Samantha Lockwood Interview

PCM's Kristyn spent some time speaking with true Renaissance woman Samantha Lockwood. Read on to learn about her passion for yoga, art, and tropical fish! Also be sure to look into getting yourself a pair of Fluerings, a invention by Miss. Lockwood that allows you to wear live flowers as earring. They are stunning!

SL: I can't handle cold weather. It gets to be Winter here and it means like there's a tiny little like chill in the air and I get so cold. I shiver, I feel crazy. I can't handle cold weather.

K: Yeah, I heard that. You guys can come have fun in the snow. We're in Delaware.

K: Can you tell our readers a little bit about yourself? What are some of your interests and hobbies?

SL: Well, acting, painting and yoga; those are my interests, hobbies and professions. Fortunately I've turned my interests and hobbies into my professions.

SL: I have one other, which no one really knows about - I keep tropical fish, that has been a hobby for me ever since I was very young. I got my first fish tank when I was about 10 years old. In High School I had about 8 fish tanks salt and freshwater. I even bred fish

K: Wow! I think I read an article where you were talking with somebody about helping sick fish?

SL: Yeah! My friend Mary Brenneke was asking for my advice. She's the fish editor for bella online.

K: I was like, "oh, wow! She knows about all that!" I didn't know you had to keep a health tank and all that kind of stuff!

SL: Yeah, I know a lot about fish and marine biology, it's one thing I really know about… it's where my inner geek flourishes.

K: It's like a little hospital for fish! You definitely seem to be quite the renaissance woman, with arts and film and marine biology and posing for Maxim on top of all of this!

SL: Yes, that's true. I was hesitant to pose for Mazim at first. I hadn't ever posed like that and I never really wanted to create an image for myself that was overly sexed. But I'm happy I did, I think it was still a good move, a lot of people saw it, and I had a couple of good meetings from it, and in all honestly I loved the pictures, so that was good. But I was still hesitant to do it. My father has always told me, "you don't have to get all sexy all the time" and I agree. I kind of have this feeling that sometimes more clothing makes you even sexier. Don't get me wrong I like hot photos too.. but I'm not really one of those girls who's eager to take it all off so to speak. So, shooting for Maxim, that was definitely a weird experience because I had my dad's voice in the back of my head, I thought any minute, "I'm out of here" but it ended up being pretty tame – the photos and the shoot - And actually the photographer, Dominick Guillemot, knew me when I was a kid

SL: Naw…It was really cool. We didn't know we knew each other until he asked me "You're Samantha Lockwood, Gary and Denise's daughter right? …and you do yoga…. Is your mom Denise DuBarry who started Malibu Yoga?" and I said "Yes," and he's like "Your mother used to teach me yoga…Bikram yoga many many years ago and I remember you when you were like 5 years old!"

SL: Yeah. From that point I told him "I don't like doing these kind of photos and I want to keep them somewhat tame" Immediately he made me feel more comfortable. --You know you have to trust the photographer, they can shoot your photographs and who knows? … So that was a very good experience to shoot with someone who knew me at least.

K: Yeah, you can never tell when some of the pictures come out. How did you come about this shoot? Were you approached by the magazine or?

SL: They called my manager and said "We want Samantha to come in and we want to shoot Samantha."

SL: Yeah, so I guess somebody must have said "Who's the hot girl on set?" I don't know. I mean, I really have no idea how they found out. Maybe someone recommended me for it. I don't know?

K: So, getting back to the yoga thing it seems that you've studied for many years, and I read that you were one of the youngest people to be certified as a teacher? How did you become interested in yoga?

SL: Well, I'm kind of a second generation yogini, from my mom. I did my training during the summer between 11th and 12th grade, in 99'. I trained with Bikram Choudhury like both of my parents did. My mom actually did Bikram yoga to stay in shape as an actress.

First, she was taking some sort of a aerobics class and she saw this older lady in the locker room after class one day who had the most incredible body and so she asked "Oh, my god. What do you do to stay in shape?" The lady said, "Well, I do this thing called yoga. I go to this guy Bikram in Beverly Hills." At the time Bikram had a real small class of like 20 people and there were a lot of actors like Raquel Welch, and then some professional sports people, like Kareem Abdul Jabar. The rest were older men and women. Mom went in thinking "this is going to be the easiest thing ever, piece of cake" because everybody else in the class was older so she thought "this has got to be so easy, if grandma over there can do these stretches and if I can do hard core high impact aeriobics." She went to class and barely lasted and ended up absolutely dying -- and from that point on she went every day. She fell in love with the exercise. So she drove from Malibu into Beverly Hills every day and even got my dad into it. So my mom and dad were both into Bikram Yogis.

Bikram once told me that when I was a toddler he'd watch me and worry I was running around near the traffic while he was teaching so he'd have me come in class and watch my parents and sit on the floor near Bikram, sometimes in his lap he said. But, he talks a big talk so I don't know about that! (laughs) I somehow can't see Bikram holding a baby while he's teaching! (laughing harder) Now there are well over 400 studios world wide thousands upon thousands of teachers who teach for him and he's the most successful yoga teacher. His guru is Bisnu Gosh, and I think it was his brother or something like that wrote the book "Autobiography of a Yogi".

SL: His name is Parmahansa Yogananda, that's Bikram's same lineage. He's very famous for being one of the first yogis to bring the concept of yoga to the United States and when he died he left his body. He didn't die like a normal person he willfully left his body and they documented the whole thing, so he was very known for that.

K: So, do you feel that studying yoga kind of almost centers you from life's daily chaos or is it more of a form of fitness and exercise, that kind of thing?

SL: It does both, the body is very connected, interconnected with the mind, sort of like the playground of the mind and so when you learn how to sway your body and get it to concentrate on, with mind and body at the same time on exactly one point your fitness improves. Your physical fitness improves 10 fold but your mental fitness also improves. You're a lot more clear-headed. You're a lot more conscientious with others. You have a lot more patients within your body. Everything feels better. I mean it's interesting there are a lot more, like you have a peace within all the time that you otherwise wouldn't have thought about. It's interesting. Life just becomes more pleasant overall when you practice yoga.

SL: It is meditation! It is absolutely. It is meditation. Hatha yoga means physical meditation -- you have to concentrate on one point, bring the mind into the body. It's physical meditation. So technically when I do the hour and a half class I'm meditating for an hour and a half for the entire class.

SL: Yeah. I really strongly believe that everybody should try it at some point. It's a fabulous series, a beginner's series so everybody can do it. It's just amazing. It gives you like 16 days of energy after you do just one class! For like 10 to 16 days you're on fire, you feel so good!

K: You can sign me up now, I'm ready! I could use that. So, how did you become interested in the arts? Did you always have an interest from a young age?

SL: Yes. I was always a drawer and a water color painter when I was a kid all my life. Then my dad and I are always, from the time I was a kid, my dad spent a lot of time with me. I'm such a daddy's girl. He really wanted to have me on his side. He drove me to school to every day, he'd pick me up every day; he'd make my lunch; he was a very hands-on parent. He and I had a really great relationship and I think that relationship sort of inspired me into waiting to become an actor because he would do funny voices with me and goof around and tell jokes. He was like the life of the party. And my dad and I would always do funny voices together like German Scuba Divers or pretend we were Cheech and Chong, riding in the car smoking blunts, and I was 15, 16, making jokes like "Hey man, I'm so high," and he's like "Yes, I know man." Like "How much longer is the drive?" We would always just goof around and be silly and stuff.

When I told him I wanted to be an actor he said he remembered the very day. I was in the car and I told him and he said we were in a McDonald's parking lot and he grabbed the newspaper and had me read a few lines. He's like "Okay, read this with a French accent! Now read it with an Australian accent!" Now, half the time I'd have no idea what that sounds like and he's like "At least you tried, and you kind of pulled it off." Everything an actor has to do is just basically try to pull it off behavior and physicality they are not used to and have enough charisma and confidence to be entertaining about it.

SL: He's always been the best acting teacher I've ever had because he gave me philosophy to go with my career -- which is so important. An acting career and life is based on your attitude towards it, otherwise you can become a very unhappy person. I'm happy and my dad is happy and that's what is most important. Creating a philosophy about your chosen career that keeps you happy.

K: That's great. What was it like to grow up in Hollywood? Was it the dream life we all imagine, or was it, you know, something you were accustomed to?

SL: To a degree… yes. Let's see. When I was about 5 or 6 years my parents were still together, and I remember that they had a lot of parties at our house with all sorts of famous people coming, but I didn't know who they were, half the time I just I wanted to go play with my animals. I don't think it was any different for me than from any kid to be honest. You pee in your diapers, then you get older and go to dance class, and finally high school etc… and your just another kid. It's no different now.

SL: Life wasn't any different. We didn't travel the world any differently. I know people would stop my dad and ask him about things like his movie or this or that, but I thought it was like any business. You know, your dad or mom gets stopped if he or she is a lawyer or an assistant it doesn't matter. It wasn't any big deal. And I lived in Malibu so it was very relaxed more so than it is now even. We lived in the mountains and till I was about 6 my parents made me wear clothes but half the time I would take the off and run about nekkid…I was a tomboy, a Jane of the jungle.

SL: Yeah, so, I don't really remember it being any different from anybody else's life. Then, as I got older and I'd go with my dad to autograph signing shows, and that's when you really see it. You see how people really perceive your parents and it's kind of shocking. Like, "Wow, dad, you really have a lot of fans, it's impressive!" When I was 16, Tom Hanks took my dad and I to lunch, and thanked my dad. He wrote a whole AFI letter saying "Thanks to Gary Lockwood… I was so inspired by his performance in 2001… and that movie inspired me as an actor." So he thanked my dad for inspiring him. Jane has officially left the jungle, when you get letters in the mail like that … that's when I realized how cool my dad was outside of being my dad.

SL: Yeah, that's an interesting story for you. That was one of the cooler stories. I don't remember everything about our lunch with Mr. Hanks it was a long time ago, I just remember him being a real nice man, real sweet, and every time I've seen him since, like twice, once at the Gap of all places, I say hi to Tom and he's very, you know, down to Earth, and asks "How's your dad?" That is always nice to have someone, anyone ask about your parents. I'm so proud of both of mine. My mom taught yoga when I was a kid. She actually taught to someone who later I sort of worked for…Pierce Brosnan. I worked for his company Irish Dreamtime, I had an internship there when I came back from UC Santa Cruz. I had a special internship 'cause I was an actor, so I could leave for auditions and such. Beau St. Claire, his producer - again knew me when I was a kid - so she gave me a special internship. I wanted to learn a little bit of the production side of the business I felt it was important as an actor to be familiar with all aspects of moviemaking.

SL: Yeah! So, I read scripts and learned what makes them good or bad, and then how the whole production side works…how to make coffee etc. (laughs) When I finally got my first job as an actor I knew how that all goes together. I had more appreciation for how production side works. When I finally became an actor I knew how that all goes together. So, I enjoyed that as well. I never really saw him in the office or anything, but there are certain little things like that that I had the fortune of being a part of and seeing from the sidelines; at a different angle than most actors.

K: Yeah! It's great to get in the production side of things. That's what I went to school for, and it's not as easy as it looks, certainly! There's a lot that goes into a production.

SL:Tell me about it! --- I have even worked as a PA a couple times -- forced to work on my mom's infomercials, admittedly I also did on-camera work for her. She started a big informercial company and she became very successful with that. I worked at a TA there a couple times with my mom and I also did on-camera work for her she started a big informercial company and she became very successful with that.

SL: Yeah. She first started a company with my dad originally called "Xebec" and their first project was "Play the Piano Overnight". They divorced and settled things such that she could take the company "Xebec" and he would take a script they started, which he still has. Mom and my stepdad Bill Hay then started "Thane Marketing International" which was the biggest informercial marketing company in the world at one point. I moved to the desert, La Quinta, to be with my mother when she had to move her company out there to expand. It was easier to build a company out there since the cost of living was much less and they were just getting going.

SL: Yeah. The Palm Valley School, I loved that school, and that's where my little sister goes now. My best friends are still my friends from that school. We only had 17 people in my graduating class, but I absolutely loved it… most of us were hot girls actually only a few guys there.

SL: She's my half-sister, Whitney, my babygirl. She'll be a supermodel if she wants. She looks like me, especially in our photos, but she's got big green eyes and she's going to be a lot taller. She's about 5'4" with a size 9 shoe already!!! She's skipped grades cuz she's so tall.

SL: Yeah. She's 10 years old and her shoes are my size, she can wear my shoes, and my feet aren't small!!! I'm tall but she'll be taller for sure. -- She's so tall.

K: That's good that you can see some success. Does she show any interest in the field of modeling or acting yet?

SL: She already did a modeling job.. a little catwalk for her school or something! It was so cute. She wants to do what I do. She wants to be an actress and a painter. She told my mom "I don't know I kind of want to be an actress or a painter or both." My mom's like " Well you're going to be way too tall to be an actress. People are going to want you to model." I looked at my mom and said "Don't ever tell her what she can do and what she can't do because she can do anything she wants." I told her "If you want to be a painter, you can be a painter. If you want to be an actor, you can do whatever you want." I might be harder because she's tall but every actor has their issue so what? Work harder if you really want it…

K: Of course! What would you say, you know, being a young star and someone who attended the school with the likes of Paris Hilton, how do you feel with young Hollywood these days?

SL: Well, I don't know her, she went to my school before I even got there.... But, let's say there's a big part of young Hollywood I am totally impressed with and a big part that I'm not impressed with. It's because I think if you become famous that you have even more of an obligation to be a good example. --Then it's not just the young people around you in your life, it's those around the country and even around the world who see you. I mean every time I turn around, even now, I see some new stunt on the news and it's just lame.

SL: What I will say is that money is not God, if that's all you can talk about well it get's old. Paris Hilton is still only one of many spoiled rich kids in the world --- there's a ton of people, me too now… But, who cares if a family has money or not. It doesn't make you a better person, it doesn't make your breath sweeter. My life and my family has had periods with literally nothing too. And honestl there's a lot of greatness is having nothing. Those times were some of the best in my life. Watching my mom teach yoga in our living room
where she started Malibu Yoga. I miss those days still, though seeing her succeed has really made me happy for her. She's always wanted that success and she deserves it… I'm so proud of my mother. Believe it or
not, I'm sort of proud of Paris Hilton, she could have done a lot worse, she's pulled through but there's still a long road ahead. As I was saying…you can't build your whole reputation on something so fleeting and fragile and crappy as money… because there's so much more to life. You have to dig deep. Do you do what you love with passion and persistence? I give anyone credit for doing the best they can, but to make a really good impression on people, you have to try a lot harder than you think. People are not stupid. You have to suffer
openly and try honestly for anyone to give a damn. You have to dedicate your life to something better than being in the news. Tha goes for anyone who wants to be taken seriously, anyone at all, no pointing fingers.

K: Well, she's certainly made a name for herself these days. (laughs) In her blossoming acting career. You really seem to have your head on straight, comparatively. Why do you feel that girls like Britney and Paris are running so out of control?

SL: We're all different, thanks for the compliment, but here's what I think we've all been dealt different cards in life. Those two people why are they out of control you ask? -- I can't say … It's not for me
to say. Ya know…I don't know. I really don't know how to answer that since like I said… it's hard to say what goes on in somebody else's head. A long time ago I had this conversation with my mother. I told
her "I think I could be a good friend for Britney Spears." I thought, "I could be a good, stable, good influence and friend and she needs people like that." Maybe we have all felt like that for her, like we could 'help' her. My mom said "Honey don't you think she has people like that? Don't you think she has other people in her life that are probably there to help her and nothing else and only want the best for her?" She said, "She won't listen. She's made her mind up not to listen to anybody else." That was my mom's motherly advice, and I
think she's right. Britney's been given a lot of good things in life. I went through that myself with my mom, the 'not listening'. I know what it's like to rebel and power trip and one day you realize you made an idiot of yourself with the people who love you. I think Britney just needs to see all the good around her in her life, and she needs to be the first person to let go of what it means to "be Britney". That's what will save her life. It's sort of a complicated concept at first, but then very simple once you get it. That's my two cents for what it's worth… I don't like talking about this anymore…What good can ya do by it?

K: Well, yeah. Well I said to myself, I said sometimes you look at the headlines you say, "Okay I think I just want to give her a hug." You know? I just want to sit down and give her a hug. Either that or I think she just needs to go to, I don't know, the Mid-West somewhere and just sit, you know?

SL: You mean get back to her roots! (laughs) That's always good. The Midwest is a good place to sit I'm sure. My family could show her some nice spots to sit…they are from Louisiana on mom's side, like Brit's
family. (laughs) I think when momentum comes in a person's career, you can't just let it come you have to be discerning and you have to continue to struggle even harder. Struggling is good. I know that it's coming from my point of view because I have struggled for a long time, and I've seen the pattern in careers that work. I've struggled somewhat on purpose, meaning I've been very cautious about the things I've done. I tried not to take just any job where I'm asked to compromise myself in any way. It takes time to build a reputation that
is good so you can get the right work with the right people. You know what I'm saying?

SL: I'm saying that when you get offered a job you want to take it, that's your first instinct, you have to pay the bills, you want to make money, you want your career, but I've turned down movies that had sex scenes that I'm not okay with. (laughs) Men too!

Once I actually agreed to be in a movie, and when the producers sent me the "working" draft of the script and I called them immediately, so infuriatied and said "No, I won't be in the movie, I won't do it" because they sneaked in a couple of racy scenes last second. Who does that!!! – Changes stuff right before you are supposed to shoot!

K: Wow, I give you mad props for being able stand up for yourself like that when so many of the girls are just willing to kind of let it hang out and sell it all, you know?

SL: Yeah, but I've also had the fortune of having a really good dad to tell me things like "It's all about your attitude and philosophy," things I know already but need to hear again for reassurance. When young girls and lots of women started getting boob jobs he called me one day and said "Don't worry about your tits, never get a tit job. Just keep your ass in shape and stay healthy okay kid." I laughed at that one…but it's little tid-bits like that… about being a strong woman and a confident person, knowing it's okay to say no to offers. You don't owe anyone anything. He says, "Sometimes the best career move is nothing at all. Don't do anything. Don't take the job."

Sometimes it's the best thing you can do if you want the right job to come along. A great career is built on the right jobs. Besides I just hate crap scripts! (laughs) Look at Ellen Page, "Juno" is an awesome movie and a great start for that girl. So, I think in Hollywood especially when girls don't have a close mentor and discipline or background and parents to guide them and say "this is how it's done and this is how you should do it," I think they just take anything. It's like they're free. They're out in Hollywood at the whim of the masses and the money and sometimes they'll do whatever.

K: Definitely. I see that you and I were born in the same year, and you're definitely quite accomplished for 25 years old, so how do you keep it all together?

SL: Well, I guess I don't know. Sometimes I don't think of myself as being quite accomplished. I feel like sometimes "I should have done this or that. I should have done more." But then I think, like I just said, I've passed on a lot of things and I give myself credit for still trying to get the right jobs, and I think of all, I think of all the things that I HAVE done, and I'm okay, and I just do the best that I can. That's all I can do. Just do the best I can, and then a little bit more..haha.

K: They are stunning! Those earrings are gorgeous, the white ones that you're wearing in one of the pictures!

K: I couldn't figure out whether they were crafted. Those are real flowers, right?

K: Wow. What kind of flower was that because I said "I have to ask her where she got those?"

SL: That's called a Dendrobium Orchid. They come on a stem with like 10 or so and you just pick one off, then put water in my earring and then I just wear them like any earrings.

SL: Exactly, it's a little vase-shaped thing. Now what you see on the internet is like a little tube and that's not what it looks like. I just got my last prototype. It's been 5 years for me from the beginning to have what I have now, with patenting it and designing it just right. They're very pretty, they're made with gold and precious metals. They're very classy looking so you can wear them with or without the flowers. You should wear them with the flowers; that's kind of the whole point. You just put water in them, a few drops, enough for one flower, and then put the flower in and it'll keep your flower alive for 5, 6 hours, long enough to wear, and Ta Da you're wearing flowers.

I invented them because I my grandmother told me I should wear a flower in my hair if I wanted to make better tips at my job. I got a job as a waitress – it lasted about 2 months. Not even 2 months, like a month. I'm like "okay grandma, sure whatever." I thought is was Louisianna swamp talk as they call it, " Sam, it's true, if you wear a flower your hair you'll make better tips honey." I was like "Okay, grandma, you're crazy." I walked on my way to work the next day and of course I see this big red Hibiscus smiling at me so I pick it and I'm like, "Aw, well, I'll wear it in my hair. I'll just wear it, here's to you grannie" --And I put it in my hair, from the moment I stepped into work everybody makes a comment! Even the slightly cranky boss! Everyone said something complimentary like "oh, how nice;" "Oh, how pretty;" "isn't that nice;" "oh you look so good today."

SL: Right! Grandma was right! The end of the day I turned in my tips. I swear, not a joke, I nearly doubled my tips that day! And I thought, "Wow, everybody thought that I really liked my job." I think everybody thought I had pride and I was happy to be there and they naturally tipped me very better. I just didn't like waiting tables because I need to be creative in my work, that's when I ended up getting the internship. But alas, Fleurings came from that experience. That's the main story behind those earrings. After that I thought "it'd be great to have something that I can wear with a flower in it" so that it's not getting sticky and caught in my hair and it's not wilting all the time because you always needed a new flower. So I created the earring so that you could wear a flower, it would have water, it would stay alive and it wouldn't get all caught up in your hair since it was free-hanging. And that's how I came up with those, Fleurings.

K: Wow. They are gorgeous. I was like, "Wow!" Are you going to mass market with them, or is it going to be something through your site?

SL: Well, I want to have them in boutiques and sell them all over the world! Mom and I are working on them together. She will help me with all of the marketing and production since this is her specialty. I will probably end up having two lines, a high end line for boutiques around $500- 700 dollars, made from gold and something far less expensive too under $50 dollars… really not sure just yet. There are so many details to work out when you go into manufacturing.

All I know is it has to look good, sexy, not cheap. I hate stuff that looks cheapy, but I want to make it affordable for girls who are in their teens. I think it's great for prom, and for people getting married, I can see it on bridesmaids and brides. I can see people wearing them on cruises too. That was actually my stepdad's two cents, to sell them on cruise ships. I want to sell them in hotels especially – a couple of places in Vegas want them for their staff.

K: And your artwork is really big. I was looking at this site with a lot of your pieces. What are some of your inspirations behind your artwork, your paintings and things?

SL: I guess the inspiration are the different pieces they all a different story. There's one of a bald girl with a snake.

SL: That one – a couple different things inspired that piece. My filmmaker buddy Esh brought me a documentary on Picasso, where he paints about twenty pieces start to finish. Watching Picasso paint is
the most frustrating thing you've ever seen, let me just tell you! ---because this man will create a painting that looks good and normal and pretty and then he'll just screw it all up. He'll paint over it and he'll screw up the eye and he'll make it over here next to the foot, and you're like "Why does he do that!?" It's the most frustrating experience. So at the end of that documentary I'm like "here's a man who painted like a moron. He prides himself on having 50 years, saying 'it took me 50 years to learn how to paint like a kid again.'" I can't
appreciate his work that much because I thought he didn't paint like a kid, he paints like a crazy person. He paints like an infant. It just was frustrating to watch, so I thought "Forget that!" I got so
frustrated… I thought "How is he famous for doing that and here's my art?" I'm like "My art's so much better!" – I don't mean to offend anyone I'm just saying what went on inside my head at the time, sounds
cockier than it is… I still have a lot of respect for Picasso because if he wanted to he could paint really… certainly that's just my opinion. God knows art is one of those things that can raise an army against you. This is why I like Muramasa Kudo, because Kudo, the first thing he ever gave me was probably a line drawing with no more than 10 or 15 lines on the page, and it was gorgeous. He didn't need to touch it anymore, and he didn't. He knows when to not overwork things, and I think that's part of becoming a great artist is knowing
how to make it in a few lines and leave it alone. Same goes with acting, how can you do a lot in a little time, Zen art philosophy. That said… I had a fire in my belly when I went to paint this picture.
I envisioned a girl in this exact stance. You see it in Buddhist art, and there was a dance with Britney Spears when she first broke out. She had this flashy outfit on, glistening and it was in her dance, she's in this stance in part of her dance. It was provocative and so overtly sexy. She became a sex symbol then. I painted this around the time that she shaved her head and around the time my aunt Diana lost all her hair to chemo therapy. So, here's two beautiful woman with no hair but I find a new beauty in that. One of rebirth.

SL: The girl in the painting is a symbol a spiritual rebirth, she's very seductive and almost offensively so, but yet, the flowers suggest maybe she's not human she's divine, sublime and maybe even virginal. It's more about what's inside that what's outside in this painting. It's got a little of this 'Eve in the garden of Eden' theme. It's got these difficult connotations. When you shave your head it's like saying you let go of some of your power, that's what it represents in many cultures. The cell at the bottom of you hair is supposed to be
like 6 years older than the cells at the top of you hair, so it's like getting rid of the past 6 years energy. So anyway, that's why the girl in that painting looks the way she does. Too much explanation. A lot of my other pieces are inspired and influenced by yoga, other art, the ocean, and nature. I like a lot of color

K: Okay. So, I see that you work with charities, that some proceeds of your artwork go to. What types of charities are you supporting?

SL: I like to support charities that are from my local home town and I like to support any kind of charity. It's just something that I find to be important. I like charities that help kids, charities that help elderly people, cancer charities and any that help the ocean reefs and the animals of our planet. The best charity is your time though, people who give their time and directly affect another human in a positive way, I think that's better than money.

K: Okay. Are you still active with marine biology at all? That was another of your majors in college, correct?

SL: Yeah, it was definitely one of the things I studied, in college and at home alone! Oh I want to do so much with it than I am now but it's hard to maintain those things in life, you know? That interest will always be there for me.... but being an actress and then also, painting etc...I mean, how much marine biology can you do?

SL: Yeah. Exactly. So, when I got on vacations I scuba and I snorkel and I'm like the crazy girl who pops out of the water and goes "look! An octopus!" I'm that person, I'm wild with sea creatures -- I like the Animal Planet. (laughs)

SL:I do! I've actually be in so many places. I've been to India. I've been to Germany. I've been all over Europe; to France and Italy. I've been to South Korea in Seoul with my friend in high school. I went to India when I was 13 with my best friend Nicole. I went there for three weeks with her mom to see some guy named Satya Sai Baba… and we had these tiny mats in a little room that had cement flooring. We slept on
a mat on a cement floor and it cost us 2 dollars a night to stay inthis place … and we lived this hard life for three weeks…

SL:There was no door from the living quarters to the bathroom. There was a hole in the floor where you went to the bathroom. And to flush you'd have to fill this bucket with this yellowy water from a spicket
coming from out of the wall and pour it in the hole. We bathed in that same cold yellowish- orange water that came out of the spiket. Same way you'd fill the bucket to flush in one hole you'd fill the bucket to bathe over the drain. The drain was there next to the poo hole…(laughs)

SL: So, you'd have to bathe in this water from the bucket that was cold and it was yellow-orange color and we did that for three weeks.

SL:It was crazy, crazy crazy. India is changing a lot now though. It's becoming a much better place for tourism and for the people who live there. We stayed in a nasty place more because I think Nicole's
mom really wanted to have that experience and everything in the area was totally sold out. We stayed near where we could go to this Ashram, and that was the closest place still open.

K: Yeah, his mother's family is still over there, actually. I saw pictures of different customs and things that are over there, and I was fascninated. We actually haven't gotten to go yet, but I would like to meet his side of the family, you know, eventually?

SL: Are they going to have a problem with the fact that you're not Korean? Sometimes… that is an issue…

K: No, he's actually half Korean. His mother left Korea when she was 17 years old. His father was in the service and was stationed in South Korea, so that's how they met. His sister was actually born in South Korea but he was born over here. So, no problems!

K: Thank you! Wedding planning on top of everything else right now. (laughing)

K: (laughing) Yeah, the only time I hear the Korean language is when she gets angry and yells in it! What you would say is the most interesting place you've visited?

SL: Canada! No, just kidding! (laughing) I don't know. I would have to say India. I would really want to go back there. I liked South Korea a lot too, I loved singing Kareoke and shopping. Other young school girls would touch my hair and my friend Soo would always say they were talking about how tall I was or my hair everywhere we went – the bus, the mall, a restaurant. It was funny. Overall I think India was the most interesting, because you'd walk around and see kids who were begging and hungry and people who were badly scarred, like this one woman who looked like her face had been dipped in acid long ago but still and she smiled a big huge smile at me and everybody every day I walked by her. She had such good energy. There was so much poverty yet still people were happy it seemed. It's like if people in America had any concept of that, they'd have the best life ever. You could have the best job in the world and the concept of, like, just being happy just having a good attitude, just always smiling … you could have the best life.

K: Oh, I think every place other than America has some kind of way about doing that. You hear all the time about in France or England, they have more days off than we do and just overall the attitude just seems better.

SL: It's a tough society in many ways but in many ways we have all the best things in the world. We're much better off than most countries. I mean, everything's air conditioned and nice bathrooms. By the way that's something that bugs me: over air-conditioning everything. Hotels, schools, starbucks, restaurants, movie theaters!!! Enough. Like when you're in the theater and it's freezing because the air conditioner is going. It's like, give - it – a - rest! You go anywhere else in the world and they use air conditioning when it's really a hot day.

K: Yeah. It's a double-edged sword too, you know? I mean, we have all this stuff, but then does everyone really appreciate it?

SL: Yeah, it's true. You can't appreciate it unless you go without it for a little while.

K: So, what do you like to do in your spare time? Do you frequent any on the club circuit at all?

SL: No, I don't go out to clubs. I go out to eat sushi, I love to eat sushi. I go to a few places out here. I go to Nozawa, Katsuya, Matsuhisa, Tokyo Table, Go's and Sushi Roku, and I spend a lot of my money on sushi!!! Too much if you ask me. I want to start painting in trade for food! Lol. I go see movies for fun …all the time I see like three a week… like this week I just saw There Will Be Blood, which can I say Daniel Day Lewis is awesome in that movie.

SL: Right, and it's sort of like I'm still doing work when I go see movies so it's, you know.

SL: Well, more like homework, because I feel many times like I have got to see this performance or that directing job to know what's going on in my business. … to see what actors are doing what movies, what works, what doesn't , what was good…

SL: That goes back to I've changed my interests and hobbies into my professions. You know? I tried to make a business out of the things I love to do because it was so natural for me to just do it. I love going to movies. So I love knowing that the business I am in requires seeing movies.

SL: Let's see. There's this one called, well, I don't know if I should talk about that yet. I'm trying to figure out what to talk about as far as those are concerned. I have a script called Diamond Girl that I am putting together… and then there's actually a horror short film that I wrote with my friend Jack Reher. It's quite funny. It's about a Bridezilla… A girl who's getting married and turns into a zombie the day of her wedding… It's a spoof called "27 Dresses Later".

SL: We've got really good actresses to be in it. Girls who have done a lot of movies who want to participate.

K: So, what's on the horizon for you? What should we be expecting from you in the future?

SL: Well, I mean, probably a lot more acting and art, but also at some point I want to consider directing something, go to directing school and I do want to direct something, but that's way, way down the line. That's not any time soon. I want to get some great parts with my acting career and then I'm going to get into directing.

K: Well, we certainly wish you the best with that, and could you share one interesting tid-bit about yourself that we may not know already? Like any funny habits or hobbies?

SL: Well, I drive with my left foot out the window a lot. I haven't told anyone.

K: I there any final message or comment that you would like to share with our readers?

SL: Yeah. It's like, what do you say to all of those people? I don't have anything perfect come to mind. Do yoga, stay in school, keep your wits about you and stay cool!

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