NKD Mag - Issue #52 (October 2015)

OCT. musicians: 06 MADDIE & TAE much more than one-hit wonders

28 THAT POPPY island’s newest, most pastel star

actors: 04 CALEB RUMINER

finding carter’s bad boy

12 JUSTIN BALDONI on finding himself through acting

18 BAILEY DE YOUNG dancing her way from nyc to la

24 HALEY RAMM chasing her dreams on chasing life

40 BREC BASSINGER

nickelodeon’s tomboy darling

42 BRETT DAVERN in denial, but ready to graduate

48 JESSICA PARKER KENNEDY a pirate’s life for her

double threats: 16 CHRIS BROCHU the acoustic guitar playing witch

30 AUBREY PEEPLES the superstar we’ve been waiting for

creator: CATHERINE POWELL

editors: ARIELLA MASTROIANNI CATHERINE POWELL NICOLA PRING JENNA ROSS

writers: MERISSA BLITZ JOANNA BOURAS SHELBY CHARGIN DUSTIN HEVERON BRITTANY LAMBAU STACY MAGALLON CATHERINE POWELL TANYA TRANER

photography: CATHERINE POWELL

design: CATHERINE POWELL

CALEB RUMINER Words by SHELBY CHARGIN Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

4

At 22, Finding Carter actor Caleb Ruminer has yet to lose his boyish charm. His childhood was filled with made up Star Wars plays, acting in church and constantly wishing he wasn’t in school so he could play out scenes with friends. In junior high he started doing competitive acting, which took him into high school drama as well. “Always, just always, even in junior high we’d put on videos,” he says. He was constantly messing around with video editing, and acting throughout this time.

After high school, Caleb began his trek to Los Angeles for college at the American Music and Dramatic Academy. “The only way my mom would let me go to California was for school,” he says, laughing. Going to school was one of Caleb’s best decisions. He graduated from a two-year studio acting program, the equivalent of a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. While he was at school, he met his manager, Sheppard Smith. Caleb took off school for the summer and went to New Orleans for a large acting convention where Sheppard found him, and told him to call him when he got to L.A. From there, the ball kept rolling. He was set up with an agent, and before he knew it, he was doing commercials and TV shows.

Caleb landed his role, Crash, on MTV’s successful show Finding Carter about a month after a life-changing acting class experience. “I took a class with Deb Aquila,” he says. “She made me play a character that was suicidal.

I would never be cast as this character in the play,” he says. The play was a workshop in the class for Caleb to get him to approach a different type of character. “I couldn’t get the hang of it until the last time we went up, and it kind of broke down everything

I thought about, acting-wise. I really had to approach it from the character’s point of view, and get underneath that, rather than from Caleb’s point of view.”

He began to use this skill in auditions, especially the audition for Crash.

Though Crash is a huge contrast to the humble small town boy Caleb comes across as, the characer has been a huge learning experience for him.

“I knew that I was a lot different than him, so I was kind of hoping that that would work for me...that they would kind of see the difference,” Caleb says of his audition. “I think a lot of Crash’s…is surface stuff and it’s a lot on the outside that he acts that way.

I knew he was going in this direction of really caring about stuff…but he also kind of has a one track mind,” Caleb says. Caleb’s passion for playing Crash is evident in the way he explains Crash’s development throughout the show. “In the first season, all he cares about is Carter [Kathryn Prescott], so he also has had to learn. It’s been a really, really interesting thing. We’re total opposites,” he says.

Getting on Finding Carter was a big adjustment from classes and web series. “I learned so much from the first season,” he says. “The acting part is not different. Everyone collectively agrees on that. What I didn’t know was the technical part of it. So I would be doing a scene and I would be like, ‘Why is [Kat] not giving me everything,’ because she would do a really, really emotional scene but she didn’t want to waste herself, so when they were on my coverage, she wouldn’t be like bawling and crying, and then we would do her coverage and she would nail it, but that’s great.”

Caleb wants to explore as many different avenues of acting as possible. When reflecting on Ambient, a mini-series he’s been working on, he delved into the difference between a large production and a smaller project.

“It’s nothing less professional, they’re both really great to work for,” he says.

“With Ambient they were all friends from UCLA. I was the only one who came in who wasn’t part of their friend group, so they’d all been working at it for a long time, so they all had this commodity that I slid into.” This is a

big change for him because with Finding Carter, the cast came from many different backgrounds, and many different places. “You say, ‘Hi, I’m Caleb, and we’re supposed to be in a relationship; let’s do this,’” he jokes. Caleb has an ever-uplifting attitude, though, and he sees the bright side in both.

His life hasn’t changed too much since Finding Carter, especially on the Internet. “Social media world, especially being on MTV—they love it—but that’s great. You get to kind of communicate with fans. That’s awesome,” Caleb says. Although he loves the connection, he turns off notifications to avoid his phone spontaneously combusting. “I didn’t know that was a thing, but it lines up.” It’s a hard thing to get used to, but he loves the expe-

rience of getting to know fans, even if he only has a limited amount of time.

“You just kind of take it as it comes,” he says.

Caleb’s future is pretty locked in right now as he’ll be returning to Atlanta for Finding Carter later this month, but he definitely wants to get into film in the future. “I really want to get into film because it’s not as fastpaced,” he says. “Most of the time film doesn’t change a lot and I think that’s why I want to do it.” He likes the idea of knowing the whole story before tackling a character. “I really would love to do film, maybe come back to television later, either or. I love doing both,” he says, smiling. For Caleb, acting is a learning experience, and every project counts. NKD NKDMAG.COM

5

MADDIE & TAE Words & Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

It only took two days for Maddie & Tae’s music video for “Girl in a Country Song” to go absolutely viral and hit 1 million views. To the Internet, they were an overnight sensation. But in reality, this attention and praise was years in the making.

Maddie Marlow’s story begins in Sugar Land, Texas. Her love for country music was sparked when she was just 5 years old and saw the music video for “I Hope You Dance” by Lee Ann Wommack on CMT’s Country Countdown. “I would wait every morning before I went to school to watch that video,” she recalls. She knew early on that she wanted to write a song that impacted people as much as that song had impacted her. When she was in third grade she auditioned for her elementary school talent show and the performance side of her kicked in. She continued competing in school talent shows all throughout elementary and middle school, and in eighth grade, Maddie taught herself to play guitar and started writing songs. She would play them for her dad, who heard some6

NKDMAG.COM

7

thing special in them and signed Maddie up for vocal lessons.

A few states over in Ada, Okla., Taylor “Tae” Dye was kick-starting her own musical journey. Tae has been singing for as long as she can remember. As a kid, she was constantly performing in front of her family and at church. But it wasn’t something anyone thought much of because growing up, Tae was “the baseball sister.” Her two older brothers played very competitively, so every weekend Tae was traveling with her family to tournaments. Not wanting her brothers to have to give up their passion, Tae was able to incorporate her passion into the tournaments by singing the National Anthem before every game starting when she was 13.

When she was 14, she began recording cover CDs with a friend. When she was 15, she picked up the guitar and started taking vocal lessons.

It was through these vocal lessons that Maddie and Tae met. They both participated in a showcase their coach was putting on in Dallas and they immediately hit it off as friends. They began talking all the time and eventually started discussing the idea of writing songs together. They began traveling to Nashville every other weekend to work on songwriting. Five days after Maddie graduated, she moved up to Nashville, and as soon as Taylor got her GED she joined her.

They duo quickly caught the attention of Big Machine Music Group, a publishing team underneath Big Machine Records. They signed a development deal with the company, which they credit for always encouraging them to write from the heart and be honest with their lyrics.

“I think God kind of picked us to do this because we’re really headstrong women and want to say something different, and stand up for people who don’t have a voice,” Maddie says.

Both Maddie and Tae consider themselves big dreamers, but never thought they would all come true –

especially this quickly. Even before the Big Machine building was built they knew they want to be signed with them and work with them. “Our peers were thinking about what they wanted to wear to homecoming, and we were thinking about what we wanted to wear to the red carpet,” Maddie says of her and Tae’s instant connection.

The turning point for the girls came on St. Patrick’s Day in 2014 when they penned their first single, “Girl in a Country Song”. A few months later they signed a joint deal with Big Machine and Dot Records.

“They loved that song. They loved the messaging behind it,” Tae says. “A lot of people just around town heard the song and said, ‘Country radio won’t embrace that.’” The girls didn’t care, though. While being played

it and it went to number one on the country airplay charts, and became the duo’s first platinum single.

Following the extremely bold “Girl in a Country Song”, Maddie and Tae decided to show the world the opposite end of their spectrum and release “Fly,” a much more vulnerable song, as their second single. “It felt like forever that we were trying to get this [career] going, and you start doubting yourself and asking, ‘Am I supposed to be doing this?’” Maddie says of the song’s origins. “It’s crazy to think that we wrote that when we thought that weren’t going to make it, and now we go out to thousands of fans singing the words back to us.” They knew “Fly” wasn’t the safe choice for a second single, but the girls felt the pressure to be honest.

“We are those fun, witty, bold women, but we’re also these very vulnerable women as well,” Maddie says.

There was a lot of pressure on Maddie and Tae to have a strong follow-up single, because within days of “Girl in a Country Song” going to radio there was already talk of the girls becoming one-hit wonders.

While behind closed doors Maddie and Tae had written over 200 songs they knew were great, they also knew they needed to prove themselves and come in strong with both their second single and their record.

Both girls agree that “Girl in a Country Song” and “Fly” represent the two extremes on their debut album, Start Here. “The record is everything in between,” Maddie says.

Released on Aug. 31, Start Here has essentially been in the works since the girls were 15. Now they’re 20, and having the song finally out in the world for their fans to hear is an unreal feeling. “It finally started to hit us [about a week before],” Maddie says. “Our fans have been waiting for it and really deserve something from us.” When the record hit iTunes at midnight the tweets started coming in from fans who pre-ordered it and Maddie and Tae were up all night

“It’s crazy to think that we wrote [“Fly”] when we thought that weren’t going to make it, and now we go out to thousands of fans singing the words back to us.” on the radio was definitely a goal of theirs, it didn’t influence their songwriting, or what songs they chose to release. “I think sometimes people just get lazy and don’t think, ‘Oh my gosh, these lyrics are actually very, very degrading,’ they just think ‘Oh, it’s fun, it feels good,’” Tae says. “It doesn’t feel good at all to have to be this Barbie. And we’re not that.”

The week that the “Girl in a Country Song” music video was released is still surreal for the girls to look back on. They didn’t expect immediate feedback at all, and in less than a week they were seeing the results via their social media followers going up and the YouTube comments appearing by the second. Despite what they had been told about the song, country radio couldn’t get enough of

reading and responding. “We had to be up at 5 a.m. the next day but we didn’t care,” Maddie says, laughing.

“This album is everything we’ve ever wanted,” Maddie says. “Even the album artwork. We changed the cover artwork last minute.” The original cover photo featured the girls all made-up and posed, but as cool as the photo was, they didn’t feel it reflected them or the album well. So they staged a new, more natural shoot with clothes from their own closet.

“We designed the [album booklet] artwork, too, and we were such pains in the butt,” Tae says, laughing. “Our poor creative team at Big Machine.”

The booklet is filled with handwritten lyrics and designs, which they hope will encourage fans to buy a physical copy of the album.

Though many musicians say picking a favorite song is like picking a favorite child, both Maddie and Tae have selected their top tracks that they were most anxious for fans to hear. Tae’s is a witty, tonguein-cheek track called “Shut Up and Fish,” based on a true story, which they wrote when they were 16. “We went fishing in Oklahoma, and we called our two guys friends to join us, and they thought it was a date,” Tae says, laughing. “So they were busting moves the entire time and we weren’t having it.” As girls who take fishing very seriously, (they recently placed second in a bass fishing tournament in Canada) they were highly unamused that these boys didn’t know how to fish at all.

Maddie’s favorite, “Downside of Growing Up,” was released as a preview single on iTunes before release day. “It’s a song about growing up and going through all the change that you have to go through,” Maddie says.

“For me, it was so hard when I moved to Nashville, but you have this dream 10

and you want to chase it, so you have to make sacrifices.” Change was very hard for Maddie, but she slowly had to learn that change and being uncomfortable is a beautiful thing. “You really can’t grow in comfort,” she says. “Whenever you’re out of your comfort zone, you’re learning and you’re growing, and that’s important.”

While Nashville has been home for over four years now, the girls haven’t seen much of it these last few

months. They spent their summer on tour with Dierks Bentley, and starting Oct. 7 they’ll hit the road for their first headlining tour. They’ll be playing their entire album during their 60-minute set, and are excited to connect with their fans in intimate clubs. Even though Start Here is barely a month old, Maddie and Tae are already thinking about the next one, and the next one… “In 10 years, we’ll be at album five or six,” Tae

says, confidently. “And we’ll continue going more and more country.

More fiddle and more steel,” Maddie interrupts. “Hopefully selling out arenas with our beautiful fans.” While their goals list continues to grow and change, their top priority has always remained the same. “The goal since day one was to make music that impacted people’s lives,” Maddie says.

“If we’re still doing that in 10 years, I am a happy woman.” NKD NKDMAG.COM

11

JUSTIN BALDONI Words by DUSTIN HEVERON Photos by CATHERINE POWELL Make-Up by SARAH JOFFE

12

When working with big-time celebrities in Hollywood, it’s not uncommon to see them roll up with an entourage of managers, agents, public relations people, hype men, friends, bodyguards, etc. What is uncommon is when that person’s entourage consists exclusively of their spouse and two-month-old child.

That was my first clue that Justin Baldoni — most widely known for his role as the drama-centric Rafael on The CW’s megahit, Jane the Virgin — was not your ordinary Hollywood television star archetype. Taking a snapshot of Justin, his beautiful family, and his burgeoning career here in Los Angeles’ sprawling and intriguingly-archaic Union Station might give you the impression that Justin stepped right off the pages of a Disney movie storyboard and had this seemingly fairytale life handed to him on a silver platter, no assembly required. But nothing could be further from the truth.

A Los Angeles native (minus a few years living in Oregon), Justin Baldoni’s path to “overnight success” has been fraught with eleven years’ worth of trials, tribulations, and setbacks — the sort of marathon that might’ve scared off less motivated men, but couldn’t shake Justin.

“I wanted to be in the sun and I wanted to get out of Oregon,” Justin recalls. “And there was always this small part of me that dreamed of becoming an actor or a director, but the truth was that I was always an ugly duckling and I really didn’t have any real confidence that it could be a reality.”

“When I moved to L.A. I actually went to Long Beach State [California State University, Long Beach] on a partial track scholarship, but I’d torn my hamstring,” Justin says. “So I couldn’t run. Then I got into a relationship -- girl broke my heart -- so I moved to L.A. from Long Beach where I slept on my dad’s [office] couch and cry myself to sleep at night.” This is not exactly the sort of story that sounds like it has a happy ending, but even then Justin knew that his path was leading him somewhere special. “I remember this feeling of being so grateful,” Justin says.

“Because in my heart I knew that pain that I was going through was shifting my life and it was putting me where I needed to be.”

And so it did. “My life — and I think all of ours — is built on a lot of moments of us doing what we want to do, and then

14

a moment where something bigger than us presses reset and everything falls to shit and then you look around and you’re like, ‘Oh wait, I was going the wrong direction, thank you.’ and then you go in the right direction.” In his case, the new direction that Justin was following took him to his first big break. “I was walking into my Dad’s office, where I was sleeping, and a guy asked me if I wanted to be an actor,” Justin explains. “I had no idea, so I said ‘sure’ and then somehow three months later I booked my first small role when I was like, 20 years old.”

Justin’s philosophy (“leap and the net will appear”) found him taking on the burdens of a full-time professional actor with the training of a novice. He had never taken an acting class. “There was nothing to do growing up except play with Dad’s camera. That was it,” he says.

Justin is very real and open about those early film and television projects he booked and how they might not have been up to par with the standard he holds himself to. “My first taste of success… I think I blew it,” he says. “I think I got a little full of myself.”

Justin still cringes as he brings up some of the people from his past that might not have had his best interests at heart.

“Everyone was blowing smoke up my ass and saying ‘You’re going to be the next big thing’ and all this, and I wasn’t. I was a kid that got lucky that really didn’t even know how to act,” he says. But as with all quality works of art and passion, Justin wasn’t willing to give up. “I was trying to get my foot in the door as an actor in L.A and it took years and years of being rejected and struggling for me to realize there’s more to me than this,” he says. “So I started a company and I started directing more and I realized that my real love was being behind the camera.”

Whether he was behind the camera or in front of it, the real journey for Justin was building his confidence and continuing to find a deeper connection with his art.

“My art became my prayer. My work became my prayer. My life became about service. And slowly I started to see the energy around me shift,” Justin says. “Once I realized that this life isn’t about me and it’s about what I could do for others, I met my wife. Then I started My Last Days — my documentary series about people who are dying, because I wanted to change the

world. I realized I was living like I was immortal. I wasn’t living like tomorrow is a gift.”

My Last Days truly captures Justin’s philosophies on life and living. “The only thing we wanted to make you feel [with this film] was compassion,” Justin says. “I really wanted to affect millennials and the younger generation. I thought maybe if I could get these young people to fall in love with someone and they could see themselves in that someone, they’ll realize ‘Oh I should live differently’ or ‘I shouldn’t take my life’ or ‘I should call my mom and tell her I love her’ or ‘I shouldn’t bully that kid’.

The goal was just showing young people you’re not immortal and that you are responsible for the world around you.”

The concept of the film was met with some pushback and criticism. “Everyone said it wasn’t going to work. Everyone said that no one would watch it,” Justin says.

“And then it became the most watched documentary series ever. And I think that’s because we did it with the intention of making a difference.”

Justin isn’t done making a difference yet. He is looking to take his message of positivity and encouragement to infinity (television) and beyond (the Internet).

“I also have a tech company that I just launched called Shout The Good that’s all about changing the way we use social media to make it more positive,” Justin says. “The whole idea is that the internet is filled with negativity and Shout is the place where it’s just all positive.” Shout The Good is available for download online.

At 20-years-old, Justin knew that his trials and failures would help make him the man he needed and wanted to be.

Today, Justin is making his younger self look pretty prescient. Justin also credits his outside endeavors with enabling himself to give his best to his work on Jane the Virgin.

“In spending time with people who are dying like [in My Last Days], you see that some of the funniest moments are actually extremely sad,” he says.

“The only difference between drama and comedy is all about how you root it,” he continues. “And when you root it in authenticity — whether it’s for a documentary or a TV show or a movie — then it’s going to hit the heart.”

If Justin has his way, he’s going to be hitting more and more hearts for many years to come. NKD NKDMAG.COM

15

CHRIS BROCHU Words by TANYA TRANER Photos by CATHERINE POWELL Chris Brochu is one heck of a spiritual soul. He is not an actor or a musician for the fame and fortune, but merely because it’s just who he is in this moment.

Chris grew up an army brat who never saw acting as his bread and butter. “Honestly, acting was never even a thought in my mind. I wanted to play hockey and go to college on a scholarship,” he says.

His life took quite a different turn, and at 22, he had an epiphany and realized this is what he was meant to do with his life. He booked roles and worked a bit, but it wasn’t at a level he truly appreciated. He started reading acting books and taking classes—if he was doing this, he was going to do it right. “Faking acting is not sustainable, so I had to figure out how, the best I could, to actually feel something in these moments,” he says. He started booking small guest roles until he landed his first big gig on the CW’s The Vampire Diaries as Luke Parker.

Chris went through some rough times before landing the role—he was turned down for three different roles.

“The way I truly view it is very much as if life has been quite kind to me and kind of placed me where I needed to be at the right moment, at the right time,” he says. If he landed any of the other roles, it would have been a one or two episode run, while his role as Luke Parker went 14 episodes and really launched his career.

One of the most notable things about his character is that Luke Parker was The Vampire Diaries’ first reoccurring gay character. It’s opened up a lot of dialogue, coming at a time of 16

tension around the issue. Chris is no stranger to the homophobic stigma that many face, though he’s not gay himself. “I was coming to my car late at night, and somebody drove past me and just yelled ‘Faggot,’” he says. “And it really hurt me, but I was happy it was me and not somebody it could really hurt.” Chris is proud to be able to make a difference, however small. “If I can somehow be a part of the conversation in a more positive, uplifting and accepting way, I’m about that,” he says.

The fact that his character is gay is not a huge part of his story. There are only two lines that deal with the fact that he is gay in 14 episodes. “It was just who he was,” Chris says.

Recently, Chris wrapped up shooting a small role for Showtime’s hit show Shameless. He isn’t sure just how

much he can give away, but he spills he’s playing a character named Dylan, an affluent wrestler at Yale. Dylan and Lip (Jeremy Allen White) don’t have the best meeting. “And I’m still sore from the situation that ensues,” he says, laughing. Thus far, he has shot two episodes with two small scenes, “But there’s no such thing as a small part,” he says. “I love my character. I love the show. I would be a waiter on the show and say nothing because it’s Shameless.”

He cites Shameless as being the best cast and crew he’s ever worked with.

“Mostly just because of the no bullshit policy,” he says. “So basically it’s come on set prepared or don’t, and I love that.” Chris says he likes taking his work seriously. “Creativity has to thrive alongside time and money.

When all of those things can kind of

work harmoniously, that’s the best way to run a set.”

Chris has another passion outside of acting—music. He comes from a religious family, and he experienced his first taste of music in the church.

He learned how to play guitar, but only performed at churches and wrote the occasional silly song for a girl until he was 17 and experienced his first broken heart—that’s when his first real songs were born. “That’s my therapy as everybody would probably say,” he says. “That’s how I get to tell my stories.”

He has quite the spiritual view of his music as well. “The songs happen when they happen,” he says. “There’s no rhyme or reason. They just are, and I try not to force them.”

After not playing shows for about five years, Chris dove back in at the beginning of this year. He released two singles, “What’s Coming to You” and “Playing House” before releasing his debut EP, Life, this past August.

Chris says he can see giving all of his time to music someday. “I think acting will be the bread winner and the time [consumer] right now, but that’s kind of the cool part,” he says. “I know that’s where I’m making my money, and I know when I record music, I probably won’t see that money anytime soon, but I need it to be out there, and I need anybody to relate to it.”

The reaction to the album has been overwhelmingly positive for Chris. “It’s the people that I don’t know that tell me that it means something to them, or a certain song helped them through their day, is what I don’t really know how to react to because that’s what I wanted, but when it’s a reality, it’s like what do you do with that?”

For the rest of the year, Chris will be working on both music and acting. He has a couple music videos in the works and his Shameless episodes will air in January. For the next few months, he will continue to look for challenging roles. Long term, Chris wants to “die the happiest poor man.” He wants to be some sort of change in the world.

“We’re here for a limited time and a reason in this form, so we might as well try and make the most of it,” he says. NKD NKDMAG.COM

17

BAILEY D E YO U N G Words by DUSTIN HEVERON Photos by CATHERINE POWELL Hair & Make-Up by SARAH JOFFE Styling by ARIANA WEISNER

There is an unmistakable energy exuding from the bubbly, blonde, blueeyed, petite, five-foot-nothing girl in front of me. That girl, clad in a hoodie and fashionably oversized sunglasses, is Bailey De Young, Bailey’s known for her role as Lauren Cooper, the posh and put together teen on MTV’s Faking It. When it comes to her character – on screen and off – Bailey, the 26-year-old actress-dancer isn’t faking anything. But growing up, being so confident wasn’t so easy.

“I was always really camera shy,” Bailey admits. “Like, I wouldn’t let my family take pictures of me. I always hated the way I looked in everything.”

That wasn’t all.

“I’ve always been really small for my age,” she says. “And I hated having fair skin. Clearly I had self esteem issues,” she says with a laugh. “And now it’s like

all of those things are what makes me, me.”

And it’s a good time to be “me” when you’re Bailey De Young, who just wrapped an indie-thriller film Murder Pact and is set to start shooting the third season of Faking It in the fall.

Of course, it took more than owning her insecurities for Bailey to break in to the entertainment industry. “I moved to New York when I was 17 and went to AMDA (American Musical and Dramatic Academy) for two years and had a great experience and loved it,” she says. “I had grown up always loving musical theater. Singing in The Rain was always my favorite movie.

But I never really considered it to be a career option because nobody really makes money doing that. I had nobody around me who had [a career in the entertainment industry] before, so I was like, ‘Why would I be able to do that?’

Her outlook then changed.

“My dad got cancer and passed away when I was 16, and it totally rocked my world. “All of a sudden the idea of failure wasn’t as scary because it was like even if I pursue this and it maybe doesn’t go how I wanted it to, I’m going to be alive at the end of it. All of a sudden it wasn’t as scary because there were worse things.”

So Bailey stuck it out, and her perseverance, talent, and confidence began to produce results. “I stayed [in New York City] for a year and I got cast in Bunheads [on ABC Family], which brought me to L.A. And I’m really thankful now,” she says.

At first Bailey was hesitant to leave New York City, but admits that it was the right move in the end. “I loved New

20

York, and I always said L.A. was the one place I’d never move,” she says jokingly. “And now I’m here. But I met my husband here, so I definitely see now that everything worked out the way it was supposed to.”

Overcoming insecurities and braving the unknown have been hallmarks of Bailey’s young life and she strives to bring that same authenticity to her character on Faking It, who has challenges of her own as an intersex high school student.

“I didn’t know [my character] was intersex when I got cast because [the writers] didn’t know,” she says. “They told me she just has a secret, and then they decided what the secret was.

When they told me I was like, ‘Oh that’s cool… What is that?’ I had no idea.”

A very basic understanding of an intersex person is someone whose sexual anatomy does not fit the typical definitions of male and female. For example, the person can have outer female characteristics while having mostly inner, male-typical anatomy.

Bailey says diving into a character with such a unique characteristic really excited her and made the process more compelling. “I met all of these people who are intersex and heard their stories,” Bailey says about her research for the role.

Bailey hopes her work will help demystify preconceptions about intersex people and help to further promote acceptance. “Everybody’s story is different, but I count myself lucky that I get to be a part of that,” she says. “The message behind Faking it is to be authentic -- even with your differences -- and to treat people lovingly. That is a message

NKDMAG.COM

21

22

I would stand behind all day.”

Unlike some of her co-stars, Bailey doesn’t like to know too much about her character’s future. “With Lauren specifically I really only like to know what she would know,” Bailey says. “I don’t want to know a secret before she would know it because then it’s going to affect me. Lauren’s my favorite character so far.”

The one thing Bailey knows for sure is that each season is improving upon itself. “I definitely think every season gets stronger and stronger,” she says.

“This season specifically The stakes are just raised. So the heartbreaks are more of a betrayal, the steaminess is steamier, and the jokes are a little bit more edgy.”

Despite her love for Faking It, Bailey still maintains the old cliché that variety is the spice of life. “My favorite thing is having variation,” she says. “So I like having Faking It as a home base.” She adds, “When you’re a regular on a TV show — which is more than I could ever ask — it’s fun to be able to go do a play or a random indie-thriller. The more variation there is, the more fun it is for me,” Bailey gushes. “So I hope that in five years I don’t lock in to just one thing and keep doing that one thing.

I hope opportunities keep happening where I can kind of dabble in lots of different areas.”

When she’s not conquering the entertainment industry, Bailey still has plenty on her plate. She recently got married and plans to go back to school for her degree in psychology (“An ideal degree for an actress,” she says). On the rare instances she does find herself with free time, Bailey keeps it simple. “When I’m not working, I’m newly married, so that takes up a lot of time. But it’s fun,” she says with a smile. “I love watching Netflix. I’m a major homebody. I’ve lived in LA for four years and I’ve still never been to a club. I don’t like crowds of people, I just have a lot more fun at home with my favorite take out and Netflix.”

Bailey is more than happy to keep her home life relaxed and let her character handle the drama. Luckily for fans of Faking It, that drama doesn’t look like it’ll run out anytime soon, which means we can expect to see plenty more of Lauren - and Bailey - in the future. NKD NKDMAG.COM

23

HALEY RAMM Words by MERISSA BLITZ Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

It’s a sunny August day and actress Haley Ramm takes full advantage as she sits back at a table at El Luchador, a little retro taqueria across the street from the East River, and swigs a cold bottle of Coca Cola. She’s excited that she has some time to explore the Big Apple on her hiatus from filming. And to relax. After all, she has been a star since she was born.

Well, she was the second baby to ever be born at this one hospital in Texas so she’s “kind of famous there” she says. Just to be clear.

As she was growing up, Haley used to sing and dance and perform little skits around her house. Then, at six years old, her dad decided to sign her up for an acting class. “I started taking classes and didn’t stop really,” she says.

By the time she was 12, she had been acting in short films in the Dallas area, her hometown, for a few years. It became apparent that she was getting serious about acting and needed to take a step forward in her career.

“An agent there told my parents if we really want to pursue this, we should try L.A. for a few months,” Haley explains. “It took some convincing with my parents but not as much as I thought it would.”

Her parents agreed to try Los Angeles out for three months and if it didn’t bring results, they’d come back home and try something new. But within the first three months in L.A., Haley booked a few jobs and her family ended up staying. Now Haley is 23 and her whole family lives out in Los Angeles with her.

Haley appreciates the fact that she’s lucky enough to have her family living so close to her and supporting her career. “I have so many friends who have moved from all over the country to come to Los Angeles and they don’t have their family there and I feel very thankful that our family is very close,” she says. Her brother was in high school when her family moved and had to start over at a new school. “I remember his first day of school and I was watching him get ready and I felt like crying because he was so nervous,” Haley remembers. “Of course it was fine. He has a band [now] and they perform all over so it’s like the best thing that could have happened for him too.”

Eventually, Haley’s Los Angeles endeavors lead her to auditioning for her current

role as Brenna Carver on ABC Family’s Chasing Life.

“It was just a regular old audition and I got [called for] it the night before,” Haley says. “You don’t really think much of [auditions] when they come in the night before. You’re just like, ‘Okay, got to memorize this, go in, do it.’”

Haley had tested for two other ABC Family pilots that month and, after not booking either of them, she was “kind of jaded and done.” She was afraid they weren’t going to hire her and that she’d embarrass herself for auditioning three times in front of the same people. “I wasn’t even going to go but I ended up getting it,” Haley says. “[Brenna is] a really fun role to play.”

Brenna is a rebel and “doesn’t care what anyone else thinks.” Haley explains that Brenna is the type of person who likes to march to the beat of her own drum and doesn’t take it to heart when she messes up. “She’s just kind of living life and she’s very artsy,” Haley explains. “Brenna is herself and I think she’s just unique and owns it.”

Haley finds it easy to connect with her character, whose sister on the show, April

(Italia Ricci), has leukemia, as she has dealt with past family medical issues. “My mom has autoimmune diseases and a lot of [what she goes through] is similar to someone with cancer so I find that to be really easy – dealing with the cancer storyline,” Haley says. “That part just kind of comes naturally.”

But a new experience for Haley is playing a bisexual character. Brenna is bisexual and this season the writers have been delving further into that part of her life.

“I like being one of the only bisexual characters on TV that is portrayed very accurately,” Haley says. “I think that our writers do a really good job with just being accurate about how bi[sexual] people feel a lot of the time.”

In one episode, Brenna joins the LGBTQAI group at school and becomes the first “B” of the group. She get’s into an argument with fellow group member about what being bisexual actually means – that she’s not confused and not denying she’s gay, that she’s actually attracted to all genders. Haley says that a lot of teenagers have been connecting with Brenna and reaching out about their own experiences with being bisexual. “That’s really fun, to

see these people recognizing who they are so young and feeling so open about it, it’s exciting,” she says.

At the end of season two, Brenna and Finn (Parker Mack) start dating. “I’m sure everyone sees it going that way right now, but it’s about to happen,” Haley says excitedly. “It’s similar to the Greer (Brenna’s ex-girlfriend, played by Gracie Dzienny) relationship because she really falls for him but doesn’t get as intense.” She says it’s a sweet and innocent high school relationship, partly because Brenna is very aware that Finn’s cancer makes him constantly at risk for getting sick.

Though there are fun times to be had on the set of Chasing Life, the show can be a real tearjerker, even for the cast. Just recently, April loses the love of her life, Leo (Scott Michael Foster) shortly after marrying him. It was just as unexpected for the cast as it was for viewers of the show. “[Susanna Fogel] showed me the last ten minutes [of the episode] one day and I didn’t expect to lose it that much but I think that the fact that it just happens so quickly and there’s no warning, it really got me,” Haley says. “I was bawling in the

room where we do the table reads alone with her and it’s emotional because he’s such a sweet guy and we love having him on the show.”

Haley says that the dynamic of the show changes after that. April goes through a party phase while continually mourning Leo, and that mourning stage doesn’t quite end by the end of the season. “I think that that’s a lot of people’s worries is that we’re just going to forget about Leo like it didn’t happen and it’s not at all. He’s very much talked about until the end of the season,” Haley says.

The end of the season brings a lot of tear jerking moments and follows the development of April’s character after losing Leo. As for Brenna, Haley says that although Brenna usually acts out due to April getting pitted all the time, this time “she’s not mad about it at all.”

“I think if anything, it gets her thinking about life and death and kind of opens up her mind to the afterlife and that’s a possibility and she finds comfort in that,” Haley says. “It makes her more optimistic about things. I know that sounds weird because it’s death but it kind of opens her eyes a little bit.” NKD

28

THAT POPPY Words by BRITTANY LANDAU | Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

From the moment you sit down to watch one of That Poppy’s YouTube videos or read a blog post of hers, you can figure out what she’s about. She’s eccentric, quirky, angsty and seemingly innocent, all wrapped into one pastel-colored package.

Poppy grew up in Nashville, surrounded by a family who lived and breathed music. “My dad played drums in a punk/new wave band and my brother was a drummer in a bunch of other bands,” she says.

For a while, Poppy diverted from that road and took up dancing, but music caught up with her in middle school.

“When I got into middle school, I started to sing, but I was really scared to sing in front of anyone.

But I got up enough courage to record a cover song and I put it up online, got pretty positive feedback, and I started posting more stuff and more covers online,” she says.

“One of the songs that I covered was a song by Alt-J called ‘Breezeblocks’. That made it’s way to one of the A&R guys that was working at Island Records and I met up with him and he decided that he wanted to start working with me,” Poppy continues.

Soon after, Poppy made the life changing move from Nashville to Los Angeles where she started writing, and really never stopped.

“At the beginning, it was almost like every day that I was writing.

That lasted for about a year and a half and then, we got my single, ‘Lowlife’,” she recalls. “Island agreed that should be the first single, so we made a music video and then we released it,” she continues.

The video is a good representation of everything That Poppy is about. With it’s unconventional use of symbolism and soft-hued theme, it can easily let new fans into Poppy’s world. “The video is kind of a combination of many things. So, the older guys you see in the video are like executives that take your art. The oxygen mask is just taking a break from a tough time, or taking a breather. Each thing is just a different symbol,” she explains.

As for the song itself, the meaning behind it is a very personal one to the singer-songwriter. “Behind the song, it’s just about meeting somebody that shakes up your world and makes it better. I wrote the song just about me living on my own for a while and then me meeting this person that just kind of shook up my world and made it just okay and made me feel really good,” Poppy says.

“The response to the video has been pretty positive and I’m pretty psyched about that,” Poppy says.

“It was pretty much my first release ever. I mean, I did release ‘Everybody Wants To Be Poppy’, but that wasn’t a music video. This is the first one with an original video.

People seem to really like it, which is great. It makes me really excited.

I was scared that it wasn’t going to break 1,000 views and it broke that in the first day. I think we got 5,000 in the first day or something. I was really excited. I was like, ‘wow, what a relief. Now I can keep going.’”

Her fan base has grown tremendously since the release of the video, as seen by her Twitter follower count and the amount of creative mentions she gets per day. Poppy

definitely notices, taking time to reply and retweet, or reblog anything that catches her eye. “A lot of my fans seem to be really creative and they are like graphic designers and painters and all of this crazy stuff.

Whenever they send me photos, I tend to repost them. I try to respond to comments on my stuff,” she says.

What fans have seemed to take to the most is her whimsical and refreshing sense of style. She pulls from different cultures and celebrities to create a unique take on fashion and imagery. “I’m pretty influenced by really cute and girly things. I like a lot of pastel colors. I like Anime and Japanese culture. So I definitely draw from that into my everyday style, what I wear and my little YouTube videos,” she explains.

You can find more of her signature style and fun take on life in her upcoming EP. When asked what fans can expect from the soon-to-be-released album, Poppy’s excitement was evident through the phone. “They can expect a very colorful sounding EP. It’s very Cyndi Lauper influenced. Also, reggae.

It’s a more extreme version of what I have already released with some twists,” she says.

What else can fans expect from the budding pop princess? “I’m going to be playing some shows in L.A. soon and then we’re getting things together so we can start touring and doing that whole thing. We’re going to be releasing another video. I have a song coming out with a featured artist that I cannot reveal, and that will be coming out with another video too,” she says. Poppy’s story has just started, and the ending is nowhere in sight. NKD

CONFESSIONS of an EARLY 2000’S LOVING

AUBREY PEEPLES Words & Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

Aubrey PeePles is just like most 21-yeAr-old girls in AmericA. she leArned the most imPortAnt life lessons from lizzie mcguire. the only difference is thAt most 21-yeAr-old girls Aren’t receiving congrAtulAtory fAcetime cAlls from hilAry duff. it’s only fitting, though, considering Aubrey’s uPcoming film, Jem and the holograms, About A smAll town girl turned virAl celebrity is Poised to be this generAtion’s lizzie mcguire movie – but bigger. the buzz surrounding the reimAgined, live-Action version of A cultfollowed ‘80s cArtoon is deAfening And Aubrey (who PlAys jem) is gAining stAr Power by the minute. every generAtion needs A voice.

“I can’t believe she saw the movie,” Aubrey muses, pointing to Hilary Duff on the television as we watch her in The Perfect Man, surrounded by junk food. It’s become a tradition for us; whenever we’re in the same city – whether it’d be New York, Nashville or Los Angeles – we make a point to load up on snacks and watch an early 2000’s movie. Our mutual love for the teen rom-coms of our youth was the turning point in our friendship, and we’ve become grossly inseparable ever since. So much so that when my mother met Aubrey for the second time, she looked at me with sheer horror and said, “Oh God, there’s two of you.”

This particular movie night takes place at my apartment in New York, where we just completed our early 2000’s- inspired photo shoot. Drawing inspiration from Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, Freaky Friday, New York Minute, Avril Lavigne circa Let It Go era and of course, Lizzie McGuire, this shoot has been in the works for months. But finding a date to do it was nearly impossible.

As it is, Aubrey ended up in New York for all of 20 hours in between a 16-hour filming day in Nashville for ABC’s Nashville – where her character was just upped to series regular – and a taped appearance on MTV’s Todrick for Jem and the Holograms in Los Angeles. To say these last few months have been hectic would be an understatement, though Aubrey’s not complaining.

I first met Aubrey when she had just wrapped filming for Jem and the Holograms, and now with the film’s release day less than a month away, she’s starting to fully understand the power this movie holds.

“What I’m at least hoping is that it will bring people into the awareness of Jem, because that’s what it did for me,” she says. “It’s kind of like my love for the early 2000’s -- it’s kind of kitschy but it’s so cool and it’s all about self-empowerment.” She hopes the dominantly female cast will inspire young girls to follow their rock star dreams. She’s confident that fans of the original cartoon series will love the movie, but she’s also excited

for a new generation to experience Jem’s unique story.

While the film has been hyped up since it began pre-production in early 2014, the casting is what gave it an ‘80’s stamp of approval. Molly Ringwald – the undeniable queen of the 1980’s – plays Jem’s Aunt Bailey.

“Everyone has watched those [John Hughes] movies one thousand times, so it’s just an honor to be able to be around someone like that,” Aubrey says. “It was really cool getting to see an icon like, in their element.

She has such a place in time.”

In a very different world from Jem’s Hollywood-fueled lifestyle, Aubrey commits nine months out of her year to playing Layla Grant on Nashville. After two years as a reoccurring star, she was bumped to series regular when filming for season four started up in July. While her workload isn’t much more strenuous (she appeared in 19/22 episodes last season), she dishes that the writers are giving her much meatier storylines and Layla will no longer be existing on the NKDMAG.COM

31

sidelines. “I’m getting to sing a lot more, and as the show goes on my character has a lot more emotional material,” she says. “It’s gotten a lot darker,, and that kind of allows my character to grow.” She believes that once you allow a character to go to a dark place, it gives the character the ability to have an arc. When she first joined the show in the second season, both she and the writers had no idea who Layla was yet, or where she was going. Now that Layla has had so many ups and downs, she’s a more rounded out person and can continue to have ups and downs.

In Aubrey’s mind, Layla is a classic, angsty, young adult that was thrust into an adult world at a young age. There are some things she’s ahead of her time in, but some things she’s very behind in. “She’s thrust into very serious relationships, but brings with it her lack of experience,” Aubrey says. “She’s been married, but that was also her first relationship and it wasn’t even real.”

She believes that Layla is strong and defensive, but is also a very lost, little girl. Now that Layla has more to say with her music, she’s exploring herself a lot more. “That’s going to be a theme in this season – her really growing with her music,” Aubrey says. “With her struggles this season – I’m not sure if she’s going to mature completely – but I think her music will allow her to know more about herself.”

Layla’s change in music style came about in the third season when record executive Jeff Fordham (Oliver Hudson) heard her singing some original, blues-inspired songs at a festival. With Jeff fighting for her, Layla’s days of singing pop-infused country songs that other people wrote for her were gone. Plans for Layla’s genre switch began forming after the cast and crew’s season three premiere party at The Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. The show’s writers – who are based in Los Angeles – were in town for the celebration and were able to hear the cast sing their original songs for the first time. “I was really nervous and was like ‘Steve [Buchanon, Execu32

tive Producer], my music is really depressing, and he was like, ‘Well, we all know you by now, Aubrey,’” she says with a laugh. “That was a turning point for Layla and her music because I think people saw that I could go to a dark place and what I was more interested in musically.”

The style of the song that she sang that night is what “Blind” – her fan-favorite track from last season – is based on. “They really liked the style of it, so when they were searching for Layla’s new breakout song, they had me in mind,” Aubrey says.

“Blind” opened the doors for Aubrey to sing a lot more incredible music on the show, and promises that the songs Layla sings this season are her best so far. While none of her own songs have been right for Layla yet, Aubrey is toying with the idea of trying to get into Layla’s headspace and write songs to pitch for her to sing on the show. “I came up with two lines the other day and was like, ‘Oh! That would be good for Layla!’” she says. “I’m trying.”

Right now, though, Aubrey is very focused on writing her own music.

“In the past year I’ve found what I’ve wanted to say and discovered the style I want to sing in, and that’s really affected my music,” she says.

She’s aware that with the success of Nashville and the projected success of Jem and the Holograms, the demand for an “Aubrey Peeples” album is greater than ever. “I’m definitely trying to expedite that process,” she says. “It is a concern that if I do start working on an album or I do start getting producers on board that I’ll be steered in the direction of Layla or what Jem is, musically.” While the line between Aubrey’s and Layla’s sounds has been getting thinner over the last year, there is still a stylistic difference that Aubrey wants to stress. “My stuff is pretty bluesy, pretty jazz rock,” she says, citing The Black Keys and Amy Winehouse as inspirations. “At the end of the day, I do music for me, so I’m not really worried about it. If only a few people hear it and like it, that’s all that matters,” she says.

Because of all the musical opNKDMAG.COM

33

portunities she’s gotten in the film world, people in and out of the industrysee Aubrey as a musician.

“There are some networking advantages to being on Nashville and being in Jem,” she says. “These opportunities have allowed me to make connections that could be really great when pursuing an album.” She hasn’t started those conversations quite yet, but the framework is there, and she’s hoping to find a producer within the next month or so.

One of the most invaluable connections she has made in the music industry is Scooter Braun, who is a producer on Jem. “It’s amazing just to know someone like that, who is such a heavy player in something that you really want to do,” Aubrey says. “And I think it’s great for Jem.” She believes Scooter’s involvement will bring exciting opportunities to the film, especially in the music space.

While Aubrey is very confident and comfortable in her own skin, the character she is becoming most known for is not. Nashville’s third season ended with Layla smashing her manager/boyfriend Jeff ’s car with a golf club and then falling into his arms the second he said “I’m sorry.” Layla’s prior relationship – a failed marriage with the now-outwardly gay Will Lexington (Chris Carmack) – was also a disaster and very one-sided. Layla has been having trouble standing on her own two feet since she arrived in Nashville, and Aubrey believes that what she really needs is more people in her corner. “Now that Rayna [Connie Britton] is on her team, I think that’s going to help her grow tremendously, because I think that she is the ideal picture of what a woman growing up in the music industry should be like and how she should handle herself professionally,” Aubrey says. She also thinks Layla needs a real, stable relationship. Not to become her own person, but so she can really experience love. She hints that viewers are going to find out a lot about how much Jeff truly cares about Layla in the first half of this season, and she does believe 34

36

NKDMAG.COM

37

that there is a level of honesty to their relationship. But there have been a lot of struggles getting to that point, and Aubrey thinks Layla really needs someone who can be completely selfless with her. “I think anytime you experience true love it really speeds up the maturation process,” she says. “It at least helps to feel respected, and I don’t think Layla has a lot of respect for herself.

But I don’t think she realizes that.”

Even though Layla and Will’s marriage was a sham, there is a very 38

platonic love between the two characters that will be explored this season. “Chris is so near and dear to me – we’re really such great friends,” she says, smiling. “Maybe it’s because we’ve had so many scenes together, or maybe it’s because we’re so close in real life, but I feel like our scenes are so easy and there’s so much history there.” She believes their genuine care for one another is what helps add layers to their characters.

This season Aubrey is getting to work with Connie Britton extensive-

ly. “I feel like it’s a dream for Layla to work with [Rayna], but it’s also a dream for me to work with [Connie],” Aubrey says. “She is so respected and I have admired her and watched a ton of her work. I really want to be her. I know that sounds cheesy, but I think she’s superwoman.” The more time she spends with her, the more respect she gains for her. The same goes for Hayden Panettiere, who plays Juliette Barnes.

“I feel like I have so much to learn from them. The [scene in] the season premiere… I just like bow down to them,” she says, laughing.

There’s something really special about the cast of Nashville that I’ve had the pleasure of witnessing on multiple occasions. There’s an intense level of support and love between the stars and zero competition, despite them all reaching for the same goals. The last time I visited Aubrey in Nashville we went to see Sam Palladio (who plays Gunnar Scott on the show) play at the Grand Ole Opry. The time before that, we saw Chris perform at CMA Fest. Whenever one of them plays around Nashville, it’s guaranteed at least one or two of their co-stars will be in the audience. “I honestly think when you have a show – especially on location – you can either become a family, or a lot of drama happens,” Aubrey says. “Any drama that happens on the show is just about people making sure that their characters are being honored.” She believes that what has allowed her cast to hold onto that “tight-knit, family feel” is the music. “We all have the same passion for music, and most of us for the same style of music,” she says. “Because we’re all so passionate about it, we’re all so excited for each other.”

This past spring, for the second time, the Nashville cast went on tour together – but this was Aubrey’s first year joining them. This experience allowed Aubrey (and the rest of the cast) to bond with people they don’t normally work with on set. After living on a tour bus with co-stars Lennon and Maisy Stella, she feels like part of their family now – whereas

on screen she has never had a scene with either of them. This was Aubrey’s first time ever touring, and as a result, her first time in a tour bus.

“It was just really cool because I feel like I’m having all these firsts with these people, and that’s really special. I think that affects our friendships, which in turn affects our characters’ friendships,” she says.

Before their show in San Francisco, Aubrey and Chris biked for eight miles across the Golden Gate Bridge, which is something neither of them had experienced before.

The tour also helped strengthen Aubrey’s relationship with the show’s fans, who despite their passion, have had a hard time accepting Layla’s drama. But every night on tour, Aubrey was flooded with Twitter replies and Instagram comments praising her vocals and stage presence, and promising to give Layla another shot because of it. “I think hardcore fans have a hard time distinguishing between the real life person and the character,” she says. “Before, people just saw me as Layla – this snooty, childish bitch.

So getting the opportunity to show people my vibe and have it being appreciated, helps [the fans] like Layla better.”

At this point, Aubrey is used to performing as Layla or performing Layla’s songs, but recently she was able to perform live as Jem for the first time with a special cast concert at the iHeart Radio Theatre in Los Angeles. “That’s something I feel like you get to do when you’re established in the music industry, and none of us girls [Aubrey, Stefanie Scott, Hayley Kiyoko, Aurora Perrineau] really are,” Aurbey says.

“So it’s kind of what Nashville has done for me in that town – it’s really opened up all these musical opportunities.” She hopes that she’ll be able to play the theatre as herself one day, but having that experience under her belt already is something very special to her. “It’s one of those things that’s on the bucket list, and I get to kind of cross it off,” she says.

As if performing on such an iconic stage wasn’t enough for one day,

before the performance Aubrey was given the ultimate praise by one of her idols. “I was talking to Scooter [Braun] one day about how much I loved Lizzie McGuire and Hilary Duff, and then right before the performance he was on his phone and was like ‘Aubrey, come here!’ and I came over and he was FaceTiming Hilary Duff and introduced me to her over FaceTime,” she says, beaming. “I literally freaked out and fangirled so hard and was like, ’Oh my gosh, I love you so much, you’re

so great!’ and she was like ‘I saw the movie, congratulations, be proud of yourself – this is great!’” As someone who personally called Netflix and submitted a formal request for them to put Lizzie McGuire on their instant streaming service (yeah, true story. There’s video.) -- getting that sort of assurance that’s she doing something right from someone she looks up to so much was a really special moment for Aubrey. “It’s like a childhood dream. All of this,” she says. NKD NKDMAG.COM

39

BREC BASSINGER Words by SHELBY CHARGIN Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

40

Coming from the world of natural beauty pageants, Brec Bassinger got her start in entertainment at 9 years old.

She grew up in Texas, where a judge at a pageant asked her to be in a short film he was directing. “I always knew I liked being in front of people,” she explains. “I went out to California and did that, and said, ‘OK, this is fun, I want to do the rest of my life.’” Upon Brec’s return to Texas, she quickly got into acting classes and began her journey back to Los Angeles.

“Through my acting school, which I did for about three years, I found my manager, who got me an agent in Texas, and then my agent in Texas got me an agent in California, so I came out here for a week, and went on like five auditions, and I got a callback on every single one of them,” she says. It was this momentum that had her team convincing her she was ready to come out for pilot season.

Soon, she booked Bella and the Bulldogs on Nickelodeon. Bella tells the story of a girl who wants to play football in middle school, and it’s easy to tell why Brec got the part. “We have a lot of similarities,” she says of her character.

“She’s from Texas, I’m from Texas. And one of the main things in the show is that she had to quit cheerleading to follow her dream of being quarterback, and I had to quit cheerleading to follow my dream of acting,” she says. Her relationship with Bella is a complicated one. While Bella is a great character for her to play, the age difference between them often reminds Brec how much people can grow and change.

“On set, I’m always hanging out with guys, because I film a lot of the scenes with the guys,” she says, laughing. “I grew up with older brothers, so I’ve always been around guys in general.”

Her experience being ‘one of the boys’ is one of the main things that attracted

her to Bella in the first place. “I think Bella’s such an important role because the generation growing up needs to see that they don’t need to let their gender, or if they have something wrong with them, they can do anything they set their mind to.” The smile on her face grows as she talks about a particularly lucky young fan of the show who came to visit. “She reached out to Nickelodeon and she was a girl football player who really got into it because of the show.” Brec’s love of being Bella really comes from knowing the role is doing something positive. “It touched my heart to see that the work we’re putting out, it’s actually affecting kids and their decisions,” she says. Brec’s maturity shows when she talks about affecting the lives of others, and it serves as a reminder that she’s a little bit older than the character she plays—she’s headed into her senior year of high school.

There aren’t many kids who can balance school and filming so well. Brec’s ability to do so effortlessly makes her much more adult-like than most 16-yearolds. “I have a full time job, and I’m a full time student, so I do get exhausted,” she says. With all of this going on, tensions can be a bit higher on set, but Brec has an ever-mature demeanor, and doesn’t seem to have a problem dealing with any tension. “If we do have a problem, we talk it through with everyone. It’s a great atmosphere,” she says. It’s such a great atmosphere that she and her co-star Coy Stewart are finishing up their senior year together. “We’re trying to plan a little graduation ceremony,” she says, laughing.

While her life has been all about Bella the past few years, Brec also just finished wrapping up a TV movie titled Liar Liar Vampire in Vancouver. While Brec is definitely similar to Bella in certain ways, she enjoyed the role of Cameron in Liar Liar Vampire because she could explore a totally different side of herself. “She’s kind of standoffish, very sarcastic and wears all black,” Brec says. The two characters, she says, are “kind of a combination of [her].” While Bella is her bubbly girly side, Cameron represents more of Brec’s sarcastic side.

With film, Brec feels she gets “more time to develop [her] character, and truly get to know them,” because it lasts longer.

It’s definitely something she wants to pursue, although she knows there are quite

a few big differences between film and TV. “For me, since I’m on a multi-camera show, there’s more cameras, whereas on the film there were only two or three, so you have to take a few more takes.” She loves this aspect, because she gets a bit more time to really focus her current role. “We film a whole episode in two days,” she says of Bella, “whereas a movie we do it over a six-week period.”

Filming is a big contrast to pageants, where she got her start. “There’s a lot more pressure,” Brec says. “They’re putting thousands and thousands of dollars into you, and you really have to be on your game all the time.” However, she still feels the pageant world got her ready for certain aspects of the job. “When I was in pageants, I had to do interviews, so that kind of got me prepared for things like this,” she says, laughing. And though she loves acting, she does miss the pageant

world, and her friends. “I have friends all over the country doing them, so I get to keep that,” she says.

It’s not surprising that her outlook on most things is bright. At 8 years old, Brec was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes, before she even began acting. “Sometimes it can slow things down, like if my blood sugar goes low, I have to stop,” she says. It’s easy to see that diabetes hasn’t held Brec back at all. “Because I’ve lived with it for as long as I can remember, it doesn’t really slow me down,” she says.

Joining the likes of other artists with Type 1 Diabetes, like Nick Jonas, Brec recently became an ambassador for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, which will allow her to travel and advocate for kids with diabetes. “It doesn’t stop you from chasing your dream,” she says. Her mindset has always been that things like that won’t change her. NKD NKDMAG.COM

41

BRETT DAVERN Words by STACY MAGALLON Photos by CATHERINE POWELL Styling by TYLER MCDANIEL

Going to high school once is more than enough for most people. Very few would be interested to do it twice, unlike Awkward star Brett Davern.

And if asked again, he would do it a third time around.

Born and raised in Edmunds, Wa., Brett’s upbringing was “really typical.”

He spent his time playing sports but began to shift focus in the fifth grade when a classmate’s parent started a musical theater program. From then on, he participated in every musical until the eighth grade.

When Brett began high school the following year, he began to notice that he never grew as an athlete.

“I decided to be more active in the theater department instead,” he says.

Brett spent his summers at Stagedoor Manor, an acting camp in upstate New York. His time spent on the East Coast encouraged him to potentially move out there, rather than settling down at a local school like Washington State University. After his high school graduation, he took a year off then moved to New York City. It was his home for four years.

After his move to Manhattan, Brett enrolled at AMDA (American Music and Dramatic Academy). It took four years for Brett to feel more than prepared for his dream of moving to Los Angeles. Manhattan’s green-lit 42

NKDMAG.COM

43

44

NKDMAG.COM

45

energy, combined with the overpopulated atmosphere and scolding subway goers coated his shoulders with a thicker skin. “If it wouldn’t cause an overcrowding problem, I would say people should live in New York for at least one year of their lives,” Brett says.

“You don’t develop much of a thick skin anywhere else.” He would move back there, if given the choice — even with the plethora of chaos.

Brett’s first gig in the Big Apple was the 2006 film Beautiful Ohio directed

by Chad Lowe and starring William Hurt, Julianna Margulies and Michelle Trachtenberg. Soon after, he moved to Los Angeles and booked a series regular role on MTV’s Awkward. Awkward, one of the network’s first scripted teen comedies premiered in July of 2011. “I still try to convince my mom’s friends that I’m not on a reality show set at a high school,” Brett laughs.

The series follows the story of social outcast Jenna Hamilton (Ashley Rickards), after her rumored suicide attempt. Her popularity blossoms because of the incident and her once private blog suddenly goes public.

Awkward confronts the common issues of boy troubles, peer pressure and insecurities throughout the five seasons, all narrated from Jenna’s perspective. Brett plays Jake Rosati, the big man on campus at Palos Hills High School. Jake is friendly, sensitive but outgoing athlete and student body president who begins developing feelings for Jenna. “I never grew into the size I needed to be to play football or basketball, but I get to live that through Jake,” Brett says. “My high school memories and my Awkward memories kind of blend in to each other and it’s hard to remember which is the real one and which one isn’t.”

The cast and producers of Awkward were up against the likes of The Daily Show and programs of a similar nature, due to their original airtime of 11 p.m. They soon discovered a fan base who also discovered their show, despite the timely conflicts of other popular late night programs. “That’s a direct compliment to the writing and how smart the show is,” Brett says. “I have never read a script for teenagers that was smart and snappy and never 46

once talked down to their audience.”

Awkward avoided controversy with it’s well written comedy, and for Brett, having a consistent job was pretty awesome.

“I feel like this is really cliché, but the cast hangs out all the time outside of work,” Brett says. “I always feel like I’m going to work with my friends.”

Unfortunately for them, Awkward will not be coming back for a sixth season.

“For the past few years, we would always wonder whether or not we’d be picked up again,” Brett says. As a show that aired on summer nights at 11 p.m., it was by pure luck that fans even stuck around to watch. Every season could have been their last. He believes they were fortunate to have lasted this long. “We had a lot of jokes between each other, we would say, ‘Oh see you next season,’” Brett continues. “But we didn’t really believe it [was ending] until it took us by surprise when we saw the news in headlines.” While filming their final season, Brett and his cast mates were in denial about its ending.

The executive producers wrote the season finale in a way that leaves audiences with an idea of the characters’ futures. “These characters are so layered and so deep that you could have a bunch of story lines that are still out there,” Brett says. “If this is truly the end of Awkward, I think fans will absolutely be satisfied,” he says. But he would play Jake Rosati for another eight seasons if they let him, and he knows that Awkward’s fan base would follow those characters anywhere.

While Awkward has taken up most of Brett’s time over the past six years, he’s also been able to work on other projects. Most recently, Brett starred in Love & Mercy, a 2014 biographical drama film directed by Bill Pohlad.

The film focuses on Brian Wilson, co-founder of The Beach Boys. Brett portrayed Carl Dean Wilson, the American musician, singer and songwriter. The film premiered at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival and received critical praise for it’s unorthodox storytelling and original film score. “I think everyone should go see it, especially if you love music or want to know about the music

industry,” Brett says.

Brett also recently worked on The Stanford Prison Experiment, a 2015 thriller directed by Kyle Patrick Alvarez and written by Tim Talbott. Brett starred alongside Billy Crudup, Ezra Miller, Olvia Thirlby and a handful of other Young Hollywood up-andcomers. The film followed Stanford psychology professor Philip Zimbardo as he conducts a psychological experiment to test the traits of prisoners and guards and the cause of violence

between them.

“The movie is a little dark as it’s based on a real story and a real experiment,” Brett says. “When you’re given absolute power in a prison, what does that do to you as a person?” Brett grew a mustache and big sideburns for his ‘70s role. The film targets current controversies of abusive political power and law enforcement, which tested the actors involved in playing the 18 inmates. “We didn’t have to be these people but we had to act of that age

within that era,” Brett says. “People were free-loving hippies back then, so what happens when all of a sudden you’re told what to do?” While this character was miles away from that of Jake Rosati, Brett believes he can fit into any kind of role. At only 23, Brett has witnessed the ongoing shift in the entertainment industry.

With major websites like Netflix and Hulu engulfing audiences from cable television, mediums don’t necessarily restrict an actor’s ability. Every-

thing just seems to be good nowadays.

“I grew up doing musical theater but I can do drama and comedy,” Brett says. “I think I’m just drawn to good projects and I think you can say that with conviction because you couldn’t really say that in the past.” While Brett is still crossing his fingers for another season of Awkward, if his time as Jake Rosati is over, he’s okay with that too. He may not want to, but he’s more than capable of graduating high school… again. NKD NKDMAG.COM

47

JESSICA PARKER KENNEDY Words by JOANNA BOURAS Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

Adorned in AllSaints, Jessica Parker Kennedy blends into the New York City locals atop the High Line Park in Chelsea. But she’s not a local, and if she were dressed in one of her custom-made Black Sails costumes, she definitely wouldn’t blend in. While she may not be the most recognizable actress in Manhattan right now, she is definitely one of the hardest working.

Having been consistently acting since 2006, Jessica describes her journey into acting as “not cool, but very practical.”

As a child Jessica and her mother made a habit of going to Broadway plays. She remembers being 12 years old and immediately falling in love with Romeo and Juliet. She was completely moved and thought, “I don’t know what’s happening [but] I want to do this for the rest of my life.” And she has.

Growing up in Calgary, Canada, Jessica knew that in order to make it in the industry, her best bet would be to follow in the path of other successful actors. So, like any young girl with big dreams, she begged her mom to quit her job, let her drop out of school and move to Los Angeles. Her mother quickly declined. Therefore, Jessica continued high school and after she graduated she enrolled in a theater arts program at Mount Royal College for two years where she earned her degree.

Following graduation, Jessica dove headfirst into her career as an actress.

“I was really lucky I got an agent right away,” she says. The ball kept rolling and she continued booking work, and has now been living in Los Angeles for four years – though she doesn’t 48

consider it home. “I don’t really know where home is. I’ve been subletting and living out of suitcases for five years,” she says.

When it comes to her acting, she believes that she hasn’t hit her peak just yet. She is continuing to stick to the typical acting projector track and hopes that she can continue building on tiny roles that will lead to bigger and bigger ones. “I’m waiting for that part that can make a difference in [my] career, where [I] can start choosing my own roles and have people send scripts to me, I would love that,” she says.

Jessica is currently working on the STARZ TV adventure drama Black Sails. The series is set two decades before the widely known tale Treasure Island, and includes characters from the book, such as Long John Silver.

Her favorite thing about working on this series is that the hired cast is full of working actors and not just a bunch of famous people. “Everyone goes to work with intention, excitement, and enthusiasm,” she says. She knows that every time she gets to set everyone wants to do his or her absolute best work and that’s how she feels, too.

Jessica plays the role of Max, a prostitute and brothel madame, in the series. Although her character goes through various hardships, such as abuse and rape, Jessica has never experienced any of these things first hand and won’t pretend to. “I feel the responsibility to women to portray the role in a very accurate way without hurting or offending anyone,” Jessica says.

Black Sails has been her favor-

ite project this far because it has a generous budget. By having a bigger budget, she feels she is able to take her time and really nail each scene - even if it takes multiple takes. “It’s the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done. TV is [so], ‘Learn your lines, spit it out, no we don’t have time to do two takes.’

For this we can take up to three weeks per episode,” she says.

As an actor trying to climb the ladder, Jessica is always looking for more roles and projects to join.

She is currently working on a short film titled House Mother with her close friend, Andrew Bowser. Set in the 1980’s, Jessica plays an extremely mean sorority sister, which Jessica describes as cathartic. “There is something about getting to be bad on-screen. [You] get to say the worst things and you’re supposed to because it’s written for you,” she says. The thriller – which currently has no set release date – portrays how brutal and disgusting sororities can get during pledge week. “I just want to be in films that make people think, where people walk away from the theater and [the movie] stays with them for the next few days,” she says.

Being career oriented and always on the go, Jessica says it takes a while to find a good balance amongst other things in her life. It’s difficult for her to balance personal relationships because she films Black Sails in South Africa six months out of the year. It helps that she has a small tight knit group of friends that she stays extremely close with, and that her mom will come out and visit for five weeks each year. “It’s hard, but it could be much harder,” Jessica says. She watches her married co-stars struggle with being away from their spouses and children for months at a time, and understands how lucky she is that this project came at this point in her life.

Jessica will return to the Black Sails set in November and will stay there through April. After that, she has nothing locked in but plans to jump right back into auditioning when she returns to California. She enjoys being a working actor and paying her dues, and even though she’s had her ups and downs, she’s never wanted to give up. NKD NKDMAG.COM

49

NKDMAG.COM