Redirected: LA Archetype

Acting Coach

By Brittany Kyles — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 01:12:00 GMT

Photograph by Ethan Pines

➻ “Successful actors know what roles can challenge them and how the right choices can propel their careers. Coaching is important for well-known actors because nobody else will tell them the truth—it might
be painful.”

➻ Danner is the daughter of a former William Morris agent. Now 47, she became interested in performing around age 3, when she would tap-dance and do Judy Garland impersonations for her father’s clients. She’s currently artistic director of the Acting Studio at the Edgemar Center for the Arts in Santa Monica.

➻ One of the pioneers of acting coaching is Konstantin Sergeyevich Stanislavski, creator of “the Method.”

➻ “I don’t like to name-drop, but even big people in big movies get nervous about whether or not they can pull off a role. That’s actually good because if you’re secure, you get complacent. Insecurities, nerves, fear—those are all good. The moment you get secure, you can kiss your performance good-bye.”

➻ Danner counts James Franco, Penélope Cruz, Zooey Deschanel, and Gerard Butler as pupils. She has also taught famous musicians and comedians (such as Common and Chris Rock) and athletes (including Rick Fox) how to transition into theater, television, and film.

➻ During his Best Actor acceptance speech in 1994, for his performance in Philadelphia, Tom Hanks thanked—and outed—his acting teacher from high school. That blunder inspired the 1997 comedy In & Out.

➻ The salary for an acting coach varies wildly. It starts at about $38,000 per year and can exceed $700,000. Though she won’t disclose what she makes, Danner is often brought to movie sets to help guide actors—one of the highest-paid gigs in the entertainment industry.

➻ Clark Gable’s ex-wife, Josephine Dillon, was the first acting coach noted by the Los Angeles Times, in 1953.

➻ “When I worked with Chris Rock [for Death at a Funeral], he was awesome. I loved watching him mix instinct with technicality. He also had a tremendous work ethic. It’s never an accident when someone becomes that famous.”

Weather Girl

By Anush Benliyan — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 01:03:00 GMT

Photograph by Dustin Snipes

➻ “I wanted to be a meteorologist at the National Weather Service. I never wanted to be on TV. I was too shy. It was something that just kind of happened during an internship with WKRG in Alabama. I wound up getting on camera, being really bad at it, and working to get better.”

➻ Johnson joined CBS2/KCAL9 eight years ago and has been CBS2’s weather anchor since April 2010. She studied meteorology before earning a degree in broadcast journalism from Middle Tennessee State University.

➻ “When I come to work, I study the forecast models, which show barometric pressure, the weather systems, and the temperatures at different levels in the atmosphere. Once I have all of that information, I write down my forecast the old-fashioned way—on a piece of paper. Then I plug it into our weather computer system, which generates the maps that you see behind me on TV.”

➻ The station’s news anchors use a teleprompter during broadcasts. Johnson relies on a mirror image of her and her maps; everything she says is unscripted.

➻ Weather maps began appearing on TV in 1936, with the BBC. In 1941, a New York TV station introduced the first weather personality, a cartoon character named Woolly Lamb.

➻ “I’ve loved weather since I was a kid and saw a tornado when we were in Florida on vacation. And in Plymouth, Michigan, where I grew up, these severe storms would come in, which always interested me.”

➻ Johnson was based in Miami before coming to L.A., where the mild weather has proved deceptive. “You go a few miles and it’s almost a completely different climate, temperature wise and sunshine wise. You’ve got cool and cloudy at the coast, while inland it could be 90 degrees and sunny. It’s actually more work because there are so many different forecasts you have to do.”

➻ The hottest day ever recorded in downtown Los Angeles was September 27, 2010, when it reached 113 degrees.

➻ In 2003, Johnson was voted the “hottest” meteorologist in a Playboy magazine online poll. The prize? A nude celebrity pictorial. “I said, ‘Thank you, but no.’ My dad would kill me!”

Contortionist

Thu, 13 Sep 2012 03:33:00 GMT

Photograph by Dustin Snipes

➻ “I was about eight years old when I discovered my ‘secret superpower.’ My older sister was trying to pull me off a piece of playground equipment. She kept pulling my ankles until she eventually pulled my legs over my head, then screamed, ‘Oh, God, she’s being weird!’ I hopped off and showed my parents, and my dad said, ‘I can make a buck with that!’ ”

➻ Morgan, a professional body manipulator, can squeeze through an unstrung tennis racket and fold into a duffel bag. She holds the Guinness World Records title for having spent the longest time (nearly three minutes) in a two-by-two-foot box with two other people.

➻ Her repertoire includes cyborgs, aliens, and demons; she’s had a string of freaky roles in films (Minority Report, The Devil Inside, Men in Black II) and in TV series (CSI, ER).

➻ A classically trained actress, Morgan is also a third-generation circus performer. Her father is a stuntman, her godfather is an acrobat, and her belly dancer-thespian sister plays the “quintessential Goth girl” on The Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men.

➻ “Most contortionists are very serious. I was a clown first. I was born a ridiculous human being, and then I get to do this for a living. I love my job, and aside from contortion, I have all-around circus skills. I’m an aerialist, I can walk on stilts, do high wire and rolling globe.”

➻ There are several kinds of contortionists, each with his or her own specialty, among them frontbending, backbending, and dislocating.

➻ “I don’t think there is a trick I couldn’t do no matter how much I try. There are girls who can sit on their heads, but they can’t dislocate their elbows or smash their hips. Nor can they act. Anybody can read the words, but can everybody make them come alive?”

➻ Morgan was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award for her devilish pretzel posing in Hellboy II: The Golden Army. The Oscar-level accolades in her line of work are known as the Taurus World Stunt Awards.

➻ Whatever you do, don’t call Morgan double-jointed. The correct term is “hypermobile,” which means having joints that are genetically predisposed to extend beyond the average human capacity.

➻ “I have heard things that would make you blush. The awkward, inappropriate weirdness that comes out of an audience’s mouth is astounding. But it’s OK. I’ve had great comebacks.”

Spray Tanner

By Carly Sitzer — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 23:55:00 GMT

Photograph by Dustin Snipes

➻ “I was watching TV, and an ad for a mobile spray tanner popped up on the screen. I bought all the stuff, but I didn’t really like the results. I wondered if I could make something better. So I hooked up with a lab and had them make an improved tanning formula.”

➻ Coco (born James Snyder) founded his company, now called Jimmy Jimmy Coco Tanning Essentials, in 2003. The 40-year-old former actor-model-bartender spritzes faux glow on the most beautiful bodies in the entertainment industry, including Heidi Klum, Victoria Beckham, and Kim Kardashian.

➻ “I’ve become famous for what I do by accident. A trainer I know was working with Laura Prepon and asked if I could tan her for a magazine cover. Later I met Lara Flynn Boyle and tanned her. Before I knew what was happening, I’m getting phone calls from magazines asking how much I charge.” (Answer: $350 per tan.)

➻ The main active ingredient in sunless tanning products is the enzyme dihydroxyacetone (DHA). The use of DHA to darken skin was discovered in the 1950s by researcher Eva Wittgenstein at the University of Cincinnati.

➻ “I love the look of the tan. I love the tricks that I do to make a body look better with shading and contouring. I want everyone to feel like a million bucks when I’m done.”

➻ Coppertone introduced the first self-tanner to the market in the 1960s. It was called QT (for Quick Tan). DHA-based sunless tanners are considered a safe alternative to sunbathing.

➻ “The minute I see someone, I notice if their legs are short or if they have saddlebags or a pooch. No judgment—I just use all the tricks I’ve learned so I can shade and highlight to make it all look better.”

➻ Every client of Coco’s is spray tanned in the buff, starting with the back. His mobile-tanning unit weighs five pounds, and the process takes five to ten minutes.

➻ “My favorite clients are the brides. Oscar nominees are important, too. The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show is also huge because there are so many models and everyone’s in their underwear. You have to get every inch, every nook and cranny!”

Sommelier

By Mike Carlson — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 00:21:00 GMT

Photograph by Dustin Snipes

» “The word sommelier is so old guard. It’s a French term that means ‘wine steward.’ I normally refer to myself as a ‘wine guy.’”

» Porto Carreiro, 31, is the sommelier at Lukshon, the Southeast Asian restaurant in Culver City owned by chef Sang Yoon of Father’s Office.

» A certified master sommelier must complete four levels of training and take a final exam by invitation only from the London-based Court of Master Sommeliers. There are currently 118 masters worldwide (101 men, 17 women). The exam has a failure rate of 97 percent.

» “One thing about wine is that it is changing every day. Literally every year you have a new set of vintages from growers and new producers—and you always have new palates.”

» Porto Carreiro’s first job in the business was as a wine clerk at Greenblatt’s Deli in West Hollywood. Several respected sommeliers began their careers at the 86-year-old institution, including Drew Langley, the wine director at Providence.

» “In L.A. sommeliers are more open and relaxed and are not following a specific book. Wine programs that are cutting-edge in other cities look like a normal wine program here.”

» Lukshon has a well-edited list of 50 wines. The priciest bottle on the menu is a $275 Grand Cru champagne from the small producer Jacques Selosse.

» “‘What grows together goes together’ is the saying when it comes to pairing food and wine. But there is no established culture of winemaking in Myanmar or great producers in Thailand. So you have these crazy flavors that aren’t traditionally paired with wine. You have no rules—you just go for it.”

» Porto Carreiro has tried several brands and styles of bottle openers over the years but always goes back to the Pulltap double-hinged waiter corkscrew. “It’s inexpensive and efficient.”

» “I am salaried. I do not get tipped. If I sell a $3,000 bottle of wine, everyone down to the busers benefits. But yes, I occasionally get handshakes."

» The average American consumes roughly 2.5 gallons of wine a year, up from half a gallon a decade ago.

» “Every trip to the bar, every visit to a restaurant, every purchase of a bottle is research.”

» “Sommeliers need to allow the menu to shine. You take your ego out of the equation.”

ALSO: Read "The Sommelier Challenge" to see which drinks Porto Carreiro suggests for the dishes our readers find most challenging to pair.

Production Assistant

By Jackie Ling — Thu, 10 May 2012 01:14:00 GMT

Photograph by Dustin Snipes

» “We get to the set before everybody. When a truck lands, we pull off everything we need for the day. That includes the dolly to put the camera on, all the director’s chairs, trash cans, and trash bags.”

» Rosenblum, 29, moved to L.A. three years ago to pursue a career as a director of photography while completing his graduate work in a Boston University satellite program. He mostly works as a production assistant on commercials. “It pays the bills and gives me exposure.”

» “I like that we shoot on location a lot. I love stadiums: Angel Stadium, the Rose Bowl, the Coliseum. Anytime I’m on the field, I bring a football and kick field goals.”

» One of the first PAs on record is Erich von Stroheim, who worked on D.W. Griffith’s 1916 film, Intolerance. Later, however, the Austrian actor-director claimed he was the uncredited assistant director on the production.

» The going rate for a PA on a commercial set is $200 a day. (Pay for scripted television shows, reality TV, and movies is typically $150.) “PAs are the only people on set who aren’t in a union, so it’s not unusual for us to work 16 or 18 hours for one flat rate. There is talk of organizing our own union, but when it comes right down to it, we’re easily replaced.”

» PAs can form bonds with their famous coworkers. “Jennifer Love Hewitt told me that she loved me because I was holding up a fan for her.”

» Actor Daniel Radcliffe met his girlfriend while she was a production assistant on the set of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Academy Award winner Octavia Spencer and writer-director Tate Taylor were both PAs before working together on The Help.

» “I didn’t have a TV until about a week and a half ago. I could only see the commercials I worked on at a bar or a friend’s place or on YouTube.”

» The must-read for any PA is The Anonymous Production Assistant’s Blog, which describes itself as “a view of Hollywood from the bottom.”

» “It’s not unusual for us to have to go through the trash. One time a producer lost her blueprint for what was going on in a commercial. She swore that it was thrown out, so all the PAs went through all the trash at the end of the night and looked for this sheet of paper. Never found it. It’s times like that when I think, ‘I’ve got to move up.’”

Rock DJ

By Kelsey Laney — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 23:27:00 GMT

Photograph by Dustin Snipes

» “When I was 15, I became obsessed with rock stars, and I fell in love with Tom Petty. One year I baked a cake on his birthday. My mom took me aside and asked if she should be worried. I’ve always joked that she should have been worried.”

» Slater, 44, is a rock DJ at 100.3 FM the Sound and KCSN-FM (88.5). She spent 18 years in New York, 10 of which were at the same station as Howard Stern. When Stern moved to satellite radio in 2006, the station changed formats and fired its DJs. Slater came to L.A. soon after.

» “I started out in a tiny country station in Florida. I thought maybe I could become a receptionist or something. When I went to the station, the guy said, ‘We have this part-time DJ spot open.’ ”

» Slater’s Saturday night gig—hosting her show, Out on a Limb, on noncommercial KCSN, which broadcasts from Cal State Northridge—is vastly different from her day job. KCSN reaches fewer than 100,000 listeners per week compared with the Sound’s 1.2 million, but she has much more latitude at KCSN. “Out on a Limb is anything I want to do. I have a segment called ‘Beard of the Day,’ and I highlight bearded bands.”

» A mainstay of L.A. radio since 1969, Jim Ladd spent 14 years at KLOS as the last commercial DJ in America with the freedom to play anything he wanted. He was fired in October. Weeks later Ladd announced he would be moving to satellite radio.

» When Slater was in New York, her station hosted an annual concert that attracted more than 10,000 listeners. “No one knows who you are as a DJ because they don’t know what you look like. But that one day you go onstage and you’re like, ‘Hey, everybody, I’m Julie Slater,’ the crowd goes crazy.”

» Female DJs are a rare breed. According to the Women’s Media Center, 86 percent of radio hosts are men.

» “When people hear you every day, they get a sense that they are your friend. Sometimes you have to say, ‘We don’t really know each other.’ ”

» Slater is a fan of Nic Harcourt, who spent ten years as KCRW’s music director and as host of Morning Becomes Eclectic. Coldplay, Death Cab for Cutie, and Norah Jones credit Harcourt for launching their careers.

» “My cat died while I was on the air. I started crying and then had to go on air and say, ‘So that was Elton John, everybody.’ No matter what mood you’re in, you have to be on.”

Sushi Chef

By Mike Carlson — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:25:00 GMT

Photograph by Dustin Snipes

» “I can tell a good chef from a bad chef by the sushi—the shape, the look. The fish should be cold, the rice a little warm. When you grab it, it doesn’t break, but when you put it in your mouth, it breaks easily.”

» Uechi was 18 when he took his first job, at a sushi restaurant in Okinawa. Now 53, he owns five restaurants in the Los Angeles area and lends his name to seven others operated by SBE throughout the country.

» “My favorite place in the world to eat sushi is Tokyo, at Sushi Sei in Tsukiji and Sushi Gen near Ginza.”

» In 1966, the first sushi bar in the United States opened inside L.A.’s Little Tokyo restaurant Kawafuku.

» “I think sushi purists are good. But this is Los Angeles. When it comes to business, I should adjust to the people who live in Los Angeles.”

» "I've cut myself 1,000 times, but when chefs get a little bit older, they are more careful."

» Uechi moved to L.A. in 1984 and opened his namesake restaurant, Katsu-ya, in 1997. It was there, in 2001, that he created crispy rice with spicy tuna, an aggressive departure from tradition. “We had guests come from Japan, including the president of the biggest Japanese chef organization. I treated them to crispy rice with spicy tuna, and they loved it! They sent me an e-mail saying, ‘If we do that in Tokyo, it might be…boom!’ ”

» Managing his restaurants and his school, the Sushi Institute of America downtown, keeps Uechi busy. But two to three times a month he’ll man the smaller “hidden” bar at his Studio City restaurant Kiwami for reservation-only guests.

» “If sushi chefs in Japan are a 10, I think the chefs in the U.S. are a 3 to 4. But Los Angeles is the number one sushi city in the U.S. Some people say New York, but L.A. is better. ”

» In March 2010, Santa Monica hot spot the Hump was charged with serving endangered sei whale as part of its omakase. It closed soon after.

» “People think buying the sushi chef a beer is tradition, but it is not. When you drink, you are not serious to the customer. I have seen a lot of drunk sushi chefs in Los Angeles. But when I was young, I did it, too.”

» Uechi’s go-to chef’s knife is a 13-inch Nenohi forged in the same manner as a samurai sword. It cost roughly $4,000.

» “I am always thinking about new dishes. When I am watching TV or watching somebody work, then it comes.”

White Witch

By Maxine Wally — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 03:22:00 GMT

Photograph by Ethan Pines

» “I call myself a white witch, and that encompasses a lot of different things. It’s really not a square job.”

» D’Aoust, 37, is a single mother who supports two children with a full-time occult career. She works three to four days a week at the House of Intuition in Echo Park, where she gives readings to half a dozen clients a day. A typical week might see her officiating at a wedding or performing at a film festival. She also cohosts an online radio show and conducts bus tours of local spiritual sites.

» “When I was two, I was very sick, and my mother was sleeping with me in my bed. I remember drifting out of the bed and looking down on my mother and me. That was my first experience with the supernatural.”

» According to the most recent U.S. Census survey, more than one million Californians identify themselves as Wiccan, pagan, or spiritualist. “One stereotype is that you have to be female or a feminist to do this kind of work. I am more of a hermaphroditist because I think that if you’re a feminist, you’re doing the same wrong that a patriarch is doing. It has to be about balance.”

» Raised by a single mother at a hippie collective on Washington’s Vashon Island, D’Aoust was exposed to magic early in life. “My dad was into occultism as well. When he was in prison, he would look at the inmates’ astrological birth charts, trying to find consistencies in the different behaviors they were in there for.”

» In 1968, Louise Huebner was designated the “Official Witch of Los Angeles County.” She cast a fertility spell over an audience of 11,000 at the Hollywood Bowl. The county later rescinded the designation, and Huebner threatened to reverse the spell.

» “I incorporate different Jewish meditations. I love Buddhist methods. To affiliate myself with one religion is difficult.”

» “Witchy Woman,” the second single from the Eagles’ 1972 debut album, reached number nine on the Billboard chart.

» The pop culture witch who most resonates with D’Aoust is Mary Poppins. The 1964 movie of the same name received five Oscars, more than any other film in Disney history.

» “After one event, a Christian woman told me she thought I was a satanist. But at the same presentation I was approached by an Episcopal priest who told me how much he enjoyed it. So I was like, Well, you win some, you lose some.”

Playboy Playmate

By Jenny Davis — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 18:02:00 GMT

Photograph by Ethan Pines

» “The first time I posed nude, I remember feeling so relieved that I didn’t have to model clothing. Every time I’d modeled before, it had been all about making the clothing look good. Models tend to feel like a living rack after a while.”

» Raised in El Sereno and Long Beach, Riccio began modeling at 14. Later her father, a memorabilia dealer, put her in contact with pinup artist and longtime Playboy contributor Olivia De Berardinis, who showed some paintings of Riccio to Playboy founder Hugh Hefner.

» When a nude Marilyn Monroe graced the pages of Playboy’s premiere issue in December 1953, she was dubbed “Sweetheart of the Month.” Margie Harrison—Miss January 1954—was the first Playmate.

» “My dad had a collection of vintage Playboys, and when I was a kid I’d flip through them. Playboy originally represented the all-natural girl-next-door who you could see walking down the street. Men would look at one of those Playmates and were like, ‘This looks like a girl I know working at my office.’ And it’s kind of gone into a different direction over the years, into a more plastic-y one, which I’m not for, by the way.”

» “Claire Sinclair, my Playmate name? I’ve always been Claire—I’ve never been Clarissa. In high school I was dating Oliver Sinclair, and everyone teased us: If you guys get married, you’ll be Claire Sinclair. When we split, I thought if I ever got an opportunity to use that name, I would.”

» When the 20-year-old Riccio was selected as Miss October 2010, Playboy’s editors rejected her idea of posing as a pinup from the 1950s. Named 2011’s Playmate of the Year last April, she received $100,000, a car, and a Harley-Davidson.

» “My lifelong goal is to start a chain of teen nightclubs. There would be no drinking, but there would have to be a lot of security. Teen clubs are so scarce that there’s almost nowhere for kids to go. I’m still representing the child inside of me who felt denied, who’s still being denied. I’m missing so many opportunities as Playmate of the Year—the thousands of dollars I could be making at club appearances are being taken away from me because I’m not yet 21.”

» Riccio plans to open her first teen nightclub by the time she’s 25. She already has picked out a name—Sinclair’s—and chosen a logo depicting herself.

» “For me, Claire Sinclair is like an alter ego. It’s about having fun and letting go. Even Hef—he’s not Hef, he’s Hugh. He’s this little nerd who created this person in a comic book and became him. It’s a character. Everyone should have one.”

» "It's all about creating, when you're posing nude, the illusion of extreme curves."