Swimsuit LEE + LANI; Gold necklace WANDERLUST; Tribal necklace JOSAFINA DE ALBA
Out of all of your film and television roles, what is your favorite project to date?
It’s hard to say because everything’s been so different. Smallville was my platform; it’s where I got my first spotlight. Breakout Kings was amazing because we created a family both on- and off-screen. I’m also having such a wonderful experience with Graceland. I just finished a film called Sister that premiered at Tribeca this year, which I’m extremely proud of; the cast and crew were just phenomenal (Reed Scott, Barbara Hershey and Grace Kaufman). This is one of those roles that I was speaking about where it wasn’t necessarily typecast for me, but I knew I wanted it so I went after it. I ended up sitting down with the director (David Lasher) over coffee and explaining why I wanted to bring his character to life. I asked if he would give me the opportunity to do so, and he did. For that, I’m extremely grateful.
You play a lot of characters that are strong and ballsy; is that a choice or a habit?
Ha! That’s a good question. I’m not exactly sure. It’s a little bit of both. I think it has to do with my background in gymnastics and also my personality in life. That’s probably why I gravitate towards those roles, but I’m not sure. For some reason, I keep playing murderers and characters with strange supernatural powers, so maybe I should look into that!
When you aren’t working, you are helping others. Tell us about Friends to Mankind and 18 for 18.
Friends to Mankind is an organization and a movement that is about doing what you can where you are. It is about viewing the world through friendship, because you’d never want your friend to go hungry, or your friend to be in distress, or go to war with your friend. You’d try to help your friend in any way that you possibly could. 18 for 18 came through this belief system. It is a project I founded through Friends to Mankind just over two years ago when I visited Cambodia on a mission to learn more about the second largest criminal enterprise in the world—sex trafficking. I visited one nonprofit called the Somaly Mam Foundation, a leader in the fight against sex trafficking. After hearing that they were short $18,000 on their budget, I knew that there was something I had to do. When I realized that North America’s highest skydive was 18,000 feet (a jump in which you need to have an oxygen mask on because of the altitude) I knew what I had to do. Since its conception in 2011, we have raised almost $250,000 and reached over 50 million people with our anti-sex-trafficking message through outlets such as social media, print, and television.
Has charity/volunteer work always been a priority of yours?
It has, and I’m not exactly sure when it started. It was something that seemed to be instilled in me by my parents at a very young age. They brought an element of fun to it as well as educating me on the specific problem or cause. It was about seeing this place that we call home as “one world and one tribe” and not allowing our differences to separate us, but rather bring us together.
