I’m sure some of the parts I’ve played don’t help,” the actress concedes. “I have uncovered myself... and I did a shoot for Playboy (in 2004).”

If her daughters want to act, Richards won’t object but she’s ready to make sure that they don’t get carried away.

“I told Charlie, ‘When these girls are in high school, we’re having a private investigator on them, a bodyguard,’” Richards says. “We’re tracking them. They will not get away with anything.”