Honey Lauren has a name that belongs in show business and the looks and talent to back that claim up. This actress, director, writer, and producer can do it all. She's acted in major Hollywood movies, campy B-movies, and mainstream TV showslike The Nanny and Deadwood. There isn't a genre that Honey can't tackle with grace!
She sat down with me to talk about her new film Wives of the Sky, her memorable nude scenes, and her favorite actors in the business. This was a truly great time because Honey is as sweet and funny as she is beautiful. Keep reading to get to know more about her!
SKIN CENTRAL: Thank you for talking to me today. We have you in a few scenes at Mr. Skin. Did you know that?
HONEY LAUREN: I've been a fan of Mr. Skin since the book. I've known about it for so long. We love it. We think it's hilarious. And a lot of work has gone into it!
SK: Thank you!
HL: I know that I'm on there. certainly for a few things. I always wonder 'how did they know?'
SK:It's our job!With that being said, what was it like to film your very first nude scenes? Do you remember feeling any certain way about that?
HL: Yeah, I remember thinking that - the thing about that was I got into a very high-end project for my very first nude scene. It was Dracula. And I thought 'you know what? this is easy'. And actually part of the audition - this was so crazy and I'm sure a lotof people didn't want to do this for Dracula- they called me in and I had to look a certain way for the time period. I definitely lookedlike I was out of the 1800s withmy hair black and my skin so white and curly hair. It was a lady casting director and she said, "What we need you to do is to take your clothes off and we're going to take your picture with the polaroid." Like really? This is how it's done? So I remember thinking to myself "just think of being a statue here" and I posed naked like that. So I got the part. I was really glad. But maybe no one else would do it, I don't know!
SK: It's funny it happened that way.
HL:But once we got the part, they did let us put something over our pudenda - yeah? our pubic hair - but we were otherwise very naked. It was alright. I remember thinking to myself that it would be a lot harder than it really was. It felt like the people around us were more nervous than we were.
SK: Do you find that to be the case often?
HL: Yes! They try to avert their eyes, walk into walls, crazy funny things like that. But you know I gotta tell you one of my favorite actors, Harvey Keitel, he's done quite a bit of nudity in his career. He said that doing nudity is an event. You're playing the event and then it becomes more like, how can I put this, there's a reason behind it. It makes it so much easier to with that mindset. Because when someone takes their clothes off, that's an event. You play the event. I feel like that was very good advice for me because I didn't do your typical softcore stuff, per se. It was a very different kind of nudity.
SK: Yes, and that was such a mainstream movie to do first. Did you work with any of the leads on the film?
HL: I was asked to do a body double for Winona Ryder. I had never done anything like that and I remember thinking 'I don't know if I want to do that'. They wanted to have a topless scene for her and we were exactly the same size. We were remarkably the same size and the same coloring. It was just going to be my breasts, but they ended up not doing it for some reason. But I was on board to do it with them! So I almost had that scene.
SK:A scene we could have had on our site!
HL:Yeah, I don't know why we didn't do it. Maybe she decided she didn't want to have someone else do it or they didn't want to show her topless at all, but I was ready, set, go.
SK: Do you get nervous doing nude scenes at all?
HL:Not really. I never really did. I did this one movie, the Jimi Hendrix movie, and there's one scene where I take my top off and come out of the bedroom and the director was SO nervous. He was shaking! I don't know if he used it in the film. I was in Deadwood and I was hired to play one of the Gem girls and we were to recur in the series. I had a couple of lines. It was wonderful. There were seven of us who were hired and when it came to the scene where we were naked and getting dressed, the other girls got really wiggy. They were really freaked out. This is mainstream! This is HBO. But some of them just wouldn't do it. The next day they gave us a nudity rider describing every nude scene that was expected of us. It didn't bother me at all. I knew that we were doing that. We were playing prostitutes. Eventually, Walter Hill, the wonderful Walter Hill. He's incredible. He said he needed somebody in one scene where we were sitting there on a couch, we were naked, and a man comes up to us in the gem saloon. He put my hair up to be like another person. He was really nervous about doing it and I told him, let's just do it. It was so easy for me. He said to meafterward "you know, Honey, I know how to direct fights scenes and scenes where people are getting blown up and shot" butdirecting a naked girl was hard for him. He thanked me - he was sincerely thanking me for what I was being hired to do! But it was because the other girls were such jerks about it. So fast forward a few years later and I'm at a party at Mickey Rourke's house and he remembered me. He was telling people how easy I was to work with. It was so kind of him!
SK: That's so nice! You're building such a good reputation.
HL: I know. He was terrified he wasn't going to get the shot right or something, but you know what a wonderful director Water Hill is. Especially in Westerns! Anyway, I'll never forget that.
SK: That's so cool. So your newest film Wives of the Sky -
HL: Yes, I directed it and wrote it. I'm not in it actually!
SK: Yes, but it deals with taboo subjects of sexuality. How do you use sexuality thematically in your own work?
HL: Here's the thing: sex sells. We know that. None of that is going to change. In this movie, these girls are beautiful. They are good girls drawn bad - which is something my husband has always said about me. I'm a total girl scout. That's what these girls are. Good girls drawn bad. It's 1965, They are stewardesses and they happen to have a love for kinbaku which is a Japanese binding art, bondage. There's no nudity in this film, but it's titillating. These hot girls are doing this with each other and doing it beautifully. It's titillating, but not carnal. I have gotten grief from it a little bit from some of the community festivals. One festival wrote to me and said 'we are a family festival.' I told them, "Any carnality that you are imbuing on this film is in your head."
SK: This is such an expert way to handle BDSM which you don't often see unless it is explicit.
HL:Yeah, exactly. It's funny because I don't think of this as BDSM. It's a funny little kink these girls do together and they love each other. Maybe if this was 1975, they'd be kissing by then!
SK: How do you handle writing and directing as opposed to just acting?
HL: I know there are people who are comfortable writing, directing AND acting. I tried that one time, but I didn't feel that I could do that again. Maybe in the future, but I don't know how people actually do it. I think you need another person to co-direct. With this film, I really wanted this to be authentic. These girls were retired by the time they were 30 - or in this case 28 - but those were the rules then. They might still work for the airlines, but not as flight attendants.
SK: Those were the real rules?
HL:Oh, yes. You had to be a certain weight and a certain height and wear undergarments that are very tight. So I didn't want to play a part myself because I wanted it to look authentic. In the casting of it, I cast Rachel Alig. I always look at her and think she's such a throwback. She's right out of 1965. She's so authentic to look at! No plastic surgery, nothing. All-natural. She's just so beautiful and an amazing actress. Maddison Bullock, too, is such a great actress. Her talent is amazing, but her physique is also so beautiful. She's a professional ice skater.
SK: How did you find them?
HL: I worked with them both before. I worked with all of these actors before on different projects. I worked with Madison on a project with Snapchat and with Rachel on a movie with Paul McCarthy.
SK:What has the reception been like?
HL: We've gotten 25 awards so far. People are really loving it. I will say that there have been one or two festivals that I've worked with before that didn't take this, but I think there is something there to be said where super conservative festivals seem to be afraid of this film. That disappoints me because I'm so naive that I thought this would be mainstream. But it's not at all mainstream. To me it's rated G. It's squeaky clean! I'm never going to do anything this clean again, but I can see it touches people in a certain way. One reviewer really loved it but she described this movie as "abject discomfort". But it's a comedy, so she got that part right.
SK: Since this is Mr. Skin I have to ask: what is your favorite movie sex scene?
HL:Yes, Don't Look Now with Julie Christie. Now I've hard so many different things about that scene. Was it real? Was it not? I don't care if it was real or not. I couldn't believe it when I saw that movie. That's how you do a love scene!
SK: Who are your celebrity crushes right now?
HL: You're going to laugh because I love old school actors. I've always had a crush on Christopher Walken. That's a running theme with Honey Lauren. He probably thinks I'm a stalker. And Harvey Keitel. I'm talking old school! For girl crushes, I have a few. Again, old school over here.Nicole Kidman. She's one of the most watchable actresses we have. There are a few others, I'm sure. Oh! I'll tell you who. Michelle Dockery. She's in the new Guy Ritchie movie. She's so good! She's using her real accent in that movie.
SK:She was great in that movie.
HL: Oh, yes. She's a definite girl crush.
SK: Are there any upcoming projects you can tell us about?
HL: Yes, I'm doing a new series called Knights of Swing. I'll be recurring on it. It's about a high school that takes place in 1947 and they put together a swing back. I play the mother of one of the vocalists who joins the band.It'sa throwback to "happier" days with good, clean fun and swing dancing. Everyone involved is super talented and it's a very dynamic cast. It's not the easiest thing to do - a period piece - but it's a lot of fun. Some other projects have unfortunately been canceled or postponed. So I'm praying for us all. Whenever people make a wish, I always wish it for the world. I never pray for an audition or anything. I would never do that. Pray for the world!
SK:That's so sweet. Thank you for talking to me today!
HL:Thank you and tell Mr. Skin I'm a fan. I'm such a fan!
