This article appeared in Issue 28 of Wonderland: Nov/Dec 2011

“I was screaming a lot yesterday so I might not have the most amazing interview voice,” says a rather husky sounding Tyler Posey, lead star of MTV’s surprise hit show, Teen Wolf. Having taken the 80s film classic and reinvented it as a weekly platform for today’s Twi-hard viewing public, the show surpassed expectations when it debuted earlier this year. In fact it was so popular that a second season was commissioned before the first had even wrapped.

However, it is not howling at the moon that has over exerted the 20-year-old actors lungs but the thrill ride of rollercoasters at the Universal Studios amusement park. “I was bored and went with a couple of friends and had a lot of fun,” he explains, “the first thing we did when we got there was go into a pretty scary haunted house which takes 20 minutes to walk through. At the very end we got separated from one of our friends and got freaked out because we didn’t know where he was,” he continues, sounding panicked by the memory. But surely it must take a lot to startle a young man working on a supernatural show like Teen Wolf? “It’s all lies!” he laughs. “I am scared of everything. There were werewolves inside the maze and I thought I could have something in common with them but they still tried to eat me.”

Having survived the ordeal, Posey is finding ways of keeping busy during the show’s summer hiatus before the filming of season two begins in the latter half of November. Whilst a real life werewolf might struggle to cope with spontaneously emerging fur, Posey has recently opted to experiment with his own body hair by growing his first ever moustache. “I’ve been able to grow one ever since I was a young teenager but this time I tried to grow one for real,” he explains. However, the end result was not as dashing as he might have anticipated, with online commenters swiftly noting his resemblance to Mandy Patinkin’s Inigo Montoya in Rob Reiner’s 1987 classic, The Princess Bride. “It looked really bad,” he concedes with a laugh, “but I was very proud of it.”

Having begun acting at a young age, one of Posey’s earliest roles was Jennifer Lopez’s son in the 2001 romantic comedy, Maid in Manhattan. Like the famous Latina, Posey is also trying to find a balance between the world of acting and the world of music, with his as-yet-unsigned band, Lost In Kostko. “We played this show on Sunday night and it was like being Justin Bieber or something,” he recounts excitedly, “the curtain went up and there were screaming girls and flashes of cameras and posters saying my name – it was surreal. The part I loved the most was that they were singing our lyrics back to us and that was the first time that’s ever happened. I can’t even describe to you how that feels.” But all those Teen Wolf fans worried he might be about to cancel his acting plans, need fear not. Lost In Kostko is only a side project, for now. “It’s a punk rock band so I don’t really need to know how to sing. I can definitely act, but the singing: I’m still working on.”

Words: Seamus Duff
Photographer: Danielle Levitt
Fashion Editor: Brad Goreski

The post Flashback Friday: Tyler Posey appeared first on Wonderland.

This interview was published in Issue 27 of Wonderland, Sept/Oct 2011.

You know what it’s like with movie stars: no new films for months, then eight come along together. At least that’s how it is for Jessica Chastain, who’s following the London bus theory with her releases; first keep them waiting, then flood the streets.

The 30-year-old redhead, whose captivating looks have been described as “ethereal” just about as often as “pre-Raphaelite”, has a film career you wouldn’t believe if it were a movie itself. This Julliard grad has been busy transitioning from the theatre to movies, landing unbelievable roles in a host of diverse, interesting and award-winning projects… with barely anyone having seen them.

At the time of our interview, only Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life – in which Brad Pitt played her husband and Sean Penn her son – has seen the light of day, but among those waiting in the wings are Wilde Salome, in which her director and co-star is Al Pacino; The Wettest County in the World, opposite Shia LaBouf and Tom Hardy; Ralph Fiennes’ directorial debut Coriolanus, also starring Vanessa Redgrave; The Texas Killing Fields, where she’ll be seen alongside Avatar’s Sam Worthington; The Debt with Helen Mirren and Tom Wilkinson; plus the closest thing to a potential blockbuster in The Help, based on Kathryn Stockett’s best-selling novel, all of which will hit cinemas over the next year. Which raises one question: what’s with the hold-up?

“I think what led to it is I tend to respond to material that is perhaps more difficult to put together,” she says from her home in Venice, California. ”Either it’s because it’s from classical literature like Wilde Salome and Coriolanus, or from an auteur like Terence Malick, so the subject matter tends to be off. It’s not like mainstream movies.”

Most unusual in a sea of fame-hungry performers, Jessica shuns the spotlight, believing the more famous you are, the more difficult it is to be an actor, anonymity the key to creating a believable character.

“Fame isn’t why I became an actor,” she says, believably. “I became an actor because I thrive on the connections I make with people on set. There’s something that happens when I’m acting in a scene with someone else that’s so intimate. It’s indescribable – it’s like this invisible current, and I really feed off it. Everything for me about acting is about connecting to humanity.”

Again this is unusual, in that most actors seemingly prefer to disconnect from humanity, elevating themselves above it all so they no longer have to mingle with the little people.

“Not for me,” Jessica insists. “I have seen when someone has become a successful film actor how society lifts them up and separates them from the group. I’m scared of that happening: if someone takes me out of the group how can I play a regular woman? And how can I meet someone when I’m walking my dog or how do I have a regular conversation at the coffee shop? I don’t want that to go away.”

So by the end of the next year, there’ll be enough Jessica Chastain movies on the market for a box set.

Ha! We could do a retrospective of my career! That’s amazing.

If there’s only one we have to see, what is it? That’s not an unfair question, is it?

Oh that’s totally unfair. Do you realise how many people would call me up upset if I answered that question?

So what’s it been like for you working in this vacuum?

Slightly strange. When I showed up for parts I really felt I had to prove myself. There’s a kind of idea of me out there, of this girl that’s been working on so much, but we don’t know if she really exists. So hopefully that will go away when people start to see my work.

The first one you actually shot was Wilde Salome with Al Pacino: what was your first meeting with him like?

I went to a door, they asked me to wait for a second, and at that moment I immediately felt like I was going to be sick. But he’s a cheerleader: he loves actors and he just wants to see you do your best work.

Of course he’s not your only huge co-star: you got to play Brad’s wife.

That is something in a million years I would never have imagined. The name “Brad Pitt” carries so much weight, but the great thing is, when he came to set and I met him he really is like a regular guy. He doesn’t have a huge entourage, he didn’t show up with this huge team – he just turned up on his motorcycle. He made me feel like I had every right to be there, like we were on the same team.

And in the same movie you’ve got Sean Penn… playing your son!

I know! It’s bizarre – my hubby Brad and my son Sean. But I guess if you’re going from Al Pacino, why not?

When your husband has been Brad Pitt, your son Sean Penn and your muse Al Pacino, how’s regular life been working out for you?

The funny thing is I think I’ve been really lucky because all these people I’ve worked with have been regular guys who just happen to have a lot of fame.

So being in the arms of Brad Pitt just wears off after a while?

It does actually. Also, he was so good in his role, as this closed off, stifled man, that I was just so impressed with what he was doing and I forgot he was the guy from Legends of the Fall.

How was your Malick experience? He famously runs an unconventional and experimental set.

It was exhilarating – I would do any film for Terry. I felt like we never made the movie – we were just discovering every day, and that for me is the goal as an actor. I don’t ever want to feel like we nailed it: I always want to feel like we’re discovering.

You’ve deliberately chosen a lot of non-commercial work – why?

I’ve always been the student, learning about being an actor, and becoming a better actor, so for me it’s about working with the masters of it. It’s not been about ‘this is the film where I’ll get famous’. I’ve never thought like that.

Though you are about to be seen in The Help, based on a huge, commercially successful book that could end up being a breakthrough role for you in the wider sense.

The funny thing about The Help is I look so different in that movie: I gained some weight and I have peroxide hair and a very different voice. I’ve even done press for it where the interviewers don’t realise I played Celia.

How about the spy thriller The Debt?

Well in that I have an Israeli accent and brown hair and I speak German! The fact that I have so many movies coming out this year it’s inevitable my life will change and that I can’t control it. I have to be open to that, but I do have control over trying to live as normally as I can.

Are you already getting noticed?

The wonderful thing right now is so far, so good. I’m getting really interesting scripts and my normal life hasn’t changed at all. I tell you, maybe one person has recognised me when I was walking my dog.

What do you like to do when you’re not working?

Usually I play the ukulele, I cook a lot, I see tons of movies and go to the theatre, play Scrabble and…

Hold it right there. Ukulele?

Yeah! I used to play guitar and I realised when I started working and travelling so much that I wasn’t able to play guitar any more because I felt stupid carrying around a guitar case. With the Ukulele I could just stick it in my suitcase and play it in my hotel room.

And what’s your go-to cooking dish?

I love making risotto, and I love long-term cooking, the type that takes all day where you really smell it in the house, like roasting pears. It’s more than just eating the food.

Has your social circle changed since you’ve been hanging with Al and Brad? Does Sean pop around for roasted pears?

Not yet – it’s mainly old friends. I have very good friends I was at Julliard with, and some live locally – so it’s mainly people I’ve known for 10 years. It’s very rare for me to become really close with people I just meet. I like to hang out with normal people.

How’s your Scrabble game?

I’m so obsessed that during The Wettest Country… Tom Hardy and I would play two games at once on our iPads. Of course I always beat him, though he would deny that. I have used all seven tiles – it’s easy to do if you have an “ing”. You can extend any words like that.

So when you’re not doing wild things like playing Scrabble, do you ever go out and party it up like young actresses in LA are supposed to?

I’m not that girl – I’m the girl that goes to the theatre by herself or with friends.

Shame, because in Venice you’ve got Lindsay as a neighbour.

Ha! No… that’s not happening. I think it’s also because I was always the freckly, redheaded theatre nerd… I’ve never been the cool kid. I got teased mercilessly in elementary school and once I found my group of theatre friends I realised I do fit in somewhere.

That sounds like an episode of Glee!

Doesn’t it?!

Words: Tony Horkins
Images: Danielle Levitt
Fashion: Kris Zero

The post Flashback Friday: Jessica Chastain appeared first on Wonderland.

With his zombie-romcom film Warm Bodies hitting number one at the US box office and his new topless (and, er, pants-less) Funny or Die sketch provoking weak knees everywhere, Dave Franco is on a roll. In this exclusive behind-the-scenes video of his Wonderland cover shoot, he gets a little overfamiliar with a dog, kills a couple of flowers and gets told off for looking a little “tense”. Hey, if you looked this good, you’d be tense all the time too.

For more information on our story with Dave, click here. The Babes Issue is out now.

The post DAVE FRANCO: Behind the scenes video appeared first on Wonderland.

Chastain’s latest project, the Pacino-directed Wilde Salome premiered yesterday at the Venice film festival. She pretty much steals the show as the titular character, so for those feeling a bit out of the loop, here’s five things you don’t know about Ms Chastain – read the full interview in the September issue of Wonderland.

1. She’s a theatre geek.
“I’m the girl that goes to the theatre by herself or with friends. I was always the freckly, redheaded theatre nerd… I’ve never been the cool kid. I got teased mercilessly in elementary school and once I found my group of theatre friends I realized I do fit in somewhere.”

2. She likes hanging out in the kitchen:
“I love long-term cooking, the type that takes all day where you really smell it in the house, like roasting pears.”

3. She plays the Ukelele.
I used to play guitar and I realized when I started working and traveling so much that I wasn’t able to play anymore because I felt stupid carrying around a guitar case. With the Ukelele I could just stick it in my suitcase and play it in the hotel room.

4. She never wanted to be famous.
“I’ve always been the student, learning about being an actor, and becoming a better actor, so for me it’s about working with the masters of it. It’s not been about ‘This is the film where I’ll get famous.’ I’ve never thought like that.”

5. She’s a Scrabble champ.
“I’m so obsessed that during [the filming of] The Wettest Country in the World Tom Hardy and I would play two games at once on our iPads. Of course I always beat him, though he would deny that.”

Interview: Tony Horkins
Words: Adam Welch
Photography: Danielle Levitt
Fashion: Kris Zero

The post Five Things You Never Knew About Jessica Chastain appeared first on Wonderland.

In the wake of displaying her real life in a fake way in the British cousin of The Hills, Amy has been lapping up the love, laughing at the haters and making the canny business moves of a young Jordan, bagging a contract to be the face (and big-boobed body) of Caprice’s lingerie line and a column in New! magazine.

Fun and lucrative though all these side projects are, Amy can’t wait to be filming again. “I love it. I can’t wait to go on telly.” At its peak, TOWIE sucked in audiences of 1.2 million, so why has it proved so popular? Amy ventures: “I think because it’s never been done before.” Really? “Yeah, it’s so different. It’s quite glamorous, it’s funny, it’s quite serious, it’s like a drama.”

But the reason Amy loves it herself, is because it appeals to all ages. She’s particularly touched by a scene in which she sees the sweet where others could see the seedy. “I went out for some drinks” she regales, “and a guy who must have been 75 come over and said, ‘Thank you for giving me the best entertainment on ITV2, Sunday and Wednesday.’ And I was like, ‘How lovely is that, that I’m entertaining people of all ages?’” Where dirty, cynical minds see an old man rubbing his knees over the show’s top totty, Amy sees TOWIE as some form of care in the community.

Now series two is on its way, it’s a worry how the newly famous Brentwood boys and birds will manage to keep it real (in that spooky, stilted, not-very-real way), but Amy knows her worth: “The time we start saying: ‘No, we can’t do that’ will probably be the time they say, ‘No, you can’t be in the next series.’ I’ve got to keep grounded and my mum and dad will make me stay grounded as well.”

Post-shoot, Amy revealed her latest catchphrase, her fave supermodel and her top TV shows …

Do you watch yourself in the show? How can I not watch it?
It’s brilliant though. I like it.

Is there a scene you’ve watched and regretted? I don’t regret nothing.
I’ve come across as the fun character, the nice person. The only thing is my make-up. Sometimes I think, “My God Amy, why do you wear that much make-up?” And sometimes I think, “Amy, you’ve got to think before you speak,” but at the end of the day that’s me and I let it all out.

You’ve had great catchphrases like “jel”, “shut up” and “Vajazzling”, but do you have any new ones?
“Professional.” That is my favourite word. Even if I’m not trained in something, I say I’m professional at it. I’m professional at eating that dinner. You’ve got to be a bit professional and I am professional, so it’s a new word for me: “I’m professional.”

And you’re a professional model – why do you have a no topless rule?
Do you know what, I’ve got so much respect for my family and seeing your daughter topless and nude, it just don’t appeal to me and I wouldn’t do it to my family.

Who’s your favourite supermodel?
I love Claudia Schiffer. She’s brilliant. I see her on the advert and her hair’s lovely. Kate Moss, I’ve gone off a bit, but I look at her 10 years ago and she had it. She was stunning.

What are your favourite few TV shows?
Definitely My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, Take Me Out and then One Born Every Minute. That is a brilliant programme. It’s a bit different. It’s a bit involved. It’s about childbirth. I just love watching it and think it’s amazing. You see everything – I’m not gonna lie – but I love watching it. That’s my Monday night, 8 o’clock. I used to love Big Brother, X Factor, Britain’s Got Talent. Love all that. Pete and Kerry show I love. That’s reality, so obviously I watch theirs.

Now you’re queen of the Essex scene, are you tempted to move to London to try and become big on that circuit? No, all my friends are in Essex, I’ve always lived in Essex, I love going out in Essex.

You’re not tempted to live anywhere else?
Well I always say Marbella’s lovely and want to love in a hot country, but not really. I’d probably just have a little house out there. Not yet obviously, but in five years’ time.

Essex has got some gorgeous countryside – do you ever go for a stomp on the hills?
No, not really. I like Brentwood because it’s really countryside, and green, but I’m not – what’s them walkers called?

Ramblers?
I’m not one of them. I ain’t got a stick. I read about Kate Moss that now she works on a farm. Has she got a farm?

She’s got a big country house, so maybe she’s got a farm on it, yeah.
Mmm, bit different, innit? I’ll stay in Essex thanks.

Photography: Danielle Levitt
Editor: Anthony Unwin
Words: Stuart Brumfitt

This article first appeared in full in Wonderland #26, April/May 2011

The post Amy Childs appeared first on Wonderland.

Its owner, wearing only a studded leather bra, is standing in front of a full length mirror, gazing at herself and languorously shifting from side to side while a kneeling assistant inches a pair of rhinestone knickers up her ankles.

Knickers now on (some very un-cheap merchandise, naturally), Paz sashays on to the set, shrugs off her bathrobe and is instantly working it like a 50s pin-up, slowly writhing her coltish limbs like she’s moving in honey. There’s an 80s rock soundtrack playing in the background and she frequently shouts: “I love this song!”

There’s a sizeable team of people watching Paz – about a dozen – and they all seem pretty dumbstruck. Stylist Emilie Kareh, gazing at her from the sidelines, purrs that it’s so easy to dress her because, “she knows how to mooooove”, while photographer Danielle Levitt earlier describes her to me as, “a very charismatic and energising creator.” She adds, perhaps just a touch archly, that, “she does ‘fantasy world’ very well.”

At one point though, Paz seems to feel there isn’t sufficient adulation in the room. Her brow suddenly furrows, she juts her lips into a pout and calls plaintively to the camera, “I need you to be in love with me! Aren’t you in love with me?” It’s a little ridiculous, but not without its own strange pathos – hilarious and heartbreaking all at once. Her astrologer has told her that she was “definitely” Marilyn Monroe in a past life.

Paz was born in SoHo in New York in 1984, the child of Iñigo de la Huerta, a Spanish rancher and Duke of Mandas and Villanueva, and Judith Bruce, a policy analyst for women’s issues in developing countries. It was, by all accounts, a fairly unorthodox childhood.

“When I was a little girl I was quite shy, and my mum took me to acting classes aged four so I could open up. It really became my outlet for me to express myself. That and painting; I paint a lot. There was a lot of drama in my household, so I had a lot of anger at times – especially when I was a teenager.”

In fact, she was kicked out of the sixth grade for breaking a chair over a girl’s head, having been bullied for her skinniness. She went on to St Ann’s school in Brooklyn, where she befriended Zac Posen – she still models for him. It was while at school that she landed her first film role, playing Mary Agnes in The Cider House Rules after she was discovered on a SoHo street.

Jim Jarmusch cast Paz in Limits of Control, in 2009, having written the character of “Nude” especially for her. A character who – you guessed it – isn’t a great wearer of clothes, except for a transparent plastic raincoat, that is. Jarmusch has said, “I always joke that it’s harder to get Paz to keep her clothes on than to take them off.”

A less charitable summation of her came from her mother, who supposedly described her as “Genghis Khan meets Marie Antoinette” in an interview for New York Magazine. When I raise this with Paz, the words are barely out of my mouth before she silences me with a waved hand.
“First of all the guy who wrote that article was an ex-boyfriend who was severely heartbroken and had a lot of ulterior motives so it’s not journalism. It’s against the law for an ex-boyfriend to interview you. So I learned from that experience. Always learning.”

And in terms of keeping private life private, there will probably even more learning to do now – after Boardwalk Empire and her captivating performance in Gaspar Noé’s psychedelic Enter the Void, her fame is going to spread a lot further than the Lower East Side.

She thinks the world would also be happier if everyone lightened up about sex: “I don’t really consider the nudity, it’s just like another costume. I approach it from an emotional space. That’s why it shocks me when people are like “`Oh, she’s nude!” – well what about the fact that I’m crying? Or I’m laughing? It’s an emotional scene. A lot of crazy things happen in the bedroom. Not just sex. Lovers quarrels.”

Is sex important to you?
“Love is,” she coos. “Love, baby, love. Love is really the most important thing. I can’t have sex with someone I’m not in love with. I still love every ex boyfriend I’ve ever had and I talk to them all the time.”

How would her ex-boyfriends describe her?
“Complicated? Fun? Umm. Passionate. Definitely passionate. I think they would say I’m passionate above all. I keep it honest. I don’t like games. And in my work, it really makes me feel things very deeply. I can get to places that I need to get.”

Styled moodily in black dress and plum-coloured lipstick, Paz turns away from the camera to “get into the right emotional space”. There are a few suppressed smirks. When she turns back a moment later though tears are running down her face.

She says she wants to “try everything” and be thought of as, “somebody who gets to people, whether good or bad. I mean, if you get to someone, it means you’re making something in them aliven and awaken and make them question themselves. So I’d like to be a provocative actress. I really know I’m capable of everything and I have so much I want to play … a lot I want to do.”

What sort of thing? She thinks for a moment.
“I would love to do some Victorian like …” she searches for the term.

Costume drama?
“Yeah, costume drama.” Paz in bonnet and crinoline – that really would be a shock.

Photography: Danielle Levitt
Fashion: Emilie Kareh
Words: Hermonie Hoby

A full version of this article first appeared in Wonderland Issue 25, Feb/March 2011

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