I’ve covered a lot of ground geographically and emotionally and for years I lost my connection with my family. But the best comfort you can have, whether you are on the phone or sitting there in the living room with them, is with your parents, and to me family has always meant protection. When you smile you get a smile back, unconditionally.
I’ve been to hundreds of conventions in my career. Sometimes I’m afraid I may get jaded by them. But then, I see a figure in bright colors walking up to me, and I smile. I thank them for reminding me of just how lucky I am to do what I get the honor to do every day of my life.
As a model, I really stand for not being a model, if that makes sense. When I started, the whole idea of the model was very different; it was a bit stuck-up. Not stuck-up, but no one was trying to have fun, or not even have fun, but be willing to smile.
‘Priced to sell’ – just the phrase makes me smile. When a dealer says all the items in his booth are priced to sell, he means he’s tagged them as aggressively as he can to get you to buy them. Don’t worry, though, I still haggle. You have to. That’s the point of a flea market.
Country music in the mid-’90s was a big influence on my career, and I played all the songs that are referenced in ‘94’ back in my club days. Joe Diffie was rocking a sick mullet, and he was hotter than ever… just putting out monster hit after monster hit. It totally takes me back to those days, and it makes me smile every time I hear it.
From a very young age, music was very much in my house. I would sit with my mom, with the old LPs, listening to The Beatles and Carly Simon and Lionel Richie. The old LPs used to have the lyrics. From there, I would put on dance and music displays for my family, just to entertain them and make people laugh and smile.
I used to watch some of the reality shows about models, and then, weirdly, now I try to incorporate into my fashion shoots the skills I learnt from watching those shows. It’s like, thanks Tyra, ‘cause you’ve given me, like, all the cool tips. Like how to smile with your eyes.
I’m not looking for anything more than any other guy. I like a good smile. Pretty eyes. She has to be active, like not play-sports active, but she’ll play air hockey, do some pool, go for rides on the Santa Monica Pier. I would much rather have fun with her than do the cool thing.
I wanted Jesus in ‘A.D.’ to be very, very, very human – to have those qualities of vulnerability and doubt and pain and sadness and loneliness. Once the resurrection happens and we see that Jesus has risen, it’s almost complete, right? It’s all about the joy and the smile and the happiness and the closeness to the disciples.
And I like the look on people’s faces when I say I’m doing this movie called Pride and Prejudice and they kind of smile, and then I say I’m in a movie called Doom and they kind of do a double take and try and put the two things together. And they never quite manage to.
I had the opportunity to go into the hospitals and talk to kids and see a kid and make him smile. Why? Because I’m a special person? No. It had nothing to do with that. It has everything to do with me being the quarterback at the University of Florida. And to not take advantage of that is a shame.
One can see the professionals and intellectuals talking to their rural brethren with an amused and condescending smile. They forget that but for the toiling rural masses, all their professional training and erudition would collapse like a castle of cards.
I don’t know what I would have done without believing in God. His support gives me power and energy to continue to be optimistic, to smile, not to be depressed. Sometimes, if things are not going so well, I don’t cry. I say maybe it’s meant to be.
I don’t remember ever deciding to become a performer. I just always was. I began performing by mimicking the performers on the new television that first took the attention away from me as the baby of the household. I continued performing to put a smile on my grandmother’s face and always considered her when accepting or declining roles.
I have my own dance and production companies, and acting is my creative outlet. It’s what I’m passionate about. I’ve actually created a lifestyle where I could act for free. I could get a job to pay the bills and act on the weekends to make me smile.
When I used to wrestle professionally, I preferred being the bad guy known as ‘The Heel;’ you would get to ‘work the crowd,’ getting them to hate you and want to see you lose, while the good guy ‘Babyface’ would walk in, smile and shake hands with a few kids, and his acting job was done.
I spend days on my Xperia logging on Facebook chatting with my friends and family at home; I love listening to Rihanna and Pink and watching movies. Basically, anything that makes me smile, but most of my fans will know that I am always smiling!
I definitely want to continue working in independent films – and big budget stuff as well – but there’s a freedom you have when you’re not getting paid. It’s easier to say no and there’s no pressure to please the powers that be. Also I don’t have to hear ‘flirt and smile more.’
I grew up in a household without a TV. We lived next door to a library for a while, and at one point, I checked out all the books in the fairy tale section. I remember the librarian’s quiet smile as I’d bring back one stack and exchange it for another.
As a former waitress myself, I know firsthand how a simple smile from someone can improve your day and how a single harsh word can destroy it. Being courteous and thoughtful costs you nothing and can sometimes pay you dividends in unexpected ways.
If you can’t relax during your interview, then nothing you do to prepare will matter. Being yourself is essential to the selection process, and interviewers will feel it if you’re too nervous. Showing fear or anxiety appears weak compared to a relaxed smile and genuine confidence.
I wasn’t as used to the new dumb questions, so when men I had once thought of as wise daddies now asked me ‘How do you write?’ I did not try and spill red wine in their suede pants. I would just smile and say, ‘On a typewriter in the mornings when there’s nothing else to do.’
I don’t hear a lot about elected officials that are men talking about whether they smile a lot. My dad was in elected office my entire life. I don’t remember many smiles, and nobody commented about it. He was serious about his job, and so am I.
All the awards in the world, you can get into all the nightclubs, they’ll send you the nicest clothes. Nothing better than walking into your dad’s restaurant and seeing a smile on his face and knowing that your mom and dad and your sister are real proud of you.
