Q: Tell us about your artistic aesthetic.

A: My personal artistic aesthetic is rooted in the glamour of the film vixens of the 1940s and 1950s, mixed with a little Bonnie and Clyde and a little Gypsy Rose Lee. This inspiration was planted when I was a film projectionist in a hundred year old movie house. I have wonderful memories of being perched on the ledge of the projection booth, watching the screen fill with confident and take-charge women of classic films. It was their strength and daring that I wanted to emulate. I would mouth along to Lauren Bacall in To Have and Have Not (which I now do on stage in a burlesque routine). I was inspired from the messages of those classics…that you could become what you always dreamed of, that a regular girl could grow up to take over the world. The biggest icons from that time are Marilyn Monroe, who spent most of her childhood in orphanages and foster homes and Elvis, a poor boy from Tennessee. There was always a feeling that the underdog would win in the end. That's the ideal for me…I'm a dame who never gives up. My film, Revolver; my boutique, Danger Dame, and my burlesque performances have become a way to share those adventures.

Q: Tell us how others describe your work versus how you see it? Do theyget it?

A: There is no hiding who I am. I was raised by a professional gambler and a drop dead gorgeous hula hoop champion. I have daydreamed about robbing banks since I was seven years old. I have a desperate, violent, romantic heart. These things are apparent in all the work I do and in me as if they were tattooed on my very skin.

Q: Any stories of current or past struggles?

A: Two and 1/2 years ago, broke and daydreaming on a fire escape with director and photographer Burke Heffner, we came up with this story idea. It wasn't originally a screenplay, it was just our way of escaping, pretending we were on the road and adventuring. We had no money, so we just imagined what it would be like if we could go anywhere and do anything. A Road Trip, we decided. To Vegas. I started taking notes, creating a fictitious diary of this no-nonsense dame, Blue, who stirs up trouble robbing convenience stores owned by a corrupt corporation. Then the diary started to have a life of its own and the story became the beginnings of the screenplay "Revolver."

Once the screenplay was finished, we knew we'd have to make some kind of trailer for the film to get it funded, to show everyone what we could do.
I started by calling every single person that I thought might be able to help out. I called Kodak and once they read the script and heard my story, they gave me a grant for 35mm film. I called environmentally friendly companies, like Annie's Organic Pasta, Robert's American Gourmet, Fantastic Foods, and Emergen-C, who were all happy to kick in food to feed the cast and crew. I even got the Colt .45 for free.

Together with my rugged rag tag group of film friends who agreed to sleep on the floor and work 20 hour days, we got the promotional trailer shot. It was a lot of hard work, with a lot of fancy footwork to get people to let us shoot in their homes, bars and motels for free.

Once we finished shooting, and were just about to start editing, I was attacked in the face by a Rotweiller while volunteering at an animal shelter in Brooklyn. The dog ripped the side of my nose off, and left a gash under my eye as well, missing the eye itself by a fraction of an inch. Twenty-two stitches in the face in all. For some weird reason, it made me want to fight more, and I showed up to record the voice over you hear at the beginning of the trailer with my nose lined with black wire stitches and a patch on my eye.

It all paid off, as the trailer was nominated for the prestigious Golden Trailer Awards in Los Angeles and won. Other winners included: Lord of the Rings, Stepford Wives, and Lost In Translation. As a result of our win, we were featured in an extremely favorable Los Angeles Times article and a national UPN spot. Since the win, I've been doing a lot of meeting with producers and agents, and trying to get the right people together to do the film. I really feel that the reason the trailer worked so well, is because everyone who worked on it, did it for the sheer love of it…our desperate hearts are in it for the long haul on this one. For every little second of it. Everyone needs something to believe in, and Revolver is worth every ounce of belief.

A Cowboy who's never lied,
And a Showgirl who's never trusted anyone…

When Pocket is forced to travel from his hometown in Montana to New York City, he returns with more than just his estranged father's belongings. Leaving the city, Pocket picks up a street smart beauty named Blue.

Blue's sparkle puts a twist in Pocket's quiet life. Hitting every landmark ever preserved on a postcard, she drags Pocket from closed shows to strip clubs, from ballrooms to bar fights. Blue's radiance is matched by her fury, but the adventuring somehow suits Pocket.

When her next ride never arrives, Pocket promises to get her safely to Vegas. It becomes more than he bargained for when Blue's past turns up and puts them on the run. Some promises are easy to give and hard to keep.

The cops catch up with her at a pawnshop in Wyoming, but Pocket comes to her rescue. Bluffing with an empty revolver from the pawnshop counter, Pocket steals Blue away.

But they can't get far, the police have Blue's purse, with all the gas money. Stranded, with no money, no food, no friends, and no place to stay, Blue's got nothing left but a soft spoken cowboy and his promise. To fight back against the giant that's made them outlaws, she'll need them both.

…She said all she wanted to do was get to Vegas.

-2500 miles-14 States-10 secrets-3 Shots-2 Wanted-
One promise.