Chatting with supermodel Jenny Shimizu

Posted by admin Celebrity Interviews, Headlines Friday, July 2nd, 2010

The iconic supermodel, actor, designer and media personality continues to defy convention and creates a truly unique combination of beauty and strength. Q town chatted with Jenny about everything from her fast-paced life as a supermodel, coming out, LGBTQ visibility, to her much-asked about relationships with both Madonna and Angelina Jolie.
interview by Deirdre Launt

Q> How old were you when you first realized you were gay?
J> I think that I was one of those “born gay.” I think that the first crushes I had were on my babysitters and all my teachers were women. I never thought there was anything different about it because I was so…I never had any change. There was never any question that I liked guys or anything. It felt like 100% from day one.

Q> How did your family react to you coming out?
J> Really great, actually. I remember us not speaking
for a month. I was a very independent kid anyway. And in time they came around. My parents are both very educated and very smart people and they’re open-minded. They bought a bunch of books and started reading about it and joined PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) and wanting to embrace the lifestyle that was me. I don’t hear these stories very often. I’m really grateful for having SUCH 
an easy coming out period. And the only hardship I had, I think, was my Mom would keep asking me, “you’re gay, but could you PLEASE wear womens shoes?”

Q> So, do you?
J> No, no. I mean really, Mom? Could you imagine me in womens shoes? I’d look even more ridiculous! It’s very funny. I think she wanted me to be more of a feminine lesbian than androgynous. It’s okay now. We’re all in love. My family is very, very good to me.

Q> If you had the opportunity to say one thing to every gay kid in the world, and every person who’s struggling with coming out, what would it be?
J> Wow…that’s a big question. You know, my whole thing is like..I’ve always been authentic. And there is no other way for me. I think back and I think “wow…if I had to have hidden it or had to not been myself it would have…it’s actually so much more painful to keep a secret like being gay and thinking “I’m going to hold on to it” because it’s really the fear of the unknown. I know of very violent acts committed upon gay people and I know that sometimes parents will never come around to the 
child but I think that even with the worst-case scenario, living without really being yourself is torture. It’s not really living.

Q> You have said that you had a secret booty call relationship with Madonna. Can you tell us about that?
J> When I was younger, all that stuff really mattered, but now that I’m older it doesn’t really matter. But for some reason, people really want to know. To me, it’s not very interesting. But yes, it’s very true. I have a history of many wonderful women. Women who thought globally rather than singularly. I was really fortunate. I learned a lot.

Q> Can I ask you about Angelina Jolie?
J> Yes, we dated. It was a very dramatic relationship. Yes, she is another really amazing woman.

Q> Was it an immediate attraction between you and Angelina?
J>  The funny thing is, when I first saw her, I was auditioning for a movie. She was sitting in a chair and her hair was cut kind of short and she had these fake tattoos on her arms, and I thought, “what a fucking poser.” That’s what I thought, first of all. I got the movie, and the first day we got to shooting I realized “oh my God!” What I thought when I first met this girl is something different than what I know now. I mean, she’s really intense. She’s beautiful and sexy…she’s a beautiful girl.

Q> You designed a line of pretty cool t-shirts. We are wondering what the story is with “I Am Linda Evangelista.”
J> The first thing I did in New York was a series of going on magazine shoots. I had already been booked for all these jobs for the next year. So, I had no idea what’s going on, I’d never been to New York, well, I’d been to New York once, went to a few clubs and went home. I’m from California. I don’t know much about big city living. I grew up surfing and dirtbike riding and all that. And I’m in New York and I’m just trying to fake it until I get it. I don’t even know any models yet. They’re like, you’re going on this job, they’re going to shoot with this photographer and it’s beauty job. I didn’t even know what that meant. So I went to Industria, which was the big studio at the time. I walked to the studio and I was late, I was always late. I walk in the studio and I see there’s five white tents surrounding five different make-up mirrors. First of all the word “beauty” and “me” doesn’t make any sense. I never thought of myself as the type of person that would be able to sell t-shirts and jeans, or make-up.

I walk by the first tent and I look in and I see Christy Turlington. I’d grown up seeing her in magazines and really good George Michael videos, and I was shocked. I just kept walking and down at the second tent and it was Kristen McMenamy, who I always thought was the most incredible…she’s very androgynous and very hardcore and she had a lot of strength. And the next tent of course, who would it be? It’s Naomi Cambell. By this time I’m flipping out. If you ever get in a place where it’s beyond panic, it’s even worse than getting in a car accident because you know you definitely do not belong there, except that they requested you, and they paid for you to be there and they expect you to be a professional and be fine with this kind of situation. And also, I never thought I represented what they represent. I was very self-depreciating. I was like “what the f*ck am I doing here? Why am I in New York? I’m such an idiot for coming here. I’m so stupid to think that this was a good idea.” I ran to my tent. I didn’t look in the fourth tent. I’m sitting in the make-up chair caressing my forehead and shutting my eyes, in full panic mode, and all the sudden I hear this whisper. It was like, “I am…” And then it was like, “I am Linda!” And it kept going, it went “I AM LINDA EVANGELISTA!” And it kept going and it got louder and louder. I just pulled back the little piece of white cloth that separated tent four from tent five and I see Linda Evangelista two feet away from me with her face in the mirror, repeating over and over “I AM LINDA EVANGELISTA!” And I was like, “oh… my God.” I sat down in my chair again, and I looked in the mirror, and then I said, “I am Linda Evangelista.” I swear to God, I made it through the day, I became friends with them. I’ve never been so stressed out and so freaked out in my life. The story really is that when I get in a horrible situation, some of my friends will say, “well, you’re Linda Evangelista, so don’t worry about it.”
And for some reason it calms me down completely. At that time I was in situations that were incredibly insane, yet beautiful, and just unbelievable. That’s what I really loved about the job. That’s why I’m writing a book about my experience. I don’t think that anyone had the same eyes that I had back in the 90s and I don’t think anyone had the experiences I had. I always told myself in these moments, like “I am Linda Evangelista” that I HAVE to remember this forever, so I can eventually write something.

Find Jenny’s merch at: jennyshimizumerch.com

Q> Right now you’re on Dante’s Cove and Make Me a Supermodel. Do you have more fun acting and being on tv or modeling?
J> They really are two different kinds of businesses. I think now that I’m a little bit older I think acting—when I had to do acting it was horrible. I really hated it. I didn’t understand it and I felt very insecure about it. But now I think you really get to envelop yourself  in a fantasy world and it’s really fun. Even doing a reality show like Make Me a Supermodel, that was really fun because I’d wear clothes that weren’t mine and I’m wearing all this make up and my hair is different and it’s nothing like I really am at all. So, it’s all a dress-up to me. For some reason, modeling I really like the focus bec you don’t’ get all that stuff like you do in tv and film, like you get all the props and you get all the people and you get dialog but in modeling, you’re communicating with an audience only through your face, and your eyes. People think that modeling is so easy, but you know there are only a few girls who really do well. And it’s because there’s this natural kind of thing that you can actually communicate an intensity that’s very different. And so both I really enjoy. In modeling I’m way more confident than the other stuff, but one of my mottos is I say “yes” to everything—any new experience, anything I feel fearful about—that’s my number one rule. It’s like, if I feel fear, I need to say “yes.” It just means an adventure, a challenge. I’ve never done that, and I would have missed out on so much of my life if all my answers were “no.” I’ve always been in fear of these things…doing things in front of the camera, being in a dress in front of people. All of these things really challenge me.

Q> Because you were afraid of things, how did you get to the point where you said, “from now on, Im just going to say yes to everything.”?
J> Well, I’ve always had this really adventuresome spirit. There were no rules or regulations for me as a child—not in a bad way or anything, but I was very questionable about everything. Not so much verbally, like “What?!? Why?!?” Everything was so interesting. Anything- the way things moved, why we have to go to sleep, why we have to eat. My Mom let me do things. Sometimes I got hurt, sometimes I didn’t. I became a very independent person early on. I felt the security in knowing I could take care of myself. The fear is just the unknown. What we create in our heads is never really what happens. It’s never as bad as what we create in our own heads.

Q> We hear you’ve got a soft spot for ferrets. What is it that you like so much about ferrets?
J> I love ferrets. What happened was, I was on my motorcycle and I ended up getting in a really bad accident and I had to be in bed for seven months. My best friend Lee, she’s my dearest friend ever, she got a baby ferret. She’d been talking about these things called ferrets and I didn’t know what they were for years. I was like, “whatever, they are gross.” She got one finally, and that ferret lived in the same room as I did, and basically I grew up with that ferret. The entire first year of its life I was in bed and we got so close. It’s sounds crazy, but we got so close I almost feel like I’m psychically connected to that ferret because I would hear everything she would do, how many pieces of food she would eat, what she was doing. You know, when you cohabitate with someone in the same room for almost a year, you will know everything, without even opening your eyes, you’ll know what they are doing. And she really helped me a lot. I’m usually a very active person and I had to slow down and there was a lot of transition going on in my life and that was what started it. I needed to slow down, I needed to learn about unconditional love, and learn about taking care of things and taking care of a sentient being. I have dear, dear praise for all animals.

Q> I saw your ferret picture on your facebook page. Is that a baby ferret?
J> No, that’s Roxy Ferret. That’s her. She’s miniature. She never grew.

Q> So being a big motorcycle fan would you say that motorcycle themselves are sexy and do you think they automatically make their rider sexier?
J> I remember ever since I was a toddler, whenever I heard a sound like a motorcycle and an engine, I’d immediately be drawn to it. Of course I think motorcycles are GORGEOUS machines… their design and art so much engineering goes into these things. It’s so hard to explain. I’ve had such a love affair with them. I think that it’s a sport for me, not a hobby; it’s kind of a lifestyle. It’s been part of me since I was a kid. I don’t know if it makes people sexier. I always see that girls get REALLY excited when you ride up on a bike. I don’t do it for that. It really is that I can’t stop.

Q> So you’re coming out with a book?
J> I’m hoping to write a lot of it this summer. That’s my main goal. I’m hoping by the end of next year.

Q> Where can your fans keep up with you? You’ve got a blog, you’re on facebook and twitter, etc…
J> On Jennyshimizuonline.com there are links to my blog-twitter-facebook- you can keep up with all those ways.

Q> Is there anything you’d like to say to the people of Virginia?
J> Yes. Visibility is really important to me because when I grew up and came out, we had Queer Nation and we had all the AIDS activist groups starting and that was so empowering for me to be around like-minded people and to be around a whole transition in being gay and fighting for our rights. All these things—media, magazines, anything you can talk about and be yourself is really important for being recognized as an equal citizen by everybody. Being treated with respect like people would treat their family. So, I love doing stuff like this.