| LAURA HARRING’S GOT DRIVE
by judi jordan
photography astor morgan
hair/makeup alma dublan
Laura Elena Harring believes in fate. On her way to meet
director David Lynch to read for a part in Mulholland Drive, she
had a car accident. Shook up but determined to make her
meeting, Harring was stunned to find that the character she
was reading for experiences a car accident in her first scene.
According to the raven haired actress, "There was a peace inside me that said, ‘I’m going to
get this.’ It was an omen. Time passes. They told me I had it, then they told me I didn’t have it.
Then they told me I had it. Then they told me I didn’t have it...then they told me I had it. I was
worried, but because of that omen, it put me at rest. I believe in omens, and I believe in
symbols, and I believe that our intuition knows everything. There was a part of me that just
knew."
Harring’s knowing no doubt spoke in some way to David Lynch, who is well known for having
his own brand of knowing. She was cast in the dual role of Rita/Camilla Rhodes in Mulholland
Drive which is currently playing to profuse critical acclaim. ("The best movie of the year!"
crowed Roger Ebert recently.)
Shortly after Harring was born in Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico, her mother moved her and
her two sisters to Texas. She knew at a very early age that she wanted to be an actor and it
was her success in beauty pageants (including winning the crown for Miss USA in 1985
when she was just 21 years old) that attracted Hollywood’s interest. She made her film debut
in "The Alamo: Thirteen Days to Glory" playing the wife of the Mexican President who was
played by the great Raul Julia, the actor Harring credits as being her acting inspiration.
After fifteen years of working in a slew of TV series, most notably "Sunset Beach," and
fourteen films, including "The Elian Gonzalez Story," Little Nicky, Black Scorpion, and
Lambada: The Forbidden Dance, Harring has her sights set on a definite course for her
acting.
"I’d love to work with [Pedro] Almodovar, or Alfonso Arau, or John Woo— to play a ninja, a
master of weaponry and martial arts. I’m studying martial arts. I’m very focused, I go through
stages like that. There was a time in my life when I was so into comedy I studied with
Commedia del’ Arte. It’s that whole "in your face" school of acting—like in Moulin Rouge. I’ve
done quite a bit of that now; it’s the most exhilarating, satisfying type of work. It’s this very
[old] style of acting from Italy and France. I studied it originally ten years ago at the Actors’
Gang, along with this theater company I work with called Zoo District."
In 1997, Harring studied at The London Academy of Performing Arts, where, she exclaims,
"My range just went like that [spreads her arms]. It was mostly Shakespeare, but it improves
everything."
Laura Harring’s next big screen outing is in director Nick Cassavetes’ highly anticipated
drama, John Q, starring Denzel Washington, scheduled for release in the first quarter of
2002 from New Line Cinema.
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