The 50's

I was obsessed with Marilyn Monroe as a kid. Kid meaning teens. Yeah, I don't care, call me a fag. She  was my idea of smoking sexy hot.

I think it had to do with my love of "Back To The Future." That movie was the essence of that time period. And they definitely played up the nostalgia. For a guy like me who grew up in idyllic midwestern Ohio suburbia, it was a comfort zone. As was Marilyn Monroe.

When you find out things about her later in life...you get a sense of sadness that she existed in this world. To the frustration of directors (if you do the research) who felt she was difficult to deal with. Who would be our equivalent today? Probably Lindsay Lohan. Monroe's alcoholism & drugs was legendary. She had a posse that kept her in both. And also kept her in a fog. I think because her reality was probably very traumatic. No one really reigns you completely in if you're stunning and have megawatt movie star power. Goddess on a Boticelli tableau.

She definitely didn't shy away from playing the helpless little girl lost role. Nowadays, someone like Lohan has so much media rammed down her throat, it's near impossible to be mysterious. People loathe this person because of her behavior. We've melded both fantasy and reality together. I think people are afraid of Lohan, where in Monroe's case, people wanted to help her.

The 50's were painted as such a fantasy. A time when there was very little worry in America. I think if you ask anyone who grew up during that time, they'd have a different story. Although, growing up in the 80's, which was a resurgence of the 50's, I got a sense it was looked at fondly. I like that era, because television and movies were just booming and it was great propaganda of Americana. I think that's why I like doing "vintage" style shooting. I can recreate that feeling again.