The Lab Magazine Issue 05

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issue — 05

willem dafoe interviewed by Wes Anderson

featuring Mads MIkkelsEn interviewed by Noomi Rapace The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger interviewed by Wayne Coyne Greta Gerwig interviewed by Adam Brody King Charles interviewed by Charlie Fink & Autumn de Wilde Shailene Woodley interviewed by Judy greer ELLEN VON UNWERTH, SELMA BLAIR, TY BURRELL, ANNA CALVI, NICOLAS WINDING REFN, SLEIGH BELLS, WU LYF + more…

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we are

Editor in Chief Justin Tyler Close justin@thelabmagazine.com

Editor in Chief Jeremy Power Regimbal jeremy@thelabmagazine.com Senior Editor Sarah Herman sarah@thelabmagazine.com

Editorial Assistant Tony Yacowar tony@thelabmagazine.com

Art Editor Darya Kosilova darya@thelabmagazine.com

Contributing Writers Angel Baker, Sarah Herman, Dawn Kay, Darya Kosilova, Alex McKenna, Shad, Danielle Sipple, Brooke Stone, Trevor Undi, Aidan Weinrib Contributing Interviewers Wes Anderson, Mark Boone Junior, Kate Bosworth, Adam Brody, Wayne Coyne, Bryan Cranston, Autumn de Wilde, Charlie Fink, Judy Greer, Kyp Malone, Noomi Rapace, Michael Shindler, Sleigh Bells Contributing Artists John M.F. Anderson, Lake Bell, Selma Blair, Ty Burrell, Anna Calvi, Willem Dafoe, Electric Youth, Tommy Flanagan, Greta Gerwig, The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger, Judy Greer, Richard Haines, Hey Ocean!, Sophie Jodoin, Luam Keflezgy, King Charles, Tom Kundig, Mads Mikkelsen, Natassia at Vision, The Sheepdogs, Sleigh Bells, Ellen von Unwerth, Annabelle Wallis, Mark Whalen, Nicolas Winding Refn, Shailene Woodley, WU LYF Creative Director Justin Tyler Close justin@thelabmagazine.com

Design CLOU Studio www.thisisclou.com

Contributing Photographers Jake Chessum, Justin Tyler Close, Autumn de Wilde, Marta Dymek, Andrew Eccles, Eliot Lee Hazel, Emma Hardy, Tom Hoops, Miles Jay, Brendan Meadows, Jody Rogac, Sleigh Bells, Trevor Undi, Ellen von Unwerth, Hilary Walsh, Kenneth Willardt Contributing Crew Spencer Barnes, Tania Becker, Kate Brien, Alison Butler, Philip Carreon, Linda Charoenlab, Waseem Cheema, Max Chin, Erica Cloud, Natasha Devereux, Stephen Dimmick, Houman Farahmand, Frankie Foye, Amy Freeman, David Gardner, Amanda Hakan, Mark Holmes, Lawren Howell, JAK, Charlotte Kemp Muhl, Kitty Kittiya Anjimakorn, Amy Komorowski, Jenna Kuchera, Sean Lennon, Ami Lertpricha, Paloch Lilittham, Jill Lincoln, Campbell F. McAuley, Sean Mikel, Benoit Moeyaert, Lucy Moles, Zazu Myers, Stacey Nishimoto, Caile Noble, David Nolan, Gloria Noto, David Rosenzweig, Gregory Russell, Anna Schneider, Tumm Soithong, Stephen Sollitto, Gillian Steinhardt, Cyndle Strawhecker, Jo Strettell, Monika Tatalovic, David Terrazas Morales, Kevin Trageser, Karla Welch, Erin Winn, Kristin Zero Director of Finance & Business Operations Jeremy Power Regimbal jeremy@thelabmagazine.com

Brand & Advertising Director Samantha Hassall samantha@thelabmagazine.com

Advertising & Partnerships partnerships@thelabmagazine.com Special Thanks Robert Marshall, Mabel Marshall, Thomas Nederpel, Roger & Lesley Friedmann, Wanda Dorosz, Bruce Smalls, Lauro L. Carreon, Stan & Terry Cowling, Michael Legrand Thank You The Close Family, The Regimbal Family, The Power Family, Linda Baker, Amanda Kirkpatrick, Art Department, Arts + Commerce, Brad Gough, Carmen Bonnici, Carol LeFlufy, Carrot Creative, Caryn Weiss, Claire Bradford, Clinic NYC, Creative Artists Agency, Danny Costello, Dave Uzzard, Dot Burns, Drew Nelson, East Van Studios, Eye Forward Inc, Farmer’s Daughter Hotel, Gideon Marshall, Gwyn Pritchett, Hemlock Printers Ltd., ID Public Relations, Jed Root, John Campisi, Kim Roberts, Kristina Jackson, Laura Holmes, Lily Brown, Marek & Associates, MKSHFT/CLLCTV, Margaret Maldonado, Matt Szymanowski, Milk Studios, Natalie Robison, Petit Ermitage Hotel, Primary Photographic, Robert Stone, Roberts & Stahl, Sarah Roach, Sepia Films, Smashbox Studios, Streeters, Sun Studios, Sunset Marquis Hotel, Tashena Burroughs, Tina Pehme, Top Less Gay Love Tekno Party, Tribeca Film Festival, Tristan Thomson, Evan Wiebe, Universal Records, Weiss Artist Management, Vision Management Group, Work Group + all Lab supporters and contributors from here to Sweden!

Mailing Address The Lab Magazine #810 - 207 West Hastings St. Vancouver, BC, Canada, V6B 1H7

Contact info@thelabmagazine.com

Interns Lily Brown Maya Sarin Aidan Weinrib

Cover Willem Dafoe Photography by Jake Chessum, Assisted by David Rosenzweig and Dominic Neitz Styling by Mark Holmes, Grooming by Amy Komorowski @ Celestine Agency Photographed @ Sun Studios, New York City (www.sunstudios.com) Cover look­—Coat and shirt Costume National, Trousers Burberry ———— Published by The Lab Media Group.

Opinions expressed in this issue are the opinions of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Lab Magazine.

2012 © Lab Media Group LP and its authors. Reproduction without permission prohibited.

Printed in Vancouver, BC by Hemlock Printers Ltd. the lab magazine ————— issue 05

king charles 20—the ghost of a saber tooth tiger 30—electric youth 36—ellen von unwerth 48—mads mikkelsen 54—greta gerwig 60—shailene woodley 66—the pretty things 76—the love lab 12—

Interview by Autumn de Wilde & Charlie Fink, Photography by Autumn de Wilde

Interview by Wayne Coyne, Photography by Jake Chessum

Interview by Michael Shindler, Photography by Miles Jay

Words by Angel Baker

Interview by Noomi Rapace, Photography by Kenneth Willardt

Interview by Adam Brody, Photography by Jody Rogac

Interview by Judy Greer, Photography by Andrew Eccles

Fashion Feature by Eliot Lee Hazel

78—Annabelle Wallis, Words by Alex McKenna 80—Ty Burrell, Words by Dawn Kay 82—WU LYF, Words by Aidan Weinrib 84—Richard Haines, Words by Darya Kosilova 86—Luam Keflezgy, Words by Trevor Undi 88—The Sheepdogs, Words by Danielle Sipple 90—Tom Kundig, Words by Brooke Stone 92—Judy Greer, Words by Sarah Herman 94—Hey Ocean!, Words by Shad

mark whalen 106—willem dafoe 118—all cats are grey 128—lab mail 96—

Art Feature

Interview by Wes Anderson, Photography by Jake Chessum

Fashion Feature by Hilary Walsh

130—Nicolas Winding Refn, Interview by Bryan Cranston 134—Anna Calvi, Interview by Kyp Malone 138—Sleigh Bells, Interview by Sleigh Bells 142—Lake Bell, Interview by Kate Bosworth 146—Sophie Jodoin, Interview by Darya Kosilova 150—Tommy Flanagan, Interview by Mark Boone Junior

making the shoot

154—

Featuring Selma Blair, Photography by Marta Dymek

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an interview with ————— King Charles

the lab magazine ————— issue 05

this is the ————— music section

king charles INTERVIEW BY AUTUMN DE WILDE & CHARLIE FINK — PHOTOGRAPHY BY AUTUMN DE WILDE ART DIRECTION BY LUCY MOLES STYLING BY DAVID NOLAN GROOMING BY ALISON BUTLER

The last King Charles that England knew was exiled from the country by civil war, had 12 illegitimate children and died after a politically charged reign at 55. Next to his hedonistic life, the new King Charles seems rather tame. To look at, you’d be forgiven for mistaking him for a time-warped Frank Zappa or a ‘Trustafarian’ twentysomething kid who ended up with a little less ‘trust’ and a little more ‘farian’. But take a few minutes to listen to the unusual folk-pop, glam-rock ditties he bellows out with equal parts lyrical wit, bravado and well-bred West London enunciation and you’ll know you’re treading on pastures new. He’s been bandied in with the likes of Mumford & Sons and Noah and the Whale (private school backgrounds, popular folky anthems, good hair) but don’t let the pigeon-holing fool you. Charles may have an award-worthy barnet but he’s also got song-writing skills, showmanship and a wardrobe to match. The Lab corralled his old school buddy Charlie Fink (Noah and the Whale) and American photographer Autumn de Wilde to get under that hair and twist his dainty ’tache.

Tame might be an understatement, but either way it looks like England’s got a new King Charles on its hands, and this one’s not planning on being exiled any time soon.

Autumn De Wilde—A lot of people know both of you, but they might not know that you went to school together. Charlie, tell me how you met King Charles?

King Charles—I’ll tell you how I met Charlie instead.

ADW—I think I’m trying to protect the fantasy of whatever world you guys have created with your music. There’s nothing wrong with seeing the real side of things but it seems to be overpowering the fantasy a little bit and I think I would like to see a little more balance. I was going to ask Charles, in building the fantasy that goes along with your music what are some of the influences you draw from?

Charlie Fink—Yeah, do that.

KC—I watched Charlie performing on stage when he was 14 and shredding some jazz guitar solo, getting the whole school to bow at his feet; I was one of them. I asked him to sign my shirt when he finished playing, and that’s how I met Charlie Fink.

CF­—I remember the reverse being true! My one overriding school memory of hanging out with Charles was driving out of school pumping One More Cup of Coffee by Bob Dylan. Charles was a very cool dude, and remains a very cool dude, but was more noticeably so among the not so cool dudes at our school. It was a great relief and a great experience to find an ally.

KC—You sweetheart.

KC—There’s always been very little that’s inspired me, but it’s inspired me really heavily and it started with cowboys, watching Tombstone.

I wanted to be Doc Holliday, and I’d go out dressed like a cowboy everywhere. I didn’t really know that much about fashion­– I didn’t really know that much about anything – but I wanted to look like those guys. Then I got more into formal dress and wearing classic English garments like suits and tails, but it’s bloody expensive to emulate that, so I was always trying to get away with whatever I could get away with.

Whatever I could do to impress girls was pretty much the starting point of getting dressed.

ADW—Dressing like a proper dandy is a very expensive endeavour, but I actually really like it when it’s almost there and it blends with other influences. Charlie, you also have a lot of filmic influences for your music and the band’s style.

ADW—You’re both incredibly well dressed. How did that happen?

CF­—That’s something I think has always come naturally to Charles but something I like to think I’ve developed over the last few years – it’s not always been so easy for me. One of the things I think is annoying nowadays for a musician is that you spend all this time creating a look through styling and taking these immaculate photos with people like yourself [Autumn] and then you go online and it’s full of photos someone’s taking on an iPhone of you falling out of a venue after a gig looking awful. How does that affect your work Autumn?

CF­—There’s been a lot of discovery across this album cycle and finding a look and a feel for the band. We made an album that was our most American influenced record. And I think a consequence of doing that and touring the world and hanging out with you [Autumn], is I’ve now got a real desire to do something incredibly English or something that connects with that, so I’ve been watching a lot of David Lean movies and the Brideshead Revisited TV series. The style in that is absolutely amazing.

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an interview with ————— King Charles

ADW—It’s unbelievable. The lighting in Brideshead Revisited is incredible.

And speaking of that show, this question feels like it relates a little...

Charles, will you talk about when you saw that painting that inspired you, the one that was coincidentally on the cover of your copy of The Picture of Dorian Gray?

KC—I went to Scotland with my parents to visit Lord and Lady Dalhousie who have this massive castle in the Highlands. They were showing us around, and showing us the different paintings of their family that went back to the 1100s or something ridiculous. In the dining room I stumbled across a painting by John Sargent of Lord Dalhousie’s grandfather. He’d come back from holiday in Egypt and had his portrait painted and it’s magnificent. I’ve always been in love with Oscar Wilde’s Dorian Gray and it blew my mind seeing this thing in the flesh. I got a suit made to look exactly like his. Ivory-colored, double-breasted, and I look even better than he does.

CF­—But they were made in extreme circumstances. Every video we make with Autumn is just giving her an opportunity to try and kill me. Every time we film together she puts me in some terrifying scenario and films it and laughs hysterically. I’m glad the results are good.

ADW—I’m trying to help you live up to your nickname, The Hangman.

How did that name come about?

CF­—It was one of Charles’ rejected pseudonyms that he passed on to me because he felt it suited me better.

KC—Really? I just remember always calling you The Hangman.

CF­—We used to be in a band together. That’s when I became The Hangman. We had rehearsals at Charles’ house and Charles would say we were starting at midday and I’d turn up about 12:30 and the other two members would turn up about five. It was incredibly disorganized.

CF­—Who is your tailor?

KC— Those days were good. It was the best band in the world.

KC—My tailor is a man called Joshua Byrne of Byrne & Burge. He’s an amazing guy and amazing tailor. He doesn’t just make you clothes, he believes in the relationship between the tailor and his client. And he’s been to every one of my single launches since he first made me a suit. He works by word of mouth and never lets me say anything to magazines.

“You’ve got to look good, you can’t just sound good.”

ADW—Too bad!

CF­—When you do interviews and someone asks you, “What advice would you give to a band starting out?” you should say, “Always have a good relationship with your tailor.” I think it’s an important thing for new bands to realize.

CF­—The record we made is the great lost masterpiece of the 21st Century.

When people unearth it in years to come it will be heralded as a great achievement of Western civilization.

KC—And we have to have some work that is never glorified in our lifetime that is only going to be understood way after.

ADW—King Charles, when did you start playing music?

KC—Well Charlie’s had a massive head start on me. Charlie was shredding at school from the age of 15 and was in the year below me.

He started a rock and roll band and got all the girls – all the girls were like, “Charlie Fink is so cool.” He came out with his first album when I was learning the guitar, and then he comes out with his second album and I’m still learning the guitar. And then he comes out with his third album as I finished my first album.

CF­—Charles and I were in another band back in the day, a long time ago now. It was called Jesse James and the Blue Flames. Do you remember that?

KC—Yes I remember that.

ADW—Did you guys ever have a show?

KC—It is. You’ve got to look good, you can’t just sound good.

CF­—In Autumn’s book she says, “Sometimes when the effort to imitate and pay homage to something results in a partial failure, that’s what creates a new idea.” And that’s such a true point, you know.

ADW—Who said that?

CF­—Autumn de Wilde said that.

CF­—We did play a few. Mostly, we played covers. We did Helpless by Neil Young. We did Man of Constant Sorrow. I was the guitarist and harmonica player and Charles and a friend of ours were the leads. Charles has always been a natural front man; that’s always been your way on stage. You find places to go on stage that a lot of people are too nervous to venture into.

And I mean that both in an abstract way and a physical way. I’ve seen Charles climb into parts of the stage where I wouldn’t venture. But I’ve started to spring about a bit. There was a gig in LA where I took the lead from one of your moves and climbed the PA stack.

ADW—I said it? Oh, I love it when I’m smart!

KC—You did? You legend! That’s amazing.

KC—That’s wicked.

CF­—That’s a very insightful comment on the creative process.

CF­—I remember at one of our shows together Charles climbed up onto a 15-foot PA stack and then jumped off and missed my head by a matter of inches. It could’ve all come to a terrible conclusion then.

ADW—Oh, I love both of you so much!

ADW—How old were you guys?

KC—I’d love you a little bit more if you didn’t keep making such amazing videos for Noah and the Whale.

the lab magazine ————— issue 05

CF­— I guess Charles would’ve been 17 or 18.

this is the ————— music section

previous spread— Silk trousers, velvet tails, silk sash BYRNE & BURGE Pony skin slippers FORTNUM & MASON this page— Shirt BURBERRY Braces BYRNE & BURGE

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05 Trousers the lab magazine HENRY————— POOLE, Braces issue BYRNE & BURGE

“Whatever I could do to impress girls was the starting point of getting dressed.”

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“Oh, you legend.”

this page— Suit BYRNE & BURGE next page— 05 Trousers LEVI’S, ————— Loafers RALPH the lab magazine issue LAUREN

this is the ————— music section

KC—And Hangman would’ve been 16 or 17.

ADW—I want to see this band! King Charles, you have a record coming out that I did a lot of photos and two videos for.

CF­—I absolutely love the videos and I can’t wait to hear the record. Bam Bam is an amazing song.

usually no visual information, and I get impulses from hearing it which I try to remember and then as we go through the ideas together I start adding those to it but I try to never forget those impulses I had. I try to never be so jaded that I forget what it’s like to be a passionate fan. And a passionate fan wants things. They want you to be bigger and they want you to be braver than they are, for example. It’s different for every artist.

Then I start looking at ways to express that to suit you, rather than putting my style on top of you.

KC—Are you going to make another video for me Autumn?

ADW—I’ve heard a rumor that I am. There are lots of people discussing it.

KC—You better, Autumn.

Working with you, King Charles, it was really interesting to see your elegance mixed with a sense of humor that wasn’t silly. It’s silly in a way that’s fun, but it’s not hammy, and I think playing with that zone for you is finding a way to be sexy and funny and adventurous, because I think your fans are going to want to see you go on a well-dressed tour of Africa.

ADW—I’m always game. I belong to you and to Charlie.

CF­—I’d pay to see that tour.

KC—But more to me, right?

KC—You’re coming.

CF­—Autumn’s basically been a guide for me this year, giving me a great insight into a lot of cool things.

ADW—I have equally been inspired by you and Charles as well. The last time I came back from London I told a friend that it was really exciting for me because I felt like there was something happening in London and I think you’re both a part of it. It’s kind of like a gentleman rock world that I think is visually really inspiring and exciting. It’s interesting that you come from a similar background and you’re expressing yourselves so differently, but it still feels like a family that I’m really excited to be a part of.

ADW—I think that’s more fun than real life. The world is overwhelming for me, so I like the escape of the fantasy. Charlie, if you could use one word to describe King Charles, what would that be?

CF­—King Charles in one word. For lack of inspiration, I’m going to have to go with ‘hero.’

KC—Oh, you legend.

ADW—And King Charles, one word to describe Charlie Fink?

KC—I love having your name at the end of my videos.

KC—Executioner.

CF­—One thing I really like about all your videos is how you bring out people’s characters in them, which is especially true in the videos that you and Charles do together. How do you do that?

ADW—I love it. And I know your word for me is ‘fantastic’ so we’ll just end it there.

ADW—That’s a little hard to explain. The first time I listen to a record, especially before it’s finished, is a really good zone for me. There’s

More———— www.kingcharles-music.com

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an interview with ————— The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger

the ghost of a saber tooth tiger INTERVIEW BY Wayne Coyne — PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAKE CHESSUM STYLING BY SEAN LENNON & CHARLOTTE KEMP MUHL GROOMING BY BENOIT MOEYAERT at ART DEPARTMENT DIGITAL TECHNICIAN — KEVIN TRAGESER PHOTOGRAPHED at SUN STUDIOS, NEW YORK CITY

Girl meets boy. Girl dates boy. Girl and boy fuse their musical talents to create an experimental band that embraces wit, whimsy and wonder. Sean Lennon and Charlotte Kemp Muhl would appear to be like any other music-making couple, only they’re not. He’s the son of John and Yoko, she’s a porcelain-perfect face of Maybelline whose seven-year-old playwriting skills inspired the name of their band, and they both pick up and play an orchestra of instruments with effortless ease. Listen to any of their releases including Acoustic Sessions, or their most recent EP La Carotte Bleue, and you’ll be struck by their mature, inspired collaborations. Their gentle melodies are largely offered in soft-sung harmonic unison decorated with delightfully intellectualized references, charming conceits and buttery language. Their unique sound wanders cohesively from wind-up music boxes and feathery meadows to Parisian streets and Indian hookah lounges and all the multi-instrument variations that sit somewhere in between. To dig a little deeper, The Flaming Lips front man Wayne Coyne chatted with them about writing music with your partner, inherited celebrity status, and Charlotte getting naked in Vanity Fair. No, it’s safe to say this isn’t just any other music-making couple.

This is The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger.

Wayne Coyne—I have to ask, have you begun a new Saber Tooth Tiger recording?

Sean Lennon—Yeah, but it’s kind of the same one that’s being continued. We dropped it for a minute to do our first album. We made that acoustic sessions record and put aside our epic electric album.

We’re working on that again, hoping to get back into it.

WC—So when you guys work on this is it just the two of you?

SL—Pretty much. We have some friends who come and play with us sometimes. For the most part it’s all us but you met our keyboard player Pete and our drummer Hugh, and we’ve been playing with them a lot, so it’s recently become more like a real band and we do hope to record with them at some point.

Charlotte Kemp Muhl—We kind of have a Pinocchio complex about becoming a real band. Like how Pinocchio wanted to be real boy, we want to be a real band.

WC—I think all that is kind of true after knowing you guys for a little bit.

You’re a couple, right?

CKM—Don’t tell anyone! We’re also brother and sister, it’s really fucked up. It’s a very Jerry Springer situation.

WC—Guys are notorious for writing songs about their girlfriends for good or for bad and women are notorious for writing songs about their boyfriends, so how does that affect you being together?

CKM—We don’t do any love songs.

SL—We don’t do them in this band. I think it would be weird. I guess Fleetwood Mac did shit like that. I think we do write those kinds of songs but we keep them for other projects, because this is our project together, so we write the songs together.

CKM—It’s a weird amalgamation of the male and female brain.

WC—Do you actually sit there and write songs together? Or do you both work individually and then bring your ideas together? What’s your way of collaborating?

SL—For the most part, most of our songs have been written together but we’ve definitely done the other way too.

WC—To me the worst part about collaborating sometimes is that the other person has something that they think is the greatest thing ever and you don’t think it’s very great, so you either have to say it is great and end up doing it or tell them how you really feel. What do you guys do?

CKM—We don’t really have that with each other because we’re so disgustingly like-minded.

the lab magazine ————— issue 05

this is the ————— music section

————— 21

an interview with ————— Ghost of Saber Tooth Tiger

“I think it’s the way of the future for lovers to work together.”

the lab magazine ————— issue 05

this is the ————— music section

SL—It doesn’t really happen, to be honest, but it’s also because she comes up with a lot of good stuff. I think we’ve rejected ideas together but it’s more something that we do mutually.

CKM—I think because we operate as a super-organism, as one mind, we’re very frank and honest with each other and sometimes we can be a little harsh about shooting down ideas as they’re happening.

SL—That’s because you were embarrassing me. You were like: “Sean, go say hi!” If you weren’t there I would’ve been fine.

CKM—Prince was like “What the heck’s going on?” Sean looked at him and sprinted in the opposite direction.

SL—I could see it in your eyes. You were trying to force me to talk to him.

SL—[To Charlotte] By ‘we’ do you mean you? Just kidding!

CKM—I was waving and winking.

WC—It’s difficult no matter who you’re working with.

SL—You were embarrassing me.

SL—In my case, my skin got thicker from being in lots of different bands. I can’t imagine what it’s like to be in one band for as long as you’ve been. Because I’ve hopped from project to project I think I’m very thick-skinned at this point. It took a long time to get callous.

CKM—Wayne, you collaborate a lot with your girlfriend and you’re very inspired by her and she’s in a lot of your artwork. I think it’s the way of the future for lovers to work together. It’s about time.

WC—We spoke about Fleetwood Mac. We know the story behind them.

They were boyfriends and girlfriends and lovers and then as it progressed the fame and the cocaine and all that made them hate each other.

CKM—Sean, is the fame and cocaine going to come between us?

SL—Seriously, Fleetwood Mac is amazing to me because they didn’t just fall apart they were sort of inter-breeding and also writing songs about each other.

CKM—Interbreeding!

SL—They were cheating on each other with each other but they were also writing songs about each other. And they were also performing those songs which I find to be pretty mind-blowing.

WC—Your situation’s different because you’re famous anyway. Some of those people in Fleetwood Mac, when they were becoming their most famous, had gone from being nobody, really, to becoming one of the most famous bands in the world.

CKM—They didn’t acclimate well.

WC—What do you think happened to you, Sean? Why are you so well-adjusted while other people are such arrogant pricks? We won’t name anybody...

SL—It’s hard for me to say. I think on some level I don’t consider myself to be necessarily that famous. I’m sort of a fringe celebrity by default because of my parents, not necessarily because of anything I did.

I grew up with a lot of crazy celebrities being around me and I think it desensitized me to that whole universe. It affects me less because I don’t really care. But I do get impressed sometimes. One time I saw Eminem in a nightclub and I got really nervous.

CKM—You’re such a dork.

SL—But for most celebrities if I meet them I don’t notice it. With Eminem I definitely got nervous. I don’t know why but that was the one person...

CKM—You’re so easy to embarrass – I love it!

WC—I would say in the case of both of those, I would feel utterly awkward meeting them because I don’t have a lot in common with the way they do their thing.

SL—You’re the indie Prince, man. You’re like the psychedelic indie Prince.

WC—We tried to meet Prince backstage at the Grammys or one of these events, but his dressing room was so guarded. I’d just like to walk in and say, “Hey you’re Prince and I’m with The Flaming Lips!” But with him that can’t really happen.

SL—He did intimidate me a little bit. That guy is pretty intense.

I’ve heard a lot of crazy stories about him.

CKM—I’ve heard you can only communicate with him through funky riffs.

WC—Charlotte, why do you think Sean is so thick-skinned and humble and normal?

CKM—I have to say most of my friends are literally starving artists and Sean is more down to earth than they are. He carries all his own gear.

He’s less spoiled than a lot of my broke, New Yorker friends.

WC—That’s exactly the truth. There are people who will never be famous for anything, because they suck and they act like they’re too good to carry their own gear. Where the fuck does that come from?

SL—I think some people are sensitive in that way and some people are really not. We know a lot of people who are trying to make it and they’ve already cut straight to the grandiose – I’m a prince at the top of the tower thing.

CKM—I only eat blue M&M’s.

WC—That’s become such a part of the stance you have to take to be a real star or something. I try to tell everybody I can that it’s not true. I’ve met some really big stars who are amazingly nice, normal people.

SL—I also think there’s something about being that way that is connected with the type of personality that is required to succeed in this industry. I think it’s rarer to be grounded and have your feet on the earth. I think in a way those kinds of people are ruthless and they’re born to do it. Charlotte has actually been trying to make me a little more confident, a little more ruthless, because I’m a little bit of a pushover sometimes with people that work for me.

CKM—And you ran away from Prince that one time.

CKM—He’s part Japanese so he’s very polite.

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this is the ————— music section

————— 25

an interview with ————— The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger

WC—The first time we travelled to Japan, you see this patience and awareness of how everybody is affected by everybody else’s presence.

And I walked away from it just being utterly transformed. We made that Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots record from meeting these Japanese people and seeing how kind and patient they are.

SL—Did you see all that stuff about how Japanese people reacted to the tsunami? There’s all this security footage of people shopping in stores and as soon as the lights go out they put everything back and exit in an orderly fashion.

CKM—As opposed to Hurricane Katrina where immediately people launched into gang rape and looting the stores.

WC—I am so American that I can see where this idea of, “I’m going to get mine because The Man has held me down for so long,” comes from.

SL—That’s kind of the foundation of American culture, too. I think we should all learn from the Japanese way, now especially. I think it is part of my behavior in a way. I don’t know where I got it from because I grew up in New York but I definitely have some Japanese bones in me.

WC—And Charlotte, you claim you have this redneck American background but you seem so different, so elegant. What happened to you?

“We’re also brother and sister, it’s really fucked up.”

SL—She’s not going to read this. The only interview she read was the Vanity Fair piece. She’s not going to read The Lab – it’s too hip.

CKM—They were so angry when they saw me naked in Vanity Fair.

My grandma was like, “Your immortal soul!”

SL—I felt so bad about that. She’s such a sweet lady. You should just be thankful it wasn’t me that was naked.

WC—So the modelling is more of a day job?

CKM—I’m a redneck at heart but I’m turning into a big, bleeding-heart liberal these days.

SL—She’s still fairly feral. She refuses to wear shoes and she walks around dressed as a bear all the time. She’s taken survival courses and she can recognize edible plants and herbs. She’s the nature version of MacGyver.

CKM—Yeah. I have a contract with Maybelline and I actually really enjoy working with them. They’re like a family now because I’ve been working with them for years. We get to go on location shoots in crazy countries and do crazy things in their commercials. I do my own stunts sometimes. Oh and one season they let me design a lipstick color.

I called it Bruise – it was purple. But other than Maybelline I try to stay away from the fashion world these days.

CKM—I always wanted to run away and live in the wilderness.

WC—And how do you guys feel about releasing music?

WC—You also work as a model, what’s the deal with that?

CKM—I’ve never been that keen on modelling and I’ve only ever taken it half seriously. But I’ve been very fortunate that it’s been a great source of income for me so I can have other escapades. But I’m not passionate about it in any way. I’m very cynical of the fashion world at this point.

WC—Why did you get into modelling if it wasn’t something you were passionate about?

CKM—I’ve actually been modelling since I was 12 and living alone in New York since I was 14, so I guess the novelty has worn off. It was exciting at first because I went from mowing lawns and babysitting for money to getting paid the big bucks to sit there for a couple of hours in front of someone’s camera, so that was kind of an exciting transition.

WC—Why were you alone at 14?

CKM—My mom was really cool with me and she trusted me to go out into the world and was very supportive of it. I think she was also living vicariously through me because she was a frustrated housewife stuck in suburbia and I could go off to Milan and Paris and tell her about it.

I certainly did get into a lot of trouble that she probably doesn’t even know about.

SL—Releasing music? I think [The Flaming Lips’] three-dimensional art album objects are so cool. I think that’s where the future is. There’s no physical place for music anymore. And the idea of making it an even bigger object than it used to be, like a teddy bear or a sculpture or a bouquet of flowers is really cool. I think that’s the direction for music, at least for limited edition stuff.

WC—A lot of our audience can get our music for free anyway, and it isn’t as though you can really stop them, and we don’t want to stop them. We like the idea that if you can’t pay for music you still have an opportunity to hear it and enjoy it. But I think people love music so much they want it even if they don’t have money and they will find a way and that’s what we’ve seen. Technology’s almost been made exclusively so you can get free porn and music.

SL—Porn has been at the forefront of all technology. It’s amazing.

CKM—Porn is always a good note to end on.

WC—We should talk about that now.

CKM—No way!

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More———— www.thegoastt.com

HEM T OF

BLE U DO

(2 GOS READ P & S

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an interview with ————— Electric Youth

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electric youth INTERVIEW BY MICHAEL SHINDLER — PHOTOGRAPHY BY MILES JAY ASSISTED BY MAX CHIN ART DIRECTION BY ZAZU MYERS STYLING BY MONIKA TATALOVIC HAIR & MAKEUP BY ERIN WINN

If you caught last year’s jaw-dropping gas-guzzler Drive, directed by Nicolas Winding Refn [see page 130], then you probably went home, got on the ol’ Google and typed in “Awesome song from Drive” to find out who was behind the funky electric beat of A Real Hero. It was at this point, if you hadn’t heard of them already, that you discovered Electric Youth. Comprised of middle-school sweethearts Austin Garrick and Bronwyn Griffin they’ve been hastily labelled as eighties pop revivalists (thanks in part to their band name’s nod to pop princess Debbie Gibson’s sophomore album). And yes, through their work with producer College of the Valerie Collective and their own energetic pop escapades it’s safe to say there’s definitely a funky influence from the time of linebacker shoulder pads. Don’t let the synthesizer fool you though, because they’re making music for a whole new kind of audience. And with their first album not even complete they’re taking the time to figure out exactly what kind of music they want to make, without all the labels. The Canadian duo found time to catch up with The Lab to tell us about sudden success, movie influences and whether they’re secretly obsessed with Ms. Gibson.

Michael Shindler—Hey guys! What are you up to?

Austin garrick—Right now we’re putting together our new live show and making our first video soon and then we’re also recording our first album. We handle a lot of the stuff ourselves, even outside the creative aspect, so it’s been pretty busy the last couple of months.

MS—Have you played live much or will this be a new thing?

AG—We did a mini tour in Europe two years ago and we DJ quite a bit together. Before it was just Bronwyn and I doing it as a duo, but with the new show it’ll be a five-person thing so we can really do justice to the material because there are elements that two people can’t realistically replicate. It’s not just the synth and vocals; there are live drums and guitars on pretty much every song, so we want all those elements present.

MS—How’s the album going?

AG—We’re maybe 70 per cent of the way there. We have enough material that we could put out an album tomorrow, but it’s important to us to do things right and we’re sensitive about the material we put out.

We’re putting our best foot forward and taking our time.

working with each other. Most of the time I’ll start with an instrumental track and then we formulate vocal melodies and words around it. We’ll often come up with ideas separately and then we’ll try and piece together the different parts to make it into one thing. Of course we do get into moments where we don’t agree but it usually ends up that whoever feels stronger about that particular thing is the one we end up going with.

Bronwyn Griffin—And I think that comes from trusting our own intuition in that moment. We know when the other’s intuitive reaction is stronger and therefore trust that is the best way to go. And if we both feel strongly, I usually trust Austin’s experience as a producer and we go with his decision because he is still the producer of the song, and he’s a good one too!

MS—How did you meet?

BG—We met when we were 10 years old, right? I think we were in the sixth grade.

AG—I’d been moving back and forth between Hamilton [Canada] and Toronto throughout my teens. The first time I moved to Hamilton was when I met Bronwyn and we became friends. I asked her out in eighth grade before we started high school. I’m a pretty shy guy, so I would’ve done it a lot earlier had I not been so shy.

MS—Do you make your music at home?

MS—How did you ask her out?

AG—We get about 90 per cent done from our home studio and there’s a studio in Toronto where we go to work with our engineer and usually finish things up.

MS—What’s it like writing music together as a couple?

AG—We work really well together. We’ve been a couple since we were 13, but we were never really involved in making music together until a few years ago. We were really happy to find a very natural way of

AG—We were at a friend’s bar mitzvah and all my friends knew I was going to ask her out. It was getting late and I hadn’t worked up the strength to do it, so a friend pushed us both into a room and closed the door.

BG—So I guess he said, “Do you want to go out with me?” And I said, “Yeah, that sounds good.”

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an interview with ————— Electric Youth

MS—How much does your relationship come through in your music?

AG—Our relationship plays into the songwriting on the lyrical side at times, for example in the song Right Back to You. BG— That song was meant to capture the universal feeling of love, desire and finding a way to be together. We had a long distance relationship for many years, when I was away at university, and we constantly had to muster the willpower to leave each other when it was time to go our separate ways. I think in some relationships the circumstance of distance is a little more extreme – it was the thought of situations like those that was further inspiration for the song.

AG—Our lyrics are more indicative of our relationship. But with the music, the inspiration comes from a more basic feeling in my mind.

The chord progressions and the sounds are really done on a more subconscious level whereas the lyrics are a lot more deliberate and intentional.

MS—You’ve made it known that you’re a couple to the public – is that something you’re comfortable with?

BG—We’re definitely comfortable with it to an extent and don’t mind talking about it, but at the same time we value our privacy and plan to maintain it as things progress.

AG—It’s a big part of who we are but we’d never want it to become an exploitative element that’s talked more about than our music. I think aside from being romantically involved with each other, we’re also good friends and that’s more the side that shows on stage.

MS—What’s it like working together, creating together, living together and being a couple?

BG—It’s an adventure! We tend to be pretty good at taking time out for ourselves as individuals and we are good at being open about that fact as well. One thing we have learned is that the more we communicate the easier things get.

AG—As much as we do spend time together, we are still very much individuals with our own interests and lives outside of one another.

I like to collect vintage arcade machines and I do quite a bit of movie watching on my own.

“We’re comfortable taking our time; we definitely don’t rush things.”

MS—Was it a conscious decision to make this type of eighties pop music or did it just come organically?

AG—We’ve truly never sat down and said, “We have this idea for a song let’s make it sound eighties.” We just make what we love and a lot of what’s ingrained in us comes from the music we listened to growing up.

We would rather not get pinned as some kind of eighties revivalist thing, but we can’t blame people for taking it as that.

MS—It doesn’t necessarily have to be like you’re trying to make a revival group.

AG—To this day we don’t really know what to say when people ask, “What kind of music do you guys make?” One magazine called it ‘nostalgia pop,’ which works in a way because I know we are very nostalgic people. There’s only so much of our material that’s been out there thus far so when we release more records that perception might change a bit.

MS—And if it’s not Debbie Gibson, who inspires you? Are there any other couple bands that you admire?

AG—Well, our favorite music-making couple is easy to answer, it’s Nu Shooz. Nu Shooz is a husband and wife synth-pop duo that’s a bit like an eighties version of what we’re doing now and they’re actually still together to this day. It was seeing a video of theirs a few years back that gave us the initial inspiration to form Electric Youth together and they had some great music.

MS—What were you listening to as kids growing up?

BG—I love going for long runs or going to Bikram Yoga to clear my mind, and I also love to watch movies by myself. But I really look forward to those times when we are in a creative zone together, which tends to happen sporadically. We will be sitting at the piano playing around and then something really cool comes out of it, a new melody or lyrics that we can use for a new song. That feeling is so cool!

MS—A lot of the press about the band is focused on the specific genre you guys play. Electric Youth shares its name with a Debbie Gibson album – do you have a real obsession with Debbie Gibson or is hers a quintessential album that represents your music?

AG—We were aware of Debbie Gibson and ElectricYouth – we definitely appreciate what she’s done, but she’s not a musical influence for us.

Adopting that name from her album was kind of just a way of saying, we’re really not afraid to make pop music but we don’t feel confined to a specific style. We love a lot of eighties music, but Debbie Gibson isn’t necessarily at the top of the list. I don’t think our music sounds like there’s much of an association with hers.

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AG—My earliest memories of music are my mom’s mix tapes, which were a little bit outdated: Human League, Depeche Mode, and a lot of more obscure eighties club music. I was always into what was popular throughout the nineties, but to adulthood what really stuck with me was the really melodic, new wave stuff. I just really connect with it for some reason.

BG—I grew up listening to my dad’s records which were James Taylor, Gordon Lightfoot, Sting, Blondie, The Cranberries, Fleetwood Mac was a big one, and The Smiths I loved. When I grew older a lot of the music I was into was recommended by Austin. I think the fundamentals of it all are good writing and a good bass and melody.

AG—At the moment I’m really enjoying the new Justice album.

It’s really consistent from top to bottom, which is kind of rare these days. It’s usually three good songs that make it a ‘good’ album.

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MS—You could say that about your EP as well. It feels consistent and the songs feel well put together and not schizophrenic at all.

AG—We’re comfortable taking our time; we definitely don’t rush things. For us there’s the initial creative spark where we have to seize the moment, but we find that taking our time with it until we really feel 100 per cent about it has worked well for us. We’ve been happy with the feedback we’ve got so far.

MS—You both mentioned you liked watching films; is film a part of your music?

AG—It’s a huge part. Every time we’re recording it doesn’t feel right unless we have a movie playing in the background. We get a lot of inspiration from movies, almost more than from other music, especially with writing lyrics. A Real Hero, for instance, was inspired by both Mad Max and Captain Sully safely crash-landing that plane in the Hudson.

BG—And when we’re fortunate enough to get a down moment, the question’s always, “So what movie do you want to watch?”

and for the same kind of influences. From there we collaborated on a couple of things and one of them was A Real Hero. That was two years ago and to this day we don’t really know how the song fell into the hands of the director of Drive and everyone involved in the movie.

MS—And they just contacted you and said, “We want to use your song”?

AG—Yeah, it was crazy. They told us it’s going to be starring Ryan Gosling and directed by Nicolas Winding Refn so we knew it sounded cool, but we didn’t know it was going to be the film it ended up being.

We were so happy to be a part of it and that it was the first film that made some good use of our music.

MS—What’s happening now because of Drive?

AG—It’s done a lot. It’s funny, suddenly the same music we already had out there sounds different to people now, and there’s definitely been this big increase and interest on all fronts. We’re really excited for the future.

As a result of Drive certain things have been set up. Of course there’s a lot of stuff that’s still in the works, but we’re predicting this year is going to be a good one.

MS—It must have been exciting to have A Real Hero featured in the movie Drive. How did that happen?

AG—When we were starting out three years ago MySpace was the thing and we were introduced to [producer] College online through the Valerie Collective. We both had an appreciation for each other’s music

More———— www.myspace.com/electricyouthmusic

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fr채ulein photography by

ellen von unwerth

a showcase of ————— Ellen von Unwerth

ellen von unwerth words BY angel baker — © Ellen von Unwerth | Art + Commerce All images from Fräulein available at taschen.com

Fräulein, the new coffee table book by renowned photographer, Ellen von Unwerth, captures a bygone era of sparkles, sequins, and vaudevillian stage performances when women weren’t afraid of serious glam. The 482-page, limited edition collection celebrates vibrant, beautiful, unapologetically single women in an intimate voyeuristic fashion with the up-close and personal approach that von Unwerth has mastered. As a former model, her experience in front of the camera lends to her subjects a vulnerability and familiarity that gives her work a unique duality. Her subjects are exquisitely groomed, in haute couture and Technicolor, yet they feel natural, relaxed, and playful.

Billed as a collection of work from the last 15 years, von Unwerth’s newest production feels as timeless as the seductive cat and mouse chase games she portrays. Her child-like obsession with fantasy and play can be traced back to the lore-like tale of a youth spent in foster care in Bavaria and the circus, which she joined out of high school with wide eyes. The visual kaleidoscope of the big top stayed with von Unwerth as did the wonder of her first visit to a place full of acrobats, magic, and spectacle.

In Fräulein, she recalls the glamour and pageantry of the circus and combines it with a pure sexuality that is unparalleled by most modern photographers.

Stylish and adventurous, Fräulein is an exquisite compilation of von Unwerth’s artistry. Claudia Schiffer, Anna Tokarska, Milla Jovovich, Iris Palmer, Kate Moss, Dita Von Teese, and Britney Spears make up some of the sensual eye candy found in its pages. Von Unwerth’s portrayal of these iconic women is stunning in this ‘director’s cut’ selection of work. She has transformed her model, singer, and actor subjects into an eternal portrait of the most beautiful women of our time.

Von Unwerth’s ability to bring out the sensual side of these women says much more about her as a person than her ability to point and shoot. She has a knack for naughty; a talent for tawdry; a penchant for role-play.

This woman knows what’s sexy and in Fräulein she lets us take a peek.

More———— www.artandcommerce.com

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a showcase of ————— Ellen von Unwerth

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Nº I————title spread Model: Anna Tokarska June 30, 2007 Nº II————previous page Model: Tatjana Patitz January 1, 1991 Nº III———— Model: Milla Jovovich June 1, 1997 Nº IV————following spread June 30, 2007

III ————— 41

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V

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VI Nº V———— Styling by Paul Sinclair Hair by Jimmy Paul Makeup by Ashley Ward March 1, 1996 Nº VI———— Model: Iris Palmer Styling by Venetia Scott Hair by Sam McKnight Makeup by Mary Greenwall December 1, 1996 Nº VII————following page Model: Claudia Schiffer February 1, 2007

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mads mikkelsEn INTERVIEW BY NOOMI RAPACE — LENSMAN – KENNETH WILLARDT STYLING BY GILLIAN STEINHARDT HAIR BY FRANKIE FOYE at PHOTO OP MAKEUP BY STEPHEN DIMMICK at L’ATELIER

In 2006, when big screens played host to Mads Mikkelsen’s bleedin’-eyed Bond villain Le Chiffre in Casino Royale, the Danish actor told Variety that he would always live and work in Denmark and that whatever happened outside his homeland was just “icing on the cake.” Well, the Cake Boss better move aside, because this European commodity has an awful lot of fondant on his hands. For a man whose acting career began at the age of 30, he’s already romanced us in After the Wedding, scared the Nordic nonsense out of us in Valhalla Rising, and had his way with a French fashion icon in Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky. Not to mention the high-octane performances he’s put in for the popcorn crowd in Clash of the Titans and 2011’s The Three Musketeers. Performing in a menagerie of accents and languages, Mikkelsen has embraced corrupt men, troubled artists and deadly killers without hurting his reputation with the ladies (he’s been voted Sexiest Man Alive in Denmark a number of times) or the critics (he’s fresh from winning the European Achievement in World Cinema award at the EFAs.) Who better to dig a little deeper into this Scandinavian enigma than the original Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and star of new Ridley Scott sci-fi thriller Prometheus – Swedish darling Noomi Rapace. Rather fittingly, the two European exports talk about what they both do so well – acting.

Noomi Rapace—I’m the journalist! It’s the first time I’ve ever been the person who asks the questions. I’ve been doing my homework and watching a lot of your movies and I want to ask you how far are you willing to go to find what you’re looking for when you’re acting?

Mads Mikkelsen—I don’t know how far I would go, actually.

It depends what I’m looking for. I would probably go pretty far to make a scene work. I’ve hurt myself basically a billion times but I haven’t really crossed that physical line yet where I’ve thought that was too much. It’s been really tough emotionally once in a while, but I don’t think I’ve really crossed the line there either.

NR—Have you ever felt like you’ve lost yourself in it and you’re not in control anymore and you don’t really know if it’s the character or if it’s you who’s in charge?

MM—I think in general every actor is looking for that little space of getting lost. We always look to be in control of what we’re doing and at the same time letting go and getting lost in whatever situation it is. And when we do that we feel free and we feel like the character is on its move and we’re standing right behind, guiding it. But once in a while you can get lost and I mean really get lost where you don’t know what’s going on anymore. I think getting lost is something we’re all trying to achieve when we act. We’re trying to erase that knowledge of having the camera there and our own little camera that’s constantly watching us. There are a couple of times when I’ve lost track and I was like, “What the fuck happened in that scene?” but it wasn’t bad; it was something new I had to get used to.

NR—But it only happens to you in scenes? It’s not like when you’re done with the whole shoot that you realize that you’ve been on a journey that you didn’t really know you were on? I did this Danish movie, called Daisy Diamond and when I was done with it I realized I was quite lost but I hadn’t realized while we were filming it. There’s a difference between losing yourself in a scene and realizing later on that you lost yourself for a couple of weeks or months. Has that happened to you?

MM—I don’t think so. I’ve been involved in films that have gotten lost and coming out on the other side I realized we did not shoot what everyone expected. But it wasn’t in a sense that I got lost personally.

I think I’ve always been a big fan of trying to get in and out of the character as fast as possible. That doesn’t mean you’re not carrying the energy of what you’ve done that day or the frustrations or the joy of what you’ve been doing but I definitely try to look at it from a distance and also just to be practical – it’s nice that my kids can recognize me when I come home once in a while.

NR—But do your characters affect you a lot? I was talking to [director] Nicolas Winding Refn about you and we were discussing how you’re fearless as an actor. For example, in that movie you did with him, Valhalla Rising, your character’s so specific and so strong – I’ve never seen anything like that. Did that affect you a lot?

MM—It did. And likewise with the first character I did with him [Winding Refn] in the Pusher films – he had such a hyper energy.

Spending 10 hours a day being hyper and having your foot move up and down and just talking, talking, talking is obviously not that easy to

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an interview with ————— Mads Mikkelsen

existing out there than this. If there’s nothing else that would just be really annoying. Besides that, I’m not really afraid.

NR—I believe you. We’ve been trying to work together a couple of times and when I was talking to Nicolas about you I remember saying, I don’t need protection when I’m [acting] with you. I know I can go in and see whatever happens and go with it. I think most people are much more afraid and driven by fear than you are.

MM—I would be a liar if I wasn’t afraid of certain things, but when I look at it, it’s not real fear. I can definitely be afraid of some of the things I get myself into. I could think, “What am I doing here playing piano, speaking Russian and French – I’m a Danish guy – what the fuck am I doing?” But having that feeling on the set is definitely a losing situation, so I’m trying to find the psychopath inside of me who believes it’s all cool; it’s all fine. I just get to work and do as best as I can, and then I can go back home get a couple of beers and think, that was a disaster, but I’m not going to do it on the set. So I suppose I have that fear like everyone else, but if I look at it from a slight distance I would say that’s not real fear.

NR—Did you go to drama school?

MM—Yes. I was dancing professionally for eight or nine years.

So I was very old when I got into school – I graduated when I was 30. There were a few teachers who were absolutely fantastic and really inspired me to learn about myself. There was lots of stuff I hated; some stuff was boring, annoying, and pretentious, so it was a very frustrating time for me as well. Having said that, those few teachers who were inspiring, they were really inspiring, and I wouldn’t lose that for anything.

NR—Do you have some kind of method that you follow when you take on a new role? forget about when you go home. It’s a physical thing; it catches you.

Likewise with Valhalla Rising it was very much a Zen thing being this caged animal, gorilla kind of creature, unlike a real person. Being in that Zen mode in the beginning was a little frustrating because everyone was running around and I was sticking a lot to myself. It was difficult to lose that energy. I would still have a beer in the evening and I still tried to have some fun times with the other guys, but it was different.

It does affect you when you do something that’s so different from your own energy and I don’t mind that. It makes you figure out things about yourself that you can use later in life. It hasn’t changed me but I think I’ve added a little something to the drawer.

NR—Have you ever been doing a scene and felt that you couldn’t face those emotions that you have to wake up?

MM—Not really, actually. I feel really joyful and happy when I deal with that, if it’s something that fits the scene. I’m not saying that my job is a therapy but it does feel really healing once in a while. I feel relieved if we nail a scene that is very far out and you’re using yourself in a way that is not necessarily normal. It will take some hours to shake it off sometimes, but I enjoy it. I’ve always thought that was fun, because I’m pretty sure all human beings contain all kind of emotions, so it would be weird if I couldn’t find some in myself.

NR—So what are you afraid of?

MM—I think I’m basically afraid of the classic things every parent would be. It’s always something to do with your family. Stuff with your family you’re afraid of, end of story. I’m afraid there’s nothing else

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MM—I do now. I didn’t have that in the beginning – I didn’t have a clue. We had no methods because they’re not allowed to teach a certain method in Danish drama schools. We were all really frustrated but you gradually find your own method I guess. I believe that everybody has every emotion inside of them somewhere and I feel that an actor’s work is to be able to acknowledge that and know them as well as they can so they can play around with them. So when I read something and I find it inspiring I try to focus on what is the most powerful emotion; what is driving this person and can I recognize that? It might only be a small part of me but I try to multiply it so it becomes much bigger than it is in my own character. After that, I look at the other characteristics I have as a person and decide if they’re part of the character I’m playing.

So if it doesn’t have my empathy I take the empathy away, but if it has this very dark side I recognize, I try to multiply it. So in many ways I’m just peeling off instead of adding in and hopefully somewhere down the line that will create a character that I can recognize, and people will recognize me in that, but it’s not me.

NR—For some actors it’s more about studying others and copying and pretending. I don’t understand that because for me that’s not possible.

It would never be true and it would never be real.

MM—It’s the eternal discussion. Do you start from inside and then you go outwards or do you start from outside and it lands somewhere inside?

I believe the two methods can come up with the same quality of final product. I found it worked for me to start by recognizing something in myself and then letting it build from there, but I’ve also been inspired by people I’ve met in my life who I’ve seen something funny or annoying in, and used that for certain characters.

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NR—What about vanity? I always try to do whatever I need to do for a character. I can be fat; I can be skinny; I can shave my head; I can pierce myself. I can do anything because I need to force away my own vanity because I know I’m fucked if I care about if I’m sexy or beautiful.

That means I can’t look at myself. I did this movie [Prometheus] with Ridley Scott and he wanted me to come and look at a scene and I said, “I can’t do that, I’m sorry, I just can’t because I don’t want to see myself.”

How is it for you? Can you look at yourself and how do you deal with your own vanity?

MM—I think you would rarely find, especially in Scandinavia and Europe, boys who have problems doing whatever it takes to do a film. To look however they need to make the character. I think it has always been something that’s a bigger problem for girls in many ways because there’s still this lunatic ideal of girls being perfect on film in a very classical way.

And for that reason a lot of girls have been super frustrated. They want to do something dramatic but their agent may say, “Don’t do it because you’ll lose your audience.” I’m very vain in terms of the character.

I don’t give a shit about what people think about me but I can be very frustrated if people are trying to drag the character somewhere that is going to please a certain group of people if it’s not right. I can be vain with myself in my personal life, but not in a character.

NR—Can you watch your own work? Can you go and look at dailies?

MM—Yes, I can do it, but I don’t. I will sometimes go and look if we’re doing big stunts and something’s not really working to see if I can fix it.

I’ve also watched myself in certain scenes because the director wanted to tell us about this specific emotion of the film where he felt we nailed it or whatever. I don’t watch dailies too much because I want to have it in my body rather than to see it and start analyzing it.

NR—Sometimes I feel like actors are so afraid. They worry how a movie will affect their career and they’re driven by anxiety and a fear. I don’t think you’re like that. You’re not constantly judging your career from the outside are you?

MM—I’m not really sure whether I analyze from outside or not, but one thing I do believe in is if it feels right to do something, even if people advise you against it, you have to do it. If you’re focusing on a career you will never make everyone happy, especially yourself. If you’re doing things that appeal to you it will become a career – it might be fragile, it might be strong – but it will be something you believe in.

NR—I kind of get the sense that you’re quite picky about the roles you choose. When you decide to do a movie, what’s behind that decision?

MM—I have to meet the person who’s going to make the film and figure out whether we communicate. It doesn’t mean that they have to be a specific way; they can be as weird as they want to be but there’s got to be something in there that I find radical, inspiring or just plain happy.

Secondly, the script has to be something that touches me somewhere.

And it can be anything. I like films that are radical but it can just as easily be a family film. But if I’m going to do a family film where I’ll be fencing on the roof of Notre Dame it has to be because it’s going to be the kick-ass fight to end all fights.

“I find myself extremely lucky to be part of what some people call the new ‘golden period’ of Danish films.” options that might be better, coming up with ideas, fighting on the set when we disagree or agreeing from the beginning. But I think I’ve been such a big part of making these films that I have no immediate hunger for directing myself. I would love to direct something one day, but it has to be a story that I want to tell the world. And as long as that’s not happening, I say just leave it and, with the risk of stepping on toes here, I think a lot of directors should leave it like that as well. If they’re not yearning for what they’re doing, don’t do it.

NR—And actors too. There’s a difference between acting because you really want to do it or you need to do it, and because it’s a good move or it’s good money.

MM—I’ve definitely done things that were for the money as well, but I need to find something in there that satisfies me besides that. I don’t mind doing entertaining things, but why not try to make something really cool and entertaining – that can be your inspiration as well.

I would be very frustrated if I constantly did radical dramas.

NR—I respect you because you always change – you always switch into something that’s unexpected.

MM—I’m not doing it deliberately. I wouldn’t mind doing something that looked almost exactly like the thing I just did if that served the film best. I wouldn’t try to change a character just to satisfy myself but I’ve just been lucky enough that I’ve been offered things that are very different, and so I’ve had opportunities to go down different paths.

NR—I hope I get the chance to work with you soon.

MM—That is the plan Noomi, you know that.

NR—I hope I see you soon too.

MM—That was a really good interview. Like nothing I’ve ever done before, and I loved it.

NR—Have you directed movies or do you want to direct?

MM—I have never directed movies. I find myself extremely lucky to be part of what some people call the new ‘golden period’ of Danish films, where a lot of people in my generation started working together – directors, writers, camera people, actors – in a very collaborative style.

That means we spend a lot of time with the scripts together, discussing

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greta gerwig INTERVIEW BY adam brody — PHOTOGRAPHY BY JODY ROGAC ASSISTED BY AMANDA HAKAN STYLING BY NATASHA DEVEREUX ASSISTED BY WASEEM CHEEMA HAIR BY ANNA SCHNEIDER MAKEUP BY CYNDLE STRAWHECKER PHOTOGRAPHED at SUN STUDIOS, NEW YORK CITY

With years of indie acclaim under her belt, actress Greta Gerwig finally showcased her comedic chops on a grander scale in 2010 as a kooky love interest for Ben Stiller’s titular character in Noah Baumbach’s Greenberg.

Embracing this growing audience she followed it with stints in big-budget productions No Strings Attached and Arthur, cementing her humorous, landed New Yorker-self in the broader Hollywood brain – and she’s not slowing down. This is an actress who flirts with serious while expertly caressing lucid comic timing, a half smile never far from her face. At home on Manhattan’s bustling streets, she recently got to experience the city’s quintessential film director – Woody Allen – for a part in the Rome-set Nero Fiddled, released later this year. Her last summer was spent shooting the lead role in Lola Versus – a comic tale of a girl jilted by her fiancé weeks before the wedding. If anyone can make that kind of tragedy funny, with a splash of awkward, it’s Gerwig. On a recent rainy Big Apple evening she caught up with Damsels in Distress co-star, and The OC alumni Adam Brody for The Lab, and when they weren’t laughing they talked about Smarties, pastrami sandwiches and Woody Allen’s wardrobe.

Adam Brody—Where are you?

Greta Gerwig—I’m walking on Greenwich Street in New York.

It’s raining out.

AB—Are you in the middle of working on something? Are you filming in New York?

that’s always good because it’s supposed to be funny, and they were laughing. It was sort of like when we saw [Whit Stillman comedy] Damsels in Distress in Italy and then in Toronto. It was great in Italy, but they understood fewer of the jokes. And then in Toronto it was so fun.

So I saw this new movie with my girlfriends and it was nice because they laughed at the jokes, and they were like, “You look so pretty and thin!”

AB—I actually auditioned to play your boyfriend in that movie.

GG—I’m not filming something right now, but they’re finishing editing this film I did over the summer called Lola Versus.

AB—Have you been checking in on the process?

GG—I saw a cut and I was looking at different pieces of it. At first when you see your face it’s kind of a horrible experience, and then it gets better.

AB—It’s always shocking the few times I’ve ever seen it on a big screen in a close-up. It’s unbelievable actually. It’s so weird and invasive.

GG—You feel like saying to people, “Why did nobody tell me I’m a monster?!” My dad said this thing I thought was quite funny. He’s in his late fifties and he’s not a vain man, but I was going to show him a picture and he said, “I don’t really like looking at pictures of myself.”

And I said, “Why?” And he said, “I think I’m better looking than that.”

And I thought that was so sweet that he didn’t want to look because he thought he was better looking. And that’s sort of how I feel about film a lot of the time. I’m like, “I must be more attractive than this.”

AB—It’s definitely a reality check. So other than your face how do you feel about the movie?

GG—What? I didn’t know that! I would have loved that!

AB—But I felt like I was so happy with [our performance together in] Damsels, it would’ve been kind of weird.

GG—I hope that we get to do another Whit [Stillman] movie together one day.

AB—I’ve expressed an interest in that, obviously, and I don’t want anything to jeopardize that. My goal for the rest of my career is to do another Whit Stillman movie with you.

GG—We can’t jinx it. So now I’m just wandering around on a drizzly New York night. The editing room unfortunately has a big bowl of candy. So now I feel sick because I ate a bunch of Smarties.

AB—You’re not going to believe this. I had Smarties last night for the first time in my life. They’re good.

GG—They sort of taste like medicine to me. But yeah, I just ate a bunch of them, so now I feel ill.

AB—I need to go find food.

GG—I’m very happy with the movie. The first time I watched it I was alone. And the second time I watched it I brought my girlfriends. And

GG—You haven’t had enough to eat? Oh no.

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an interview with ————— Greta Gerwig

AB—How many people got it?

“There comes a time in every woman’s life where she needs to not live with two men.”

AB—I’m so lazy; I’m quite possibly too lazy to feed myself. I’ll survive somehow.

GG—Today was sort of a typical New York day in some ways.

I went and got a pastrami sandwich from Katz’s [Delicatessen]. They are so good.

AB—I really like Katz’s. The only thing I don’t like about it is the theme park element to it. You can be waited on but the way they do it is so for show.

GG—The pastrami is good, but I feel like they are trying to perform for you. I do like a bunch of pastrami on rye though; it’s a good way to do things. They don’t complicate the sandwich. It’s a lot of meat on two pieces of bread.

AB—So you still live in Chinatown?

GG—I do. I’m going to move in the spring. There comes a time in every woman’s life where she needs to not live with two men. [My roommates] are like two platonic husbands.

AB—Do you have your eye on any neighbourhoods?

GG—I have a range. I’m going to stay in Manhattan and I would like to live below 14th Street, above Houston, and between Avenue A and West Side Highway. It encompasses Alphabet City, the East Village, the West Village... Everything in that rectangle I’d be happy living in.

GG—No one got it. I carried around a picture of her. I got the white dress and I put my hair up in the ponytail and wore the red lipstick.

AB—I just saw that movie for the first time.

GG—Isn’t she great in it? She’s so funny and weird and Griffin Dunne – everyone’s just so great! And both of the parents from Home Alone are in it.

AB—I love a good 24-hour movie or a movie that takes place in one night.

I love the one-night adventure.

GG—Also my neighbourhood in Chinatown reminds me of that movie – it has that After Hours feeling. Everything’s closed down and it feels like you’re nowhere.

AB—I found something about you interesting and funny. The interesting part is that you used to be a very serious fencer and the funny part is how you said it would make one leg bigger and one smaller, and one arm bigger too. That’s not really a question... Are there any things from fencing that you’ve carried over into your artistic life?

GG—There’s something about doing competitive sports like fencing or boxing where it’s one-on-one that feels like it translates into acting in terms of there being a confrontation. And it’s economical. You don’t do more than you have to. You never want to waste energy because you need to save it up because you’re trying to win. When you fence you learn someone else’s game and you watch what they’re doing, but they’re doing the same to you, so you always keep a surprise in your back pocket and then pull that card when you need to break whatever pattern you find yourself in. I think it’s really helpful. Of course, all acting is not one-on-one. I think it’s also helpful to do team sports stuff for the same reason. I think sports are good for acting because they do get you to think unartistically about it, which is sometimes very helpful.

AB—I still end up admiring the athletes with the most style, though.

I can’t help but love the most graceful ones.

GG—Or the showmen. Like that sprinter Usain Bolt. There was this Adidas ad campaign on the subway after he won all these gold medals.

You’d see the ads one at a time. “Usain Bolt started cheering for himself before he won the race.” “He danced salsa with his mother in the stands right after.” “He DJ’d his own after party.” “And he reminded us that winning should be fun.” I was like, “Oh, yay!” I love athletes, but athletic ad campaigns are such a silly thing to be moved by, but I swear to God, they’re really good at it.

AB—And when are you looking to do that?

GG—In June. Moving is such a drag.

AB—I just saw that Helvetica documentary, which I’m sure you’ve seen.

That was interesting in terms of advertising and when it came in vogue and when it went out of vogue.

AB—It’s a pain in the ass, but it’s a nice way to minimize all your shit.

GG— That’s the nice thing about living in New York, you don’t accumulate so much shit because you don’t have anywhere to put it.

You don’t have an extra couch where you’re like, “I hate this couch, why do I still have it?” So that’s the next big life move for me.

AB—You’ve dressed up as Joan Didion before for Halloween – what did you go as last year?

GG—This time I dressed as Rosanna Arquette from After Hours.

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GG—So interesting. I actually have a good friend who’s a graphic designer who I was talking to about it and I said how much I enjoyed the documentary and he was like, “It’s things like that that make you want to become a graphic designer, and then you realize a lot of the stuff you do is not like that. You don’t get to design the American Airlines logo every day.” What I did love about Helvetica, is it makes you realize how much design exists in our world and pretty much anything you come into contact with, any logo, someone’s designed it.

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previous page— Sweatshirt AGNÈS B., Jeans TOPSHOP, Sunglasses ILLESTEVA this page— Blouse MADEWELL, Necklace AESA next page— Suit SONIA RYKIEL, Sandals OPENING CEREMONY ————— 57

an interview with ————— Greta Gerwig

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“I don’t know entirely what went wrong with that movie. But what went right was I had a really good time.”

AB—I want to compare and contrast Woody Allen and Whit Stillman a little bit.

We were not worried people were going to write really nasty reviews – everybody just did – so we just partied. But I love everyone who was involved, so I can’t fault the experience.

GG—OK. AB—Who gave more direction?

GG—I think Whit gave more direction than Woody, but only because I was on more. But I think proportionally they gave about equal direction. They both don’t say a lot, but they know what they want.

They’re not verbose about it – they don’t run on – but they have a very exact idea of what they’re looking for. They’re very similar that way.

AB—Who’s a snazzier dresser?

GG—Whit, by a mile. Woody does have a uniform. He has these khakis and a blue shirt and a fisherman’s hat, but Whit would wear blazers every day. He was all class.

AB—Who’s more open, more forthcoming, personally?

GG—Neither. I think they’re equally hard to crack. I always forget with Whit that he doesn’t want to be hugged and I always hug him and feel bad. At the end of the Woody Allen shoot he had this moment – I was with Jesse Eisenberg – when he shook our hands and he was very warm and sweet with us about doing his film. It was very moving. But it was not par for the course. It was a special moment.

AB—If you’re on a plane and it’s going down and Whit or Woody have to take the controls of the jumbo jet and land it, who are you going to ask to do it?

GG—Woody, only because I think he has a greater desire to not die.

Not that Whit has a death wish, but Woody so badly doesn’t want to die, he would figure it out. He wants to be immortal by not dying.

AB—Arthur – what went wrong, what went right?

GG—I feel like I don’t know entirely what went wrong with that movie.

But I think what went right was I had a really good time with everybody and I made really good friends. I don’t know why people have such a strong reaction against it in some ways. I can understand not liking it, but I think some people literally didn’t like it, which is always an exceptional experience to be involved in a film like that. After we had our New York premiere, we went to London to do press in the UK for it, and it actually made it all really fun, because there was this relief about the whole thing.

AB—I’ve had some of the most fun on some of the worst things that I’ve done.

GG—I realized, Adam, we have a lovely gentleman in common and I have not talked to you about him – the guy who shot The Romantics, [cinematographer] Sam Levy.

AB—Yeah, I loved him! What did he shoot with you?

GG—He shot this movie that I co-wrote, and he’s one of my favorite people I’ve ever worked with. He asked me about you. Isn’t he the best person in the world?

AB—He’s the best!

GG—I watched The Romantics on the plane and that movie looks great.

It’s framed really beautifully. He’s so smart too.

AB—I’m so glad you guys got to work together. I’m truly dying to work with him again. When are you making your next movie?

GG—I have a part on year one of HBO’s The Corrections. I’m excited about it. I just started working on it and I’m intimidated, because everyone’s a really great actor on it. Like Chris Cooper and Diane Wiest.

AB—You’ll be great; you’ll be just fine. I’m about to go work with Van Damme.

GG— That’s intimidating for different reasons. Good luck with that.

AB—It was really nice to catch up with you.

GG—I’ll talk to you soon.

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SHAILENE WOODLEY INTERVIEW BY JUDY GREER — PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANDREW ECCLES STYLING BY KRISTIN ZERO HAIR BY CAMPBELL F. MCAULEY at SOLO ARTISTS MAKEUP BY GLORIA NOTO at JED ROOT PHOTOGRAPHED at SUNSET MARQUIS HOTEL, LOS ANGELES

As the star of ABC Family’s The Secret Life of the American Teenager, an award-winning show that’s watched by millions and broadcast in over 15 countries, you’d think Shailene Woodley’s own teenage years were as atypical as they come. You’d be wrong. Acting almost accidentally from an early age, somehow she’s never seen her talent as anything more than an elaborate hobby. And so, like any normal American teenager, she graduated from high school, went to prom and attended pep rallies. She even took AP Calculus, but only placed a ‘2’ on the test “which is not a good score.” On the flip side, this is a girl who preaches about the dangers of GMOs, thinks of trees as her friends, and spent a winter hiatus from Secret Life working at American Apparel, just for fun. Her not-so-secret teen life now a distant memory (she turned 20 in November), Woodley’s receiving rave reviews for her role in Alexander Payne’s The Descendants where she holds her own alongside George Clooney.

The actress spent four months living in Hawaii to make the movie and fell in love with the islands and all those trees. Back on the mainland, she took time out to catch up with good friend and Descendants co-star Judy Greer and dispense beyond-her-years wisdom about eating right, naked people, and the stupid things young people do.

Judy Greer­—So you’re in Soho in New York City right now, but you lived in New York for a bit before, right?

SW—I think it’s important to expand your horizons. I love working because I meet new friends and I get to know the city as a local.

Shailene Woodley—Yes. I lived in the Lower East Side for a while. I loved it.

JG—So you’re 20 years old and you’re in an Oscar-nominated movie, and everyone’s talking about you and your performance in it. I look at all these amazing actresses that start out young and they just spiral and you have never seemed like someone who would ever do that. What is your plan as a young actress to stay out of jail or rehab?

JG—And you worked at American Apparel?

SW—I did. It was while the show was on hiatus. It was pretty great.

JG—And did you get recognized? Were people like, “What the hell? Why are you working here when you’re on television?”

SW—Just a little bit, yeah. Some people recognized me and were kind of shocked or confused.

SW—I’m really lucky with my mom – she’s amazing. I think I’m too hyper to do a ton of drugs and to party a lot because I get bored easily, so even if I were to go through that phase it would be very short-lived because I’d be over it.

JG—What are the things you see younger actors doing that you think are stupid?

JG—Is that the only non-acting job you’ve ever had?

SW—I worked at a paint store in Simi Valley when I was 15 for two years. It was like a Color Me Mine and I was a party host. I would go around and cut cakes for kids and make them do karaoke to Hannah Montana songs. I was really good at it, as you can imagine. It was really fun for me.

JG—I think you would still be good at that.

SW—I would do it again in a heartbeat. I just had to stop because too many people were asking me if I was the pregnant teenager on TV. JG—I love that you’ve had real jobs even though you started acting when you were a kid.

SW—I think the stupidest thing that people my age do is judge other people. And another thing I find interesting about our culture and about my generation is we’ve kind of lost respect for our elders, but if you look at indigenous cultures the elders are the ones everyone learns from. And I know a lot of my friends, I even find myself doing it sometimes, are impatient with people who are in the senior citizen age range.

JG—I get impatient with people who are a few years older than me.

I totally get that.

SW—I think we should get that respect back because there’s a lot to learn from all of the people who have already lived life. Every time I speak to my grandma, I learn something, and I think it’s just a matter of being patient with the process.

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JG—You’re so wise for your age.

SW—That’s because you’re my friend and you’ve taught me everything I know!

JG—When I first met you on set I was like, “Oh, she’s so pretty; she’s so nice,” but after getting to know you, it’s just really incredible how together you are.You inspire me and I’m old enough to be your mother. It would’ve been a teenage pregnancy, though.

SW—There’s nothing wrong with teenage pregnancy. Have you ever seen the show The Secret Life of the American Teenager?

“I love the butterflies I get when I read a good script.”

JG—Sure have. And I sure do love it! Did you go to a regular high school or were you tutored on set?

SW—I went to a normal high school. I never wanted to do a TV series growing up because I wanted to stay in school. I loved the social aspect of it and I really love to learn – I’m definitely that nerdy girl. And then my junior year of high school I booked Secret Life and my principal was super gracious and allowed me to stay in school. So I was working on the show, doing homework in my trailer in between takes and then a teacher from my public high school would come to my house once a week and walk me through what I had missed, so I finished school that way. And the really cool thing was I got to go to prom and I got to walk with my class. It was really good.

JG—Do you have plans to go to college?

SW—I used to want to go to college, but then I started travelling and seeing so many different cultures and so many different things that interest me instead of calculus. So I don’t want to go to normal university. I would love to go to NYU. It would be fun to take a few courses there, live in New York and work in a coffee shop. I would love to attend school for Herbology and survival skills – that’s what I’m really interested in right now.

JG—I don’t even know what you’re talking about. What is it?

SW—It’s the study of plants and their medicinal purposes, and also their nutritional purposes. I’m fermenting sauerkraut right now; that’s really fun.

SW—I absolutely love Italy. I love the fact I went to a nude beach and got to be naked there – it’s so refreshing to be around people who don’t attach a stigma to sexuality. Also, the food is amazing. The first time I got to Italy I had a lasagna and the olive oil was so fresh I could taste it through the pasta layers, the tomatoes and the meat and the cheeses.

JG—I know you care a lot about GMOs [genetically modified organisms].

SW—Normally I don’t eat anything that has any GMOs in it. And the reason being is I don’t agree with the companies’ practices. They don’t have any integrity, and they’re putting thousands of farmers out of business. But I also don’t like that the foods have been created in a lab and you can’t find them in nature. It’s just a giant mess and I don’t agree with it. I feel if I’m going to preach about it I need to practice it. When I travel, sometimes it’s tricky. I’m in New York and there are maybe two or three restaurants in the whole city that are 100 per cent GMO free. Sometimes I have to be grateful and appreciate the food that is in front of me and not hold such high standards on what I’m eating.

But I think something needs to be done about the prices of organic foods because it is so expensive.

JG—I hate that it costs so much to buy organic. And it’s not always easily accessible to people.

SW—It’s ridiculous. I think we should all start having Liberty Gardens again like they did in the 1920s. That would be so fun and you would make so many friends. How fun would it be to garden with friends?

There are a lot of foods that are really easy to grow too.

JG—Do you love to cook?

SW—I do love to cook. But I made an awful dinner last night. It was so bland; there was no flavor at all. That’s OK, though. It’s the simple things in life we have to start appreciating, right?

JG—I totally agree. I’m always fascinated by you because you’re so far ahead of where I would expect you to be. Tell me about the places you’ve travelled to that you’ve loved.

JG—I cannot kill tomatoes, somehow. It’s magic. I have these three tomato plants, and even when I travel too much and don’t even water them, they still grow. It’s dreamy. How did you learn about all this stuff?

SW—I just really love trees a lot. And a lot of people laugh when I say that, but it’s so true. I love them so much. I have so many friends because they’re all around me always.

JG—And you drive a Prius, that’s awesome.

SW—I went backpacking through Europe twice with two different people. And we stayed in hostels and slept on trains and it was magnificent and amazing. And I would do it again in a heartbeat. We went to Spain and France and Italy. I’ve spent a lot of time on the islands of Hawaii and in Mexico. I’m very fortunate to have been to a lot of different places in two decades of life.

SW—I was very lucky with my Prius. My aunt sold it to me.

When I was 15 I’d saved enough money through babysitting to buy a really shitty Honda Civic, so my aunt sold me her Prius for the same amount instead. She’s an ’04 and she’s amazing.

JG—Am I right in thinking that Hawaii is your favorite place in the world?

JG—Other than Hawaii, which I’ll ask you about in a minute, what other place stands out in your mind as special to you?

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SW—Yeah, it’s definitely my favorite place in the world.

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“I have this image in my head of me being in the kitchen cooking, and saying, ‘Honey, go get me an avocado.’ ” JG—Had you been before the movie?

SW—I had never been to Hawaii before the movie. I fell in love with it. You know why I like Hawaii so much? It’s because I went there right after I saw Avatar, and I felt like an avatar when I was on those islands.

I felt like I could cliff-jump and snorkel and skydive and hike and run, and I was invincible – I felt like an avatar. And considering that’s all I want to be when I grow up, it felt like my home.

JG—What inspires you when you’re feeling really creative?

SW—It’s going to sound so weird. In a non-perverted, non-weird way I’m obsessed with photographs of naked people. I think there’s something powerful about being a human and being strong in a state of vulnerability where you have no clothes on. Every single time I see a photograph or a painting or a sculpture or an artistic film that involves nudity, I think it’s beautiful and I like to apply that to my art. That probably sounds weird, but I do get a lot inspiration from that.

JG—Do you want to end up there or live there part-time?

SW—I do want to live there. I have this image in my head of me being in the kitchen cooking, and saying, “Honey, go get me an avocado.”

And a little naked baby, with long curly hair, runs outside and grabs an avocado and runs back in and gives it to me and I make lunch. I just have this fantasy of having little naked babies in Hawaii.

JG—You still live at home, right? You told me you have a box that you collect things in for your first house away from home.

SW—When I lived in New York for a few months after I just turned 18, I moved into an unfurnished apartment so we had to furnish the entire thing. When I moved back to LA most of the stuff I’d bought I donated to my friend but some stuff I brought with me. So I started a box then and it’s just continuously grown. When I see things on sale – like if a food processor’s on sale – I’ll buy it and throw it in the box, because I know one day I’ll need my own food processor.

JG—Do you consider yourself to be a saver of things or a thrower-outer of things?

SW—My issue is I really love minimalism – I like not having a lot – but I have built up a plethora of stuff in my room. I want to get rid of it but I hate throwing things away too because all I can picture is them going to the landfill.

JG—Did you always want to be an actor?

SW—I started when I was five, and at that age you really don’t know.

Your mom asks you if you want to act and you say, “Yeah, let’s try it!” and it’s like trying out for gymnastics, you don’t really care, but it just stuck. I had such a normal childhood. I would go to auditions and my friends would go to their hobbies and then we’d all reconvene afterwards and hang out. None of my friends knew I was an actor until Secret Life came out because I never talked about it; it was just something I loved to do and I was really passionate about, and it’s still that way. I love the butterflies I get when I read a good script. I love being on stage and turning red in the face because you’re so committed to a particular character. It’s my art.

JG—So you would probably love to play a character that was vulnerable in that way?

SW—I don’t necessarily know if I would love to be naked on screen because I don’t think a lot of people would see it as art, unless it was under the right circumstances. I love to play vulnerable roles but I also love to play strong roles. I like playing broken people. I think it’s because I’m so happy in normal, everyday life that playing a broken person is really fun, and I get to take out everything I don’t take out in real life on screen.

JG—I’d like to say that working with you was fucking awesome but getting to know you is triple that.

SW—I feel the same way about you. I was not nervous to work with George Clooney or Robert Forster or Beau Bridges, but I was so nervous to work with you because I thought you were so cool and comedy totally scares me. I don’t think I’m a good comedic actress so knowing I was going to work with someone who was, was totally nerve-racking. And then I got to know you and you’re really one of the nicest people I’ve ever met.

JG—Thank you for saying that. You are so awesome and you’re going to go straight to the moon, lady. I hope the readers of this magazine get to see this awesome side of you – that you’re not just a pretty face and a talented actress, but that you have an awesome brain and the kindest, sweetest, shiniest most glowing heart that I’ve met in forever.

More———— www.imdb.com/name/nm0940362 www.allittakes.org (Shailene’s charity)

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THE PRETTY THINGS Photography by ELIOT LEE HAZEL Stacey Nishimoto ASSISTED BY Houman Farahmand MODEL John M.F. Anderson

CREATIVE DIRECTION & STYLING BY

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opening spread — Top CLAUDE MONTANA this page — Top ESKANDAR, Trousers YOHJI YAMAMOTO

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Top CHRISTIAN DIOR, Shorts HENRIK VIBSKOV

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previous spread — Top CLAUDE MONTANA, Sweater RALPH LAUREN this page — Top SONIA RYKIEL, shorts JIL SANDER

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Red jacket & pants Kimberly Ovitz, 05 Gold stud pyramid————— earrings Livissue Haley the lab magazine

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Nº I ———— Actress

annabelle wallis Words by Alex McKenna Photography by Justin Tyler Close Styling by Jill Lincoln Hair by David Gardner at Solo Artists Makeup by Spencer Barnes at Solo Artists Photographed at Milk Studios, Los Angeles

Strikingly beautiful and extremely talented, Annabelle Wallis is a rare specimen; she looks like a movie star and yet is disarmingly approachable. Seated in an old, green velvet butler’s chair in her London home, The Lab finds the actress dressed in glittery Minnie Mouse pajamas and a silk bathrobe, her outfit apparently a reflection of what it means to be her: “an eclectic mishmash of too many things to list.”

The same thing could be said of her blossoming career, which has seen her embrace everything from Bollywood romance and period drama to superhero sensation and in-flight entertainment – and she’s only just getting into her stride. Perhaps best known for her one-season stint on The Tudors, where she wowed audiences as Henry VIII’s third wife, the evanescent Jane Seymour, flawlessly assuming the role after Anita Briem left the cast. “I had no idea then that it was going to be a project that so many people love and respect,” she said of the experience. “As a young actress, strong, cerebral, emotionally complex characters are few and far between, let alone the part of one of the queens of England! It was an honor and still is.”

She may be surprised by her success, but that doesn’t mean she wasn’t sure of pursuing it. At 19, Annabelle decided she was going to make a profession out of acting, walked into an agency in London and said, “This is what I am going to do, whether you help me or not, I am going to do it. It’s unavoidable.” She performed a couple of scenes from Romeo and Juliet and they signed her right there on the spot.

Wallis’ diverse upbringing may also have influenced her career choices. Hailing from Oxford, England, before she was two her family relocated to Portugal “away from the conventions of a life that my parents and many generations before them had lived.” Thriving in a multi-lingual environment, Wallis learned Portuguese, Spanish and French and attended an international school. She credits this life experience to her development into the playful and reflective actress she has become. “Cultural duplicity between England and Portugal is a gift I thank my parents for every day,” she said.

Unsurprisingly, for an actress who attacks her roles with scholarly vigor, the study of humanity appeals to her. “I would have loved to do a degree in anthropology,” she said, “living with a tribe and feeling, just like I am now, in a parallel world.”

She may have appeared in Hindi romance Dil Jo Bhi Kahey, X-Men First Class and the Madonna-helmed W.E. but there’s no chance of this actress getting lost in a parallel world – she remains grounded thanks to her family and friends who she describes as “constant reminders of what really matters.” Wallis can also be seen in the thrilling prime-time ABC drama Pan Am as a former MI6 intelligence operative and teaserving stewardess. The 1960s mid-Atlantic is a far cry from 1500s England, but Wallis is taking it all in her stride and diligently researches these historical roles. “It is a gift to do period pieces,” she said. “You have somewhere to draw from, a place in time to go to and pick the pieces of the puzzle that build the foundation of your character. You come away from a period piece feeling like you’ve taken a history degree.”

Annabelle Wallis is definitely the kind of actress we want manning the tea trolley of the next Pan Am 707 we catch: talented, humble, ambitious and meticulous. And if she’s too busy to offer us a beverage at the very least we hope she’ll keep playing the characters we love.

More———— www.imdb.com/name/nm1834115

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Nº II ———— Actor

ty burrell Words by Dawn Kay Photography by Justin Tyler Close Grooming by Amy Freeman

As Phil Dunphy in ABC’s Modern Family, Ty Burrell plays an idiosyncratic father with a curious sense of humor and an unapologetic will to please. In all honesty, the character is not a huge stretch from the affable, self-effacing actor who’s never a few words away from a great one-liner. Still, the two are not one in the same. While Phil’s real estate bravado screams over-confidence, Burrell is still not counting his chickens despite having hit the big-time when the show first aired in 2009. “I’ll never lose the unemployed actor complex of not being sure where my next meal is coming from,” he said.

“When I go to events I still case the joint for free food.”

Out of character, he shares many of Phil’s responsibilities, and describes himself as “trying” in his real-life roles as a son, brother, husband and, of course, a father. “That is to say they all find me trying, but I am trying,” he joked. The loss of Burrell’s own father when he was 21 is something he recognizes as the pivotal event in his life. “He’d be having a laugh if he was around for this chapter,” he said. In 2010, the same year that he could be seen playing hide and seek with Elmo in short spots for Sesame Street, Burrell and his wife Holly adopted a baby girl. “I don’t have much to offer my daughter, in the way of culture,” he said. “Theater is about all I’ve got in that respect. My wife is very musical, so I can count on that being a part of her life. My other great passion is sports. I’m not going to get all Marinovich on my daughter but I would love it if she [took] an interest in team sports of any kind.”

through the festival circuit in support of Butter, a quirky comedy where he stars alongside Hugh Jackman, Olivia Wilde and Jennifer Garner.

In the film, Burrell plays Bob Pickler, an Iowa local who attains widespread notoriety by championing the world of competitive butter carving – a Midwestern activity that Burrell warns is taken very seriously. “The film taught me that within every subculture is the center of the universe. The stakes are as high for a state fair butter-carving competition as they are for the Olympics.”

With the exception of acting, Burrell has always been a dabbler. “I love to do many things and I am not good at any of them,” he said in true, modest fashion. Still, he has the selfdeprecating ambition to “someday be more than a hack writer.” And if someone plans to revive The Munsters, Burrell’s solved a casting problem already. “I would love to play the adult Eddie Munster,” he said. “I think it’s the only role that my eyebrows really suit.” The future for Phil Dunphy and the modern dad who brings him to life is looking bright. “Five years from now I hope the show is still on the air,” he said.

“If not, then I hope I’m writing and teaching and making my daughter laugh. Not with me, of course… at me.”

Having lived in New York, Salt Lake City and most recently Los Angeles, Burrell feels a “womb-like” connection to his home state of Oregon, where his most meaningful memories are set. “New York and Utah now occupy two ridiculously different parts of my and my family’s hearts,” he said. “New York is about storming the castle and Utah is about the exhale of relief when you’re finished.” His relocation to Los Angeles was a decision made to accommodate the filming of his full-time gig as Mr. Dunphy – a role for which he has received multiple nominations as well as Emmy, SAG and TCA awards.

Burrell’s television success has not confined the actor or led him to neglect other ambitions.

He spent the latter part of last year cycling

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Nº III ———— Musicians

wu lyf Words by Aidan Weinrib Photography by Justin Tyler Close Shot on location in Venice Beach, California

Considering how little WU LYF are talking, everyone’s talking about WU LYF. Arguably, the most chatted-about new British band of 2011, these four lads from Manchester sparked a rumor mill by trying to remain anonymous, refusing to do press interviews, and turning down offers from record labels. Anonymous no more, the boys took a break from “Sittin’ on our asses in Manchester, sleeping in Manchester, moving in with our girlfriends in Manchester, and writing a manifesto for the new world in Manchester,” to hone their unpracticed interview technique with The Lab. After knowing each other for 10 years, the quartet banded together in 2009 with the desire to make the music they hadn’t heard before.

A single strum of guitar and a powerful organ chord established the foundation for what would become Heavy Pop, the group’s first single and self-proclaimed sound. WU LYF makes music that could soundtrack delinquents running from authority, skinny-dippers free-falling from cliffs, or anyone willing to “go run blind and free” outside of the domestic and digital realm. Listening to any song on their debut album, Go Tell Fire to the Mountain, it is not hard to imagine their shows where “kids go wild.”

The sound begs to be heard live in a delirious moshpit of sweaty youth, surging to the unique guitar reverbs, fast-pounding drums, barely distinguishable lyrics and gritty, wailing vocals.

It is their ‘fuck-you’ attitude and unique method of maneuvering the well-worn path that has garnered them so much attention. Instead of getting carried away by the initial online buzz after their first releases, members Ellery Roberts, Thomas McClung, Evans Kati and Joseph Manning wanted to build a foundation and establish their music without distractions or egos getting in the way. Their sound speaks for them and beyond it “I have nothing to say, so I’m saying it” said Roberts, which they make clear by responding to many questions in interviews by quoting their own lyrics. Their attempt to avoid the mainstream media backfired and turned into hype that snowballed and earned them unsought notoriety and mythical status.

It was not until the spring of 2011 just before they released their LP that they emerged from the shadows to set the record straight.

WU LYF still maintains control of their media presence by only agreeing to select interviews and appearances. Their aim is less political and more personal. The band uses obscure and metaphorical rhetoric to maintain a universal voice that engages the imagination of their audiences; they do not want to be preachers. Openly against Wikipedia-esque fact summations, Kati said they try to keep their life and the side of them “that wakes up at 4pm and is constantly dazed by post-tour fatigue,” private, while their devoted followers can still have a personal relationship with the band and their music. For $20 you can buy the album and become a member of Lucifer Youth Foundation (LYF). “LYF ain’t for fans, it’s for the committed,” said Roberts. “They get a few symbols to treasure, but the membership addresses a wider support structure [working] towards an alternative.” Rejecting comparisons to a cult, the LYF is meant to create a community surrounding the band that makes them more than the flavor of the week.

While other musicians zig into the industry, WU LYF chose to zag and it is clearly working in their favor. After selling out shows throughout Europe and North America, Roberts said they’re currently in the “same ol’ town, singing the same ol’ songs,” with a stronger sense of belonging than in the past. “We thought [Manchester] was a boring city that was culturally and musically stagnating,” said Kati, “but after travelling all around the world, Manchester is growing on me, it adopted me and I am grateful.” For this group of young and restless youths, the home that they long for in their lyrics is all the more closer to being felt.

More———— www.wulyf.org

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Nº IV———— Illustrator & Designer

richard haines Words by Darya Kosilova Illustration by Richard Haines

For readers who are avid street style followers or regulars at New York Fashion Week (in the flesh or in the style blogosphere) Richard Haines is probably no stranger to you. This highly acclaimed fashion illustrator, designer, and now blogger has a career which spans several decades and boasts a clientele that includes Calvin Klein, Bill Blass, Perry Ellis, InStyle magazine, J.Crew and The New York Times, to name a few. Haines can be spotted sitting in the front row of nearly every glamorous fashion show rapidly sketching the garments coming down the runway. But in between the commotion of show seasons you’ll find him looking for his fashion muses on the streets of NYC. What I Saw Today, Haines’ online visual diary of “cool stuff guys wear… and other things that inspire me,” is an endless archive of sketches, drawings, and doodles that give outsiders a peek at the newest trends in menswear seen fresh off the streets of New York. “Up until I started the blog, which was May of 2008, I was a menswear fashion designer,” said Haines. “The reason for the blog was to have a way of marketing myself as a designer: ‘Here, I know what’s happening on the streets fashion-wise.’ After spending so many years working for other people I had a voice that could reach people directly. There was no audience when I started, but it was still exhilarating!”

a cigarette or talking on his phone and it’s a drawing come to life; everything is linear with angles and shape,” he said. It’s no surprise that with his unique eye for fashion he’s somewhat of a trendsetter himself. When asked what his favorite garment of the moment was, Haines replied, “I bought a pea coat for $129 from Uniqlo and I’m really impressed with the cut and quality. It’s amazing to get a well-made garment for that price.”

His pencil on paper approach isn’t just old school, it’s timeless. It’s truly refreshing to see someone slow down, take a moment, and appreciate the presence of unique beauty and individuality. After working side by side with the fashion elite, having one of the most popular style blogs on the Internet, and becoming one of today’s most revered fashion illustrators, what Richard Haines values most is being a father.

“The most amazing person in my life is my daughter,” he said. “She’s so smart and funny and constantly keeps me on my toes.”

Growing up in a navy family, it wasn’t always easy for Haines to find approval from his father as a young man. “My mother was more supportive of my being an artist than my father,” he said. “Even at five I was always drawing fashion illustrations and my father would advise me to ‘draw cowboys instead.’ He wasn’t comfortable with my gay/feminine side, and that was his way of saying it.” Although it may have been a struggle for Haines to find common ground with his dad, he credits his parents with being the first to expose him to fashion. “It’s only now that I realize how sophisticated my father was. He had great style and was a bit of a clotheshorse. My mother was the same. I have a photo of her on a boat reading Vogue when she was pregnant with me. Maybe that’s where the fashion thing started!”

On his daily lookout for guys and gals with great personal style, Haines says that he’s drawn to a certain attitude, a gesture. “Sometimes I’ll see a guy leaning against a wall smoking

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Nº V ———— Choreographer

LUAM KEFLEZGY Words & Photography by Trevor Undi

“It’s really hard to pick the moment when you fall in love with anything, but when I fell in love with dance, I fell hard. And it was less about a moment, than it was about realizing that my life had become that.”

freedom choreographers were given during that time. It is creative freedom as well as the acknowledgement of genre and history that she hopes to see a resurgence of in contemporary media and film.

Born in Eritrea, East Africa and raised under a traditional, cultural influence that emphasized the importance of formal education over artistic endeavors, Luam Keflezgy, one of New York’s most sought after choreographers, left home to study at the University of Pennsylvania with the intention of becoming a doctor.

Take hip hop for instance, a genre with a heartbeat that lies steeped in the culture and history of the very streets where it began. Born in America, drawing a pertinent comparison to jazz, Keflezgy says, “We need to respect hip hop and treat it as our own. It comes from a culture, and with that culture comes a people, a way of life, music and sounds.

It comes with a lot of things. I think we have a duty to recognize it and understand it and where it comes from.”

Moving to New York after college, Keflezgy spent her days working in the advanced technology group at Time Warner while simultaneously continuing her path in medicine.

By night however, she trained at Broadway Dance Center and Djoniba Dance Centre, studying everything from jazz to West African, hip hop to ballet. Unlike most dancers who are trained from an early age, for Keflezgy, “it wasn’t until moving to New York that this second life emerged.” In 2000 she began teaching and then two years later she left her job in technology and medical career plans behind to pursue dance full time.

Luam’s teaching career tipped with the early adoption of YouTube, her initial channel reaching over 28 million views. Prior to a time where the platform was utilized more as a marketing and publicity device, the purpose of these uploads was simply to share the work and content of her classes. The result, however, was exposure on an international scale that quickly saw the dance community at large tracking her movement. The spirit, honesty and inspirational energy in her choreography earned her a cultlike status and lead to jobs with major recording artists such as Beyoncé, Rihanna, Britney Spears, Kanye West, Kelly Rowland and other platinum-selling musicians around the world.

While the recent boom of commercial dance programming has resulted in more widespread awareness of the artform, Keflezgy feels the work of a choreographer and that of a professional dancer is often misunderstood. The classic work of Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Cyd Charisse and Busby Berkeley, from which she draws inspiration, brought about revolutionary concepts in the filming and presentation of dance choreography largely due to the creative

Kelflezgy defines the true process of dance no matter the genre as, quite literally, taking everything on the inside and putting it on the outside. “It’s there for people to see, if they know what they’re looking at. When you see someone dance, you’re not just seeing a step; you’re seeing who they are, how they grew up; their struggle; who they love; if they paid their rent. You can see everything.”

Perhaps the most moving aspect of her work lies in her relationships with students and teaching experiences. “I have taught in practically every corner of this world,” she said, “and everywhere I go, I am met with such an overwhelming emotional response. It’s made me realize, as clichéd as it sounds, how much dance has the power to bring people together.

It’s really the most universal language I’ve ever seen.”

More———— www.luamworld.com

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Nº VI ———— Musicians

THE SHEEPDOGS Words by Danielle Sipple Photography by Justin Tyler Close

“Gonna see my smiling face, on the cover of the Rolling Stone” – Shel Silverstein’s lyrics, as performed by Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show, have forever captured what is often regarded as one of the biggest dreams and highest accomplishments of any band’s career. Now, in a time when the saturation of musical groups provides a thick sea of unknowns who remain unseen and unheard, The Sheepdogs have risen above the crest. Thanks to an unprecedented contest win, decided purely by audience vote, they became the first ever unsigned band to grace the cover of the coveted music magazine.

An experience they described as “exciting and surreal. It was a nice bit of publicity too.” This classic Canadian rock band, whose name was randomly drawn out of a hat, consists of Ewan Currie, Leot Hanson, Ryan Gullen and Sam Corbett.

With the noted publicity of their Rolling Stone cover, and all the lifestyle changes this brings, these Canadian musicians have not let the fast-paced notoriety go to their skulls. “Life is definitely busier,” said Currie, the band’s frontman, “but it’s also more successful and full of new things, people and places. It feels good to be a full-time musician.” With incoming tours, media explosions, and a newly signed contract to Atlantic Records, The Sheepdogs are maintaining large portions of their humbled presence. This simple act is a feat in itself for the mere fact that within a year of release their album Learn & Burn attained Gold Record Certification in Canada and they toured with Kid Rock and Kings of Leon.

In a mainstream ripple effect, The Sheepdogs have also tapped into a wider audience with some well-placed TV appearances; they were featured in an episode of reality show Project Runway. The show’s contestants were charged with the task of designing new outfits for each member of the band and the boys had the chance to show off their modeling skills while jamming. Rather than see it as selling out, the band look at appearances such as this as a way to share their music with more and more people. “We want people to hear us and there are all kinds of different ways you can do it,” Currie said.

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Despite an attempt at restyling their already classic country fashion, these four artists have stayed true to their roots – they describe their sound as “sweet sounds and tasty jams that warm the heart.” Their main desire is to create music the way they like it. Leaving Auto-Tune to the multitude of pop singers, these Canadians make rock ’n’ roll music through and through.

The Sheepdogs are dead set on keeping their sound true to themselves no matter how bright the spotlight shines on them.

This New Year sees the band prepare to take on two main feats: recording a new album in Nashville, Tennessee and giving their fans, old and new, the chance to see them tour on a major scale. No matter how big they become or where they travel to, their music will always be this band’s top priority. “Our recorded music will hopefully be our lasting legacy,” Currie said.

“We hope it’s memorable and it makes people feel good.” The Sheepdogs have redefined the idea of feel-good music to that of sweet sounds and tasty jams that warm the heart.

When asked to reference their music to that of a home-cooked meal, The Sheepdogs jokingly responded in unison: “a taco salad.” At least their well-deserved fame has not ruined their sense of humor or their appetites.

More———— www.thesheepdogs.com

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Nº VII ———— Architect

tom kundig Words by Brooke Stone Photography by Brendan Meadows

It’s humbling interviewing a man as talented and prolific as Seattle-based architect Tom Kundig. He’s been called “the rockstar of residential architecture,” won almost every high profile design award in the world and his book, Tom Kundig: Houses, was Princeton Architectural Press’ most successful architecture book of all time. A lot less praise and appreciation could go to any normal man’s head, but not Kundig’s.

“I’m flattered that people like the work,” he said, “but it isn’t really something I think about. I try to do the best work possible for my clients and leave the conversation about the value of the work up to others.”

Kundig was raised in Spokane, Washington, a place he describes as having “a rich culture of architecture and art.” Despite being the son of an architect, he was pretty sure from early on that the profession wasn’t for him, and it was only later, while studying at The University of Washington that he found his calling.

“I discovered architecture as an extension of my interests in the hard sciences, specifically physics and geophysics, and art,” he said. “Architecture became an opportunity to combine these two seemingly divergent pursuits.”

He is now part-owner of Olson Kundig Architects whose work includes the design of commercial, residential and academic buildings as well as museums and interior design. He’s usually commissioned by risk-takers who want to live in or work in a space that defies convention. “It takes courage to commission a house—or any structure for that matter,” he said. “It is an exploration of possibilities rather than an acceptance of what is available.”

of it. He has a fascination with the materials of industry – steel, concrete, large objects – that I share. I learned about the balance of art and poetics from watching and working with him.”

When asked what he loves to look at he says, “Beyond nature, I enjoy experiencing other people’s creative efforts.”

His own habitat, which he shares with his wife, is a typical Seattle turn-of-the-century wood-frame structure, which they remodeled about five years ago. “We basically stripped it and reworked it into something different,” he said. “I have an approach I call hot-rodding, where I take a standard commodity item and push the limits of what it can be in much the way hot-rodders fix up their cars. That idea of hotrodding was how we approached the house.”

Kundig may push the limits at home and at work, but he’s well aware of the patience required for an architect to find their feet in the landscape. “Architecture is a complicated field and there’s so much to learn,” he said.

“I don’t feel I was really ready until I was in my thirties. And in fact the Studio House – the first project I received a lot of attention for – wasn’t completed until I was 43.” And this residential rocker isn’t ready to pack up his blueprints just yet. “I’ve had the great fortune of working with interesting and brave clients and talented teams of people… I hope the future holds much of the same.”

Over the years he has worked on too many diverse projects to pick a favorite, but his most meaningful commission was Studio House – a geometric photography studio and home combined in one bright, open, mixedmaterial haven. “Everything came together…

It was the right moment in my career, the right client, the right team, the right craftspeople, etc.

I was also fortunate to have it featured in The New York Times Magazine, which in a lot of ways, was a real turning point for me.”

Kundig’s design attitude has been inspired by fellow Spokane artist Harold Balazs. “His style of working influenced me, along with his reverence for the landscape and fabricating out

More———— www.olsonkundigarchitects.com

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Nº VIII ———— Actress

Judy Greer Words by Sarah Herman Photography by Justin Tyler Close Styling by Karla Welch Assisted by Erica Cloud Hair by Gregory Russell Makeup by Stephen Sollitto Thanks to Petit Ermitage Hotel, Los Angeles

There aren’t many actresses who can hilariously expose themselves to Jason Bateman on TV and turn up in an Oscar-nominated picture alongside George Clooney a few years later with seamless aplomb. Most recently appearing in Alexander Payne’s delightful awards darling The Descendants, Judy Greer’s a hot Hollywood commodity – a glamorous girlnext-door who plays funny ladies who feel real.

It’s an effortless balance that’s built in to the LA-based actress’ performing instincts: “I think it’s written in the script,” she said, “and that’s why it comes easily to me... but I like to ground my characters. I really try to do that.”

It’s not hard to see why casting directors would jump at the chance to place Greer in the role of that oh-so-funny best friend – affable, warm and hilarious in reality, she’s built her career on memorable supporting characters in The Wedding Planner, What Women Want, 13 Going on 30 and 27 Dresses, but the part that she is still most recognized for is serial-flasher and adulteress secretary Kitty Sanchez on Fox favorite Arrested Development. “I get stopped all the time by Arrested Development fans,” she said. “I was recently shooting my web series [Reluctantly Healthy] at a supermarket in Los Angeles, and Jason Bateman happened to walk in, so we talked for a while. After he left, a guy stopped me and he was so excited. He kept asking me, ‘Are you shooting Arrested Development?’ He was freaking out and I thought it was so funny.

I told him it was just a coincidence, poor guy.”

Funny best friends are not Greer’s only forte.

This year she can be seen starring in Jeff, Who Lives at Home as Ed Helms’ frustrated wife and in the Gerard Butler comedy Playing the Field holding her own alongside Catherine Zeta Jones, Jessica Biel and Uma Thurman. And then there’s her recurring stint on Two and a Half Men as Walden Schmidt’s [Ashton Kutcher] exwife. Maintaining a ‘willingly healthy’ balance between film and TV work – “ABC just greenlit my TV pilot, so I’ll be shooting that, which I’m so excited about,” – her experience in the industry has made her resilient, although not completely impenetrable.

“I worked with a very famous costume designer early in my career and she was kind of mean to me,” she recalled. “After my fitting with her, I cried because I’m a big cry baby. I worked with her a second time many years later and I really had to gear up for it. I thought, ‘I have more experience, she can’t hurt me again.’ And I walk into the fitting and she said, ‘Oh my God, it’s you! I never thought you would work again.’ I left and cried again. I guess that taught me to toughen up, I take things less personally at work now.”

That thickening skin also translates to her body of work and she remains proud of underrated projects like 2008 comedy series Miss Guided where she played a high school guidance counsellor still dealing with issues from her own nerdy teenage years. “The role was perfect for me, and the show itself was so smart and funny,” she said. “I feel like today it would have been a success… it was more of a timing thing.” She’s also realistic about shows getting cancelled, like 2011 four-hander sitcom Mad Love. “It’s frustrating not to be able to work with people who I have enjoyed working with, once a show gets cancelled,” she said of co-stars Jason Biggs, Sarah Chalke and Tyler Labine.

“That was the harder pill to swallow – that I didn’t get to go to work with my friends every day anymore.”

The importance of friendship is something that resonates throughout Greer’s work and in her own life. Too modest to answer The Lab’s question about what kind of best friend Judy Greer makes, she passed the buck to her own BFF who told us, “I feel like the luckiest girl in the world to have Judy by my side. Not only is she hysterical and so much fun to be around, but she’s great at listening and giving advice, and would drop everything to be at your side if you needed her.” It’s no surprise the easy-going Greer is the success she is: no box office romcom character or real-world woman could ask for more.

More———— www.imdb.com/name/nm0339460

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Shirt MARKUS LUPFER, Blazer STELLA MCCARTNEY, Skirt ————— TOPSHOP 93

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Nº IX ———— Musicians

HEY OCEAN! Words by Shad Photography by Justin Tyler Close Hair by Tania Becker at NOBASURA Makeup by Jenna Kuchera at NOBASURA Photographed at East Van Studios

Pop music is not simple; it’s the very difficult art of making great songs sound easy. Since the days of Brian Wilson’s orchestral arrangements and Smokey Robinson’s pitch-perfect poetry, great pop music has always been the easiest on the ears and the hardest to achieve. Most seasoned musicians would agree, and the glory and pain of past masters of the form like Phil Spector and Michael Jackson are cases in point.

Like one of their major pop musical influences, Fleetwood Mac, Hey Ocean! (comprised of Ashleigh Ball, David Beckingham, and David Vertesi) is also an ostensibly sunny West Coast outfit nevertheless familiar with the long, hard road to making good songs. Singer/guitarist David Beckingham jokes that the trio has gone through “many ups and downs, loves and heartbreaks, and drummers” in the seven years they have been together.

Most recently the band faced the deceivingly difficult challenge of trying to capture their breezy sound in the studio. The recording process took them on an arduous journey, initially decamping to work in Toronto with famed producer, Gavin Brown (Metric, Billy Talent) and eventually ending up back in Vancouver to complete the project on their own. Singer/flutist Ashleigh Ball acknowledges the process was not as sweet as the resulting melodies might suggest: “We almost broke up, we all broke down at some point, and we all felt we needed to make an album that represented who we are.”

while remaining their most focused and radioready effort to date. According to Vertesi, the band is better having endured the dark, bumpy road to a shiny, smooth record. “As a result of all this soul searching, the album quickly became about our identity both as individuals and as a group. That’s part of why it’s called Is.” On the strength of these recordings, Hey Ocean! recently signed their first majorlabel recording deal with Universal Records and are being managed by industry veteran Terry McBride’s Nettwerk Music Group. The company also manages Sarah McLachlan, Chromeo and Bombay Bicycle Club, among others. The band is excited about these welldeserved steps towards sharing their growing pop musical prowess with the world. Ball said, “I think signing with a [major] label was a really important move to make in our journey as a band. Touring internationally has always been a major goal.”

With a sharp new record in their hands and a major label behind them, Hey Ocean! finally appears to be on the verge of taking their hard work and highly listenable tunes to the masses.

Bassist and singer David Vertesi agrees the songwriting process for this most recent album, simply entitled Is, ultimately became about honest self-expression: “It’s about letting people get to know you through your music, telling a story, and of course communicating it clearly.”

Beckingham said his focus in the writing was also on “clarity and trimming the fat.” Additionally, the trio wrote together more than ever this time around in an effort to create a concise, coherent statement in the tradition of their pop musical heroes.

The result of their hard work is a collection of beautiful ballads, up-tempo jams, and midtempo rockers that showcase the band’s range

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MA RK WH AL EN

a showcase of ————— Mark Whalen

Nº I————previous page Geometric Discoveries 2011, acrylic, ink, gouache, and resin on paper on wood panels 11.5” x 9” Image courtesy of Merry Karnowsky Gallery Nº II———— Split Decisions 2011, acrylic, ink, gouache and resin on paper on wood panel 8” x 10.5” Image courtesy of Merry Karnowsky Gallery Nº III————opposite page Piece to the Puzzle 2011 acrylic, ink, gouache and resin on paper on wood panel 29 x 23 cm Image courtesy of Gallery A.S. II

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V Nº IV————opposite page Human Combustion 2011, acrylic, ink, gouache, and resin on paper on wood panel 11.5” x 9” Image courtesy of Merry Karnowsky Gallery Nº V———— Unusual Findings 2011, acrylic, ink, gouache, and resin on paper on wood panel 11.5” x 9” Image courtesy of Merry Karnowsky Gallery ————— 101

VI Nº VI———— Pieces of Puzzles 2011, acrylic, ink, gouache and resin on paper on wood panel 130 x 120 cm Image courtesy of Black Art Projects Nº VII———— opposite page Presenting 2011, acrylic, ink, gouache, and resin on paper on wood panels, 17.5” x 13.5” Image courtesy of Black Art Projects the lab magazine ————— issue 05

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Nº VIII————opposite page Pilars 2011, acrylic, ink, gouache, and resin on paper on wood panels, 17.5” x 13.5” Image courtesy of Black Art Projects Nº IX———— String Theory 2011, acrylic, ink, gouache, and resin on paper on wood panel 17.5” x 13.5” Image courtesy of Gallery A.S. IX

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willem dafoe INTERVIEW BY WES ANDERSON — PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAKE CHESSUM ASSISTED BY DAVID ROSENZWEIG & DOMINIC NEITZ STYLING BY MARK HOLMES GROOMING BY AMY KOMOROWSKI at CELESTINE AGENCY PHOTOGRAPHED at SUN STUDIOS, NEW YORK CITY

To the right of Willem Dafoe’s heart is a scar. It’s about an inch long, raised and white – a slithery flag on the bosom of one of filmmaking’s most versatile actors. A war wound perhaps, or the result of a bar-room brawl?

Given his devilish and deranged movie character history, it would be easy to assume these or some other unsavory altercation was the cause, but you’d be wrong. The small-town Wisconsin native who brought us an Oscar-nominated turn as Sgt. Elias in Platoon, Marvel’s Green Goblin in the Spider-Man films, a domineering and arrogant psychiatrist in Antichrist and Jesus himself in The Last Temptation of Christ was the very man who wielded the knife that scarred him.

Thirty years ago, while pretending to commit suicide on the stage, Dafoe accidentally skewered himself in front of a live audience. His body is chipped and marked from his life as a vagrant tradesman – never bound by the glistening grip of Hollywood and equally comfortable teetering on stilts, walking the streets of Rome or setting traps in the Tasmanian wilderness if the job demands it. His three latest roles – in Aussie production The Hunter, Abel Ferrara’s doomsday drama 4:44 Last Day on Earth and Disney action epic John Carter – are testament to his artistic veracity, resourcefulness and ferocious appetite for interesting work. Director Wes Anderson experienced the joy of seeing things done the Dafoe way on The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and Fantastic Mr. Fox and let The Lab listen in when they caught up recently. There’s commitment to your craft, and then there’s Dafoe. That scar is his reminder, and this interview can be yours.

Wes Anderson­—Hi, Willem!

Willem Dafoe—Hey, Wes.

with them because the speed was almost imperceptible. There was a big show of them. Very cool. Ever since I came to the city I’ve been reading about stuff that I certainly wasn’t seeing in the mid-west when I was a kid, I really sought his stuff out and followed it through the years.

WA—Where are you?

WD—I’m in Rome.

WA—Weren’t you just in a play in Ireland?

WD—In Manchester, England. It was a Bob Wilson piece called The Life and Death of Marina Abramović. It’s a big piece and we developed it in Madrid. All these people put in money to produce it so I’ll be doing it again. Our first stop was The Manchester International Festival – it’s this great festival that only does premieres and they also commission stuff so it’s really world class and quite incredible.

WA—And the performance artist Marina Abramović is in it?

WA—I saw you in Richard Foreman’s Idiot Savant two years ago – how does this Bob Wilson play compare?

WD—Their aesthetics are very different but they’re both masters of their aesthetic because they’ve both been working for a long time and have very specific visions. One of the things they have in common is they both speak all the time about keeping the tension. So it’s exciting and gruelling to perform in their shows because you’re keeping the tension for two hours straight. And they both don’t like natural movement; if anything is naturalistic it’s pretty much rejected and you try to find a way to formalize it, make it specific to the world, not just borrowed from our natural world. It heightens performances and really forces you to enter the world in a full physical way.

WD—She’s in it and also, among others, Antony Hegarty of Antony and the Johnsons. He made the music and he performs in it. He also wrote me a beautiful song and taught me how to sing it, which was really one of the highlights of doing it. Do you know Bob Wilson’s stuff?

WA—There’s a very dance-like aspect to this work that is often the opposite of movies, which are generally about naturalism. You’ve always had this other part of your acting life – a whole range of experiences – that allows you to use all your muscles.

WA—A little bit. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen anything performed but I have a book of design of his. You’ve worked with him before?

WD—I think I trust my body more than anything else. When I’m in movement I’m happiest, so I think even in movies I’m attracted to things that require me to be pretty physical and sometimes adopt a performance style that isn’t naturalistic or isn’t filled with manner and normal psychology. Those are often the movies I appreciate more and

WD—I did an art project with him. It was a plasma portrait – a little plasma screen that moved at an incredibly slow speed so you had to sit

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I think you have a greater possibility of tapping into what’s great about movies that way. Movie language is not about close-ups or naturalistic acting; it’s about a series of pictures and sounds and rhythms that you can really play with on a big old screen, whereas in TV they’re much more dependent on writing and psychological timing.

“Not anticipating anything but just doing, failing, doing, failing, doing, failing better.”

WA—I can definitely see that. When we did The Life Aquatic together, I feel like the overview of the whole thing is not realistic at all, it’s a complete fantasy, but I still think with movies moment to moment you’re looking to make it feel like it’s really happening.

WD—Yes, you’re not just doing abstract moving, so the way you connect with anything is you give a psychological motivation to it. I guess what I’m talking about is the language of everyday gesture and manner and charm, and it’s nice to get away from that in movies because I think there’s a better world to be had.

WA—Definitely. The exciting thing in movies is figuring out if there’s another way to do this that we’ve never thought of or that we’ve never seen.

WD—For me the best thing about movies is the shift of seeing. It’s not so much to reassure you what you already know but to remind you of what you’ve forgotten or kick-start your imagination in a way you didn’t think of before, whether it’s a fantasy or a gritty realistic style of movie.

WA—You have two new films, right?

WD—Actually, I’ve got three, Wes. I’ve got Abel’s [director Abel Ferrara], which is a very small movie. I’ve got an Australian production called The Hunter, which I shot in Tasmania, and then I’ve got this huge

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movie for Disney called John Carter. It’s kind of a fun period because they’re three very different movies.

WA—And you’ve worked with [John Carter director] Andrew Stanton before, he did Finding Nemo, right? So this must have been a different way to work together?

WD—It’s true, but you know this from doing Fantastic Mr. Fox, when you think of someone doing a voice it sounds like they go into the studio for a couple of hours or days, but it’s actually quite involved. It was interesting doing the voice in Finding Nemo – I really got a sense of Andrew and how he works and the culture, the utopian way of working, that Pixar has developed, so when I knew he was going to do a liveaction movie it was pretty exciting.

WA—Their utopian way of working – is that because it’s like an old-fashioned movie studio where they keep this whole company together all the time and they’re all available to each other?

WD—That’s part of it. I think the other part is they really believe in research and development and they believe in trying things from different angles. And if something isn’t working they go back and rework it. It felt like a studio, not like a movie studio, but it felt like a place for artists. I’m sure there’s another side to it, as there always is, but from the outside it seems pretty incredible.

WA—[John Carter] is a live-action movie, right?

WD—It is live action, but I’m a computer-generated guy. I play a Martian, and I did pretty much all of the stuff on stilts with the headcam on and the battery on my back, and with arm extensions and lots of bells and whistles.

WA—I really can’t think of very many actors who are used to such physical experimentation and elements of dance and things coming into their work and to be able to still work on character. It sounds like the sort of thing not so many people would be able to sink their teeth into. Who else is on stilts?

WD—The other person on stilts the most is Thomas Haden Church.

WA—He’s very good; I’d love to see you two together.

WD—He’s a lot of fun, actually, and he’s a great storyteller. I make quite a few movies, but I never feel like I’m in the business. He’s very much in the business, and he tells the funniest stories about movies and past experiences. He’s very fun to sit around with.

WA—One thing that probably prevents you from feeling like you’re in the business is you tend to work so internationally. And more recently you live so internationally, too.

WD—Yeah, I do. But I think it’s always been that way. I was with The Wooster Group for 26 years and even though it was a New York-based [theater] company, we were travelling many months of the year. So I’m sort of used to that. It’s not a particular attitude about Hollywood versus other cinema; it’s just where I find my most interesting opportunities usually. And also I think I’m a bit of thrill seeker, so while on one hand I like habit, I think the only way to not get lulled into a stupor is to switch it up, and one of the ways you can do that is switch up the kind of movies you’re making and the way of making movies.

The way of making movies is pretty international as far as the language of the technology, it’s just the cultural orientation’s very different.

And I think I always seek that out because that kind of refreshes you.

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It’s a trick to try to not get stuck or develop a shtick or get bored. The bad side is there’s always a scramble. With flexibility comes not having a particular community or a particular kind of work that you’re known for. While artistically it’s very stimulating, I think career-wise it becomes very challenging.

WA—It used to be that all the American movie people were out in Los Angeles and they had a little community. They would go to each other’s houses and they would go to the studio every day and they had their lunch in the commissary. It was contained, consistent, thriving and limited. But they were working all the time and they were developing within these confines. And what we’ve ended up with, and you more than anybody, is this gypsy lifestyle. Whenever I have someone come on a movie I’m working on who I haven’t worked with before, often they’re like, “So this is the way you guys do it.” I don’t know how other people work but I would figure going onto a Lars von Trier set, for example, is probably unlike anybody else’s.

WD—True. I’m attracted to people, as opposed to traditionally, the character or the roles. I tend to look at the whole thing. I’m guided by being in the room with people I like being in the room with. When I went to work with you, I didn’t know what that role was. You even told me you didn’t know what it was, but I liked meeting with you, I liked your movies and the idea of shooting in Rome – various things made it attractive enough that it made me want to take the leap, but the key was you. I think I seek out strong directors, because those are the film sets that have a strong stamp on them, a strong guiding principle.

WA—In terms of Life Aquatic, one of the things I felt was most exciting during filming was you were so engaged; you were just interested in staying in it and the way in the theater someone might be rewriting, reworking and expanding the character during the rehearsal process, that was happening on a shot by shot basis and your character ended up being much fuller.

After we finished that movie I decided I never wanted to do another movie with a trailer parked anywhere near it. I don’t want anybody to have anywhere they could possibly go to, largely because you never went to your trailer and that fed into the movie.

WD—I never use my trailer because I always feel like if you go to your trailer then you take yourself out of the world, and then when you come back you’ve got to catch up. I’m like a little kid – I don’t want stuff to happen without me. I think that’s just because of the theater – you’re always in this room and you’re treating everything as if you’re going to have to perform that evening. At least that’s the way I learned to rehearse.

Your set up on The Life Aquatic was very good because sometimes the shots were very long and very complicated and you’d be making one shot for a great part of the day. I would be there and you would fill me in and then as we started to define our actions the shot would shift and then as the shot was shifting you’d get to practice it some more and some more and sometimes you’d abandon it and start all over again, but it’s the idea of always trying to find the gesture. There’s no arriving; there’s no nailing it. I don’t believe in that kind of thing. Since films are so collaborative, you’re generating material that’s going to become something else, so the best thing that can guide you in making that material is to not have it be a preparation or anticipation, but being engaged in a way that’s undeniable and material to work with.

Not anticipating anything but just doing, failing, doing, failing, doing, failing better.

WA—I like that.

WD—That’s similar to something Beckett said.

WA—It sounds like a good headline for this piece. Let’s talk about The Hunter or Abel’s movie – 4:44 Last Day on Earth.

WD—Were you bummed you didn’t come and see [4:44 Last Day on Earth] at the New York Film Festival?

WA—Yeah, I missed it.

WD—It’s a shame, I wanted you to see it. You always have interesting things to say, so I was curious. It’s a really small film, basically a twohander. It’s about two people in an apartment that accept that the world is going to end. It’s the last 24 hours of their lives, but it’s really more of a convention to see how you live your life and how you deal with each other and whether you want to live life awake or asleep and sedated, and I think there’s probably a case for both choices.

WA—And the movie makes them?

WD—I think so. I think the movie’s interesting. This is the third time I’ve worked with Abel and each time our shorthand and our trust gets a little stronger. First time I worked with him was on New Rose Hotel, which was rocky and interesting. The second one was called Go Go Tales and I liked it a lot, but it got hung up in a lawsuit and has never been released. And now there’s this movie.

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“I’m like a little kid – I don’t want stuff to happen without me.”

look one— Coat & shirt COSTUME NATIONAL, Trousers BURBERRY look two— 05 Suit BURBERRY, Shirt & tieissue COSTUME NATIONAL the lab magazine —————

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WA—What was the lawsuit?

WD—Some guy said that he wrote the script, which was hilarious because we improvised it. If there was a script, I wish he would’ve given it to me. I don’t like to complain or gossip, but that was too bad, because it’s a movie that should be seen. The Hunter is an interesting movie.

I like it because it’s one of these movies where I get to be in every single frame so it’s a really slow reveal. I play a mysterious guy that starts off very cut off and then through the movie he kind of comes back to feeling, so the internal journey is interesting to me. Externally it’s about him trying to find this Tasmanian tiger, so there’s a lot of action shots in the wilderness – there were months where it was just me and the crew doing things out in the wilderness in Tasmania... Have you seen any good movies lately?

together he asked me to do the part of the detective. I was happy to do it and I like Chloë [Sevigny] who I had most of my stuff with so it was fun to do. Obviously shooting in suburban San Diego I wasn’t getting Fitzcarraldo Herzog, but that’s always the way it is. When someone asks me what it was like to work with Marty Scorsese, I feel like I worked with the Scorsese who made The Last Temptation of Christ, who was not necessarily the Goodfellas Scorsese.

WA—I will say I consider you to be the greatest Jesus in the history of cinema.

WD—Thank you, Wes.

WA—I liked Beginners, with Christopher Plummer and Ewan McGregor.

WD—I haven’t seen it but when I get back to New York it’s Oscar movie time, so I’m sure that will be in that stack.

WA— Another one I want to mention that I liked very much is the film you made with Werner Herzog, My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done.

Did you know Herzog before the film?

WD—I met him at Telluride Film Festival years ago. I had two films there and he watched both films and liked them. One of the films was Shadow of the Vampire so we had lots to talk about because of the Nosferatu connection. I got to know him talking about movies, and we kept in touch with each other and when he was putting this movie

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a showcase of ————— Hilary Walsh

all cats are grey P H O T O G R A P H e r | H I L A R Y WA L S H S T Y L I st | L A W R E N H O W E L L A S S I S T ant | K A T E B R I E N H A I R | P H I L I P C A R R E O N — T H E WA L L G R O U P MAKEUP | GLORIA NOTO — JED ROOT M O D E L | N ATAS S I A — V I S I O N

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opening spread— Coat THE WAY WE WORE, Camisole stylist’s own, Necklace PALACE COSTUMES opposite page— Camisole & shorts stylist’s own, Necklace PALACE COSTUMES this page— Gown JUAN CARLOS OBANDO, Cameo brooch JULIAN’S VINTAGE ————— 121

a showcase of ————— Hilary Walsh

this page— Slip stylist’s own opposite page— Gown JULIAN’S VINTAGE, Bow (worn in hair) THE WAY WE WORE, Bracelet MICHAEL SCHMIDT

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a showcase of ————— Hilary Walsh

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previous spread— Top JULIAN’S VINTAGE, Briefs stylist’s own opposite page— Bra & briefs stylist’s own, Choker & hat PALACE COSTUMES this page— Mask stylist’s own

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featuring

Nicolas Winding Refn 130 Anna Calvi 134 Sleigh Bells 138 Lake Bell 142 Sophie Jodoin 146 Tommy Flanagan 150

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an interview with ————— Nicolas Winding Refn

 ———— Director

nicolas winding refn Interview by Bryan Cranston Photography by Tom Hoops Assisted by David Terrazas Morales & Ami Lertpricha Styling by Linda Charoenlab Assisted by Tumm Soithong & Paloch Lilittham Makeup by Kitty Kittiya Anjimakorn Suit by Prada Classic

Bryan Cranston—What’s your favorite color? Wait, damn it! I just wasted a question!

BC—Though you’ve made several cool films, Drive marks your “Hollywood” debut. What are the benefits and pitfalls, from your experience, in making a studio movie?

Nicolas Winding Refn—As I’m color blind, I would say red.

BC—You don’t drive a car or even have a license, which of course makes you the perfect candidate to direct a movie featuring driving. How did your involvement in Drive come about?

NWR—Bryan, it’s the only question I can’t answer anymore – please don’t force me, pal. I will only say that my film Drive came about because Ryan [Gosling] and I wanted to work together and we had a strange dinner just the two of us that led to a very mystical night drive through LA. Ryan turned on the radio and REO Speedwagon’s Can’t Fight This Feeling started to play and I started to cry in a mixture of emotional instability and being high as a kite. All those magical feelings gave me a vision of Ryan driving a car at night through LA listening to pop music and wearing a satin jacket.

BC—When you offered me the role of Shannon [in Drive], you told me that I could do whatever I wanted, and say or not say whatever I wanted in your film. It shocked and intrigued me. True to your word, several times before the film began shooting you asked the principal actors to meet in your living room to discuss our roles and pitch out what our characters would say or do, how they’d look, etc. It was a very empowering feeling as an actor. I felt invested in the storytelling as opposed to just being a hired hand for the film. Is this your approach on every movie? How can you maintain control over the finished product?

NWR—It’s how I make all my films. Even though filmmaking is a director’s medium you still need the collaboration of your creative partners, meaning the actors, and the more you engage them the more they will give of themselves and the better the movie will be. It’s not about controlling or not controlling because in the end a “good” director is the author of any film.

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NWR—Drive never became a “Hollywood” film because all the studios passed on financing it so in the end it was an independent film, which was good because that was much closer to the world of filmmaking that I was used to in Europe. But making the film within the Hollywood industry was absolutely terrific. Within the LA community, you have the best resources to make a movie: the best crews, the best actors, the best writers, etc. And I will be honest, I did arrive in LA with my knife sharpened in case there was a show down but when I left Hollywood to go to Cannes with Drive I had made the film exactly how I wanted it to be. So in hindsight, I had a fantastic, first-class, super-cool Hollywood experience.

BC—Drive feels like a hybrid to me: part Hollywood plot-driven action movie, part European character-driven, noir film. Do you see it that way?

NWR—Yes, but that’s what Jean-Pierre Melville and Sergio Leone also did. They would make American genre movies with European sensibility.

BC—The music in Drive is getting raves on its own merit, and is a big seller on iTunes and other music outlets. Were you looking for that specific, hip “techno vibe”, or did a music supervisor surprise you?

NWR—I always knew I wanted an electronic score for the film but it had to be feminine so it would counter the masculinity of the stunt world. Since I don’t do drugs anymore and I am a faddish filmmaker I use music to enhance my emotion and before I make my films I always try to visualize it as if it was a piece of music because that then gives me visions. With Drive, Kraftwerk was my main musical source of inspiration. The electronic sound they produced in the seventies was

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very primal and sparse yet very beautiful and powerful, and because the driver is half man, half machine it was the only way to describe him as a piece of music. I chose the songs very early on and that gave [composer] Cliff [Martinez] a starting point to create his score.

BC—Violence seems to be a running theme in your films. Are you interested in directing any love stories, comedies or family films?

NWR—I don’t watch the kind of films I make anymore and I would love to do a romantic comedy and a children’s film.

BC—You’re a film buff, so I have a hard time imagining you collecting things or having a hobby. Do you or is storytelling your life?

NWR—Storytelling is all in my mind but I love to collect things, mostly old magazines about horror films and Japanese toys.

BC—What film should everyone see before they die?

NWR—It’s a Wonderful Life by Frank Capra.

BC—What are you currently working on and when will we get to see it?

BC—What kind of child were you? Good student? Day dreamer?

Bed wetter?

NWR—I was born in Copenhagen but I grew up in Manhattan so that automatically makes me not a good student but a daydreamer with ambition.

BC—Americans are pretty ignorant of Denmark. What should we know about your homeland?

NWR—We have a healthcare system that works, we don’t produce Häagen-Dazs and we’re very envious of other people.

NWR—I am in Bangkok preparing my next film, Only God Forgives, staring Ryan again and you’ll see it next year. After that I hope to do the remake of Logan’s Run. BC—My back was sore from carrying Ryan Gosling throughout filming Drive. So how much will you beg me to star in your next film? Okay, okay, stop already, I’ll do it!

NWR—Bryan, I hereby commit to having you appear in every film I make from now on!

BC—Your job requires you to be in various parts of the world for long periods of time. As a married man with young children, how do you manage those demands?

NWR—Therapy! And my wife is the best woman in the world. In a way you can say Drive is about the love that I have for her.

BC—What personal characteristic would you most want to improve?

NWR—You’d have to ask my wife.

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an interview with ————— Anna Calvi

 ———— Musician

anna calvi Interview by Kyp Malone Photography by Emma Hardy

KYP MALONE—How much do you focus on the business side of your career? For example I bought your record as a digital download from iTunes, which I’m listening to on the plane to Miami now. How much money from that ends up directly in your hands?

ANNA CALVI—I have terrible business sense – I’m disorganized, bad at math and stupidly idealistic. I don’t know how much of that would end up going to me. I should really start listening to my lawyer more, it’s just when I’m at his office I feel like I’m back at school. I was such a dreamer when I was in school; I guess I’m still the same.

KM—You’ve got a strong voice, do you smoke and drink?

AC—I drink occasionally but I don’t smoke. I’m very conscientious with my voice. I warm up my vocals extensively before sound check and then again for the show, and after the show I warm down. I read a book once called The Inner Game of Music which compared music to a game of tennis. The point was simply that when you stop trying, you produce the best music because you’re more in touch with your unconscious mind, which is limitless in its potential. I find that definitely applies with singing and playing guitar; if I want to sing loud I almost have to purposefully sing quiet, then it feels like this strength just seems to rise out of me.

KM—Do you have any classical singing training?

AC—No, not in singing. I always wanted to sing but I was too shy. Five years ago I decided to get over my fear and I just listened to singers I loved like Édith Piaf and Nina Simone and practiced for six or seven hours a day. Gradually, I found I had a voice. I played the violin, and studied it at university and I think that definitely taught me how to be disciplined. To play the violin well takes a lot of work, and it requires a good ear. It’s really helped me as a musician.

KM—If you had the power to make any song disappear from everyone’s consciousness and never return what song would it be? It can’t be one of your own.

AC—I feel bad saying it, because ultimately everyone should be allowed to be creative and not be pulled down for it, but The Black Eyed Peas make me a bit crazy. Maybe it’s because they’re so huge and their kind of music just doesn’t make any sense to me. Maybe I need to give them another chance. I guess they can keep playing My Humps.

KM—Do you write songs about love and passion autobiographically? If yes, which it seems to be for a lot of people, do you have any tricks for fully inhabiting a song for a live performance when your life and feelings have changed from when you wrote the song?

KM—How long have you been a ‘musician’ in any capacity?

AC—All my life really. When I was eight we had a karaoke machine with two tape decks and I used to record overdubs of guitars and percussion on it. I was so obsessed with the guitar – Django [Reinhardt] and Jimi [Hendrix] blew my mind. In particular I’ve been inspired by Hendrix playing Voodoo Chile, Django’s Limehouse Blues and John McLaughlin’s Extrapolation.

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AC—That’s a hard question because it’s very instinctive for me to feel like I’m inhabiting a song when I’m performing. I just feel very lost in the moment, so it’s hard for me to analyze what method gets me there.

I think it’s probably just being open to my emotions and feeling moved by the music I’m making. It’s as much about melody and phrasing, as it is about the story of the song for me.

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an interview with ————— Anna Calvi

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KM—Does it ever irritate you that people seem to need those “Anna Calvi sounds like…” context anchors to be ready to hear something new?

KM—Are there any plants in your life? How do you keep them healthy when you’re away from home lots?

AC—It’s frustrating. I think people are wired to want to hear something familiar so even if it isn’t familiar people feel better if they contextualize it anyway.

AC—I had a basil plant for cooking but I couldn’t bring myself to eat him, it seemed mean. So now he’s part of the family. Someone takes care of him while I’m away.

KM—Do you find that you get framed by your gender much in interviews?

Is it tiresome, or is it an opportunity to lead people’s heads out of their asses?

KM—I’m above the clouds, flying over Miami. I’ve flown so many times in the past few years that I only think about death a couple of times a flight.

This is our work and it’s good work yet I constantly ask, is it worth it? Your album is playing in my ears, the flight attendant is telling me to turn my electronics off – say something reassuring, quick!

AC—The problem is people don’t say, “Male artist, Andy Warhol.” His gender is irrelevant. But women who are artists are “female artists” and are constantly reduced to their sex. I’m often asked about other female musicians even if they have no relevance to my music just because they are women. I really hope that this will change, and it won’t be a talking point any more.

KM—You’re a very skilled and distinctive player, what other things are you good at?

AC—I think about death a lot on flights, because I’m terrified of flying.

I guess that’s not very reassuring, sorry! The work is definitely worth it.

Your band has given me so much over the years.

KM—Thanks for making music that isn’t overly cute or precious. Thanks for singing out so much. I know that’s not a question.

AC—Thank you!

AC—I’m good at doing kick-ups with a football. I’m not actually good at playing football but I can do kick-ups. I’m also hyper mobile, which means I can move my joints fast, and I’m bendy.

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an interview with ————— Sleigh Bells

 ———— Musicians

sleigh bells Interview & Photography by Sleigh Bells Thanks to The Impossible Project

Derek Miller—If you had to paint one pattern on your nails and live with it for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?

Alexis Krauss—Sparkly neon leopard-print with rainbow unicorns, sprinkles and blood splatter. I can’t think of anything that would make me happier.

DM—If your dog Rizla magically learned to speak, what would be your first round of questions for her?

DM—What’s your favorite food and color?

AK—Fish tacos and Caribbean blue (which is apparently also the title of an Enya song).

DM—What is the meaning of time?

AK—Do a lot of really great shit before you die.

DM—Have you ever been stung by a jelly fish?

AK—1) What are you thinking when you look at your butt after you emit flatulent gases? 2) What happened to your face? 3) Do you ever miss your real family? 4) Which boys are cuter: pit bulls or pugs?

DM—If you could resurrect any dead musician and form a band with them, who would it be?

AK—Sam Cooke DM—Would you rather be a rocket ship or a hummingbird?

AK—Hummingbird. I like the idea of buzzing around, singing constantly and drinking flower juice.

DM—Who was the first person to break your heart?

AK—My first high school boyfriend – let’s say his name was Ted – broke my heart pretty badly. Ted had his best friend call me after school to break up with me over the phone. Probably karma, considering six months earlier I sent my friend into a school basketball game to break up with a previous boyfriend – let’s say his name was Tim – so could start dating Ted. She told Tim the news while he was sitting in the bleachers with his friends. Tim was so mad he threw his popcorn at her.

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AK—Yes. I was boogie boarding when I was seven. I was in so much pain that the lifeguards had to carry me up the beach to the first aid building. The whole ordeal was already embarrassing enough and then they made me pee on my foot. If you had to live the rest of your life listening to the same 10-song playlist, what 10 songs would you choose?

DM— I’d Die Without You – P.M. Dawn Pour Some Sugar on Me – Def Leppard Linger – The Cranberries Ordinary – Acme Lithium – Nirvana Dancing in the Street – Martha and the Vandellas Asking For It – Hole One More Try – George Michael Please Don’t Go – Double You Time After Time – Cyndi Lauper AK— _________ > __________?

DM—LSU > Alabama

an interview with ————— Sleigh Bells

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AK—What should Tabasco’s next hot sauce flavor be?

DM—They just introduced Buffalo-flavored Tabasco which is a nice addition to their illustrious line of condiments. When I was a young man my family and I visited the McIlhenny factory on Avery Island, Louisiana, though I don’t remember very much. We sat in a small projection room where they screened a film on the aging process of their sauce.

AK—Who should have their own weekly column in The NewYork Times?

DM—I’m gonna go with honest John Olson of Wolf Eyes fame. Google his account of the first time Black Dice played his basement. If Mr. Olson is tied up, I’d be more than happy to read Elisa Ambrogio’s [from Magik Markers] thoughts on literally anything... cats, the taste of water, laundry tips, bingo. She’s funny as hell and ferocious.

AK—What is your favorite quote, saying or expression?

DM—“Just win, baby” – Al Davis, RIP. AK—If you could make me a custom Pop-Tart what flavor would it be?

Please don’t forget to include filling and frosting.

DM—Rainbow-colored frosting consisting of the following flavors: bloodred cherry, purple upside-down snake, yellow fever, Prussian blue, and grasshopper green... with a cinnamon crust and Tabasco filling with shards of glass sprinkled on top.

AK—The best sound in the world is?

DM—Jimmy Ruffin’s What Becomes of the Brokenhearted.

AK—The best part about being in Sleigh Bells is…?

DM—1) The free beer that we pay for. 2) Making records. 3) Playing shows with Krauss every night, antibiotics, drugs, meeting peeps, working with my dude Shane Stoneback, electric eels, Jackson guitars, Guy Harvey prints, etc.

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an interview with ————— Lake Bell

 ———— Actress

lake bell Interview by Kate Bosworth Photography by Justin Tyler Close Styling by JAK [jessicaandkelly.com] Makeup by Kayleen McAdams at The Wall Group Hair by Marcus Francis at The Wall Group Location provided by joanscheckel.com

Kate Bosworth—What is the composition of the recently discovered new planet, known as Kepler-22b?

Lake Bell—It’s composed predominately of regret and chia seeds.

KB—While we’re on the subject of rocks – how was your experience on our film Black Rock?

LB—The first thing I think of regarding my experience shooting Black Rock is the amount of urine our cast (including you) and crew collectively deposited on the land mass where we shot, an isle called Flint Island. That, and how I almost died. The story goes like this: A wetsuit works if it’s wet. A wetsuit does not work if, while filming in the most northern tip of the United States, you’re plopped into the ocean at night, and as the boat speeds away it sits dry underneath your heavy wardrobe allowing snakes of freezing water to avalanche down your back and chest, shocking you into a full-blown asthma attack.

Lesson learned: you gotta ease into that shit. And ideally, urinate right off the bat. (Sorry for all the pee talk.)

KB—Do you find more creative freedom on lower budget films like this one?

LB—‘Creative freedom’ is a euphemism for ‘cool solutions due to budgetary constraints.’ There is no doubt lower budget films breed innovative thought, inspiring creative freedom. And all in all, if you’re making a film for pennies, it’s likely you don’t have to answer to anyone.

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KB—Did you encounter the Ixodes scapularis, also known as the deer tick while filming?

LB—Yes, but thankfully they stayed away from my private areas.

I’ve never been unfortunate enough to be a victim of the evil Ixodes.

Inevitably, I’ll have to tick it off my list one day.

KB—Black Rock was a very close-knit production. We all lived under the same roof. What was it like sleeping with the director?

LB—You tell me. I was on the bottom floor. By the way, do all the readers know you eat macaroni and cheese everyday for every meal?

Call me and let’s discuss.

KB—Speaking of directors, you are a brilliant one. Did you always know you wanted to direct or was it something you became aware of through your love of acting?

LB—I appreciate that compliment, Kate. I take back the whole macaroni and cheese exposé thing. I always wanted to direct but was incredibly private about my aspirations as I wanted something to show for it before I came clean.

KB—I very much admire your short film, Worst Enemy. It’s so wonderfully specific in tone. I’m curious to know how you came up with the idea.

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an interview with ————— Lake Bell

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opening page— Ring NEIL LANE this page— Dress IMITATION, Bustier bra PANACHE, Gold necklace KATHRYN BENTLEY, All other jewelry NEIL LANE

LB—I wrote Worst Enemy as an experiment, really. I had written a fulllength feature called In a World that I wanted to direct but felt ridiculous trying to take on such a mammoth feat without cutting my teeth on something. The short film was an opportunity to express the comedic tone and style that I had been conceptualizing in theory for ages.

I used my protagonist, Wooly, as the center of a small universe of female insecurity, craving for human connection but handicapped by her own social devices. Ultimately, I think the idea of people getting in the way of themselves is funny, especially women who have no reason to be insecure.

KB—What is a rapier?

LB—A rapist who speaks French. Easy, next question?

KB—Who has had the greatest influence on your life?

LB—My rapier.

KB—By the way, do you love acting?

LB—I do love acting. I will do it forever.

KB—Do you own a sword, dagger, or rapier?

LB—Yes, yes, and duh, who doesn’t?

More———— www.imdb.com/name/nm1128572

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an interview with ————— Sophie Jodoin

 ———— Artist

sophie jodoin Interview by Darya Kosilova

Darya Kosilova—It’s very clear that you possess a very strong technical foundation. Tell me a bit about your training.

Sophie Jodoin— I studied in Fine Arts at Concordia University in Montreal, focusing on drawing and sculpture, but I would say that much of my technical ability is self-taught.

DK—Many young artists struggle with their experiences at art school and leave without finishing – did you make a conscious decision to complete your education?

SJ—I didn’t question it at the time. I think that post-secondary education is one place where you can meet people and create contacts that might be very important throughout your career as an artist – something which is harder to access if you work in isolation or in an enclosed milieu.

DK—How do you personally relate to the subject matter you discuss in your work such as war, trauma and torture?

SJ—Out of guilt, mainly. I was born white and middle-class in Canada, with an uneventful childhood. I have always been fascinated by how people cope with difficult experiences and how there are these different degrees of resilience. Making drawings and videos of people with physical and psychological damages comes out of a desire to engage indirectly with them.

I have always been interested in doing work that is unsettling, which conveys a sense of disquiet. I do not refer to memories or actual events.

I like to situate the works between reality and fiction. For example with “The Cherished Ones” I portrayed children with their “cherished” pets, dolls and stuffed animals. The series asks what are the children’s relationships to these pets? It is a gentle and tender one as much as a mean and distorted one. I am always interested in the dichotomy of human nature.

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DK—Many of your drawings portray children. Is there something specific about youth and innocence that you feel carries more meaning than the adult form?

SJ—Portraying children rather than adults feels like zooming in on the fears, traumas and scars that happen in childhood and how they prolong themselves into adulthood. I am interested in how susceptible children are to mental and physical injuries and how these shape them as adults and how they deal (or not) with these injuries. Working from old family photo albums I completed a series last year where adults are blotted out and children are living or recalling incest, rape, bullying, dominance...

DK—Over your career you have chosen to eliminate color from your work.

Was this a direct choice or did your work organically gravitate towards a grayscale palette?

SJ—The elimination of color is a very conscious act. As a student, and for a few years after university, my work was strictly monochromatic.

In 2004, I gave up color. I wanted to remove myself from its seductive aspect and regain the immediacy of drawing and the graphic qualities of black and white.

Working so minimally has helped me to conceptualize my work further.

I feel close to Béla Tarr, one of my favorite filmmakers who works only in black and white. He said, “For me it’s a kind of naturalism, the color movie. With black and white you can keep it more stylistic, you can keep more of a distance between the film and reality, which is important.”

I agree with him. Working in black and white has afforded me a kind of distance with the subject that I think is important.

DK—Where do you source research materials for your work?

SJ—Anywhere: second-hand bookstores, the Internet, magazines. Once I have a general idea of what I want to work on, I start researching

II Nº I————previous page The Cherished Ones 8 2010, conté and acrylic on mylar 56 x 43 cm Nº II———— Vigil 7 2009, conté on mylar 30.5 x 30.5 cm

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III

IV

Nº III———— From the series Diary of K A Journal of Drawings 2005, oil on mylar 81 x 61 cm Nº IV———— From the series Small Dramas & Little Nothings 2008, conté and collage on mylar 24 x 19 cm

imagery. Or it is the opposite – while looking for imagery, one particular image triggers an idea which leads me into a specific search. For example, finding a black and white yoga book from the seventies lead me first into making collages and then large drawings where the disarticulated bodies became hybrids.

DK—What are you focusing on at the moment?

SJ—I am working on larger scale works and playing with the idea of wall drawing. After so many years working on series that were based on war, violence and child abuse, the subject matter of my latest work has taken a slightly subtler route; maybe less literal, ranging from architecture to household objects to fragmented female figures.

that its intention is not one of spectacle, allows viewers a setting to be with the work and react according to their own experiences. I am aware that my work might destabilize them as well, but that’s a good thing. My main goal is to perpetuate a certain malaise throughout all of my work.

DK—You’ve spent the majority of your career in Montreal, is there a reason for that?

SJ—I always say that I am nomadic intrinsically rather than physically.

Maybe this is the reason why I am still in Montreal after all these years, besides the fact that it is still an affordable city for an artist. Basically, my studio is home, more than the city where I live.

DK—How does an audience respond and react to your work?

SJ—It is at once an empathetic and troubling response. The fact that the scale of the work is often intimate, that it is in black and white, and

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an interview with ————— Tommy Flanagan

 ———— Actor

tommy flanagan Interview by Mark Boone Junior Photography by Justin Tyler Close Styling by Jill Lincoln Grooming by Caile Noble at Jed Root

Mark Boone Junior—We’ve worked together day in, day out for four years on Sons of Anarchy and I have observed that out of the entire cast you’re the most beloved by the staff and crew. I believe it’s the quality of your character to which they are responding. What are the qualities in a person to which you respond?

Tommy Flanagan—I respond to honesty, strength and the conviction to follow through with whatever your choices in life may be.

If not by choice, then I respect those who get up and make the best of it anyway. And of course, loyalty, peace, love and a wicked sense of humor like my wife’s.

MBJ—Do you remember being in the womb before you were born?

TF—I’d love to say I do, Boone, but no, I think I was a bit busy developing.

MBJ—If not, what is your earliest childhood memory?

TF—My earliest memory was of my Ma bringing home my youngest brother from the maternity ward. She was glowing in her faux-fur black coat. I remember her putting the pram in the garden where I immediately tried to feed my brother dirt. What a sweet three-year-old I was.

MBJ—Are there any astonishing moments that define your childhood?

TF—1) The stark contrast of living on the outskirts of Glasgow where a quarter of a million people were squeezed into a huge sprawling estate called Easterhouse. Leaving from the front of my building, you walked into the concrete and poverty – tons of dirty, snotty, undernourished kids running around (and for some reason there was always a three-

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legged dog). Leaving from the back exit there were fields, forest and hills that went on forever. That is where I spent my childhood.

2) One of the most amazing things to me was, and still is, watching the swallows arrive every year and building their beautifully constructed nests in the eaves of the tenement buildings. At the end of summer they would gather in their thousands, side by side, a massive chorus of chirps and tweets. And then they would fly south for the winter.

3) Getting mugged when I was six was also quite memorable. For the first time, I was entrusted to go on an errand for my Ma. Feeling like a big boy, I set off and was conned out of the grocery money by some older kid. Early lesson learned – don’t trust nobody.

MBJ—I’ve heard you say a few times that you want your own ranch. Why? TF—A self-sustaining working ranch, a farm, has always been the plan.

Now that I’m happily married and my daughter is on the way, building a happy family home in the country is now my major priority in life.

MBJ—You’re a slut for a good piece of cloth. What do you love about clothes?

TF—Oh, I love a bit of shmutter. I’ve always loved well-tailored clothes.

Growing up in a big family, you had to be first up, to be best dressed.

MBJ—Are you an advocate of Lasik eye surgery?

TF—I didn’t have Lasik surgery. I did however, have eye surgery.

They replaced my lenses, which is a bit different than Lasik. I am a big advocate, though, as I have had to wear glasses my whole life. I was blind and now I can see.

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MBJ—Robert Mitchum often deflected questions about acting, implying there was very little to it. “Give me a bottle of tequila and a good-looking woman and I’ll show you a good performance.” It doesn’t seem to work that way anymore. What makes a good actor?

TF—I tried the Mitchum way – it didn’t work for me. I am sure you can attest to that. I believe preparation, truth, honesty, and a big set of brass ones should get you through.

MBJ—What people from literature or history would you like to portray on the silver screen?

The Pogues, to name a few; the days of raves and The Haçienda [nightclub] in Manchester. I still listen to all of these artists but I am always looking out for new sounds.

MBJ—Before you were a DJ, you served as an altar boy. What were your “duties”?

TF—Preparing the altar, doing the mass with the priest, cleaning up after the service, and doing my best not to get caught drinking the altar wine at the ripe age of 11.

TF—There is a famous artist I would love to play, which we shall not name for the moment. Also, Sir Walter Scott and Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

MBJ—Before you were an actor you were a DJ. What did you spin and do you still listen to any of that same music?

TF— I started out with eighties indie music, which led into acid house music, to funk, to northern soul like The Stone Roses, Primal Scream, Happy Mondays, New Order, Oasis, Echo & The Bunnymen and

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congratulations ————— Marta Dymek

making the shoot An International Photography Competition Featuring Selma Blair Photography by Marta Dymek Art Direction by Leigh Anderson Styling by JAK [jessicaandkelly.com] Hair by Sean Mikel Makeup by Jo Strettell at Magnet Agency Photographed at Smashbox Studios, Hollywood

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“I'm really honored that I will be published in The Lab Magazine.”

—Marta Dymek, Making the Shoot winner

The Lab Magazine and Photoculture are proud to present Marta Dymek, the winner of Making the Shoot. Launched in October 2011, this international competition invited photographers, both amateur and professional to submit their best work for consideration for a truly one-of-a-kind Grand Prize – a fully financed editorial shoot at Smashbox Studios, the result of which is featured here.

The Lab Magazine and a judging panel of world-class photographers, agents and creative directors were blown away by the response. Dymek’s high caliber offerings secured her the top spot and the shooting experience of a lifetime. In January the San Francisco Academy of Art University student, a few months shy of completing her BFA in Photography, found out she had won. “I don’t remember my reaction but I think I tried my best not to squeal into the phone,” she said. “After I hung up, I ran around my building a couple of times; I was insanely excited.”

She was flown from her home in San Francisco to Los Angeles, California to claim her prize. Residing in West Hollywood’s boutique Farmer’s Daughter Hotel, Dymek spent the day at Smashbox Studios photographing actress Selma Blair, using cameras and equipment provided by Digital Fusion. Excited and undaunted, she embraced the experience. “It was absolutely great,” she said. “I got to use any equipment I wanted from the studio and Selma was so sweet and fun to work with; she’s a very lovely lady. Everybody else who was in the studio was so kind to me as well. I felt very blessed.”

The Lab’s Creative Director Justin Tyler Close described the shoot as fantastic. “You could tell she was nervous at first,” he said, “but once she got in the studio, she relaxed and was really going for it.” There’s no doubt her talent and hard work can be seen in these stunning photos of the Hellboy and Cruel Intentions star. “It’s been a great experience, getting to know the whole process of creating an editorial spread,” Dymek said. “I feel like I was given just the right amount of freedom during the shoot. It’s a great publication and I can’t wait to show it off.”

Could you be the next Making the Shoot winner?

For more information visit www.makingtheshoot.com

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congratulations ————— Name of Winner

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previous page— Dress vintage, Necklace MARIA FRANCESCA PEPE, Bracelets VITA FEDE, Ring PHILIP PRESS opposite page— Bustier JEAN PAUL GAULTIER, Skirt VALENTINO, Ring KARMA EL-KHALIL — available at ROSEARK this page— Dress VERSACE, Cuffs MARIA FRANCESCA PEPE ————— 157

congratulations ————— Name of Winner

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congratulations ————— Marta Dymek

previous spread— Suit THIERRY MUGLER this page & opposite page— Leather bra MANDY COON, Blazer CHRISTIAN DIOR, Dual ring ELYSE JACOB — available at ROSEARK, Gold ring VITA FEDE

More———— www.makingtheshoot.com www.martadymek.com Making the Shoot is sponsored by— Digital Fusion, Smashbox Studios, Farmer’s Daughter Hotel and Blinkbid

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thelabmagazine.com daily fashion, art, film & music

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