Hollywood Reporter #2

Another report from Heike. I like the motel called El Rancho Dolores. Very sleazy.

Hello again and welcome back.

[...]

I got the role! The film is called "Instead of me" and the character is Zoe (lead), a 17 or 19 year old (ballet) dancer.

The director of photography (DOP) apparently just completed a commercial for Amnesty International which won an award - so that's good! We start shooting November Th, but I will have my first dance rehearsals before the end of the week. I'm really excited at being able to combine my two loves (dance and acting) in the same piece (without it being a naff musical).

Only one thing... I need long hair for the part and guess what? Last week Vaughn cut my hair standing up in the bathtub with a tiny pair of NAIL SCISSORS! (Note, not nail clippers, but scissors. Those really small, crooked ones.) Just to give you an idea of how fine my hair is... we started with the underneath hair during the first session of 1.5 hours, which ended somewhere around H one morning (little scissors make very little snips.) Then we waited two days and did the top layers and sides. It looks great and it was certainly the most unusual hairdressing experience I've ever had. It also reminds me a lot of a reality TV show they have here at the moment called "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy". A group of gay men doing make-overs and image consulting on straight guys - on national TV. What could be more thrilling?? I haven't actually seen it, but I hear the 'before' and 'after' makes for some riveting viewing.

Anyway, I have my own version of "Queer eye for the Straight (but square) Girl". Vaughn (ex-make up artist for MAC) took me to MAC and advised me on colours and re-taught me how to apply my eye make-up, has taken me clothes shopping and I bought things I would not even have taken into the dressing room had it been up to me, and is now constantly pestering me about buying shoes with little heels. Apparently flat-footed and sandaled is no good in Hollywood....who knew?
But rest assured, there is no talk of any surgical procedures - whatsoever. Padded bras will always be good enough and lip-gloss fills lips out just fine. (I
do fear for my haircolour though - looks like that will be slapped with some highlights or something, if Vaughn gets his way). And well, now I'm going to need a wig or extensions for the movie... phew.

Speaking of which, last week I had a photo shoot for new head shots. Vaughn (Queer Eye) Mouton did the make-up and entertaining on the day and the shoot went off very well. I have four different 'types': young mom (for commercials), elegant ingénue in a fluffy sweater, sexy lady in a halter neck and bad-ass with lots of eye make-up. Now we are making decisions on which ones to choose and blow up...watch this space. I have never had a bad-ass head shot before. I'm very excited.

And in other news... a few weekends ago, Vaughn and I drove to Joshua Tree National Park in the desert. (Before the fire started in the San Bernadino
mountains.) We arrived in a very, very hot Palm Springs, screeching in unison to the strains of Abba's Greatest Hits on the car CD player.

After a seafood dinner in the desert, we checked into a seedy motel called "El Rancho Dolores" and watched an HBO non-fiction series on forensic pathologists and the crimes they have solved. Very desert-like behaviour to get us into the spirit (especially the seafood).

So, the Joshua Tree itself is actually a yucca - and thus a giant member of Lily family, but it looks a bit like a tree with its craggy branches. Mormons traveling through the region in the 1850's thought its branches looked like Joshua, with his arms outstretched, leading his people to the promised land... thus the name.

We did some short hikes in the park itself, but seeing as 'Queer Eye' thinks "outdoors" is a rude eight letter word, much sightseeing was done from the comfort of the air-conditioned SUV (!!). The highlight of the day, however, was when I stood up on the car seat and stuck my head out the sunroof to have an outdoor experience, whilst 'Gloria Glitterwitz' (Vaughn's alter ego) pumped the tunes and the air inside the vehicle. So although we were in the same place at the same time, we were both having very different experiences.
Anyway - on our last day in the desert we went for an outride on horseback after which Gloria Glitterwitz did much complaining about the state of her abductors. We then spent three overheated hours in the Living Desert botanical gardens in 41ºC chatting away in Afrikaans and making up silly stories. Heat-stroke, I think.

Every single activity (such as animal feedings and demos) had been cancelled due to the heat, so we went into the animal rehab hospital - ostensibly to witness animal rehabilitation, but in reality we were after the climate control.
We skunked around the place for a while, peering into all sorts of labs where there was nothing AT ALL going on and being ignored by the few remaining staff
members.
This rehab hospital was not to be taken too seriously. I mean, they had a toy-gecko splayed out on an operating table with a camera trained on him. At first I thought it was a real creature, but the black beaded eyes gave him away as being nothing but a not-so-fluffy toy soon enough. I'm no fool! So finally, for want of a more authentic living thing to witness being rehabilitated, Vaughn inspected his tongue under a microscope that had been hooked up to a screen.
At least we got something out of it.

Adiós amigos,

Heike