Model/actor/producer/TV personality Honey Labrador recently spoke with AfterEllen.com while she and her manager were on route to the airport in New York, where her new film, April’s Shower, had just had a preview screening. It was released two days later, on January 13, in limited cities and is also playing on here TV this month.
AfterEllen.com: How was last night’s screening? Honey Labrador: It went really well. They had two theaters of people down at the quad and a great response. So it was pretty exciting. But, you know, 48 hours in New York is never enough.
AE: Definitely not. And are you based in L.A. now? HL:Yes, I’ve been in L.A. for about 15 years. We actually have a premiere tomorrow night at the Regent Showcase, because Regent is releasing April’s Shower. So it’s being released theatrically, officially, on Friday the 13th, which should be a lucky day. I just don’t believe in those superstitions. It opens Friday in New York, L.A., San Francisco and Palm Springs, and then we have a rollout to ten different cities over the next two months.
AE: I hear there’s a special event after the premiere in L.A. Are you guys all appearing somewhere? HL: Actually Girl Bar is sponsoring a screening Friday night, the opening, and then everyone can get into Girl Bar. There’ll be a party there after the Friday night shows, so that’ll be fun.
AE: Can you tell me a little bit about your character in April’s Shower, Sasha? HL: Sasha is a character who in some ways is very much like me. Like, I need to know right now, and I’m not going anywhere until I get an answer. And if you don’t tell me the answer that I want to hear, then I’m going to do whatever I have to do. And that’s how Sasha is. Sasha and her girlfriend Sophie are mid-fight and so, of course, they have to bring this fight to the shower. Because it’s not finished. Like the two crazy Latin kind of lesbians that we are, we’re just going at it from the moment we walk in the house.
AE: Are you Latina? HL: Well, my father was Philipino, Chinese and Spanish. I’ve got all of that Spanish kind of crazy blood, on the one side.
AE: Let me make sure I have all of this right: You had an international modeling career that started when you were 17? HL:Yes. I’m the big 4-0. I turned 40 this past year. So, I started modeling at 17, and, yeah, I modeled all over the world. I’m from New York originally. I grew up in Southampton. You know, I got married, had a kid, and then realized that, oh wow, I like girls. I had a six-month-old child and then my first girlfriend just appears. The rest is kind of history, but I moved out to L.A. to pursue acting, and really ended up be coming a producer. And then by stroke of luck and faith I ended up getting Queer Eye for the Straight Girl, and that put me in a totally different position with the LGBT community – one that I’m really grateful for. But it keeps me extremely busy.
AE: What are you up to these days? HL:Well, right now I have a daily, live talk show. It’s a morning show. Well, it’s the morning on the West Coast. But it’s on Q Television.
AE: You’re talking about The Brunch? HL: Yeah, The Brunch is my show. We’ve been doing it since September 6th, and I co-host with Scott Withers. Scotty and I have a great time. We’re like the gay Regis and Kelly. I’m Regis, he’s Kelly. Anyway, we do this talk show every day. It’s kind of a sit com-y hybrid with a talk show kind of thing. It takes place in the apartment that we’re in and, you know, we have a good time. It’s very skewed in focus for the community, and our guests are all different kinds of people in the community: actors, singers, directors, charities. And we try to tackle serious topics from time to time, and it’s informative and it’s fun.
AE: Who are some of the guests or charities and what are some of the topics you’ve had on the show? HL: Well, a topic we did last Wednesday – and it really was a great show, though it was the most different format that we did to date – was on teen suicide prevention. Just because it’s a subject very close to me, and The Trevor Project is one of my favorite charities. And there’s another one, Teen Line Online, which is a suicide hotline manned by teenagers. It was just something that I felt was really important to do, and we got a lot of response from viewers from all different places in the country. Which is great when you have a platform, to be able to use it, to really reach out and be able to help other people. Because I think that so many people, especially in that position, think that they are alone. And especially in our community.
Then we’ve had others. We just do fun things. I get to have singers on. Actually Sam Harris, a wonderful singer, is co-hosting for me today. And, you know, Ted Allen from Queer Eye has been on. I had him on before the holidays and got him to whip up some things. But I have a minor background in cooking, so I get to cook on my show sometimes. That was one of my survival jobs when I was out there struggling as an independent producer, I had a catering company, so I get to bring those talents.
You know, it’s just been great to have different political people on, from the Log Cabin Republicans to whatever the Democrat comparison is. It’s really been a great opportunity. We’re going to be covering the Gay Games in Chicago in July. Q is covering all of those. So we’ve had a lot of athletes and different people who are involved with that. We’re going out to Sundance. I’m going to be out there covering some of the film festival, especially, obviously, the members of our community who are directors, producers, actors and the like. And the Queer Lounge, which I’m sure you’ve heard of. And Ellen Wong, who’s a dear friend. It’s great that we have this opportunity to reach out to all areas of the community. So I’m really getting familiarized with areas outside of Hollywood and outside of the film and television industry, which is fun.
AE: So, do you guys have brunch on the show each morning? HL: Well, we started out in the beginning where sometimes we’d make brunch, but really it’s just kind of like a cup of coffee and, you know. That’s pretty much what I have every day. It really is more just the name of the show.
AE: But you said sometimes you get to cook on the show. HL: Sometimes I get to cook and we have other guests who come in and cook. But we’ve had some really fantastic chefs come in and cook, and that’s always fun.
AE: So, tell me about Xcess/Access. HL: Xcess/Access is a show that I did with my old production company, Siren Multimedia. Basically I pitched this fashion concept last March to Frank Olsen and he said, “Absolutely, do it.” Eight days later we were the shooting fashion shows in Los Angeles. So just having a background in fashion has given me access in a way that not everybody can get. It’s also knowing what to look for. Having been a model, it’s like going back and talking to models, I find that it’s easy for them to talk to me, because I’ve done what they do. And I don’t come in criticizing them or coming in with a lot of judgment, which so may people do, because they don’t really respect it for the very, very difficult job that it is. It’s like with any sort of celebrity: People often think that it’s easy, that it’s a walk in the park. Modeling in some ways is even more difficult than acting, I think, personally.
AE: Well, I guess when it’s done well, that’s when it looks effortless and easy. HL: Oh, yeah. So what we did was we went in and shot behind the scenes. It’s like Excess/Access was basically excessive access to the world of fashion. Behind the scenes of the shows, of the parties, you know, interviewing celebrities and models. And I actually walked two shows, which was terrifying. So I got to do the catwalk, which is something I hadn’t done in over a decade.
AE: Wow. Good for you. HL: Yeah, it was never my favorite part of the modeling business, and I can honestly say it still isn’t.
AE: But you made yourself do it. HL: Well, yeah, I made myself do it, because it was a job. Of course, I had to carb to sleep for three days, but after that I was happy to eat some pizza again.
AE: Then Queer Eye for the Straight Girl – you’re not still doing work with that. HL:No. Queer Eye for the Straight Girl just had one season. It was a great platform for me, but the unfortunate thing is that with one season I think it’s very hard to know the impact. Because not everyone is going to write in or call in and say, “Hey, this is great. I love this show.” But my experience has been that since the show has not come back, everybody I know who saw it – or even just complete strangers – say to me, “Oh, I loved it. I wish that show would come back. I had no idea.” So they didn’t know. And I think that’s just part of the Bravo makeup, you know? If you tend to overrun shows seven times in one week, there’s nothing special about it. But I think that the show was a great idea and that the Queer Eye guys, they’re still out there, doing their thing. Everything has a shelf life.
AE: And it seems like it’s the rule rather than the exception that series get canceled, even when people out there like it. HL: Oh, exactly. And ultimately it’ll play itself out like everything does. And then hopefully everybody gets to move on to other things. That’s where I feel just fortunate that I got to do this to begin with, because being the lone female in this group of Queer Eye guys, I got to stand out in a way that said more about one segment of our community, be cause there are so many different types of lesbians. So I just got to use my experience as a mother and as a business woman and a divorcee, someone who’s been married and divorced and in a relationship and just all of those great things. And just working with women, making women over, was a hell of a lot more challenging, I think, than making any guy over. Period.
AE: Really? HL: Oh, yeah. Women have a definite idea of who they are. And most of the guys, if you’ve seen the show, it’s just like you tell them to comb their hair or tuck in your shirt, or match your belt and shoes, and that’s pretty much it, you know?
AE: [Laughs] Plus, they’ll just do it. HL: Oh, we had women crying about their hair and… It’s just like, oh dear.
AE: So, on the show, you were “The Lady.” What was up with that title? HL: It’s really just, you know, they had the Look, the Lifestyle, the Locale and the Lady. You know, it was the four L’s. That’s why I think a lot of the gimmicky stuff that they did, which I don’t know whose idea those names were – whatever. But I think the Lady encompassed everything it was to be a woman. Being the Lady was not being one of the guys, bottom line. It was all that being a lady encompasses.
AE: So, you’ve been in commercials, films, TV, and then you’ve produced film and TV since ’94, is it? HL: About that. I think it was actually in ’97 that I set out to start producing. Because it’s only been about seven or eight years now. So in ’97 I was still modeling and I decided – I read the script for April’s Shower and I thought, Wow. I really, really would love to produce this. So Trish Doolan and I set out to make April’s Shower. You know, it took us six years to make that film.
AE: I was going to ask you about that. I know you also worked with her on a short, The Bug in My Ear. HL:The Bug in My Ear was a short that we did mainly as a reel for Trish. Chris Racster and I produced it with Trish to get her a reel, and the funny thing is we started showing that reel around and the next thing we know, it’s getting submitted to film festivals. That reel enabled us to raise all of the money to make April’s Shower. And April’s Shower is a move that all these different actors wanted to do and directors. And it’s just turned into a totally different kind of film. It was really more about the story. And I asked Trish quite frankly, “Do you feel like you would be okay if someone else directed this film?” And she thought long and hard about it, so we decided to make the film with her directing. And like I said, it was a real labor of love.
AE: And you said it ends up being about six years in the making? HL:Yeah, well, from the time that I read it until the time that we actually got it in the can, it was exactly six years. That’s reading it and still being a model and having that whole career and then going off and producing other things. And since doing that, I’ve produced other short films that – pretty much everything I’ve produced has won an award somewhere or another. And I say that because it’s just like I’ve gotten to make all of the stuff that I’ve produced has got a gay theme to it, with the exception of Offside. The two shorts that I co-produced for POWER UP, Little Black Boot and Promtoversy, those actually turned out to be great little films that are airing, I think, on Logo right now. I’m not sure if it’s on Logo or Q, quite frankly. I know that between the three networks – Logo, here! and Q – I’ve got something airing. Which is great, because I think that we need all three networks to succeed.
AE: Right, definitely. It’s great that they all came about, I think. HL: Oh, yes. Absolutely. It’s just that everybody has a different agenda, and why else do you think we have, you know, 500 channels on TV right now? You know, there’s something for everybody.
AE: With the shorts that you’ve participated in, either acting or producing, you’ve worked with Roberta Munroe and Guinevere Turner in addition to Trish Doolan… It just seems like you’ve worked with a lot of queer directors, and women particularly. I was wondering if that’s been a conscious choice or more a matter of who you know. HL:Well, you know, I think it is. I’d be lying to say it’s an unconscious choice. It was definitely a conscious choice. You know, Roberta Munroe is somebody I really respect. So when she asked me I said, “Absolutely. What do you want me to do?” I went out and brought food and coffee and all kinds of stuff to the set when she was shooting, and then got to act in it. My producing partner Deb Schneider and I did a short film called Hung with Guin Turner, yet another writer/director within the community, another lesbian director. And Trish to me is… You know, we also happened to be in a relationship for seven and a half years, so we really helped build each other in our careers.
AE: Is that a current relationship? HL: No, we are just friends now.
AE: And you’ve been working together even since breaking up? HL: Well, luckily most of the work was done before we broke up, otherwise I don’t know how we would have finished it. [Laughs] No, we actually had finished everything and were in the process of signing a deal and selling the film and everything else. Yeah, it can be very challenging being with someone and working with them in a 24/7, day-in-and-day-out job. It’s very hard to let go of the job.
AE: I can only imagine. So, how has it been when you’re working on a film both as an actor and as a producer? How do you juggle those roles? HL: It’s a little bit difficult. It’s different being a host. So doing television, doing X/A and also doing Brunch, well, especially since Brunch is live, that’s really a different animal. So, doing that is so in the moment. There’s no reshoot, there’s no take two. So it’s like being aware of what you’re doing in the moment. Acting and producing in April’s Shower was definitely challenging because I was all too aware of what it costs hourly for us to shoot that film.
So Trish would say, you know, jokingly, that Honey was one of the more difficult actors, because I’d be like, “Okay, we’re moving on.” And she’d say: “Uh, we’re moving on when I say we’re moving on.” And it would actually be almost ridiculous because I’d be like, “How many feet of film did we just shoot?” It was ridiculous. So I definitely had to relinquish my control as a director. It’s different being a writer and then acting. Because once you’ve written it, you’ve written it. Then if you’re acting you just move into that.
AE: You don’t have to simultaneously juggle those. HL:Right. But what we did, my co-producers and I, was we’d schedule the film and then I would shoot nights or I would shoot days in a row, and get past them. Shoot out all of my scenes and then I could focus on producing.
AE: So, what do you like about each of those roles – acting and producing? HL: Um, I’ve always wanted to act, from the time I was eight years old. I thought, that is my absolute dream. Acting is something I’ve always had a passion for. But it’s a lifelong pursuit. It depends what you want to do: Do you want to do it because you have a passion or it or because you want to be a star? I think if you want to be a star, you’ll find something else to do. That’s where people can be misguided.
Producing, for me, was something that I fell in love with right from the beginning. And it’s a huge process. The creative part of it and helping somebody to realize their dream, to me, is the greatest part of it. Anybody I work with will tell you that when I find a director or writer, it’s like really honing whatever that is they’re doing and really wanting to create. That is huge. To watch the face of a writer see her film on the screen for the first time is just amazing. So Melanie Aswell, who wrote Promtoversy, she sat there and saw in front of an audience for the first time – not only did Leana Creel direct her film but Jane Lynch is in her film – she’s watching this and I asked, “Is it what you expected when you wrote it?” And she said, “It’s so much more. And it’s different than what I had originally set out to do.”
AE: Was April’s Shower the first feature that you’ve been involved with? HL: Well, it’s the first feature that I actually was involved with from the roots and up, in terms of producing and raising the money and seeing it all through close, and it being my production company. That’s the first thing we produced. But I used to work for Passion Films, and we did a film called Good Advice with Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards and a few other people. That was just a totally different experience because the company I worked for, its executive producers, you’re in a different place. I was working for Michael Bolton at the time. That was his company. And that was originally a movie written for him.
We were all friends, so Mark Burg said, “I think this would be great for Charlie.” And Charlie was making his comeback. He hadn’t really been doing anything. You know, he wasn’t really on everybody’s top 10 list. Or top 10 favorite list. It would be a different top 10 list. He was just then coming back to do Spin City, and, you know, coming out of hiding or wherever he was. And he played that role. But Good Advice is a movie that Michael Bolton developed with the writers. So he had his film company, which was fun, and I got to work with him for three years. That was a really good experience. That’s where I made my leap. I went from the modeling business to producing. I took a drastic cut in pay but I really got to learn a lot and meet a lot of people, which was great.
AE: You hadn’t done any acting before you got into producing films? HL: No, I had done nearly 80 commercials and some bit parts in films. And honestly, producing was a way to actually do the roles I really wanted to do, and for me to not be stereotyped to just ethnic actress. Sometimes people are just so thick; they can’t see past the outside.
AE: What kind of work do you want to be involved with in the future? Is there anything that you haven’t seen yet that you’d like to see happen? HL: Well, I really do feel that I’m either doing everything that I want to do or at least moving in that direction. I mean, cloning would be great because there could be three of me and I could do all of the things I really want to do in this lifetime. But right now I think the most important thing is, I’d love to see this network have more good shows take off, and I’d really like to continue promoting people within our community. Promoting not just organizations and charities, but different things. I get to work with a company, as I feel the necklace around my neck, Love and Pride. This is a company that I’m going to get to design some jewelry with. You know, fashion is something that I love, and I spoke to Udi Behr, who’s a designer for Love and Pride, and we’re going to create some jewelry together. We actually just created a whole line for The L Word. He’s in Italy and he’s just wonderful. People like that, people who are creating and doing things for the community.
Because I think the reality is that the gay and lesbian population in this country has more disposable in come per capita than any other sector. Any other sector. We make $710 billion a year. We are the ones spending money, we are the ones buying the luxury products and we are the ones facing corporations like Ford, like Wal-Mart – there are corporations out there that just aren’t catering to us. We’ve got to band together and start boycotting some of these people who just simply aren’t getting it.
And you’ve gotta ask yourself, how important is my Land Rover, my Range Rover, my Jaguar to have as opposed to my civil rights. And, quite frankly, that’s what I believe in. What I really believe in the future. And it’s my duty as a lesbian who’s out there and recognizable – it is my duty to go out there and speak up, say, “Hey, wake up!” You know? I don’t need to spend my money here, with people who are completely close-minded. And the thing that does allow me to sleep at night is knowing that George Bush will no longer be in that White House in 2008. Thank God.
AE: We have that at least. HL: We need to wake up and smell the coffee. Trust me, I come from a Republican family. I thought capitalism was more important than anything else. I really hope that people wake up and smell the coffee, because it’s going to be their child. And it’s really the person who doesn’t want to see it, who turns a blind eye to it, whose son or daughter unfortunately is either going to get murdered or attacked over their sexuality. You know, there’s still a lot of hate crimes against people in our community. And we have to stop the segregation within our community, and then we have to get out there and speak up.
AE: Well, it’s great that you have a platform to do that, and that you’re actually using it. HL: Yeah. [Sigh] You know, I am. It’s one of those things. I got pretty riled up just talking to my family last night and just trying to make the point: Watch where you vote and watch what you do, because just imagine me disappearing from this table and not existing. Because when you pull that lever and you vote in a certain way, that’s what you’re saying. Do you want to face that reality and do you want to basically throw away your daughter’s, your sister’s, civil rights?
AE: Well, I hope you changed some opinions in that conversation. HL: Oh, yeah. You know they’re just like, “Oh dear… Does anybody want a cup of coffee?”
AE: [Laughs] Well, you gotta at least try. You’re making a lot of effort. HL: Well, hopefully we all will.
