THE GOLDEN BACHELOR S.1 E.1 | LET'S GET TO KNOW GERRY

PHOTO CREDITS | ABC The Bachelorette/Craig Sjodin

So, avid fans of Bachelor Nation know that during the commercial breaks of ABC’s The Bachelorette and The Bachelor, they have always made requests for The Golden Bachelor with focuses on an older demographic. While we watched Charity Lawson’s season, we learned that we would finally get to see it AND that it kicks off tonight! We have all seen Gerry Turner a restaurateur from Indiana share his love story with his wife of 43 years that was his high school sweetheart and it was cut short by her death. He knew what love was and the fact that he is putting himself out there again, it’s something that we can all appreciate regardless of our age! His daughters rallied around him and gave him the support that he needed to give a second love a chance and the series opens with him getting ready in his tux and putting his hearing aid in. We’re already hooked on what this season will be like as well as those that will be vying for his heart! Even The Bachelor’s Matt James’ mom, Patty is in the season! How will this play out as he’s not a social media guy coming into this, he will meet a number of women in this experience, and have the world watching him! It will be interesting to see what elements from the other formulas will find their way into this season!

Jesse Palmer meets him at the mansion and of course asks all the questions that we’ve been thinking prior to and during this process! The limos pull up and we have seen some of the women getting ready and they are all stunning!

Edith kicks us off and she looks stunning in her gold gown and brings confetti to start the party! She looks so regal and it was a great way to kick it off! The stories that these women share and bringing elements of their lives and experiences, it’s so heartfelt. Ellen the spunky pickleball player has also got our eye! Sandra was another that caught our eye leading up to emerging from the limo and her meditation was on another level! Of course, like any limo situation there are a few gags along the way like the “granny routine” from Leslie who is a dancer/choreographer - she dated Prince - need we say more? Theresa and the birthday suit, we can’t even! We also love the Anne Margaret of the group, April! The dresses, the glowy faces, and the personalities - this is definitely going to be a fun season to watch! I love how they have spunk and are sizing each other up! It’s amazing to see how dating is regardless of how old you are.

He met all the women and joins them in the mansion. You can see that he is overwhelmed and appreciative of everyone that has arrived. Of course, April grabs him first to get to talk with him and gives him a calendar of just him! We see other amazing connections begin to start and then there is an all out dance party with everyone!

Jesse brings out the First Impression Rose and everyone realizes that things are getting a bit serious! Gerry continues to chat with each of the women so that they get time. Faith, who rode in on a motorcycle and also wrote him a song and played the guitar, receives it!

The Rose Ceremony begins and Ellen, Theresa, Joan, Natascha, Leslie, Christina, Edith, Nancy, April, Sandra, Jeanie, Kathy, Marina, Peggy, and Susan will continue on. We’re a bit stunned that we won’t see Matt James’ mom in future weeks.

Gerry Gave Roses To | April, Christina, Edith, Ellen, Faith, Jeanie, Joan, Kathy, Leslie, Marina, Nancy, Natascha, Peggy, Sandra, Susan, and Theresa.

Gerry sent home | Anna, Pamela, Patty, Renee, Sylvia,

Each night during this season, we will tweet about The Golden Bachelor and you can chat along with us (@AthleisureMag + with our Co-Founder/Creative + Style Director, Kimmie Smith @ShesKimmie) to see what’s taking place!

Each week we will let you know who our faves were from the last episode and if we’ve changed up since then as it pertains to who we think should go to Hometowns.

We also suggest a podcast that we’ve become obsessed with over the past few seasons, Wondery’s Bachelor Happy Hour to get their feedback!

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WHO WE THINK SHOULD GO TO HOMETOWNS

APRIL

EDITH

LESLIE

SANDRA

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THE GOLDEN BACHELOR CONTESTANTS

ANNA - Summit, NJ; 61

APRIL - Port St. Lucie, FL; 65

CHRISTINA - Sierra Madre, CA; 73

EDITH - Downey, CA; 60

ELLEN - Delray Beach, FL; 71

FAITH - Benton City; WA; 61

JEANIE - Estill Springs, TN; 65

JOAN- Rockland, MD; 60

KATHY - Austin, TX; 70

LESLIE - Minneapolis, MN; 64

MARIA - Teaneck, NJ; 60

MARINA - LA, CA; 60

NANCY - Alexandria, VA 60

NATASCHA - NY, NY; 60

PAMELA - Aurora, IL; 75

PATTY - Durham, NC; 70

PEGGY - East Haven, CT; 69

RENEE - Chicago, IL; 67

SANDRA - Doraville, GA; 75

SUSAN - Aston, PA; 67

SYLVIA - LA, CA; 64

THERESA - Shrewsburry, NJ; 70

Read the latest issue of Athleisure Mag.

TAKE IT TO THE WAVES | MONICA MEDELLIN

We enjoy a great docuseries where we get to follow our favorite sports and get behind the action to find out how it all comes together. Prime Video's 4 episode series, Surf Girls Hawai'i follows 5 native Hawaiian females as they take their shot on obtaining a spot in the world tour. We follow Moana Jones Wong, Ewe Wong, Maluhia Kinimaka, Pua DeSoto, and Brianna Cope as we see them navigating their season, training, and interacting with their friends and family.

We caught up with Monica Medellin, Creator and Executive Producer of this docuseries. We wanted to find out more about how she became a fan of this action sport, being a surfer, working in the surf industry, and the importance of storytelling to amplify voices that are underrepresented but have powerful points of view.

ATHLEISURE MAG: We’ve personally been a fan of your work for awhile so it’s exciting to be able to talk with you to know more about you’re your docuseries, and what you’re working on that’s coming up!

MONICA MEDELLIN: Amazing! I’m so excited! I think that this is perfect because every body that knows me makes fun of me because athleisure is all I wear.

Thank you so much for highlighting me. I feel like a unicorn in this space. I just turned 30 and this all happened before then and it seems like the tides are changing and there are very few women that are like me in this position. So I really want to share my story and to hopefully inspire more storytellers in narratives like this.

AM: Absolutely!

Before we get into talking about the docuseries, we want to know more about you. What was the moment that you realized that you wanted to be a filmmaker?

MM: Oh, I mean, I feel like I was destined to be a filmmaker ever since I was a little girl. I couldn’t really identify that that was what I wanted until later in life. I've always been involved in sports as a child. My mom was a single working mom from Mexico and she raised me on her own.

Through that, she found different sports programs and extracurricular activities and that’s where I really fell in love with different sports and it started with more traditional sports like volleyball, basketball, and soccer. Then I moved into gymnastics and then we both discovered surfing while we were walking along the Santa Monica Beach and at that point, I had started skateboarding, surfing, and exploring these non-traditional sports.

I actually used her old camcorder to film myself skating! That’s what I did with my friends on the weekends, so obviously the production value was what it was!

You know, I started documenting sports from a young age and I started documenting myself as a young girl participating in those sports from that time. You know from there, I obviously played sports in high school – I was the team captain of the volleyball team, I would teach at surf camp over the summers and I moved to university and I studied Journalism at the University of Oregon. So, this theme of filming our experiences as women in sports has been something that has been a thread throughout my entire life!

AM: Wow! It also seems that a lot of your films as well as commercial work that you have done has also focused obviously on sports, but also covering underrepresented groups as well. As someone who is Black and has enjoyed sports such as snowboarding where people don’t think of us playing it, I like that you’re showcasing what is being done that people don’t necessarily think of.

MM: Right and I think that that’s something where you want to be niche, but not too niche where you miss out on telling other stories as well. I think that my main thing is highlighting and shining a light on stories that are underrepresented in the mainstream. That is the essence of my work. It doesn’t just need to be sports, it can be in anything. I mean, when I worked at the Los Angeles Times in 2015, I was helping launch a new platform that talks about this emerging American identity with race, immigration, identity, what does it mean to be American, but also never to really see yourself represented in the story in that way. So, I think that that time at the Los Angeles Times and producing documentaries around those topics really did shape the direction of how I approach my storytelling. Like sure, if I’m telling a story about an athlete, that’s in sports, but I want to uncover who the person is behind the athlete, what is the human experience that we can all relate to because ultimately, even when you see Surf Girls Hawai’i, it’s not just about surfing. It’s about coming of age, it’s about sisterhood, it’s about supporting each other through challenging times, and navigating life. So, I think that that is my approach through all of my storytelling that makes it universal whether you are interested in the sport or the topic itself.

AM: Absolutely!

What was the first project that you did that you realized that you wanted to do this as a career?

MM: Hmm, it’s actually funny, because my first film that I created was about a young Latina surfer in the Bay Area. She was part of a program that helped underrepresented youth get into the sport of surfing, get into action sports, and that film actually premiered at the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival here in LA. That moment of seeing my work and my film, premiered at The Chinese Theatre, in Hollywood was such a monumental moment for me because I could see that this kind of storytelling was valued. I could see the reaction of the audience and I could see the emotion and I could actually feel the energy in the room. So, I feel like the LALIFF selecting my film to premiere at the Chinese Theatre in that way was a really defining moment for me. I knew that I could really make something out of this career and hopefully, tell more stories. At that point, I was still in my early 20’s so it was just the beginning, but I think that that was the moment that I decided to pursue this full time.

AM: We love surfers! This year alone we had the honor of speaking with Carissa Moore as well as Kai Lenny as covers for Athleisure Mag. You also surf – what is it about this sport that you enjoy so much?

MM: I think surfing is such a unique sport because it’s not just a sport. It’s a lifestyle, it’s a culture, it has deep roots around the world, and had I known that this sport is originated by people of color and women of color, I would have felt that I belonged in it sooner. (Editor’s Note: The origin of surfing can be found in various cultures as far back as the Incas in 1590 when a Jesuit missionary José de Acosta published it in Historia Natural y Moral de las Indias. In West Africa’s – Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, and Senegal and Central Africans in Cameroon have had various accounts of this activity in 1640, 1679, 1834, and 1861. In Polynesia in 1769 there is documentation of he’e nalu which translates to wave sliding by Joseph Banks as he was on HMS Endeavour during the first voyage of James Cook while the ship was in Tahiti.) I didn’t know anything about the history of surfing until I met another Latina surfer who shared with me this deep history. After discovering that, I made it my life’s mission to try to tell the world that this is the truth and that this is the history of this.

I think that with surfing, it’s so special for that deeper reason, but also I think that it’s a way of connecting with nature to get outside and get off your phone. You have no way of communicating with anybody when you’re out there. It’s your time to exist and enjoy yourself and I think that it resonates with a lot of people. I think that when I first started surfing in Los Angeles, the lineups looked a lot different than they do today. Today I actually paddle out and I see more women, I see more women of color and I actually see friends every single time that I go. I think that this surf culture has been defined by advertisements, brands, the industry, but we are reclaiming what it means to be a surfer and you’re seeing that happening in your local lineups. You’re seeing that happening through Surf Girls Hawai’i, you’re seeing that happen through different lenses, I think! I think that that is what makes surfing special. It’s just, there’s nothing else like it honestly.

AM: As the creator of Surf Girls Hawai’i, what drew you to telling this story?

MM: Surf Girls Hawai’i is what I have dreamt of ever since I was a little girl. We saw Blue Crush released back in 2002, which was my favorite film, and I really identified with Michelle Rodriguez (Fast and the Furious franchise, Machte franchise, Resident Evil franchise), who was another Latina and I mean, that’s just one part of it. When I was working in the surf industry, I noticed that major mainstream platforms just had more coverage of male surfers. You barley saw women and in advertisements, it’s still really common to see a surfer girl in a bikini and a man on a wave surfing.

AM: Right.

MM: You walk down to any surf shop and that’s still the reality of our time in 2023! Actually, while I was working at the League (World Surf League), I started a personal archive of my favorite surfers who were women, who I thought deserved the spotlight and I pitched an idea that would eventually push the company to promote men and women equally on our social platforms. I think that since then, we have seen a shift. I just really wanted to be able to highlight women that I felt didn’t have a seat at the table. I think that through Surf Girls Hawai’i, they are finally getting the recognition that they deserve. That’s really cool that I helped spearhead that effort and identified this talent early on.

AM: For those that have not seen this docuseries, can you give us the premise of the show, and also, how did you decide to select the 5 Native Hawaiian female surfers that are featured in the docuseries.

MM: Surf Girls Hawai’i follows the next generation of native Hawaiian, female surfers as they compete at an elite level to earn a spot on the world tour of professional surfing. Surf girls is about a sisterhood of native Hawaiian surfers who are on the cusp of becoming pro and this is the most elite level that they have ever competed on and they are competing against each other, but also together in a lot of different ways and they support each other through that. I think that what makes it special is the fact that oftentimes when you see shows that center women, you see maybe cattiness or drama between the women. You see this marketable yet damaging portrayal of female relationships.

I think that what’s different with Surf Girls Hawai’i is, even though they are fierce competitors, and they are competing for one spot, they all support each other through this journey. That’s because they all know that if one of them makes it, everyone makes it because this is more than just winning for their own personal gain, this is about representing native Hawaiian culture at the highest level of surfing. I think that carrying that responsibility, and that legacy, is what makes this highest stakes in a lot of ways. You don’t need that cattiness or drama between the girls. I think that that is the premise, but also what makes it different.

AM: From your perspective as a filmmaker, how do you go about creatively organizing all of this. As you said, they’re all there for that aligned goal, but they are also individual people. How are you weaving that story and kind of planning it in your head especially when it’s only 4 episodes! By the end I was wanting to see more about these women, wondering if there would be another season, would the same surfers be followed – so many questions!

MM: The response to this show has been so overwhelmingly positive and I have been told that it is over performing. It shows that there is a gap and this storytelling was absolutely needed and 4 episodes did the trick! I think that that worked and I think in going back to your question, this cast is so special because on the surface, they are all native Hawaiian pro surfers that share this bond and share their culture together. But what I wanted to really accomplish with this series was to show them as multi-dimensional, multi-faceted women. They’re all different and all have different interests and different mindsets. They’re all different because you have on the one hand, Maluhia who is 26 years old, considered older to be competing and is at the crossroads of deciding on whether she wants to be a professional athlete and fulfill that lifelong childhood dream or pursue her education. She did both. She got her degree from Stanford and she is pursuing her PhD at UH Mānoha – all while competing on the WSL tour. I think that that is super unexpected. That defied expectations and I think that each character defies expectations of what you would think of them on the surface. So that’s just one example of how we approached the storytelling around each woman. How do we paint them as more than an athlete? Because each character is more than an athlete.

AM: What was it like working with Hello Sunshine on this project?

MM: I’ll start with Hello Sunshine. Hello Sunshine was honestly a dream partnership. Like we were aligned in our values before we even made the show together. I think for me as a creator, it was really important that the team working on Surf Girls was women-led and women-run, that is the essence of what makes Surf Girls Hawai’i what it is. I think that Hello Sunshine’s mission of changing the narrative for women aligned with my mission well before the final product. I think that Surf Girls put this native female Hawaiian experience at the forefront and Hello Sunshine invested in that, believed in that, and they saw that from the beginning. I think that that’s brave. This talent, they’re low profile, lesser known names outside of the surf industry, but that didn’t matter to them and I think that they just saw the magic. I also think that the Hello Sunshine team was very collaborative and supportive of hiring women behind the camera and making sure to work with my recommended Hawaiian and Hawaii local creators and crew. I just felt like the set was forward thinking and they understood the importance of picking a team to tell a story and in the best way.

I actually created and directed the original digital series that sold the show, and the vision stayed true throughout the process. I think that that is really hard to do actually. I feel that the women were really portrayed in a positive light and the culture wasn’t sensationalized. That was really really important. That’s my bit on Hello Sunshine!

AM: That’s amazing to hear. What has been your biggest takeaway in doing this docuseries?

MM: Oh my gosh, so much! I mean, creating and executive producing my first TV show, was an experience that I learned a lot from. I think that a big takeaway from the series is that you see the reactions from people that watched this and people are hungry for this kind of storytelling and they’re hungry to see women and women of color in sports. I think it’s interesting because this was technically made for Gen Z young women to identify with. But you see women of all ages responding to this and you see men of all ages intrigued, interested, and inspired by this story. So, I think that this is a story for everyone and that’s the takeaway – this story is important and deserves a spotlight and we were the first to do it and that’s really, really special. We were the first female sports docuseries on Hello Sunshine’s platforms and this was the first female sports documentary on Amazon.

AM: That’s a pretty big first!

MM: That’s big!

AM: That’s awesome!

I’m sure you’re always working on different projects, is there anything coming up that you are able to share that we should keep an eye out for?

MM: Yeah, so 2 things! I just got back from Tahiti for a shoot with the Olympic Channel, so that’s coming up. Then, I have another underreported, but fascinating field that centers women of color and Black women in sport that is not highly covered that I am currently developing. I’m developing projects constantly so we can leave it at those things.

IG @monicamedellin_

PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS | PG 52 Ryan Gladney | PG 54 Brie Lakin | PG 57 Katie McDonald | PG 58 - 63 Prime Video |

Read the AUG ISSUE #92 of Athleisure Mag and see TAKE IT TO THE WAVES | Monica Medellin in mag.

THE VISION | JERMELLE SIMON

There are so many options and genres of shows that we can watch and when it comes to streaming, the possibilities are beyond endless. With so much going on, we do love our feel good shows that take us away from our day-to-day! Earlier this summer, we took some time to talk with Jermelle Simon of NETFLIX's The Upshaws which is one of the top rated shows on the platform who just finished Season 3 earlier this year and Season 4 drops this month! We wanted to talk about his career, his experience on the stage, his Denzel Washington story, being on The Upshaws, and his focus on fitness as a means to make sure that you put yourself first!

This article has heavy spoilers and we talk about a number of plot points, cliffhangers, and arcs from the first 3 seasons of this show. If you have yet to watch and want to be spoiler free, binge the episodes now and then come back to enjoy this article. We have a light discussion on Season 4 as well; however, that discussion is spolier free.

This interview was conducted in May 2023, prior to the start of the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike which began on July 14.

ATHLEISURE MAG: When did you realize that you wanted to be an actor?

JERMELLE SIMON: I don’t know if I ever realized it! I just remember being in the 3rd grade and we had to do a play as part of our curriculum and I remember having that feeling like, “man, I love to pretend, I love to be someone else.” It’s fun and interesting to me and obviously, I couldn’t express it at 8 or 9 or whatever that age is when you’re in the 3rd grade. That feeling just kind of kept growing and I kept craving it and by 5th grade, I was in Drama Club and I think that that is when it hit. I was in the 5th grade, I started to understand it a little bit more. I thought that everyone liked it at first, you know what I mean? I thought it was so great and then I realized that I was the only other one doing it.

AM: I love that! Before we delve into The Upshaws, what is your process in terms of how you prepare for your roles in general and how do you sync in with your characters?

JS: I think just understanding the story. So reading the script and understanding what story the writer is trying to tell. What’s my role in the story? Am I an antagonist, the protagonist, am I comedic relief? You know, it’s about understanding my role in the entire script and then I think that with years of people watching, the stories that are on television, I think that we have always seen those characters before. Maybe I have an aunt or an uncle or even with me having children, with my role now, it was easy to dive into the father aspect, because I have 3 children. Sometimes it’s based off of experience and sometimes it’s based off of people watching, and having a huge imagination!

AM: Exaclty!

JS: I think that that helps a lot too. Repetition – I think that I read that a lot of actors read a script over 100 times. You know it front and back. I can’t build up enough stamina to read it 100 times, but I have read a script 10 times and I know that that’s enough for me. This way, I know that I know the story front and back. I think that it’s one of those magical things where you sleep on it and then it just clicks! I don’t know, it’s a hard thing to explain, but it will click especially after you understand the story. So I think that the most important thing is to understand the story that you’re telling and the part that you play in the story that you’re telling.

AM: We read that you also have experience on the stage. You were in August Wilson’s (The Piano Lesson, Seven Guitars, Radio Golf) Fences for 8 weeks where you played Cory. But you actually got the opportunity to audition for Denzel Washington (Training Day, American Gangster, Equalizer franchise) at his home to play that character in the film adaptation. What was that experience like?

JS: You know what’s so wild? That story still anchors me in those times where I’m feeling inadequate. You know even when I am on a hit show like on Netflix, you’re still human and there are those moments where you don’t feel as confident and you don’t feel as talented. I just think that any artist kind of feels that way. I always go back to, man, I was at Denzel Washington’s house with Viola Davis (How to Get Away with Murder, DC’s Suicide Squad franchise, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes), Denzel Washington, the whole cast! In order to get to that space, this kind of has to be for you. That always reminds me that this is for me.

To this day, I think that it was one of the most extraordinary things that has ever happened to me. To the point that sometimes I don’t even believe that it happened!

AM: We have to admit that when we read that, we were like, he’s in this man’s house with all of these people – that is a moment. There are times regardless of your vertical or career that you can have amazing things happen, but in the course of things, you ask yourself is this it? You question that which you have excelled at for a number of reasons. But then you think about moments that took place that like you said, you wonder if that happened and you grasp it and realize that you are where you need to be and it gives you that fuel for whatever it is that you do in life.

JS: Yes! That’s what it is. It fills you up! Those are constantly in your memory bank and it’s always one of those things that I can always go back to regardless. If I ever work with them again – I just recently saw Viola Davis at the NAACP Image Awards and I saw her before that at an Oscar Gifting Suite and each time I see her, I forget that she knows me and that she remembers me! That’s still so shocking to me, because I will say, “oh, I worked with you” and she’ll say, “I know." Then I remind myself that I don’t have to say that every time that I see her because I’m just in such a shock that she remembers that.

It was like a 6 week process. I was in the running, I was in the top 3. It was a journey for sure that still gives me high vibrations. In this industry, you need as much as you can because it’s such an up and down thing. Like right now, we’re in the writer’s strike and they should get the things that they deserve and that means that everything has to kind of shut down. So, I’m not working right now and you just go through so many things being an actor in this industry. It comes with so much and so the things that you can hang onto that help you feel confident to feel better, because you still have to go through everyday life. I was just telling a friend today that sometimes it’s difficult because even on the days that you don’t want to perform, you have to and it’s like sometimes you have to be someone else and you do that when you’re on a show. I have to – my job is to become a whole different person. That takes so much energy and me and Kim Fields (Living Single, Insecure, All the Queen’s Men), we were just talking about that the other week. It’s like, our job is to become these people and I don’t think that people realize how that can be exhausting because that takes all of you. To do it justice, to do it right, you have to give all of you because people can sense when you’re not. I know that that’s a long answer!

AM: You’re absolutely right in what you shared. Even in life sometimes in general. I’m a big believer in dramaturgical behavior in the sense that we have many masks that we wear, even if it’s authentic to us. How you are with your best friend might be different from your mom and when you’re in those circles like that, it can be exhausting!

JS: Yes! That’s so true. Because even how I am as a father is completely different then how I am as a friend or how I am as an actor. You know, I try to blend it all. Even when I first started giving interviews, especially when I was doing press for this, I felt that I needed to say this answer and needed to say whatever. Now, I’m learning to just be me and people are appreciating that more and I’m always thinking that I over share and talk too much and then people will be like, “no, we love that!”

AM: Exactly!

JS: I would apologize and I know I did it a few times here and you and other people have been like, we want to hear you, we want to hear who you are. That’s ok and people love authenticity! That’s what makes you who you are and everyone is different and can bring something different to the table and it’s all equally important. So I’m just now learning that on my 3rd season of the show. I think that everything happens so fast and all at once and I had to catch up to it.

AM: You know what, sometimes it’s just a process!

How did you find out about The Upshaws, the character, and what drew you to want to be part of it?

JS: I felt like it was just like any other day where your manager or agent sends you an audition and when you’re on the come up, you’ll kind of do any role to kind of get on. Because I think it’s like so many different worlds and realms that factor in. Like you have the time when no one knows you yet and so you audition for everything, you’re doing commercials and anything that you can to make the dollar because LA is expensive. Then not only that, but you just love acting and the craft, so anytime that you can play, you do it!

So that’s how it started. It was any other audition and I was like here I go, I’m going to give it all I’ve got. Every audition I give it all I’ve got. But I did look at it and I saw Netflix and that was like a dream of mine. I think that a lot of actors have that dream. I mean. Netflix is a powerhouse and they’re the largest streaming platform in the world! It’s international and it’s all the things! So I saw that – then sometimes you can see that and then it can play with your confidence a little bit. So you start to second guess yourself – am I right for this – is it too big for me? Even though you want it, it’s intimidating because it’s Netflix. Then I see Mike Epps (Uncle Buck series, The Hangover, Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins), Kim Fields, Wanda Sykes (Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Marvelous Mrs Maisel, Black-ish) and I’m like – I had to let it go. I let those parts go – the parts that scared me like those names, the platform.

I released it and then it goes back to that Denzel story. I had such an intense scene with him but in that scene, I had to let go of the fact that it was Denzel. I know what I’m doing when it comes to acting and I just had to go for what I know and I know how to embody this Cory character. I don’t care who it is, you lose yourself in that moment.

So I did that same kind of thing when I auditioned for this show. I released Netflix and I released the names. So I did that and I have had many auditions, but this one, I knew that my first audition that if I got a callback for it, then this would be mine. The process is that you go for your initial one, then they call you back and then they might call you back for the 3rd time. Maybe a 4th time and then you test. But I knew that if I got a call back for this one, it’s over!

AM: You’re like, it’s mine!

JS: I get the callback and immediately, I stop second guessing myself. This is how far I went into it. I already knew what I was going to post. It was a meme and he was in the car, his name is Desi Banks and he’s an online comedian. He’s in the car with the top down saying, “yes sir!!!” He’s hyped because something happened. I couldn’t obviously say what it was, but I wanted to do something that was real low key and then people would be wondering. I had everything planned out and I think that I felt it before everything happened. It’s really important to manifest things that I already feel about the thing before the thing even comes and not to wait for the thing to come to then feel it. I feel that people do it backwards. So that was the first time that I've done that where I was already embodying the role and what it would feel like. So I go from that to the callback, 2 days later after the first audition and the callback was at 6pm and my manager called me at 11pm. He told me that I was the choice, we had to go through network approval and he let me know that I had pretty much booked it. What do they say? The rest is history! I didn’t know that it was going to be history like this! I didn’t really realize what I was going to be getting into.

AM: Yeah! I know that the 3rd season was released earlier this year and the 4th season drops in August – doing 2 seasons in the same year!

JS: Yeah, going so fast!

AM: I mean that’s amazing! Before we get into the upcoming season, for our readers who may not have seen this show yet, what is The Upshaws and tell us about your character, Bernard Jr.

JS: The Upshaws is about a Black family based out of Indiana and it’s your Norman Lear (Good Times, All in the Family, The Jeffersons) style sitcom. It’s a bit edgy, we talk about really relatable things, and we bring hilarity to everyday life. I feel like it’s a family that talks about real topics that people really go through. You have a mom, you have a dad, younger children in high school, you have me who my character is the oldest of the Upshaw family. Bennie Upshaw (Mike Epps) has 4 children – Bernard Upshaw Jr., it’s Kelvin (Diamond Lyons), Aaliyah (Khali Daniya-Renee Spraggins), and Maya (Journey Christine). Kelvin is a side kid that Bennie had when he was on a break with Regina, my mom who is played by Kim Fields. You have a show where again, we talk about real life things and we bring light to it, we bring laughter to it, and I think that in the world that we live in now, we need more comfort shows, we need more laughter. I agree that we need all the other things, but laughter is really good for the soul. It’s medicine. So we definitely bring the laughter in each episode and each one has an unexpected twist or turn. Each finale has this cliffhanger that has you on the edge of your seat.

So I think that we’re onto something and that’s why it’s so successful. We have such great writers that are always even for us, that it’s about expecting the unexpected. We go in week after week never knowing what our characters are going to do. I think that that’s the fun part of The Upshaws, it’s always pushing the envelope – we curse. Traditionally, your sitcoms that run on a network, they couldn’t say certain words. We have the freedom to do a lot more things so we can talk about a lot more topics. I think that it makes us that much more relatable.

As far as my character, I play Bernard Upshaw Jr., the oldest of the Upshaw kids. The series starts off with Bernard holding onto this secret and trying to figure his life out. His secret is his sexuality, so he is gay, he doesn’t necessarily know how to come out to his parents so it’s weighing heavy on him and as you can see during the first season, in my opinion he’s very moody and you can just tell that there is something going on. He also has a very challenging relationship with his father who is Bennie Upshaw played by Mike Epps. Bennie and Regina had him when they were kids in high school so he wasn’t there for him as much as he could have been because he was also growing up too. So it was a little bit of a strained relationship with his father because of that as well as with himself because he wasn’t living in his own truth.

As the series continues, you get to see him come out. You see him live out loud, you get to see him become a father. Not to give it all away to those who haven’t seen it – ha!

AM: We have a significant spoiler alert! People need catch up before reading this!

JS: You get to see him become a father, you get to see him date. I think that now in the upcoming season, you get to see him do more of that. You get to dive deeper into who he is as a person because there are levels to everything. We go through different phases in our lives and we just keep growing and growing. You get to see Bernard grow in all of these areas as a partner, a father, and as a family member. So yeah, you get to see him become more and more into the higher version of himself. From Season 1 – Season 3 or from part 1 to part 4, it’s 2 different Bernards.

AM: Which is amazing because like you were talking about, you’re playing so many different complexities and dynamics, we see him struggling with himself and being able to come out and live his truth, then there’s his daughter and what family means and that complexity, and then understanding the relationship with the father dynamic of his dad and himself. Then there’s families you claim versus those you have paradigm as well. Having all of that there, what does it mean to have this form of representation? Growing up as a kid, we had The Cosby Show and other kinds of shows, but this is another kind of representation that is also real and a different dynamic. So what does that mean to you to be able to present that to people?

JS: I love it! I went into this as an actor portraying a role and not really realizing at first, the impact that this show has on people. I think that to be part of something where people feel seen, people feel heard, - so many people reach out and say, “this is such an authentic representation of Black people.” It’s so comforting, this makes me laugh, this is not watered down and I think at first, that was so much pressure to me, because I felt like we had to get it right! It’s like, no, that’s the point.

It’s effortless. The chemistry works it just flows and I think that again at first, it was a lot of pressure. Because even for me and the representation to the gay community, I didn’t really know because I get the question a lot. I didn’t exactly sign up to be a role model, but after the impact and after so many DMs and thank you’s, I realized that it was so important to see yourself because representation shapes how people will react to you. This is how people learn how to live in this world. It’s such a huge responsibility to do it right and I think that I’m just so proud of us for being perfectly imperfect because that is what is needed to be shown on television. Everyone is not the Cosby’s, everyone is not the Winslows.

AM: Yup!

JS: Now we have The Upshaws. I wouldn’t even call it a dysfunctional family, it’s real life. It’s things that happen in real life. I feel super proud to be in a position where me living my dreams helps someone to heal, grow, feel seen, and heard. I feel extremely proud of our writer’s of our castmates, and Netflix for getting it right.

Even for me, for me being on the show, it doesn’t stop it from being my comfort show. A lot of people can’t watch their work. I can put The Upshaws on and I don’t know. It’s one of my comfort shows and it’s always weird to say because it can seem so egotistical when I’m putting on my own show while I’m cleaning up. Me and my son have this thing because I let him watch the show – he loves it. I make breakfast Saturday morning and we sit and he picks his favorite episode of the show because it is our comfort show you know? He gets to see himself you know? I think that that’s just really important for you to be able to see yourself and we provide that for people in a way that some people have not seen before.

AM: What can you tell us, if anything about the upcoming season or what we should keep an eye out for?

JS: I really do think that it’s full of unexpected surprises. I think that in this sitcom world, you can do so many things. We have always had our groove and our chemistry, but you have to remember that part 1, we were all kind of strangers to one another and we still had that chemistry. Now, 3 years later, we’re still working together and I said this in another interview – you can’t tell me that these people aren’t my family. This is legit my family. So going to work, with my family – you can expect this season to have more chemistry and I think that we take more risks because we’re more comfortable with each other. The writers know how to write for us. They always knew but we collaborate now. It’s a well-oiled machine. I think that we have upped the ante with the twists and turns that we have. Our finale is bizarre. It’s really going to keep you on the edge of your seat. Just like in the previous seasons, but I think that it’s like 2.0 now!

AM: Oh wow. I can only imagine.

JS: We watch the show. We’re filming it every week. So we never know what to expect. So when we see it, it’s like how the viewers are doing it when they’re bingeing. For ever how many weeks we do it, we have to put that time into it and we see it weekly. I have to ask myself, “I wonder what Bernard is going to do next?” I’m rooting for him and I want to see what happens. I have to wait week by week! It’s exciting.

AM: Are there any other upcoming projects that we should keep an eye out for that you can share?

JS: Right now, I’m still auditioning. My main focus right now is The Upshaws, but I’m putting it out there that I am going to do a film this summer. Don’t know which one, but it’s going to be something, I already feel it. You know, when we have our next conversation, we can talk about it.

AM: You are passionate about fitness and you have a fitness app. Tell us about this as in looking at your IG, you’re not just acting, you have other things that you are also involved in.

JS: Yes, I have a fitness line called Jrambo Bands which are resistance bands that come in a 3-pack. They’re 5lbs, 10lbs, and 20lbs. It’s like all of your at home essentials for people who feel that maybe the gym isn’t convenient or they are too intimidated so they can work from home. I have ab belts that’s a belt you put on that’s similar to a waist trainer so it can assist you in being able to lose the water weight. This way you can have a more defined stomach. I recently came out with gym bags which is an all in one that you can use as a carryon for your flights or as an everyday bag. It’s my Jrambo bags and it should be out soon.

I’m just building that because I have such an extreme passion for fitness because a couple of years ago, I started training with a trainer. I loved the results, but I love how it made me feel and I think with me being an actor, you need all the confidence that you can get. It gave me such confidence because I was connected with myself, being disciplined, stretching myself far beyond what I could be, and it gave me that superhuman kind of feeling. I wanted everyone to feel that way. Everyone deserves to feel like, “man, I’m really doing this!” Because you’re constantly when you’re working out and are part of that lifestyle, you’re constantly choosing yourself.

AM: That’s right!

JS: I think that that is important in any kind of career – any position in life. If you’re constantly choosing yourself, you can’t fail. So I wanted to spread that feeling to a lot of people and I started off doing classes. I became a personal trainer, but I have way too much energy as you can tell to be with just one person! So my classes are Jrambo HIIT which is high intensity interval training. Jrambo - long story short – comes from one day I walked into a gym and I sweat a lot when I work out. So I put a bandana on my head and they said Jermabo and I said, “what – I like that, but let me change it to Jrambo,” and it just sort of stuck.

AM: Love it!

JS: So it’s my Sasha Fierce like Beyoncé! So I use that and everything is Jrambo Bands, Jrambo Bags, Jrambo Abs and that’s where that came from! My classes, once I got the show, I couldn’t teach my classes so I developed that app. So the app where I train people with the classes is Jrambo HIITs.com. I come from South Carolina where it’s Soul Food capitol to me. So I’ve learned how to eat now. I fell in love with wellness and health and wellness in general. That keeps me busy when acting is not. I think that people should have multiple passions and multiple things that make you feel alive!

IG @jermellesimon

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY | PG 134 + 137 Russell Baer | PG 138 Max Hemphill | PG 142 - 147 Netflix |

Read the AUG ISSUE #92 of Athleisure Mag and see THE VISION | Jermelle Simon in mag.

IN STEP WITH | BRITT STEWART

There’s something about dancing that is so freeing whether you enjoy it personally, professionally or watching it on TV! Tomorrow is National Dance Day and we had the chance to catch up with Dancing With the Stars’ pro, Britt Stewart, who partnered with BAND-AID® Brand to celebrate this day (find out about their National Dance giveaway on their Instagram where you can find out about how you can win a special mailer that includes Britt’s favorite BAND-AID® Brand OURTONE® bandages, a gratitude journal, face masks, a gift card for dance gear and more as it’s live now! In partnership with her non-profit, Share The Movement, they’re honoring the uplifting power of dance in Black and Brown communities by sharing all of Britt’s dance “Must-Haves!” 

We took some time to talk about how Britt became a dancer and her passion for it! We also wanted to know how she came to DWTS and the latest season of this show which kicks off season 32 on Sep 26th! We also wanted to know more about her partnership with BAND-AID® Brand as well as how she uses her platform to promote diversity in dance!

ATHLEISURE MAG: What was the moment that you realized that you wanted to be a dancer?

BRITT STEWART: Oh, wow! I don't know if I realized it for myself because I was three years old when I started dancing, and my parents put me into it. But as soon as I started dancing, my parents knew that that was my passion. Then, I had an amazing opportunity professionally when I was 15 years old, when I was in the high school musical movies, and it was what really showed me what a career in dance would be like. After that, I just was stuck and that's what I ended up doing!

AM: Where did you train and what kind of dance do you do or lean towards?

BS: I trained in Denver, Colorado at Artistic Fusion Dance Academy. I also trained at my art school from sixth through 12th grade at Denver School of the Arts. Growing up I trained in everything. I was classically trained with ballet and modern and contemporary and jazz. I also did tap and hip hop and cultural dances. And now of course, I lean toward all styles of ballroom dance. I would have to say my favorite is jazz through and through, but I love Samba and Viennese Waltz.

AM: You have toured as a dancer for a number of artists including: Selena Gomez (Only Murders in the Building, Selena + Chef, Dear…), Rihanna (Ocean’s 8, Battleship, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets) Janet Jackson (Poetic Justice, Why Did I Get Married?, Why Did I Get Married Too?), Demi Lovato, and Florence and the Machine! You danced during Super Bowl XLIX and have also been in Grey's Anatomy, Bunheads, and the Gilmore Girls to name a few - how has it been to showcase your talents on so many stages and different ways?

BS: My career feels so expansive because I started so young, and I also feel very blessed that I got so many different experiences on so many different stages, from live stage to  TV and film. It has really been a blessing to be able to call my passion my career and my work. I know that that is something that doesn't always happen, so I don't take it for granted.

AM: You joined DWTS as a dancer in Season 23 - 27 and then became the first black female pro on the show in Season 29! What attracted you to being on this show and what is the difference between being a dancer versus a pro?

BS: The show actually started as just a regular commercial job. I got hired to do one little performance, and that is where the producers saw me and asked me to audition for the show. It really came out of the blue! I knew that I wanted something different and I wanted to be challenged. This was right after Katy Perry's tour. I had been with her for three years, and I really loved working with her, but I knew that I just wanted something different at that moment. And literally, Dancing with the Stars fell into my lap. It pushed me in so many ways. The biggest difference between being a dancer and a Dancing with the Stars pro is it really does hold so much responsibility. As a pro you not only get to dance, but to choreograph and to teach and really create a relationship with whoever your partner is.

AM: You've partnered with Johnny Weir (Zoolander 2, Happy!, Spinning Out), Martin Kove (The Karate Kid, Rambo First Blood II, Cobra Kai), and Daniel Durant (Switched at Birth, Chicago Med, CODA) - how do you prepare to work with partners who have varying levels of expertise and what's that process like?

BS: The process of working with all levels and expertise is very unique to each season. I stay true to myself as a choreographer and as a teacher, but I always enter the room with an open heart and open mind and choreograph and teach for that partner's needs.

AM: What has been your favorite memory of being on this show?

BS: Oh my goodness. Well, my favorite memory on Dancing With The Stars is hard to choose because my first season was so rewarding. I really earned a friend for life from Johnny Weir, and he was honestly the perfect first partner I could have asked for. But then, I don't know. I mean, being partnered with Daniel and then falling in love with him, I guess that's my favorite memory!

AM: What can you tell us about the upcoming season that we should keep an eye out for and what are you looking forward to?

BS: Unfortunately, I can’t share too much information about the upcoming season but stay tuned for more to come shortly!

PHOTO CREDIT | Angela Pham at Ballet Hispánico, New York City - Dance Pros Britt Stewart and Brandon Armstrong show off their moves at a recent event hosted by BAND-AID® Brand OURTONE® and nonprofit Share The Movement. 

PHOTO CREDIT | Angela Pham at Ballet Hispánico, New York City - Dance Pro Britt Stewart hosts a moving panel about barriers Black and Brown dancers face at a recent event hosted by BAND-AID® Brand OURTONE® and her nonprofit Share The Movement. 

AM: Tell me about Share The Movement, how you are partnering with BAND-AID® Brand OURTONE® with dance clinics here in NYC, LA, and Atlanta, and why this was synergistic for you.

BS: Share The Movement is a nonprofit organization and I’m lucky enough to serve as President. Share The Movement was created by an amazing group of dancers, choreographers and dance enthusiasts, and we launched in April of 2021. Our mission is to increase diversity in the professional dance industry. As an organization, we’ve really grown in the last several years through our mentorship and summer scholarship programs. We also help young BIPOC dancers continue with training and development opportunities.

Through our partnership with BAND-AID® Brand OURTONE®, we’re putting our mission into action—helping to develop young, diverse dancers. Together we are hosting a series of free dance clinics in Atlanta, New York and Los Angeles. I'm currently here at the New York City event, which just begun, and it's been amazing to create a space where everyone can feel seen and heard. It has been so special.

AM: I'm caramel complected and the fact that there is an option to have wound care options that match our skin is really exciting. Why is this important for dancers?

BS: Having a brand that embraces different skin tones is so important for everyone, especially dancers. We are always on stage or in class where we are prone to cuts, bruises, blisters— you name it. Having BAND-AID® Brand OURTONE® bandages at the ready and matching my skin tone just adds that extra layer of confidence to any rehearsal or performance, shifting the focus back to my performance rather than exposing a wound.

AM: How are you using your platform to amplify content from Black and Brown dancers for National Dance Day?

BS: BAND-AID® Brand OURTONE® and I are teaming up for a giveaway in celebration of National Dance Day on Sunday, September 16! People will have the chance to celebrate dancers and win some of my favorite dance essentials, including BAND-AID® Brand OURTONE® bandages. Be sure to stay tuned for additional details and how you can enter the giveaway on BAND-AID® Brand's Instagram page @bandaidbrand.

 Read the latest issue of Athleisure Mag.

TRUE HOSPITALITY | CHEF MICHAEL VOLTAGGIO

We're really excited about this month's cover, Bravo's Top Chef Season 6 Winner, and Titan Judge on Food Network's Bobby's Triple Threat, Chef Michael Voltaggio. He also makes a number of guest judge appearances on Guy's Grocery Games as well as Beat Bobby Flay! When he's not on set, you can find him taking his dishes and experiences to the next level alongside his brother Chef Bryan Voltaggio whether it's at Voltaggio Brothers Steakhouse, Vulcania, Retro, Volt Burger and other projects! As someone who we have admired in terms of his culinary point of view, technique and keeping hospitality at the forefront of all that he does, we wanted to sit down with him to talk about how he got into the industry, where his passion comes from, how he has navigated the hospitality space, his approach to his concepts, working alongside family, Season 2 of Bobby's Triple Threat and how he has taken a number of opportunities to connect with guests and viewers as well as to stay sharp in and out of the kitchen!

ATHLEISURE MAG: So, when did you first fall in love with food?

CHEF MICHAEL VOLTAGGIO: Oh wow, I don’t think that I have ever been asked that!

AM: We ask the tough questions around here!

CHEF MV: I think that it happened around necessity. I would say that I first fell in love with it when I understood the creativity that went into it. Because, I was a very, very picky eater as a kid and when I got my first job cooking, I started to look at ingredients as a kid meaning that things like cauliflower for instance – I remember thinking to myself that if I could make this, in a way that I like it, then people who actually like cauliflower will love it. So for me, I started seeing how creativity could sort of, not only like give me a chance to artistically express myself, but also be a chance for me to maybe make ingredients more accessible for more people because it made the ingredients more accessible to me. So I think that realizing that the creative part was as important as the technical part, I think that was the moment that I fell in love with it.

I always knew that I wanted to do something creative, but up until I was 15 or 16 years old, which is when I started cooking, I wasn’t being creative yet. Like, I was playing sports in high school and I wasn’t the best student and I was sort of interested in a lot of things that were creative, but I didn’t have a creative discipline that I could focus on myself.

AM: What was the moment that you realized that you wanted to be a chef? Taking something that you just enjoyed and then making it as a professional.

CHEF MV: I mean, I think that it happened as sort of a default. Like, I was doing it to just sort of survive. I was one of those people that started cooking – because when I did it, it wasn’t like it was today where it was like, “oh, you’re going to be a chef!” It was more like, “yeah, I figured that you would end up in the food industry.” I sort of feel like I woke up and 25 years later, I still have the same job and I’m just like, “wow, how did this happen?” I’m in my profession prior to even graduating high school. My career has started already, but I didn’t know that at the time. What I didn’t realize at the time was that I was already on my path. I’ve loved food ever since I could remember like 4 years old and I have had this job since I was 15. Not many people can say that. I’m approaching 30 years of experience and I feel like I am just getting started.

I would say that my career, after my apprenticeship, that I did at The Greenbriar Hotel when I went there when I was 19 years old to start that program, that I really felt like that, “ok this is what I am going to be doing for at least a substantial amount of time.” I had never gotten to experience any form of luxury in my life at that point, either because I grew up sort of pretty humble or in humble surroundings I would say. When I got to work in luxury, I knew that not only did I want to do that because I wanted to take care of people at that level, but I knew that at some point in my life, I wanted to feel it myself as a guest. So I knew that the only way that I would be able to experience luxury is if I understood how to work in it at the highest level and then hopefully one day, get to sit down at the table for myself.

AM: I can understand that feeling!

How do you define your style of cooking?

CHEF MV: It’s weird because if you had asked me that question 10 years ago, I would have answered it differently than I would today. The reason being that I think that I have obviously matured a lot as a person, but more specifically in my professional career, I think that I have matured a lot in the sense that I don’t know if I have a style and I think that that is interesting about the way that I like to cook now. I’m really still obsessed with learning the things that I haven’t learned how to do yet. So for me, it usually starts with something that I want to learn and then I build something off of that, that I can then offer to my guests.

So, let’s say for instance that I want to study a specific cuisine, I’ll go and study that cuisine and then figure out how that fits into one of our restaurant concepts. Now that we have different concepts, it forces me to study different kinds of cuisine.

I would say that the style that we communicate in the restaurants on our menus is that we like to sort of under offer and over deliver. We like to write descriptions of menus that are familiar to people and that almost seems not that exciting so that we get that chance to sort of surprise them and wow them. I think that that’s oftentimes how we approach a lot of the things that we do is to sort of under offer and over deliver.

AM: I really like that.

Who are your culinary influences?

CHEF MV: Wow, that is a tough one because I mean, I would say the one culinary influence that I have had in my career and this is a direct influence, because I have worked with him is, José Andrés (The Bazaar by José Andrés, Mercado Little Spain, Nubeluz). For someone that made me look at food completely differently, it would be him and I think that a lot of people who think of José, they think of the modern things that he has done in restaurants and that’s a big part of it, but when you talk to José, the thing that he is the most passionate about outside of feeding the world and helping people right now which is incredible, is actually the traditional food of Spain. Seeing him communicate to me that without a foundation like that, you can’t really do all this modern stuff because at the end of the day, the food has to be delicious. Learning that from him was probably a sort of pivotal moment in my career, because I was doing a lot of things then because I wanted to learn all of these modern techniques and I want to do all of these modern things. I think that often, people get caught up in the exercise of that and lose touch of the hospitality or the make it taste good aspect of it. I would think that I really settled into a level of confidence where I worked with him that would sort of influence me for the rest of my career.

AM: I first became aware of you on Season 6 of Bravo’s Top Chef. I’m a huge fan of that show and seeing you along with competing with your brother on the same season, what was that like for you and why did you want to be part of that show?

CHEF MV: So, when I went on Top Chef, this was sort of a moment in the industry where that was really the beginning of how you had the legends like Julia Child (Mastering the Art of French Cooking, The Way to Cook, The French Chef Cookbook), you had Emeril (Emeril’s, Emeril’s Coastal, Meril), you had Wolfgang (Spago, Wolfgang Puck Bar & Grill, CUT) and the list goes on and on – Yan Can Cook, Ming Tsai (Bābā, Mings Bings, Simply Ming) – they were cooking on television and the list goes on and on and on. They were a handful of real chefs that were cooking on TV and then there was sort of the entertainment side of it. I think that when Top Chef came out, I think that that was the first show or competition that was pulling chefs from kitchens that were really grinding and really after it and giving them a platform to sort of go out and come out from being those introverts in the back of house to like these big personalities!

So I think that when the opportunity came, I was like, I wonder if there is a bigger way to sort of bridge this gap between people that are actually chefs and people that are just sort of chefs on TV. Can we really tell this story in a bigger way and connect to a bigger audience and through that, grow the interest and the curiosity in a higher level of cooking or a different level. Whether it’s making people culturally more aware for those that are interested in cultural cuisine or demographics of cuisine or whatever it is, can you educate people by entertaining them? So I didn’t see it as, I want to be on TV and I think that there were certainly a few of those even on my season on Top Chef that were there for that reason. I signed up to do that competition because I really believed that I could win it. I think that some people get involved in programs like this not necessarily thinking that, “hey, I can really win this thing.” For me, I thought, “I could win this thing and this could create an opportunity.” I couldn’t predict what you’re seeing today where every chef at every level or cook for that matter is in some way trying to communicate what they do through some form of social media or entertainment. Back when I did Top Chef, it was like there was this line in the sand – these are the chefs, the real chefs and these are the ones that are on TV, but not everyone was doing television or some form of visual media to tell their story. Then you look at today and everyone is doing it. I think that the risk that I took was worth it, but I also wanted to learn a different kind of skill set, like I wanted to learn.

I think that I was doing this ad for I think Vitamix and I remember going up to the set and I had a teleprompter in the camera and I was reading my lines off the lens while doing my little demo and I was with the blender that came with it and it was like, “welcome to your new Vitamix.” They kept telling me, “Michael, we can see your eyes reading the words in the lens – we can see you doing it off the teleprompter. Can you try and memorize at least part of it?” Again, in that moment, I was like, ok if I’m going to do this, then I need to get good at it. By getting better at television or getting better at sort of some of these visual mediums, I felt that I was getting better at communicating with my guests too. I think that as somebody who works in hospitality, it started to pull another part of myself out that would allow me to want to communicate with my guests even more. I felt like that moment and all of it I can credit back to the opportunity that I had on Top Chef. I think that outside of the exposure, outside of the money, and outside of the study that I had to put into the food, I learned so much going through that process. Even I think as a company owner, how to better and more effectively communicate - I think that that is something that I was missing at that time of my life.

“I think that I have obviously matured a lot as a person, but more specifically in my professional career, I think that I have matured a lot in the sense that I don’t know if I have a style and I think that that is interesting about the way that I like to cook now. I’m really still obsessed with learning the things that I haven’t learned how to do yet. So for me, it usually starts with something that I want to learn and then I build something off of that, that I can then offer to my guests.”

— Chef Michael Voltaggio

AM: What was the moment that you realized that you wanted to open up your own restaurants as that’s such a big step!

CHEF MV: So I was in Pasadena and I was running a restaurant there called The Dining Room at The Langham. They were actually super supportive and that’s where I was when I won Top Chef. I had left The Bazaar and left José. I was working at this restaurant in Pasadena when this show started to air. They were super supportive and they were like, this is your project, this is your room. We’ll grow you here, you’ll grow something big with the hotel and all of that. In my head I was like, do I need to go and do this on my own before I can go and do this in somebody else’s environment?

So they were very supportive in saying, “hey, we’ll renovate a restaurant and conceptualize something around what your goals are.” I was like, “this is super incredible and I think that I would want to do that.” But then I got a phone call and somebody said that they had a restaurant space and they were interested in meeting me and investing in me. At that moment, I was like, “oh, it can happen that easy!” They had read and heard about some of my accomplishments and they genuinely wanted to invest in me. And so I was like, now I need to see if I can do this. So, I took the meeting, we negotiated the deal and this person, his name is Mike Ovitz he started CAA. I don’t know if you are familiar with them.

AM: Very much so!

CHEF MV: He basically said, “what do you need to open the restaurant?” I have the space. I said that, “I really wanted someone to get behind whatever vision I have because this is the first chance that I have to do this and I kind of want to figure out how to do this on my own. What I really just need is money.” He gave it to me. He got behind me, we were partners for over 7 years and we still remain friends to this day, and he was a really good partner in the sense that he was there, but he wasn’t in my face with expectations. He built his career as somebody who supported artists or somebody who supported creatives. As someone who supported creatives, I think he did just that. I think that as a restaurant partner, it was the best scenario that I could find myself in because this was a person that built his career supporting creatives. So then, the money was there and it was time to start opening the restaurant. As you can imagine, I had to learn everything. I had to learn the legal side of it, I had to learn the human resources side of it, I had to learn the accounting side of it – I had to learn how to become a president of a company – not just how to run a menu. That’s the part that I hadn’t realized that I had signed up for at that time. You don’t know all of the nuance of starting a business until you start a business and then it’s, wait a second, I have 10 full-time jobs now!

AM: Pretty much!

CHEF MV: And so, I think again, if you look at that experience, it’s very similar to what happened on Top Chef. Here I was not realizing that I was now going to acquire a whole new set of skills that I didn’t have yet and so for me, you have this trajectory where you’re building on top of previous successes and you’re combining those successes to get more than you have to put yourself in a situation where you are learning. Then you have to retain that information and then you have to be able to teach that to other people, because it's the only way that you can grow your team around you. If you don’t have the tools to give them to be successful in your role or if you don’t know the expectation of the people that are going to work with you, then they’re not going to have a good experience and neither are you and neither is your business. So, for me, it was really important that I really understood everything and every layer that I was responsible for.

AM: You and your brother back in 2016 opened Voltaggio Brothers Steakhouse together which was your first venture together. What was that like doing that especially as siblings?

CHEF MV: I think that at that point, we had gone in separate directions from each other and I think that we realized that we could accomplish a lot more if we worked together so we started flirting with the idea, and so when MGM called and said, "we have a restaurant in the Maryland/DC area and we’re building this hotel, we think that you should be involved in that," at the time I was living in California and I had Ink – it was still open. My brother was living in Maryland. The reason that the call came in was that somebody who had previously been my boss was the one that was making that call. They had called me saying that they had been watching my career since we had worked together. We'd be interested n potentially doing the restaurant project together at the MGM National Harbor and I was like, in that moment, my brother still lives there, I live in California this story makes the most sense that Bryan and I are both locals from that area and we should do this together. So that became the pilot for how we work in perpetuity. Bryan and I are now business partners in pretty much everything that we do in the restaurant space. So creatively, logistically, work wise – everything involved, it just made more sense. If we work together, we can work half as harder or accomplish twice as much. Just having that support system and having something that you trust as a partner, we didn’t realize how beneficial that was going to be for us moving forward. Because here we are this many years later and we haven’t broken up yet. I think that speaks volumes for how you can do it the right way. There is nothing wrong with family getting into business together.

AM: I love that! We also cover a lot of EDM artists, we enjoy going to music festivals and you guys have Volt Burger which has been in various festival circuits and Live Nation venues. Why did you want to be part of this experience in this particular way?

CHEF MV: I think again back when I talked about entertainment as a medium or a discipline that would be a great tool to connect more people, I think that when Live Nation came to us with the opportunity of getting Volt Burger put together and being in multiple venues across the country, I think we’re in 30+ venues at this point. I think again, we get to connect to that many people that fast. So, for us and Tom See who is the President of Venues for Live Nation, when he called, he really – you could hear it in his voice and see it in his face, that he had a real commitment to elevate just not the food and beverage experience, but the hospitality experience at the venues, I think that when you look at companies that are willing to invest in the safety and the overall experience of their customer base, like I could feel it and I could feel his commitment to where they wanted to do something bigger and do something better. A lot of people call with sentences and statements like that, but they don’t really get behind it.

AM: Right!

CHEF MV: Then you get passed off to somebody else and then it sort of dilutes itself. I think that with Tom and his team, and Andy Yates, Head of Food and Beverage – they’re both personally up to Mr. Rapino the President of Live Nation – they’re personally committed to making sure that what they’re going to do is going to happen. I think that for us, we have learned just as much from them as they have learned from us. I think that again, it’s all about that learning aspect of it. When you can be in multiple cities at once, and I’m not saying physically. We are sometimes physically present at these venues, but it’s a chance for people who don’t necessarily have a direct access to us to sometimes go back to that surprise moment that I talked about when we can under offer and over deliver.

Imagine a fan – or somebody that has always just wanted to try something from the Voltaggio Brothers – they go to a concert to see their favorite artist and then they’re walking through and they see this big banner of Bryan and I on the side of a burger stand and I can only imagine in that moment from them that they have that reaction again! It's like, "oh wait, I'm here to see this musician and there’s the Voltaggio burger!” In my head, I’m envisioning people having an even better time. This point in my career, if you were to ask me what my most important part of my career is, it's hospitality. I genuinely still get excited when I see someone’s reaction on their face when they taste something that I have made. I’m not like, “yeah I knew it was going to be that good,” I’m more like, “wow, thank you! It means so much to me that you like it that much!” It makes me want to go and do more. I genuinely feed off the energy of the people that I take care of. I think that a lot of chefs and a lot of restaurateurs lose touch with that.

AM: This year, you opened Vulcania at Mammoth Mountain. What can guests expect when we’re going there?

CHEF MV: Mammoth Mountain made a commitment to elevate the food and beverage experience. It’s one of the best outdoor recreational mountains in the whole country and in all four seasons. In the summer time, we're going into that now, they still have snow – people are still snowboarding there until like August 1st or 2nd – skiing as well. But again, here’s an opportunity to connect to a whole different demographic that I have yet to really have a chance to get to.

I think that the most unique food markets to elevate the food right now are in markets where there aren’t huge saturation of other restaurants. 1, because there isn’t that much competition and 2, that means that there is probably a need for it right there. So getting to sort of pioneer and go into an area that there isn’t a lot of chef-driven sort of concepts in Mammoth and them wanting to bring that there, to me meant that there was a need for it. Their guests were asking for something different or maybe more and again they made that commitment to hospitality to provide that.

So, that’s when we were like, how do we create a concept that is appropriate for families, appropriate for a very transient sort of guest, but also please people that need fuel to go out and do all of these extreme sport activities. That’s when we were like, we’re Italian and our last name is Voltaggio, we haven’t really done an Italian American concept together, let’s use this as an opportunity to now study this and to do that cuisine together and expand on our repertoire and our portfolio of what we can offer moving forward. So, we dug deep and dove deep into the research. We have always made our own pastas and sauces, and pizza at various different opportunities, but never brought it all together in one restaurant concept.

Then we got to dig deep into even naming the restaurant. Vulcania actually means volcano. Mammoth sits in a volcano more or less. That mountain is a volcano. And the first ship that brought our family to the US was the Vulcania!

AM: Oh wow!

CHEF MV: Yeah, so Voltaggio’s that traveled from Italy to NY, came on a ship called the Vulcania. So, the whole thing just came together. You can never say that something is your favorite restaurant. I just love the restaurant, I love the location, I love our partners, and I think that being part of a destination like that, the restaurant itself becomes a destination too. That’s a pretty special thing!

AM: That’s insane and I love the story involved in that!

I also love the idea of Retro. I like that it is kind of feeding into that 80s/90s feel with fashion and entertainment and its confluence. Can you tell me more about the concept and what the vibe of this restaurant is?

CHEF MV: The goal – well 1, it was a very fast turnaround. We had to come up with a really strategic way to sort of redecorate or revamp a room if you will. When MGM came to us with the opportunity and as you mentioned, we already had a restaurant with them at MGM National Harbor and so my favorite thing about our partnership with MGM is the only reason we don’t do something is because we haven’t thought of it. Any idea that you have, they have the resources and the ability to bring it to life as long as it makes sense you know?

I look at that space and Charlie Palmer (Charlie Palmer Steak, Sky & Vine Rooftop Bar, Dry Creek Kitchen) is one of my mentors as well, how do we take this iconic space at the Mandalay Bay and how do we make it enough ours so that it doesn’t feel like what it was while not taking away from what it was. Meaning, Aureole which was one of the first restaurants in Vegas that really told the story of these chef partnerships.

So we approached it with, what if we like – we moved around a lot as kids – what if we treated it like we did as kids where our parents had us in a new house and we got to decorate our new room. That’s effectively what it is. We call restaurants the room – the dining room is the room. So, let’s go decorate our room. We started down this path of what that would look like and I always had this in my head. I used to work with this chef named Katsu-ya Uechi (Katsu-ya, The Izaka-ya by Katsu-ya, Kiwami) and we talked about a concept that would be retro modern meaning that you could start with retro dishes and modernize them a little bit. I remember having to call Katsu-ya and say, “hey, I know that we had this conversation together and I know that this was something that you were really big on and wanted to do one day. Is it ok if I sort of do this concept, but in a much different way than what we discussed?” We had both nerded out on this back in the day and this opportunity came up where I could bring it to life. He was like, “yeah, go for it. If anyone could do it, it’s you.” So my brother and I decided to noodle on the idea and using that as the foundation to build this whole concept on top of.

What if everything that was important to us in our childhood through our personal and professional careers, what if we could tell that story through a restaurant. So down to the white CorningWare pots with the blue flowers on the side of it, we’re serving food in that. To the décor, Keith Magruder, if you look up BakersSon on Instagram, he’s an artist that did a lot of the art in there. So there’s a lot of painted album covers that throw back and tribute to the music in the 80s and 90s. He did things like make 2 scale 3 dimensional water color paintings of Nintendos and Blockbuster Videos and he made these cool paintings of gummy bears. He did an Uno Table and these 3 dimensional donuts and things like that. So what we did was we went into this room and just like when we were kids, it was kind of like, I’m going to hang up my favorite poster on the wall and I’m going to put up a couple of tchotchkes in the space and it's going to be mine.

What we didn’t realize was going to happen is that all the creative people in the company that worked for the company got behind it in such a big way that everyone started to contribute to the process! Down to Tony Hawk sent us one of his skateboard decks and wrote, “Go Retro” on it so that we could hang it up inside the tower. It was just one of those things where it was like, you have to be so careful when you have an idea because you don’t know how fast it can go and how many people will embrace it and get behind it. Before you know it, you can wake up and have something as incredible as Retro.

The food, we have Pot Roast and Mac & Cheese. But our Mac & Cheese, we make the noodles ourselves, we make this cloud of cheesy sauce that sits on top of it that’s sort of feels like the sauce that would come in a package of Velveeta, but we’re making it from really good cheddar cheese, we’re making a bechamel, we’re emulsifying the cheese into it and aerating it with a whip cream siphon – we’re making our own Cheez Whiz more or less!

“Then we got to dig deep into even naming the restaurant. Vulcania actually means volcano. Mammoth sits in a volcano more or less. That mountain is a volcano. And the first ship that brought our family to the US was the Vulcania!”

— Chef Michael Voltaggio

AM: Oh my God! It’s the best Cheez Whiz ever though!

CHEF MV: Yeah! It’s like, how do we start with this idea and then turn it into something that can be appropriate in an elevated dining experience? We’ve got a lot of that sprinkled throughout the menu. We also have things that are comforting too.

It’s not just like kitschy or trying to do something for the sake of doing it. Our Caesar Salad is just a Caesar Salad, but then we serve it with a little bag of churros that we make out of Parmesan Cheese. Our Mozzarella Caprese is a piece of cheese that we dip in a Pomodoro skin that creates a skin of tomato on the outside of it so that it looks like a tomato, but it tastes like a tomato sauce and it’s on the outside of a piece of cheese.

AM: Oh wow! Earlier this week on your IG Stories, I want to say that you had an avocado, but it was a pit that looked like a gelee – what was that?

CHEF MV: So, we had a dish and once again, this was us reacting to guest feedback, we had a dish that I called back, we had a dish that I called Chips and Guacamole on the menu. So, we did this giant rice paper wafer and put a confit of avocado in the middle of it. But the problem was when it went out to the guests, they said, “well, that’s not Chips and Guacamole. I don’t know what that is.” I think that some chefs, their egos would not allow them to say, “ok, do I listen to the guests and do I make a change?” So, when I hear stuff like that and it’s consistent, I’m like, “ok, I need to change this dish!” It’s not living up to the guest’s expectations. So, then I was like, Avocado Toast, bread would be more appropriate to eat with this. I wonder how I could make this retro. I learned the technique of spherification from José Andrés. It was created by chefs, Ferran Adrià and Albert Adrià (Tickets, Enigma, Little Spain) back in El Bulli back in the early 90s. It’s not retro. We’re in 2023! Can I pay homage to it without saying, “oh that’s such a dated technique, that I can’t believe that you’re doing it.” It was such an important technique that it changed like, José, the Adrià Brothers, they made a global impact on how chefs looked at food. So for me, I was like, I think that I can make a black garlic purée and spherify that the way that I learned how to do it when I was working with José and put that in the middle of an avocado that I’m putting in the oven and put that on a plate and put a couple of other seasonings on it and put it with some really good crusty bread and serve it as an Avocado Toast.

AM: That looked so ridiculously good!

CHEF MV: But you know what’s so crazy? Some people today, like the next generation of people that are out eating in restaurants, they never saw spherification. Like let’s say that someone who is 19 or in their 20s or whatever, they missed that whole thing. We have this obsession with trends and we program our brains to say if it’s trendy, then eventually, it will go out of style. Therefore, you have to forget about it.

Where kale had its moment, like last year, or 2 or 3 years ago that the Kale Caesar Salad became so popular people were like it’s so popular, you can’t put it out because it is on everyone’s menu. Or like Pork Belly, it disappeared! Like Pork Belly was on every single menu and then all of a sudden, one day you woke up and you’re like, “where’s all the Pork Belly?” Every chef was cooking it, but I think that people got it to be trendy because they liked it and that’s what they wanted. We have this innate desire for change when change isn’t necessary. I think that spherification got trendier and then people were like, what’s the next cool thing? But then when we do that, we forget that the cool things that we have and that these chefs have sort of put forward to learn, we feel this pressure to not embrace it or to not do it anymore because now we have to create the next big thing.

AM: Yup!

CHEF MV: Why not just keep it around? So we brought that back and not only as a nod to the Avocado Toast, but a nod to the individuals that were behind that technique. I thought that it was so cool when we first learned it and I didn’t think that it needed to go anywhere.

AM: I love how you approach food like that. As someone who in addition to being the Co-Founder of Athleisure Mag is a fashion stylist and a designer, there are many times when I’m like, “yeah, this is a great look, we don’t need to lock it as a trend that has an expiration or pause around it. We can still use this.” I love that you’re talking about something that I fight about on the fashion side all the time.

CHEF MV: I think that there are a lot of similarities between fashion and food too! When you think about the sustainability aspect, when you think about again – in your world, and I think that that’s why I love fashion as much as I do. But now, even in buying my clothes, I go look for old things. Like, I don’t want the newest trendiest thing, I want the old trendy thing, why did it go away? Where did it go? I think that when you look at some of the most successful brands now, they’re the ones that can continue to just bring it back whether it’s recycled with an actual item or an idea, it’s that storytelling that I think that people actually gravitate towards.

AM: I totally agree! I always tell people it’s about going back to the archives!

CHEF MV: Yeah!

AM: There’s so many things that you can spring back from it. You can put a twist on it and do whatever. But the archives are the archives for a reason! They’re going to be here much longer than some of these other things that are going to be a flash in the pan.

CHEF MV: I feel like people can go shopping in their own closet. If you’ve saved stuff from 3 years ago that you haven’t worn and then all of a sudden, you’re like, “wait a second, I’m going to look back at that.” Maybe you got something as a gift that you would have never worn when they gave it to you and then you rediscovered it again in your closet and I think that any creative could recognize that with whatever kind of discipline that they have. Just go back into your closet and try something old.

“But now even in buying my clothes, I go look for old things. Like, I don’t want the newest trendiest thing, I want the old trendy thing, why did it go away? Where did it go? I think that when you look at some of the most successful brands now, they’re the ones that can continue to just bring it back whether it’s recycled with an actual item or an idea, it’s that storytelling that I think that people actually gravitate towards.”

— Chef Michael Voltaggio

AM: Exactly!

Since being on Top Chef, you have been on so many TV shows judging and guest hosting and even doing series, why did you want to add these into your portfolio?

CHEF MV: I think it’s because I don’t want to become complacent. I think that my biggest fear in life was going to be that I would get stuck doing the same job every single day. Although that’s great for some people, and it’s necessary to have those who are committed to that, it didn’t work for me. I never had the attention span to do just that. And so, as I get those opportunities, I think that it make me better for what I do. For instance, if I go and I have 4 days where I can work on this television show, after the 4 days are done, I’m excited to go back to my restaurant. Maybe in those 4 days while I was gone, I learned something while I was there that I could bring back to my restaurant. For me, again, it’s about learning. I’m learning. I get to do something that I would have never had the opportunity to do. When I started cooking, if you told me that I would be doing dozens of episodes of television a year or any television at all, I remember when I was doing some local television and how nervous I was. I was like, wait, I didn’t sleep and I was telling everyone and it was local news! I thought it was the coolest thing on the planet for me to able to get to do. Then, fast forward to now and I’m a show that can reach millions of people. So, not only did I see the opportunity, but I feel a sense of responsibility to use that platform the right way and I think that I just love the fact that I get to communicate with that many people at once. I think that it’s an opportunity for me to tell my story, but also to continue to contribute to this commitment of hospitality that I signed up for. I’m not just making people feel good, I genuinely do this because I love the fact that what I do that maybe I can make someone else smile or whatever. I know how that sounds, but I genuinely believe that! The fact that I do that and I get to call it work is so important!

AM: Well, I know that you always bring so much energy when I see you on different shows like Bobby’s Tripple Threat, we’ve had interviews with Chef Brooke Williamson (Playa Provisions, Top Chef Season 14 Winner, Tournament of Champions Season 1 Winner) a number of different times. When I saw that you were on there, I couldn’t wait to see what you would do. Or, if I see you on Guy’s Grocery Games – it’s really cool to see your point of view when you're doing all of these different things.

CHEF MV: Yeah, when you look at the competition side of cooking too and what I learned very quickly is that it’s a very different discipline. A lot of super talented chefs who are in restaurants struggle with the competition side of it, especially if there are a lot of different cameras and stuff around them. So again for me, I thought, if I could become good at that, then that’s another level of chef that I can become good at and I think that what’s interesting about that is that I do it so much that the first time I competed, I took it so seriously. I still do! I get so much anxiety every time that I’m about to go. But then I do it so much and I started to look at competition cooking like the sport of cooking.

AM: Yup!

CHEF MV: It really is and it’s not for me as much about entertaining and doing a demo of what you’re doing. It’s more so that people can watch it and cheer for their favorite athlete and I think that that's what culinary competition really is.

So now, we win some and we lose some. You have to learn from those losses and I think that those losses are the ones that I have learned the most from. I think that anyone that competes in any competitive setting would say the same thing. You have to experience those losses to then go back and say, how can I be better so that I can get more of those wins. I think that it became a personal obsession because I wanted to continue to learn and win! Because it really is a sport – it’s a sport!

AM: Are there any projects that you have coming up that you can share that we should keep an eye out for? I feel like you’re always doing something!

CHEF MV: One thing that I can say is that Season 2 of Tripple Threat will start airing in August! I think that that’s the next big thing that we’re excited about. Then it’s about just getting back to work with Bobby Flay (Amalfi, Bobby’s Burgers, Brasserie B), Brooke and Tiffany Derry (Roots Southern Table, Roots Chicken Shak, Top Chef Season 7 Fan Favorite). I think that there is more to that than what everyone has seen so far! I think that for me, that is really one of my favorite projects that we're doing right now. Myself, Brooke, and Tiffany - Bobby included, we’ve all become so close to one another through this project and I think that more of that – I want to be able to keep my knives sharp and my brain sharper. I think that the best opportunity for me to do that is growing my relationship with Live Nation, Bryan and I are really sort of excited about the amount of support that we’ve gotten from MGM with every project that we have in the works with them. I think that for now, honestly what I’d like to focus on is focusing on what I have going on. I think that right now is a good point to say that I am satisfied with everything that we have our hands around right now. Let’s just focus on doing the best job that we can at that and then maybe next year, pivot and start focusing on some other stuff. For now, I have a lot of responsibilities and I have a chance to make a lot of people happy and I’m going to focus on that!

AM: As someone who is so busy, how do you take time for yourself so that you can just reset?

CHEF MV: I mean, I think that you have to force it. I have a tendency to say yes to everything and I think that I grew up working more 7 day weeks then I did 5. I would say that I did that for a good part of my life. I wanted to do it, but I did it because I had to as well. I mean, I had 2 daughters when I was young and I remember when I was doing my apprenticeship, on my days off I was standing in a deer processing plant at a local butchers house processing meat and stuff to pay the bills you know? I think that my work ethic is something that is really important to me and it’s something that I don’t want to lose touch of. I think that it’s a super valuable asset, but at the same time, I’m allowing myself to do that, to take a couple of things and to just go do something. Like yesterday was my daughter’s birthday and it’s a little extreme, but my brother flew me here from Vegas, we were at our restaurant doing an event and I was like, “I need to get to my daughter, it’s her birthday.” She’s down here in medical school, she’s going to become a doctor.

AM: Oh wow!

CHEF MV: Not only is it like a Voltaggio going to college which is one thing! But a Voltaggio becoming a doctor is another! My other daughter is here as well and she’s like also doing her own thing and so when you have those moments to spend time with family, my brother flew my wife and I down here just to spend 2 days with my daughters here. I think that family time is so key!

AM: Your smile is so big right now!

CHEF MV: Well because I think that as much as I hate that I am going to say this, I really neglected my family for a long time because I had this path that I had to do these things so that I could be better for them. So now, I think that at this point in my life, as much as I provided for them, I think that I could be more present for them and that’s something that I am really trying to carve out time for.

AM: If we were invited to your house for brunch, what would be something that you would cook for us? I always love knowing what people’s brunch menus are.

CHEF MV: I mean as much as I hate to say it, I would have to have something with caviar on it because I think that, I don’t know, to me brunch is caviar. I think that that’s really weird to say, but when I worked, no one wanted to work brunch at the luxury hotel. If you got scheduled to work brunch, you were getting punished. I think that that was the first time that I tried caviar. Working brunch at The Greenbriar Hotel or at The Ritz Carlton or something like that and I was like, “hmm, I like this stuff.” Then when I was in charge of running things, there was Caviar Eggs Benedict, caviar this and caviar that! I just really liked it. There’s a restaurant that we have here in LA called Petrossian, you have one in NY as well.

AM: We literally lived around the corner from them!

CHEF MV: So, they do this Caviar Flatbread there and I had it once, I’ve had it a lot actually, and I’m going to go home and recreate my own version of this. Every time I have a brunch, I am going to do this. You can do this with smoked salmon like the Wolfgang Smoked Salmon Pizza that Wolfgang Puck makes. But you buy the flour tortillas, and you brush them with a little olive oil and season it with a little salt and bake those in the oven. You pull them out and you have a crispy flatbread.

So now, you can build this breakfast pizza on whatever you want on top of it. So, now you grab crème fraiche, capers, grab some chopped red onion, parsley, a little hard-boiled egg, and whether it’s smoked salmon or caviar, you cut it into pizza. It’s easy, it looks beautiful –

AM: Wow!

CHEF MV: You said wow, I only described it to you and you said wow! I used to get that a lot when I went to Petrossian for brunch and I would always order the Caviar Flatbread. So, a smoked salmon version or whatever, I just think that the idea of using a flour tortilla is something that everyone should have in their repertoire!

IG @mvoltaggio

PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS | PG 16 - 27 CREATIVE DIRECTION Dominic Ciambrone, PHOTOGRAPHY Bryam Heredia, PHOTO COURTESY of SRGN Studios | PG 28 + 31 Food Network/Guy's Grocery Games | PG 32 - 35 Food Network/Bobby's Triple Threat |

Read the JUL ISSUE #91 of Athleisure Mag and see TRUE HOSPITALITY | Chef Michael Voltaggio in mag.

MAKING HAIRSTORY | CHAZ DEAN

We always like sitting down with those that trailblaze their industries by working in their vertical and creating innovations that change the way that we go about doing what we do. We caught up with Chaz Dean, Founder of WEN and Celebrity Hair Stylist & Colorist, and have been fans of his since we first met him and followed his story on BRAVO's Flipping Out with Jeff Lewis, and when he went onto QVC to sell his line of haircare products. He creates products that you'll find using for your hair as well as other parts of your body! In addition, he is focused on clean ingredients that ensure our bodies stay hydrated and are not tested on animals.

We wanted to find out more about how he got into the industry, how being multi-talented in an array of areas allowed him to converge his skill sets even more to optimize his work, how he made his Chaz Dean Studio distinctive and his latest launch of WEN's Pina Colada line.

ATHLEISURE MAG: When did you realize that you wanted to be a hairstylist?

CHAZ DEAN: Probably when I was 18 because I took photography all through high school and I was a photographer all through that, loved it! We moved to Arizona the week after I graduated from high school. I was still 17 at that point and so I took a commercial course in photography and I thought, I was moving back to California, because Arizona was not for me! It was too hot – way too hot, which is what we’re getting now but anyway!

I knew I was moving back to California, but again, I was only an 18 year old kid. I felt like I was this little fish in this huge pond and I thought that I was going to be eaten alive out here. I wanted more experience under my belt and because I was a fashion/beauty photographer, I wanted to learn how to do the hair and the makeup to create the look that was in my head. I didn’t want to have to tell the MUA here’s what I see and the hair stylist, here's what I see - the vision that I saw, I wanted to be able to create that! That was really important to me so I went to school for hair and all through beauty school, everyone knew, this was the kid that was going to graduate and go back to California that’s his dream! I was going to work at Vidal Sassoon, that was my dream in school at least. I was going to go to Los Angeles to work at Vidal Sassoon. That was my dream in school. It was the full picture, not compartments.

AM: Exactly.

What led to you wanting to open your own salon and what were your goals in doing that?

CD: It’s funny, when we were in beauty school, one of our assignments was, if you had your own salon, what would it look like? We all had to draw it out like architects to show what it would look like and the layout. So, I remember that being our exercise, but I had no idea how I drew it out, now. It would be interesting to know how did I actually plan this as an 18 year old kid? How did I do it then versus how it really is now? I don’t remember, but it’s not like I sought out that I was going to own my own salon. Many people do and they can’t wait to open their own. Mine wasn’t that way. I worked for another company and I worked for them. I started creating products for them which is how it happened.

I was a 19 year old kid who asked them, “how come you have your own haircare line, but you don’t have your own deep conditioner?” They didn’t. They would buy those hypro pacs at the beauty supply. I didn’t think that it made sense to have your own product line, but not your own deep conditioner. So they said if I wanted, they would set me up with a laboratory to help them create one. I had never done it and again, I was only 19, but it opened a door for me. I like to cook, I’m creative, I love art and all of those things. So of course I wanted to do that. I did and we launched it and it was called Reconstructor and it was amazing and everyone loved it and it worked great. A few months later they came up to me and said, we’re thinking of doing more of a natural product line and they wanted to know if I would be interested. I said I was, but I wanted to know what I would get out of it. Their answer to me was, “prove to us that you can do it first and then we’ll talk about that.” A young intimidated kid from the owner’s salon thought, “well didn’t I already do that with the Reconstructor?”

But I wanted to do it and I probably was afraid that if I asked, that they might say ok forget it. So I wanted to do it and I’m glad that I did. We did it and we launched a Primrose Shampoo because they wanted more of a natural product line. At the time, the only one that was out was Aveda. I had to do my research to know what I would do and what I would want to do. So I did Primrose Shampoo, Sage Conditioner, and Rosemary Conditioner which were the first 3 products of the line. I’m someone that if my name is on it, it’s on it and you’re not going to run my name through the mud. So they were someone that wanted instant gratification and they kept saying let’s go, let’s go, let’s go. I would tell them that since my name was on it, if I was going to do it, I would do it right. It took longer than what they wanted it to be, but in hindsight, it was pretty quick. We finally did it and launched it and that was the line that it is and that’s the fashion formula line which is the Big Sexy Hair concept. So it’s that line. I developed those 3 items and it became huge! So after we launched it, I asked them, what am I going to get for this? So they told me to meet them in their office on Tues. So I went and their offices were in Westwood and they slid a piece of paper across the table to me and remember it probably took me 9 months to launch it so when I first did it, I was so excited and thought, oh my gosh, I’m going to create a product line for them and a young naïve 19 year old kid thinks that maybe I will get 15% out of it. You have no idea. As the months went on without having any dialogue with them and we do this as people, I went down to 12% and 10% in my own head just because I knew how they were. So in my own head, I talked my value down without any dialogue to them and I think I did it as well because I didn’t want to be let down with what it actually ended up being.

AM: Well, yeah.

CD: I’m not joking, I probably went down to 5-7% in my own head. So I went and met with them and remember I went from my own head thinking 15% down to 5%. So they slid the paper across the table to me, I turned it over and I kind of get a little emotional every time I say this. They offered me a penny per bottle for every bottle manufactured. I’m like woah! So I mean nothing – my worth is nothing!

AM: Oh my!

CD: In my head and I get goose bumps every time I say it because I don’t talk about it often, but in my head, I’m thinking I put in all that work and all that passion – yes I learned from it, but you’re a big Goliath here and that’s pretty messed up! In my head I’m thinking, that 100 bottles will equal $1! As a kid that has no money, how am I every going to get to $1,000? It was insane! I wasn’t happy about it and we had dialogue and they were like, that’s it – take it or leave it. Wow, it was a stab in the back and I had no choice and I signed it. But in all honesty, I never even saw that and I never even saw anything from that. I did get a discount from them when I purchased the salon from them which I am jumping ahead of them a little bit. Because you asked me about the salon and it’s really important.

Knowing I was screwed over when I first created a product for them, then I got screwed over a second time, also knowing that I worked for them as I was a manager and they didn’t pay their managers anything. I would ask them to just give me minimum wage to show that what I was doing for them carried merit, weight, value, respect, and what not. Because you had to have mandatory meetings and to cancel out your clients or book out your clients. I was like, I’m losing money as a manager and you’re not even covering me on anything here. I would ask for minimum wage and I’m sorry, back then it was $3.65 – so essentially, I’m asking for $120 a week to show me that I mean something to you. So no there was nothing. I did it as long as I could until I felt that my clientele was suffering because of my managerial and I was managing a salon of 25 stylists and so forth. So I said that I couldn’t do it anymore and that was after all the other things that I was screwed over on. I resigned from management and I left the salon that I was at which was in Century City and I went up to their Bel Air location. When I did, I realized that everyone that was working there were ex-managers. I was a 20 year old kid and I went to a salon that was all ex-managers. They all seemed to go there and it was in one of the richest neighborhoods in California. When I would go there, there would be no music there, no coffee made, there was no vibe, no energy and I couldn’t do it because I’m the full picture! So, I took on management again even though I didn’t get paid for it. I couldn’t be in that environment so I had to manage it. It’s funny because it bounced back between me and one of the other managers when I was like, I’m done with it, then she would do it. We both knew we weren’t getting paid for it, but we did it because we cared about the environment.

When it came up that we heard news that they might be selling the salon, we were like, “what are we going to do?” So I start looking around and you’re in Bel Air, it’s way up there around nothing. I looked and I couldn’t find a place as I knew I wouldn’t be able to control the environment. I would have to fit in to whatever it is and did I see myself in that type of an environment? At one point, they offered it to me on whether I would want to buy it, but my first knee jerk reacting in my head was, "how am I going to do this after you f-ed me over how many times?” Now you want me to do this so that you can do it again? But after thinking about it I realized that for years there was a reason why that salon wasn’t successful because every time one of the ex-managers would leave to go open their own salon, you’re losing that built in clientele they had. New stylists would come in, but you’re not getting new people walking into the door because you’re in Bel Air, a multi-million dollar neighborhood but it’s a chain salon Carlton above the door. These women have pride, they’re not going to a chain salon. I would tell them for years, change the name to anything but Carlton and you will have successful stylists. But they’re not walking in that door because of the name that’s over it. Even though it works for you everywhere else, it does not in this neighborhood. I said it for years and I have goosebumps as I tell you this and tell you my story as I don’t usually relive this. Their ego is in the way and they will not change the name. So I thought, I can make this work. So I did do it and that’s what turned everything around. I had never intended to own a salon, it was never in my cards, I was just a busy hard worker and I worked from 9 in the morning until 11/midnight because I was just passionate about hair. Marysol has been my housekeeper for 25 years and she jokes with me and says, “he used to work hard.” I’m like, what do you mean, I have no time to breathe! But it’s a different kind of work but I would be at the salon for 12 and 14 hour days so I “used to work hard.” It’s a different kind of work, now it’s a business kind of work. The irony is that I did it and I didn’t have any money. I had nothing. So I painted the walls and it was when shabby chic was in and I took my roses and hung them upside down and I made it quaint and cute and welcoming because I didn’t have any money to do anything else. I hated the floors and I couldn’t do anything about that. I did an opening party with friends and I had a friend that was a singer who had an incredible voice and she sang and I had people in the neighborhood and from the very beginning it was busy busy busy. They lived in the neighborhood and they would walk by and they were shocked. They would ask me how I did this and I told them that for years, all you had to do was change that name! I called it Chaz Dean. No one knew who Chaz Dean was back then, it was Chaz Dean Salon and they didn’t know who. I changed it to Chaz Dean Salon and now people know who the hell Chaz Dean is!

AM: Absolutely!

CD: I did call it my own name because I wanted to be able to incorporate my name because of my own photography. I wasn’t just building a salon, I was building photography and hair. I wanted them to be able to know who is Chaz Dean. Does that make sense?

AM: It does!

At what point did you feel like that you had been making these products for other people and now that you wanted to do it for yourself since you also had the salon?

CD: The day that I opened my salon!

AM: That’s what I thought!

CD: Because when I worked for them, you had to sell shampoo, you had to sell their products and it was all that you could do. That’s the ironic part. May 1st in 1993, the day I bought the salon and opened my salon, I gave up lather and said that I didn’t have to do that anymore to sell shampoo. I created it for them but I had already realized before that that I used to do shampoo and conditioner twice a day, 14 times a week. When I would shampoo my scalp, it would get tight and it felt horrible and it would be all stripped and I knew it. Then the conditioner would just comb through it and for 2 hours a day, it would look ok in the middle of the day, but then it would get oily and what not. It was a vicious cycle and I knew that there had to be a better way! I had a lightbulb moment that the only reason that anybody uses shampoo is to clean their hair. So if I can clean my hair and not strip it, so that my clients color won’t go down the drain, because I had been mixing vegetable color in with shampoos, that’s how I knew that the culprit was shampoo. So I’m emptying bottles of shampoo and mixing in vegetable color and putting them back in and I’m doing the same with conditioner – emptying them and putting back in vegetable color. But I know the culprit is shampoo, so get rid of the damn shampoo! That was before I bought the salon, but when I owned the salon, I no longer had to do this song and dance anymore. I can do my thing and that’s what it was.

The irony is, I never bought my shampoo from them. I bought the products that I created for them, but I never bought shampoo from them again. I would mix the sage and rosemary together – 2 parts sage, 1 part rosemary. Sage is more moisturizing and rosemary is more stringent so mixing 2/3 and 1/3, it worked. At the beginning, I told them about it because I was excited and they didn’t want to hear about it. About a year or so later, they realized that I never bought shampoo and I said, “why because I only do conditioner.” They thought that I was weird and crazy and then all of a sudden, they realized that I was on to something and then they came in asking about what I did and I knew! I knew that they were going to steal my idea because I was just this tiny little kid! My stylist next to me started telling me and I told her not to tell them. I knew what they were up to and they were going to rip me off.

AM: That’s awful!

CD: I did it and that was my moment when I started creating. It was still 2 years after that. So for 2 years, I mixed there’s and then in 1995, is when I started to work with the lab. When the lab came to me, I was concerned about them ripping me off so I didn’t even tell them what I was creating! With the lab, I would just pretend that I was creating a shampoo otherwise they were going to know what I was doing. So with the lab, they would send me the shampoo, various conditioners of different versions. I would keep making changes to the conditioners and they would note that I hadn’t with the shampoos and I would tell them that that one was good and I didn’t need any other changes. I didn’t tell them. It wasn’t until I launched it because my thinking was being someone much smaller than the larger companies around me, I had to protect it as long as I could and I kept the secret until it was launched. Even when I launched it, I still felt like I would have to keep it a secret. But by then I had to talk about it because it was out there and I had a patent pending. So I felt like it was guarded until I launched it.

AM: I love that story and it’s such a shame.There is such a backstory going on and you’re literally learning on a twisty curve and it’s awful when you’re the little guy!

CD: I probably wouldn’t have been around if it hadn’t happened that way. I didn’t do it out of spite or resentment. But I did it out of, if I did that for you, imagine what I could do for myself! That’s my thing. With the knowledge that I had back then versus what I had when I did it for myself, I knew I could do so much better than that.

AM: We had the pleasure of attending your virtual launch for the Pina Colada collection that took place last month. The system is great – what’s your process when you’re deciding about the scents that you’re bringing forward, what are the different kinds of products, and it’s great that there is that flexibility and such an intention behind what you do in these items that they can work for your skin as well as for your hair.

CD: I have very few products that only have 1 use. I’d have to think about which ones those would be. Most of them spill over for hair, skin, everything. As far as the fragrances, I have a Blessings Collection as well. Right now, we’re working on Prosperity. When we did the Pina Colada, we started out with wanting pineapple and coconut, but then as we went the process it became more than that! It literally became Pina Colada. Having pineapple and coconut made sense because of the benefits of the clarifying and the astringent properties, exfoliating properties, and hydrating properties. I knew where I wanted to go with it. This is one that I am so proud of! It’s been out since the beginning of June.

AM: When we got the WEN mailer, we were a little hesitant because some scents can be overwhelming and it’s just too much!

CD: Oh yeah, sometimes it’s like candy and too sweet!

AM: Yeah!

CD: Mine are not like that.

AM: When you’re using it feels like you’re at a spa and I really enjoy the balance of the scent.

CD: That is my element and as someone who suffers from migraines, the fragrances that I create are very clean. I avoid those nasty harsh synthetics and the musk because it drives my migraines and they know that about me too. So yeah, when you think of it and again, I smell other ones and I can’t because it goes right there! I keep it really clean and that’s what differentiates me so much because I have done over 50 fragrances and I will tell people not to wear fragrances because it drives my migraines, but the fact that I can create these and it doesn’t do that to me is so amazing. Again, I’m not making a claim, but anyone that does get migraines, or you have a fear of them, try it at least. I don’t remember anyone who has told me that it triggers their migraines.

AM: That’s good to know. What is the relationship when people are looking at having great hair – the balance between wellness and your haircare routine? Because it’s not just about what you put on your body, but also what you put in your body right?

CD: Oh yes! It’s really important. I try to get people to understand that everything that goes and I never use this analogy, but it’s the gas that you put in your car is going to determine that as well! Everything that you put into your body is going to come out as well. If you put in cheap gas you’re going to see that and it’s going to take its toll. But, the same thing with us. What goes in is going to have to come out somewhere. Your pores, your hair, your nails, your skin – somewhere. It has to come out, it doesn’t stay in there in a vault. So, yeah, when people realize that, you can change so much by your diet. What you do topically, you’ll notice it much quicker and immediately versus what you put in may take you a little longer to see what’s going on.

I definitely connect the two as I’m vegan and it’s been almost 4 years. I was pescatarian from Sept of 2014-2019 for 5 years and then I gave that up because I felt like I was probably eating more plastic than probably fish. Also, because they are living beings and there was all of that. I’ve been vegan now for almost 4 years. September will mark the 4th year. In terms of eating meat or any of that stuff, I haven’t in 9 years as of September. All of that is important to me. When I launched my product line, I did so with no animal testing. There are no animal biproducts, it’s cruelty-free, we are recognized by the leaping bunny and I did that again working on the line in 95, launching it in 2000 – so it’s not a bandwagon that I jumped onto. I have always been that way. Now, everyone is doing it being vegan and cruelty-free and I’m like, “where were you 20 years ago?” I launched that way. I don’t want to be swept away under the rug because everyone is now, I have been that way ever since I created my products. It’s important to me as well.

I think this is important, when I had my infomercial, I stipulated that I wouldn’t allow them to sell in China because they require animal testing. They knew that that was part of the contract and that I would not allow them to do that. They wanted to obviously, but it’s not ok.

AM: You’re schedule must be insane with your 2 salons in LA and here in NY, your QVC business with the brand as well as the brand on it’s own. What is an average week like for you? I love that you’re just smiling right now.

CD: No, it’s just that before you and I talked, I was talking with my business manager who was telling me that I had to do this, this, and this. I’ve been shooting for the past 2 days and almost everything was that. I know there are things that I need to do because they are important. It’s not a joke, my LA PR team, we were supposed to have a call a few days ago and then the shoot happened and she was like, we still need to talk and I was like, "I know, but when?” It just is and it’s not a complaint. It doesn’t stop.

We did a documentary. A guy reached out to me during COVID and he wanted to do it about our billboards. During COVID, I hadn’t done photoshoots for it. So a year and a half into it, I reached out and apologized that I hadn’t done anything for it. When we finally did it last July, it was a long time that he was waiting for us to do shoots. He came out and did the footage and what not, filmed it, asked me questions and did the interview and all of that. Just yesterday during our shoot, we happened to talk about it and our billboards for next year for Fall, Winter, Spring and Summer and what that will look like and what we want to do. We try to shoot the whole year. So we’re going to do our shoot and do a behind the scenes with our video guy where we’ll talk about what we’re doing, who we are, what it means, etc. The billboards have been out for at least 15 years and I need to figure out when the first ones went up because I really don’t remember honestly. Having said that, we talked about it and they said we haven’t heard from him and it’s been almost a year ago now. So we’re talking about what we’re going to do with behind the scenes and interactions with everyone involved with my team. I have the first sample of it today and in there it reminded me because he asked me this as well – and I said that there is something in me that’s afraid that if I took a vacation or time off, if I took a pause or a stop to it, I might not pick it back up again because I know what it entails. I always say that I feel like I am on this merry-go-round and if I get off, I don’t know if I am getting back on. So I’m afraid to put a pin or a pause in it. You’d think that that was what happened during COVID, but I got busier with Zooms and this. For people that got those breaks and what not, I didn’t!

AM: We had no break!

CD: I thought that I would and I’d have time to clean out my closet, my garage, etc. None of that happened! I didn’t get free time which is insane. Things got busier because people knew that Chaz was available. When I was behind the chair before, they would have to stand there and wait for me because they couldn’t get to me. As soon as COVID happened, everyone could get to me and it happened. Now I’m on these Zoom things in the salon here on Saturdays because the rest is taken up with all of this. In NY, I’m in the salon 5 days a week which is what I was used to during normalcy because I’m able to there as I’m out of this if that makes sense.

There’s no 2 days that are the same. I’m juggling. Today I’m trying to fit together meetings in – where are we going to fit it? Ask this one if they can stay 15 mins later, we’ll meet with this one after – it is what it is. Even during COVID, when I look at my life pre-COVID, even today, I don’t know how I did it. We were traveling every month to QVC sometimes twice a month. A team of 20+ going there. I look at it now and wonder how did we do that during 2019? I don’t know how and I know we did it for 16 years at that time. But I look at it and wonder how I lived that life before COVID and I don't know how and I don't even know how to get back to that! I don’t think that we ever will. So when you asked me that question, I lived it. How did we do all that we did? I don’t know.

Ever since COVID, the team that used to go doesn’t want to do that anymore. Everything changed.

AM: Everything changed! That’s very true!

What do you want your legacy to be in this industry?

CD: It’s so funny that you ask that. If you say Vidal Sassoon, Oribe, or what not – you know who or what they are. I want it to be that this guy changed the way that globally people thought about the way they cleanse their hair. I don’t feel like I have hit that yet and I don’t know why or what it will take to hit that. There was no such thing as cleansing conditioner when I did it. People thought that I was insane and crazy and said, “what do you mean that I’m not going to be able to use shampoo?” I’d tell them to trust me and that I promised that it would work. You do a week, 2 weeks, then 3 weeks. I’m on day 2, but still I’m 30 years that I haven’t had lather touch my hair, face, body, or skin. I would not have all this hair on my head if I continued to use shampoo. I’d probably have half this amount and I’m not joking because of the toll it takes on your scalp and your hair. So I’d really like to leave behind the recognition – I really would, that he really had a movement that changed things. It’s the same version of the person who created shampoo, I’m the guy who invented cleaning conditioner. I don’t think that it’s hit because everyone has copied it and it’s not the same. There are people who say they use cleansing conditioners and I ask them if it’s Wen and they say, “no, but it’s all the same.” And I say no – I had that message 30+ years ago and there are people on the bandwagon, but it was delivered to me. I didn’t understand what it was when I opened a salon, I didn’t plan on it. I stepped into that role of giving up lather, I didn’t know what it would mean, but I knew I was on a journey. So I would like it if I was known as that guy who gave up lather and created cleansing conditioner. It has been worldwide.

We did an event last night and sometimes people don’t realize it’s they me until we have the gift bags and they’ll say, oh my God, Wen – that’s you! So they connect it that way – you get what I mean! They’re like, your Flipping Out Guy or QVC guy. There are times that people don’t realize and they will tell me that they love Wen and that they love Chaz and then they’ll realize it’s me! It’s bizarre, it happens, and it’s crazy.

I know how hard I have worked for it and I would like it to be when it’s all said and done that there is a legacy behind it. I was passionate about it and I did it for her, him, the customer. Anyone that knows me, if I go anywhere, like last night, it was an event for pre Comic-Con and I was giving advice. There was a woman who was there who had all hair pieces and what not and her testimonial was amazing. She had been using it for 15 years or more and whatever industry her hair extensions come from, they all use it because it prolongs them. When you use shampoo on them, you’re buying another one, and another one, and another one – they’re getting trashed. So to hear her testimonial was amaz ing. How did I change her life, help her life, build her confidence? There are people who have been born and have never used lather in their lives since this has been out for 22 years. I have a goddaughter who is 23 and lather has never touched her hair – things like that, they have never had to experience shampoo because Wen was there. I’d like to have the weight of what it actually means and not just the story of the cleansing conditioner but how it touched people’s lives, built their confidence and all of those elements are why I do what I do. It’s a confidence booster!

IG @chazdean

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY | Chaz Dean

Read the JUL ISSUE #91 of Athleisure Mag and see MAKING HAIRSTORY | Chaz Dean in mag.

THE BACHELORETTE S.20 E.9 | HOW DOES CHARITY'S JOURNEY END?

PHOTO CREDITS | ABC The Bachelorette/Craig Sjodin

We are back to the cliffhanger of Aaron and Charity Lawson on tonight’s finale of ABC’s The Bachelorette! Last week we got to hear from the guys during the Men Tell All. This love show of course has Jesse Palmer taking charge of the 3 hour show tonight! In Fiji, Aaron lets Charity know that he is still here for her and wants her to know that he has not forgotten about her and he still feels the same. She tells him that he can stay so that they can hang out and get to know one another. We also know that she is in love with Joey and Dotun so this is definitely going to be a hectic time for her. She wants to take some time with her and acknowledges that she regretted sending him home. After a great date that didn’t involve a Fantasy Suites aspect, she gets ready to see them for the next rose ceremony.

The guys see Aaron arrive and are surprised but maintain their cool. Charity lets them know that Xavier was sent home and then Aaron arrived. Joey gets the first rose and before she announces the second, she asks Aaron to come with her and she thanks him for being there and although she had regrets letting him go previously, she’s glad he came back, but time was not on their side. She sends Aaron home. She comes back to the men, lets them know that Aaron was sent home and tells them that she will stay true to the process and who she is. She also gives a rose to Dotun as well. We’re down to our final 2.

Back in the studio we learn that Aaron will be on Bachelor in Paradise which we’re sure he’ll enjoy and of course, we’re trying to figure out why Peter’s mom, Barb is in the audience, who will be The Bachelor, and any news on The Golden Bachelor which premieres on Sept 29th!

Her family is in Fiji and her mom, dad, and sister will be able to meet both men. She lets them know that she is in love with both men - which her mom is not happy about as she feels that she needs to be decisive. Joey is up first and arrives ready to meet them.

Joey has a 1-on-1 conversation with his sister and Joey asks her how does the family feel about an interracial relationship. She lets him know that it’s about Charity being with the best person. Joey talks with her mom and has nothing but amazing things to say about her. The family enjoyed being around Joey, so we see them as a great fit for one another.

The family gets to meet Dotun and Charity’s sister lets her know that she can already see Joey as her brother-in-law. Although Dotun had great conversations with her family, Charity’s sister lets her know that Joey is the one that gives her the glow - which we agree with! It seems like her family likes Joey more than Dotun and Charity is frustrated to not get advice from them in the way that she wants it.

So she moves on to her dates with each men and she knows that she was unable to get the clarity that she was looking for. She’s not sure who she will pick at the moment. Her final date with Joey allows them to get to dig deeper and to find out what her family thought about him. Joey has a gift for her, his poem for her from their time in New Orleans when they were on their date.

We come back to the island with Charity for her final date with Dotun. We know that she’s torn as they both seem to be great men for her. They talk about how he felt about meeting her family. He lets her know that they wanted to give them a glimpse of who he is as a person. He was able to show the kind of love that he had for her with them. He creates a treasure hunt that is connected to moments and memories that they shared on their various dates. Even Dotun feels that elements of this date were heavy and that he is concerned. We also know that Charity has been conflicted.

It’s the big day and what the season has been leading up to! Who’s proposal will she accept and what happens after? Neil Lane who we always enjoy seeing, is there to help them men as they select the engagement ring that they will present to her. She makes her way to wear the proposals will take place and gets to connect with Jesse.

We see Joey approach and he begins to tell her how he feels about her. He begins to get down on one knee and she stops him before he gets into position. She tells him how much she feels how he feels about her and how she likes him and she lets him know that she found love deeper with someone else! She admits to being in love with him, while being in a deeper love with someone else. Their love story ends.

Joey lets the audience know that he hadn’t seen this exchange and he blacked out of most of it. Charity comes out on the stage as Joey is sitting with Jesse. They haven’t talked since the breakup. The love, respect, and appreciation that they have for one another is so evident. It’s nice to see that there isn’t any hostility.

We’re back with Charity in Fiji and she says that she is love with Dotun and that this is the love story that she knows will bring her the most happiness. He arrives and makes his way to her. Dotun shares how much he loves her and how she makes him feel. She also lets him know how much he has meant to her and how one conversation can change everything. She tells him that she can see him as a husband and to have her future with his. He asks her to marry him and she says yes! Of course, he receives the final rose!

Back in the studio, Charity and Dotun come out together as we transition into After the Final Rose. Both families are sitting together and we’re still wondering how much Charity’s mom has warmed up to him as she was clearly Team Joey. Now that they’re able to be in public together, they’re excited about being able to live their lives and to begin creating what they want for their futures. Jesse gives them a pre honeymoon trip to Greece. She’s also going to be on Dancing with the Stars and Dotun shares that news with her. Definitely a great night for them with surprises - but what else will we learn before the night is over?

Joey is the newest The Bachelor! We’ll be right there tweeting along during his season which will be amazing to see his journey. Throughout the night Jesse talked with women who could potentially be on The Bachelor and Leah from Hawaii will be one of the contestants on his season. Jesse gave her a card (not a date card), and she can’t open it right now and she has to wait until she steps into the mansion on night one.

Thanks for those that tweeted along or shared their The Bachelorette thoughts with us this season! Each night during this season, we tweeted about The Bachelorette and you chatted along with us (@AthleisureMag + with our Co-Founder/Creative + Style Director, Kimmie Smith @ShesKimmie) to see what took place!

Each week we let you know who our faves were from the last episode and if we’ve changed up since then as it pertains to who we think should go to Hometowns.

We also suggest a podcast that we’ve become obsessed with over the past few seasons, Wondery’s Bachelor Happy Hour to get their feedback!

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THE BACHELORETTE CHOSE

DOTUN

JOEY

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THE BACHELOR CONTESTANTS

AARON B. 29 - San Diego, CA

AARON S. 33 - San Diego, CA

ADRIAN 33 - North Hills, CA

BRAYDEN 24 - San Diego, CA

CALEB A. 29 - Ann Arbor, MI

CALEB B. 24 - Orlando, FL

CHRIS S. 27 - White Plains, NY

DOTUN 30 - Brooklyn, NY

JAMES 28 - Chicago, IL

JOE 30 - San Francisco, CA

JOEY 27 - Koloa, HI

JOHN B. 27 - NY, NY

JOHN HENRY S. 30 - Virginia Beach, VA

JOSH 28 - Bethlehem, PA

KALEB K 26 - Norcross, GA

KHALID 28 - Dearborn, MI

MICHAEL 29 - South Holland, IL

NICK 31 - Bayonne, NJ

PETER 33 - NY, NY

SEAN 25 - Tampa, FL

SPENCER 32 - Moorpark, CA

TANNER 30 - Pittsburgh, PA

TAYLOR 32 - Beaver Creek, OH

WARWICK 27 - Nashville, TN

XAVIER 27 - Carrboro, NC

Read the latest issue of Athleisure Mag.

THE BACHELORETTE S.20 E.8 | THE MEN TELL ALL

PHOTO CREDITS | ABC The Bachelorette/Craig Sjodin

On tonight’s episode of ABC’s The Bachelorette, we’re going into the Men Tell All and I know that there are a number of things that we’re going to get cleared up! we are in Fiji and there will be overnights with the remaining men! We also know that we have a bit of a cliffhanger from last week’s episode with Charity Lawson. Of course, Jesse Palmer will fill us in on anything that he thinks we may have missed. We take in a recap of the season and we’re reminded of some of the men that bothered us who are back on that stage.

Of course there is significant time that is spent on Brayden as the men push back on many of the antics that he did while he was on her season. They also talk about the drama that most of us wouldn’t know about with Peter who was sent home first. First up in the hot seat, Brayden of course! They dig into his experience and he will be on Bachelor in Paradise. He also gifted Jesse a pair of earrings for him to try out.

Next up in the hot seat is Xavier. The audience is not embracing him and even Jesse is a bit dry with him. Charity comes out and he comes back to the hot seat to talk about what took place in Fiji. Charity lets him know that what he said didn’t give her any indication that he would not cheat on her. She even explains that she didn’t like that he said he loved her when she walked him to the car after everything that he had told her. He gives her a knitted rose.

We lighten the moment with some bloopers which is always so much fun! Previous OG The Bachelorette’s pop onto the couch to give their support to her. Desiree, Trista, and DeAnna provide their insights. Trista is celebrating her 20th anniversary with Ryan who she is still with, DeAnna is single again and putting herself first, and Trista is a younger OG who is navigating her relationship as well.

We finally got to meet The Golden Bachelor, Gerry Turner. He shared his story, the death of his wife Toni that he loved, his daughters, and more! His sense of humor and how he seems so genuine in this process, we know that we’re going to enjoy seeing him finding his next love. It seems like we will see his journey next month AND we know that Jesse will be taking notes as well.

The Bachelorette Finale is next week! Even Jesse said that he couldn’t keep up with what was going on and he was there! We get a sneak peek on what we can expect as she decides between Aaron, Dotun, and Joey. Mama Lawson is there with her to assist, to a point. Thankfully, it’s a 3 hour finale that will be live.

Each night during this season, we will tweet about The Bachelorette and you can chat along with us (@AthleisureMag + with our Co-Founder/Creative + Style Director, Kimmie Smith @ShesKimmie) to see what’s taking place!

Each week we will let you know who our faves were from the last episode and if we’ve changed up since then as it pertains to who we think should go to Hometowns.

We also suggest a podcast that we’ve become obsessed with over the past few seasons, Wondery’s Bachelor Happy Hour to get their feedback!

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WHO WE’LL SEE on THE BACHELORETTE FINALE

AARON (Copy)

DOTUN (Copy)

JOEY (Copy)

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THE BACHELOR CONTESTANTS

AARON B. 29 - San Diego, CA (Copy)

AARON S. 33 - San Diego, CA (Copy)

ADRIAN 33 - North Hills, CA (Copy)

BRAYDEN 24 - San Diego, CA (Copy)

CALEB A. 29 - Ann Arbor, MI (Copy)

CALEB B. 24 - Orlando, FL (Copy)

CHRIS S. 27 - White Plains, NY (Copy)

DOTUN 30 - Brooklyn, NY (Copy)

JAMES 28 - Chicago, IL (Copy)

JOE 30 - San Francisco, CA (Copy)

JOEY 27 - Koloa, HI (Copy)

JOHN B. 27 - NY, NY (Copy)

JOHN HENRY S. 30 - Virginia Beach, VA (Copy)

JOSH 28 - Bethlehem, PA (Copy)

KALEB K 26 - Norcross, GA (Copy)

KHALID 28 - Dearborn, MI (Copy)

MICHAEL 29 - South Holland, IL (Copy)

NICK 31 - Bayonne, NJ (Copy)

PETER 33 - NY, NY (Copy)

SEAN 25 - Tampa, FL (Copy)

SPENCER 32 - Moorpark, CA (Copy)

TANNER 30 - Pittsburgh, PA (Copy)

TAYLOR 32 - Beaver Creek, OH (Copy)

WARWICK 27 - Nashville, TN (Copy)

XAVIER 27 - Carrboro, NC (Copy)

Read the latest issue of Athleisure Mag.

9LIST STORI3S | JORDANA BREWSTER

Read the JUL ISSUE #91 of Athleisure Mag and see 9LIST STORI3S | Jordana Brewster in mag.

9LIST STORI3S | JASON TARTICK

Read the JUL ISSUE #91 of Athleisure Mag and see 9LIST STORI3S | Jason Tartick in mag.

THE BACHELORETTE S.20 E.7 | ONTO FIJI + THE OVERNIGHTS

PHOTO CREDITS | ABC The Bachelorette/Craig Sjodin

On tonight’s episode of ABC’s The Bachelorette, we are in Fiji and there will be overnights with the remaining men! Charity Lawson catches us up on what took place last week as well as what we can expect in tonight’s episode! She’s pleasead that Dotun, Joey and Xavier are here for her and have told her that they are falling in love with her as well.

We’re starting off with Dotun who we love his family and how generous they were with Charity. Joey acknowledges that his Hometowns with her didn’t end in the best way as she was crying when she left him. Xavier shares that his fear of committing to a person has been greatly reduced now that he has met her and he’s looking forward to continuing with her. Jesse Palmer sits down with Charity and lets her know that Fiji looks great on her and listens to her on how she has been feeling.

We also see that Aaron is on his way to go back to Fiji as he wants to be back with her and feels he needs to talk with her. We’re not surprised about this at all.

Xavier gets the first date and meets her on the beach. We learn that there are over 300 islands that comprise Fiji and their date will have them on an island on their own. They get to learn about the culture and ceremonial procedures of Fiji and they are both dressed in attire that is indicative of the people. They continue to talk after these activities since Charity is all about getting clarity from everyone tonight. They continue on with their date with dinner. Charity feels that she needs to truly understand Xavier’s views on having a life with her and how they will continue if engaged. After chatting, he lets her know that he was unfaithful in the past, but wanted to let her know. Whatever grace she was trying to give him, you can feel her retreat and she even gets up to think about it.

She reminds us that she dealt with this for 6 years with her ex and he explains that he did cheat multiple times with his ex 2 years into their relationship! Charity has such a level of grace that she continues to question to find out more. It’s a raw conversation and she continues to try to make paths that they can go forward - it’s painful to watch. She tells him that by having this card and to give it to him, she needs to know where he’s at. He says his heart is there, but his mind isn’t. She doesn’t give him the fantasy suite card and sends his home. It was a brutal watch, but Charity put herself first. We know that she’s shaken after this!

Joey’s date is next and he’s waiting for her in a lush landscape. She arrives with a dune buggy and they begin their date. Although the buggy ends up not working, they walk to the waterfall and she enjoys that they’re having a good time. Joey brings up that he knows his Hometown didn’t go as expected and she responds that although she had a great time as well as great conversations, it was talking with his uncle that gave her pause. Since he mentioned that Joey was not being his true self, she wanted to know what that meant. Joey explains that he was surprised that his uncle appeared at the tennis center and in an effort to make sure that she was comfortable and things went well, that got in the way of him being the way he would normally be. It seems that Charity accepts this answer and they continue to get closer.

Their date continues to dinner and they can continue to chat with one another so that they can know more about one another. He says he sometimes gets concerned that people fall in love with the idea of him where he has self-doubt and he’s not always confident and with great energy. He’s being very vulnerable with him about who he is and lets her know that he is falling in love with her. Charity loves hearing this from him and she says that she is in love with him. She presents him with the Fantasy Suites card and they take it. They have a great night and wake up together in the morning.

Dotun is getting ready to meet Charity. Their date is on the water as they make the most of a stunning day. Charity acknowledges that she doesn’t want to keep looking for what could be wrong with him - she’s just going to have a good time! They sit down and continue to chat and she compliments him on how she loved being with his family and how she loved praying with his mom. Dotun also shares that he didn’t really watch the show so he wasn’t aware what would happen at the end of it. But even when he found out, he was happy about it. While chatting with other viewers, they reminded us that he was nominated to be on the cast and signed on 2 weeks before the show started taping, so it’s totally possible that he didn’t know a lot about it. Just like we like the idea of her Joey, we have felt the same with Dotun.Their date continues to dinner and he says that he knows that their date is like a fairy tale. He lets her know that he is in love with her and she shares this with him as well! They continue onto their Fantasy Suites together. We see them waking up with one another and we know that they have a great connection.

Aaron arrives at the hotel asking for her at the front desk, but without a room number, they can’t disclose that information. He starts looking for her on the property and finds her by the pool. She is truly surprised that

Charity’s Gave Roses To | X

Charity sent home | Xavier,

Each night during this season, we will tweet about The Bachelorette and you can chat along with us (@AthleisureMag + with our Co-Founder/Creative + Style Director, Kimmie Smith @ShesKimmie) to see what’s taking place!

Each week we will let you know who our faves were from the last episode and if we’ve changed up since then as it pertains to who we think should go to Hometowns.

We also suggest a podcast that we’ve become obsessed with over the past few seasons, Wondery’s Bachelor Happy Hour to get their feedback!

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WHO CONTINUED AFTER OVERNIGHTS

AARON

DOTUN

JOEY

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THE BACHELOR CONTESTANTS

AARON B. 29 - San Diego, CA

AARON S. 33 - San Diego, CA

ADRIAN 33 - North Hills, CA

BRAYDEN 24 - San Diego, CA

CALEB A. 29 - Ann Arbor, MI

CALEB B. 24 - Orlando, FL

CHRIS S. 27 - White Plains, NY

DOTUN 30 - Brooklyn, NY

JAMES 28 - Chicago, IL

JOE 30 - San Francisco, CA

JOEY 27 - Koloa, HI

JOHN B. 27 - NY, NY

JOHN HENRY S. 30 - Virginia Beach, VA

JOSH 28 - Bethlehem, PA

KALEB K 26 - Norcross, GA

KHALID 28 - Dearborn, MI

MICHAEL 29 - South Holland, IL

NICK 31 - Bayonne, NJ

PETER 33 - NY, NY

SEAN 25 - Tampa, FL

SPENCER 32 - Moorpark, CA

TANNER 30 - Pittsburgh, PA

TAYLOR 32 - Beaver Creek, OH

WARWICK 27 - Nashville, TN

XAVIER 27 - Carrboro, NC

Read the latest issue of Athleisure Mag.

THE BACHELORETTE S.20 E.6 | IT'S TIME FOR HOMETOWNS

PHOTO CREDITS | ABC The Bachelorette/Craig Sjodin

On tonight’s episode of ABC’s The Bachelorette, we are in Hometowns! It’s favorite part of the season and we can’t wait to see how the families react to Charity Lawson! She starts out with Aaron and his family in Houston. They all have a lovely meal with one another. Aaron’s mother enjoys talking with her and asks her, “would you marry him if he asks?” She says that she wouldn’t be able to say yes at this point. We know this as she has a strong connection, but over the past few weeks, it’s been a bit of a disconnect. He even tells her that although he hasn’t said love, he feels that they are on the path to continue to work on this.

They continue their date by heading out to the football field to have a few appetizers and drinks and they connect with one another. He lets her know that he is falling in love with her and gifts her a letterman’s jacket as well. She says that she feels like they are back on track.

Next, Joey and Charity are in Pennsylvania. They kick off their date by Joey teaching her how to play tennis. Uncle Joe swings by ready to play tennis and we learn that he is very close to his nephew. Apparently Uncle Joe was Joey’s coach in tennis and you can tell. Uncle Joe feels that something is off with Joey although he can’t put his finger on it.

She heads to his family and they give her a warm welcome. His sister pulls her aside to get to know more about her. She lets his sister know that she is falling in love with him. Uncle Joe lets her know that he thinks that she’s a nice girl, but he feels that Joey has a tendency to be what he feels others want him to be. She is confused as she feels he has always been authentic. Initially, she had planned on telling him that she was falling in love with him; however, she doesn’t. He feels something is off.

Xavier meets Charity in his hometown of Cleveland. She’s looking forward to seeing him, but she still feels that there are elements about him that remind her of her ex that didn’t make her a priority. He takes her to a yarn store to kick off his date and he introduces her to his knitting friends as they’re taking a class together. She feels more connected and they continue to talk over coffee. After their solo date, she meets his family. She has a great conversation with his sister and mother and it seems like she enjoys what she is hearing as she gets to see them through their eyes. When Xavier’s dad chats with him, we get to hear more about his process in terms of where he’s at with her.

For her final Hometown, she is in Fresno with Dotun and she looks forward to having time with him as well as meeting his family. His parents won’t be there as they got to Nigeria every year for 4-6 weeks. But even though the timing didn’t work out, she’ll still meet his brothers and sisters. She also meets his grandmother and just when they’re sitting down to eat, his parents arrive! She gets along with them and they end their date riding away in a classic car to a drive in movie theater to see elements of who they are prior to meeting.

All the Hometowns have finished and she catches up with Jesse Palmer. We always love how he’s like a big brother with the listening ear which really allows conversation to flow freely with him. She knows 2 people will be hurt tonight at the rose ceremony, she says that she will be 1 of the 2.

Jesse meets the men at a private air hanger and gets feedback from them to see how they feel about everything. Regardless, this has been a great group of guys (plus or minus others who have already been eliminated). She feels awful that the person who she sends home, won’t see it coming and she knows how that feels as it happened to her.

She gives a rose to Dotun and Xavier. Now it’s between Joey and Aaron! The final rose is given to Joey.

Charity’s Gave Roses To | Dotun, Joey, and Xavier.

Charity sent home | Aaron

Each night during this season, we will tweet about The Bachelorette and you can chat along with us (@AthleisureMag + with our Co-Founder/Creative + Style Director, Kimmie Smith @ShesKimmie) to see what’s taking place!

Each week we will let you know who our faves were from the last episode and if we’ve changed up since then as it pertains to who we think should go to Hometowns.

We also suggest a podcast that we’ve become obsessed with over the past few seasons, Wondery’s Bachelor Happy Hour to get their feedback!

---

WHO CONTINUED AFTER HOMETOWNS

DOTUN

JOEY

XAVIER

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THE BACHELOR CONTESTANTS

AARON B. 29 - San Diego, CA

AARON S. 33 - San Diego, CA

ADRIAN 33 - North Hills, CA

BRAYDEN 24 - San Diego, CA

CALEB A. 29 - Ann Arbor, MI

CALEB B. 24 - Orlando, FL

CHRIS S. 27 - White Plains, NY

DOTUN 30 - Brooklyn, NY

JAMES 28 - Chicago, IL

JOE 30 - San Francisco, CA

JOEY 27 - Koloa, HI

JOHN B. 27 - NY, NY

JOHN HENRY S. 30 - Virginia Beach, VA

JOSH 28 - Bethlehem, PA

KALEB K 26 - Norcross, GA

KHALID 28 - Dearborn, MI

MICHAEL 29 - South Holland, IL

NICK 31 - Bayonne, NJ

PETER 33 - NY, NY

SEAN 25 - Tampa, FL

SPENCER 32 - Moorpark, CA

TANNER 30 - Pittsburgh, PA

TAYLOR 32 - Beaver Creek, OH

WARWICK 27 - Nashville, TN

XAVIER 27 - Carrboro, NC

Read the latest issue of Athleisure Mag.

WHERE'S THE LINE | SEPIDEH MOAFI

This month we caught up with Sepideh Moafi who embodies her characters and really makes us see the world through her eyes and the storylines that they are involved in where it's thrillers such as USA's Falling Water, dramas that include HBO's The Deuce and Showtime's The L Word: Generation Q, and shows that look at our relationship with technology and who has the power to use them in our lives in her latest limited series, FX Class of '09!

You can currently binge the entire season of 8 episodes now on Hulu which looks at a group of FBI agents as we see them going through the academy in the past, in their present day in their career and in the future. We wanted to know more about how Sepideh came to being an actor, how she approaches her roles, and her thoughts on the paradigm between technology and humans intervention and those who decide how this is instituted.

ATHLEISURE MAG: When did you realize you wanted to be an actor?

SEPIDEH MOAFI: I think I was about 23. I graduated from San Francisco Conservatory of Music as a Vocal Performance major at 21 and had started my career as an opera singer. While opera was (and still is) my first passion and finding my voice as a singer completely changed my life, I was becoming more and more curious about theater and exploring the full potential of characters without having to worry about hitting that high C, for example. I enrolled in a straight acting class with Bobby Weinapple in San Francisco (he taught an acting for singers class that I had taken at the conservatory) and he said I had “it”, whatever “it” means. I decided to audition for some plays and started booking roles like Juliet in Romeo & Juliet and Luisa in The Fantasticks, so I decided to apply to grad school on a whim and ended up getting a full scholarship plus grants to UC Irvine’s MFA Acting program. So I went.

AM: I have been a fan of your work from Notorious, Falling Water, The Deuce, The L Word: Generation Q, and currently The Class of 09! You always play characters that are dynamic and continue to reveal themselves in various ways. What are you looking for when you decide that you want to play a character?

SM: Thank you for your kind words. I think the reasons for taking on a part have changed for me throughout the years. I was more character driven before, now I think I’m more story driven. At first I was just so eager to do anything I could get my hands on. I even loved getting to play characters who seemed pretty two dimensional on the page because that meant I got to find the things that many people may overlook or miss and bring all of the complexity and nuance and heart to these characters and make them feel like full, multi dimensional human beings. Taking on any character allows you to gain insight and empathy for a range of personality types — people that are similar to you, people who think completely different from you — you get to explore a variety of career paths and life choices that maybe you’ve never imagined before. Acting is a beautiful way to explore humanity and empathy, and I feel so lucky to be able to learn and grow so much from my work.

I fortunately haven’t had to deal with typecasting; most of the characters I’ve played both on stage and screen are completely different from one another and their racial backgrounds aren’t necessarily specified. I remember having a long conversation with Remi Aubuchon (24, Stargate Universe, Silo), the show runner for Falling Water after I got cast. He gave me the choice to change my character’s last name (Alex Simms) to an Iranian last name if I felt compelled. I thought about this deeply. Representation is so important, but I kept asking myself if it would be more impactful to change her name to say, Alex Mohammadi or keep it as Alex Simms. I spoke to friends who encouraged me to change the name to a Persian last name, but my mom's words echoed those in my gut. She said I should keep it as it because we need to be able to separate our judgements and assumptions about who a person is, their background and what they look like based on their name. So I kept her name Alex Simms.

Something that has changed is that the more political I’ve become and the more humanitarian work I’ve done throughout the last decade, the more important it has become for me to be part of projects that I feel align with my politics and core belief system. We need healthy, accurate stories and representation of women, the LGBTQIA+ community, people from the SWANA (Southwest Asian and North African) region, and all marginalized communities but not with a superficial, checkbox approach to diversity. My face on screen makes a statement whether I like it or not, so I’d rather take control of that to make statements I can get behind. It’s important that whatever project I decide to do doesn’t play into toxic narratives about marginalized people and doesn’t veer from the kinds of stories and representation I want to support and think we need more of.

AM: How do you approach getting into character to bring their authenticity forward?

SM: I think different characters require diff kinds of preparation. For example, for Lauren McCauley in Black Bird, I spent a good two months doing research by reading, listening to podcasts, watching documentaries, reviewing documents from the real life case, speaking to various FBI agents on a regular basis, and reading the script every day. I quickly discovered that there’s no way in hell I could be an FBI agent in real life (I find it too difficult to control my emotions!), so the extensive research helped me acquire the confidence I needed to step into her shoes. Dennis Lehane’s (The Wire, Boardwalk Empire, Bloodline) brilliant script gave me everything I needed to play her, the research just helped me gain the confidence I needed in order to embody her truthfully. For Gigi in The L Word: Generation Q, I did speak to a few of my real estate agent buddies to gain some insight into her day to day work life, but that was kind of the extent of the research. I think every character prep is different. I remember doing so much prep work for Niki in The Killing of Two Lovers but once I got to set with our director Robert Machoian (Mother Mother, Strong Enough, The Foundry) and opposite actors Clayne Crawford (CSI, 24, Graceland), Chris Coy (The Deuce, The Peripheral, Accused) and the kids, I felt like all that prep went out the window. One could argue the prep was there as my foundation but I honestly felt like I was in a trance for the entirety of that shoot. The energy on set was abundant and infectious; we were like animals in the jungle playing with abandon. No matter what, I always start with the words in the script and my gut response to them. From there, I identify the tone, the world in which the character lives (their socioeconomic status, their relationship to their ethnicity and background, their gender, etc.) and that usually informs what type of work and research is needed. My only goal is to give all of myself to every role. If by the end of a film or show or play there’s still something in the tank, I haven’t done my job.

AM: What drew you to want to be involved in Class of '09 and what do you think about the past, present and future format of the show?

SM: There are a number of reasons why I was drawn to this show. The character being able to explore the breadth of anyone’s life over the span of multiple decades is a fascinating, eye and heart opening endeavor. This character, Hour, specifically being from a family that had to flee Iran felt resonant to me and her constant grappling with the dilemma of identity and belonging. The themes of the show — exploring AI, technology, surveillance, the fragility of humanity, and this dance between security and liberty. And lastly the cast, I felt very lucky to be able to have this unique experience with some of my favorite actors and human beings. We formed life long bonds (we’re still constantly texting on our group text!)

AM: We've been watching this every week and really enjoy seeing how everyone is connected with one another and how they evolve over various periods of time. What are the takeaways that you want viewers to walk away with after watching this series?

SM: Class of ‘09 is a limited series so the story is contained within eight episodes. But I hope this encourages the audience to probe at these deeper questions around the nature of security, surveillance, and willingly or unwillingly living in a technocracy. Benjamin Franklin, one of the founding fathers, said “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” We are seeing increasing manifestations of major technological companies abusing their power with impunity and stealing our identities for profit. We’ve seen fuller expressions of this abuse in countries like China, Russia, Israel. We must always remember that our elected officials work for us and we cannot forget that it is our job to hold our elected officials and these major corporations accountable so that we don’t continue on this fast track towards a surveillance state.

AM: Are there upcoming projects that you're working on that you would like to share that we should keep an eye out for?

SM: Yes! There’s a film coming out called I’ll Be Right There with Edie Falco (The Sopranos, Impeachment: American Crime Story, Avatar: the Way of Water), Jeannie Berlin (The Night Of, Succession, The Fablemans), and Bradley Whitford (The West Wing, The Handmaids Tale, Get Out). I actually had the chance to work with Edie on one of my first jobs after getting my MFA. I booked a guest star role on Nurse Jackie a couple of months out of school and I flipped out because Edie was one of the reasons I decided to pursue acting. I remember telling myself to wait until the end of the episode with her to confess how big of a fan I was. I lasted about three hours before I exploded into tears and gushed about how much I loved and admired her. I felt like I totally humiliated myself but she was (and still is) one of the most gracious, humble, down to earth actors I’ve ever met. I’m part of an HBO Max animated series called Scavengers Reign coming out later this year too. I’ve wanted to be part of an animated project my entire life so this was one of those moments where the kid in me couldn’t believe it. Aside from that, there are a couple of other projects I’m developing, but I start work on a film called Wild Berries which will actually be my first Persian language speaking film, opposite award-winning Iranian actor Shahab Hosseini (The Salesman, Residents of Nowhere, Nargesi). It’s pretty much a two-hander so I’m very excited to dive into this world with Shahab and our director Soudabeh Moradian (Polaris, The Amber Thief, In Between).

IG @sepidehmoafi

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY | PG 98 + 101 9LIST STORI3S, PG 128 + PG 131 FX/Class of 09

Read the JUN ISSUE #90 of Athleisure Mag and see WHERE’S THE LINE | SEPIDEH MOAFI in mag.

HYDRATION IS KEY | SAMUEL ARNOLD

One of our favorite series that we can't wait to see come back later this year for it's latest season is Netflix's Emily in Paris! We love the idea of leaving the US to work and live in Paris, navigating a job that you're great at but doing it in a place whose culture and customs are different than what you've grown up with!

When Emily Cooper (Lily Collins), comes to Paris she learns how to think on her feet in her personal and professional life and along the way we see how her colleagues interact with her. One of her Parisian co-workers is Julien, played by Samuel Arnold. We know that he too is a rising star who wants to make a name for himself and we see how he grows to accept Lily. We caught up with Samuel to find out how he approaches acting projects, Emily in Paris, the importance of hydration and his ambassadorship with Jovē.

ATHLEISURE MAG: You have worked in television and in film, what are you looking for when you're deciding on attaching yourself to a project/role?

SAMUEL ARNOLD: When starting a project I hope to be surrounded by passionate people who are in love with storytelling. I hope to be challenged by having to play a complex tri-dimensional character and I hope to have enough space to create and say what I have to say through my acting.

AM: Emily in Paris is an amazing show from the storyline to the fashion, and of course Paris, it's a binge-able treat. What drew you to the series?

SA: When I was asked to audition, I knew it was going to be something big when I heard Darren Star (Younger, Sex and the City series and movies, And Just Like That) and Lily Colins (90210, The Blind Side, Curb Your Enthusiasm) were the names attached to it. They are both the best at what they do and I want to work with people like that. And of course, I discovered Julien and I was dying to play this character after I read the script.

AM: Julien is such an interesting character that has been great to watch as he navigates his career and relationships with others. How do you approach playing him as he is that friend that you definitely want in your group of friends who will always keep it real with you?

SA: I have a very physical approach when it comes to playing Julien. Obviously I am enormously influenced by the wardrobe. It gives so much to the character, but also I found that dancing was working for me. So I’ve been dancing the character to life for three seasons now.

AM: We can't wait for the next season which will drop this year. What are you excited about that you can share with us?

SA: I’m like everyone else when it comes to season 4. I have no idea what they have in store for us and I quite like that. I trust Darren and the writers to create something exciting and amazing like they’ve been doing so far. I can’t wait to see what’s next for Julien.

AM: The cast of this show is incredible! What are some of your biggest takeaways from being part of this show?

SA: Meeting all those beautiful and talented human beings was the best thing that happened to me on this show. We’re like family now. And we see each other as much as we can in between shoots.

AM: At Athleisure Mag, we believe in hydration as it's essential! You are the first brand ambassador of Jovē, which was announced at the Cannes Film Festival this year. Why is hydration important to you and what is the synergy between you and the alkaline brand?

SA: I used to be a professional dancer, and now I’m an actor. So my body has always been my main instrument. And to keep that instrument healthy and ready to go, proper hydration is one of the top things you can do. This partnership with Jovē comes at a moment in my life where I'm getting back to the gym and getting into a more healthy diet, so Jovē has been the perfect companion for the actor that I am.

AM: What does Deep Hydration mean to you?

SA: Deep Hydration is not only about quenching your thirst but it’s about hydrating every single cell in your body. Not only do you feel better on the inside and out, but Jovē is clinically shown to support skin and cellular health, supporting healthy hair, skin, nails and bones.

AM: Jovē has launched their Let Your Skin Do The Talking campaign, which focuses on skin health. Can you tell me about this and what will you do to amplify that message?

SA: Jovē’s Let Your Skin Do The Talking™ campaign amplifies the voice of what healthy skin would ask for — deep hydration at the skin and cellular level. My goal as a Jovē ambassador is to amplify this message and introduce Jovē all over the world as I travel because a high-quality product like Jovē deserves international success.

AM: How important is your personal well-being/self-care to you and what do you do to achieve that?

SA: As an actor, my main instrument is my body and it made so much sense for me to partner with Jovē, who hydrates and supports my instrument in a healthy way. It feels good to promote something that you love and believe in.

AM: You're an ambassador of Or Bleue which focuses on providing drinkable water to underserved communities. Why is being involved in this organization so important to you?

SA: Water is such a basic need, it blows my mind that some people don’t have access to it. I have it on tap and it’s easy to take it for granted. I want to make the world a better place and for me, it starts with drinkable water for everyone.

AM: Are there upcoming projects that you have that we should keep an eye out for?

SA: I shot a movie last winter in Canada where I played a character very different from Julien. I can’t say more about it but keep an eye out for it.

IG @superssama

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY | PG 102 + 103 9LIST STORI3S Netflix/Emily in Paris | PG 107 Jovē |

Read the JUN ISSUE #90 of Athleisure Mag and see HYDRATION IS KEY | SAMUEL ARNOLD in mag.

ON THE LINKS | JASON TARTICK

The summer really allows us to enjoy a number of sports and for many, there's nothing like a round of golf with friends. But with all the time that you spend on the course, it would be nice to have a mobile office that allows you to enjoy the game while also checking in when you need to!

We caught up with Jason Tartick who was a contestant on Season 14 of The Bachelorette (Becca Kufrin's season) and although he was eliminated in week 9, he would go on to date and get engaged to Kaitlyn Bristowe who was The Bachelorette for season 11! We wanted to know about his partnership with Wyndham Rewards, their Cubicle Caddie, his love for golf, what his experience in Bachelor Nation has been, meeting Charity Lawson, the current The Bachelorette (season 20 premiered Jun 26th on ABC), and his upcoming projects!

ATHLEISURE MAG: You've partnered with Wyndham Rewards to share The Cubicle Caddie. Can you tell us more about it and why you enjoy having access to it?

JASON TARTICK: Well, I’ve been a Wyndham Rewards member for the past few years and love how generous the program is, so when we agreed on this partnership, I knew it was the perfect fit. I’m usually balancing work while I’m on the go – and as an avid golfer, I love the concept of the Cubicle Caddie – it’s the best of both worlds. It’s essentially a tricked-out golf cart that helps golfers work from the green and includes essentials like a green screen complete with convincing office backdrops and all the things to actually help me do the job (like Wi-Fi and noise-canceling headphones).

AM: What was the moment that you realized that you enjoyed golf?

JT: Golf has always been a big part of my upbringing. I played with my grandfather, who has unfortunately passed, but the memories will always live within me, and playing with my father with is such a treat - We compete like no other. From my grand father, my father, all my friends and even and even with Kaitlyn - we go golfing all the time. But let me tell you, that girl is one hell of a putter! The Cubicle Caddie is such a nice addition with Wyndham Rewards because it allows me to get out on the golf course more often, to be able to take a call or two, and utilize the high-speed Wi-Fi Internet (which honestly is better than my actual office Wi-Fi). I love the game – to able to play with family and friends, it’s such a treat.

AM: What is it about this sport that keeps you coming back to it?

JT: It’s the comradery, the exercise, the social aspect – To be out and about, to compete. It’s the triple threat. There’s no game like it.

AM: Does Kaitlyn go out on the course with you and what are you guys up to this summer?

JT: Kaitlyn and I live right by a golf course, actually almost on the golf course. Sometimes, we will do date nights where we grab some wine and we go up to the golf course and do a little putt-putt competition. We’ll put bets on the line, bets like who’s going to pick up the dog poop for a week, who is doing the dishes or buying the next round of coffees. It’s a fun game for us and we get out often which is great.

The big thing that we are planning this summer is that pre-Covid, we had gone to Kelowna and spent time a ton of time in August, so I think that’s what we are going to do this August. We are going to head up to Canada to spend time with her family, and we are so looking forward to it.

AM: We always enjoy when the next season of The Bachelor/Bachelorette is coming back and as we wait to watch Charity's season premiering on the 26th, what was being on The Bachelorette like for you and what was the biggest takeaway that you had?

JT: At the CMA’s, I just had a chance to meet Charity. She is so sweet and kind, and I think this season is going to be absolutely remarkable. For me, I really enjoyed The Bachelor. It was such an amazing roller coaster of an experience. I got to meet so many people throughout the process and it was a once in a lifetime experience. From being on the show, almost every area of my life has changed. I’m forever grateful for the franchise and for the show.

I think the biggest takeaway that I have is that you just have to submit to the process and let yourself go. I found that the more people tried to control it, the quicker they would break because of the pressure. I think it’s so important that you allow yourself to let go, control what you can and not to worry about what you can’t.

AM: Tell me about your podcast Trading Secrets!

JT: Trading Secrets is a great podcast where we have on all different celebrities from all different industries come on and talk about where they made money, how they got money, where they lost money, and when and how they got to where they are.

Unfortunately, in our system today, we aren’t taught the things that we need to know about career navigation and managing finances, and that is the purpose of this podcast. It has been a top business charting podcast with over 100 episodes and over 5 million downloads. It has been so much fun so far and we have some really great guests coming up this summer. Some guests like Wells Adams, Macklemore, the creator of Entourage, and many more. It’s going to be a very exciting summer for Trading Secrets.

AM: You have a lot going on including a book - what can you tell us about this?

JT: Book number two is well on its way! Manuscript is in and the title is going to be: Talk Money to Me; 8 Questions Where the Answers are Numbers Because Stories Shift, Context Changes, but Numbers Don’t Lie.

In each chapter, you will be asked a question, and that question will be a number. We will then teach you how to get that number, what that number means, how to improve it, what that number means to your finances, how to have the conversation with your partner and asking them what their number is for that specific Chapter. The second reason why people are becoming divorced is because of financial infidelity. That being said, we need to get ahead of it and start having those conversations.

IG @jason_tartick

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY | Wyndham Rewards

Read the JUN ISSUE #90 of Athleisure Mag and see ON THE LINKS | JASON TARTICK in meg.

THE BACHELORETTE S.20 E.5 | TAKING IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL

PHOTO CREDITS | ABC The Bachelorette/Craig Sjodin

On tonight’s episode of ABC’s The Bachelorette, we are in New Orleans and the guys talk about how important it is this week since Hometowns are next week! The 6 guys chat with one another to talk about how they want more time with her and Aaron lets us know that he has lived in NOLA for the last 7 years. Charity Lawson swings by where they are having drinks and she chats with them and invites Joey on a 1-on-1 date. The guys feel the gravity of the week ahead and want to make sure that it’s nothing but good times ahead so that they can get to know more about her and to generate that spark!

Their date takes them through the city on a horse drawn carriage as well as the sites and the sounds of the city! It’s so easy between the two of them and Joey has always been our front-runner for who would go to Hometowns! As they settle down to dinner, both want to know more before she meets his parents. She lets him know that there are factors and things to navigate as an interracial couple. He explains that he is willing to experience it and won’t know until he goes through it, but he’s there. He also says how his parents would be crazy not to love her. We’re so cheering for these two! Of course, he gets the date night rose! He tells her that he is falling in love with her and is happy to continue down this road with her.

Back at the hotel, the remaining men are about to receive the group date card! Everyone would rather not be on the group card. Sean and Tanner are on a date card for a 2-on-1. They’re heading to the bayou where she can get clarity. We know that one of these guys will be going home. Sean is really upset and is definitely spiraling.

The 2-on-1 has to be the most uncomfortable date that you can be on! Between the two, we’re hoping for Tanner, but both guys seem to be great! She states the obvious that the 2-on-1 is not the most ideal and the bayou captain also says that this is a tough situation. It’s a crazy date experience but it’s nice that both men are being cool as there have been previous versions of this date have been downright hostile. They cruise the bayou and even have a crawfish lunch together. She lets them know that they all need to get ready for their dinner together and Sean makes sure that he lets her know that he is here for her with a few kisses. It’s definitely tough to have 2 different personality types on the same date. It’ll be interesting to see how Tanner will make himself known.

A table for 3 where Charity outlines the importance of clarity at this point. She toasts them and lets Tanner know that she wants to have time with Sean first. He lets her know about his family and how he is going through this journey even if he should get crushed - he’s willing to take risks. Tanner takes time to think about how he will talk with her and to bring himself forward so that he can be seen.

Tanner tells her that he is focused on protecting his peace as he has been hurt before. But he knows it’s important for him to bring those walls down so that he can connect with someone. Tanner is another person that we have liked from the beginning as well!

Back at the hotel, the date card arrives with Dotun getting a 1-on-1 for sunrise. Aaron is upset that he’s not getting a 1-on-1.

Back at the 2-on-1, Charity knows that she needs to make the right decision and she’s not sure which way she will go. She decides that she will not give out a rose. She wants to give more time, but we can see that Sean is upset that a decision wasn’t made.

The next day, Charity is at the Crescent City Classic where she will run with Dotun (and others) for this marathon. She brought outfits so that they could be dressed for the occasion. This is such a cute date as they have a whole race to walk and talk as they run through the city.

Both men from the 2-on-1 date debrief on how it was. The fact that there wasn’t a rose scares both of them. We can definitely understand the pressure of what this means around Hometowns. Sean says that he feels insecure about his place and the fact that there are a number of guys who have had 2 1-on-1 dates when he has never had that opportunity. After the race, they take time to continue to talk (throughout the date, it seems that they enjoyed cocktails and bites - that’s a race that we can get behind for sure). Dotun is another one that we could see being at Hometowns as well. He’s looking forward to having dinner with her so that he can share more about what he feels.

Dotun and Charity continue to the dinner portion of their date. They talk about their needs and he lets her know that he is falling in love with her. Of course, he gets a rose, she’s coming to his Hometown!

The next card arrives and Aaron, Xavier, Tanner and Sean are on the date card for a group date. Sean provides the stats and analyzes what this means. But he’s pretty upset and he didn’t know that Dotun had a rose, and of course he walks in with it on his chest. Clearly Sean is going to be really upset and even Xavier points it out.

Sean decides that he wants to talk with Charity. He lets her know how he felt about not getting a rose. He lets her know that he wants to bring her to his family and that he needs that validation. He lets her know that he is in the process of falling in love with her. She lets him know that he has always shown who he is, but she lets him know that in looking at it all - she has connections that are stronger. He tells her that if he has 1-on-1 time, they can get there. She says that with the time that is available, she doesn’t feel that they can get there and she knows it’s not what he wants to hear. With that, she sends Sean home. We can appreciate that he put it all on the line, but we never saw him going to Hometowns.

Now it’s time for the group date with the remaining men - Tanner, Xavier and Aaron. Two roses will be given on this date and by default, letting them know that they will be going to Hometowns. Everyone is looking at the 2 roses on the table, but she lets them know that she wants to make sure that the decisions are the ones that are best for her. She pulls Aaron aside so that they can chat with one another. She also takes time with Tanner as well as Xavier. Each man shares information that is personal to them as well as making a connection with her. In Xavier’s date, he wants to let her know who he is fully. He tells her that it scares him to think of channeling himself fully committed to one person. He lets her know that he has never done it before and he wants to do it once and to do it right. He wants to get engaged and married, but he’s trying to see if it’s with her and if he can fall in love with her. He thinks that he can get there if she is the one.

After speaking with the men on this group date, she gives one of the roses to Aaron and she walks him out as she makes her final decision between Tanner and Xavier. She chooses again to not give out the last rose and lets the men know that she will see them at the rose ceremony.

Charity swings by Tanner’s room to talk with him as he has been so open with her about what Hometowns will be like. She wants to let him know in person that she is not giving him the rose and she feels awful that they will not be able to continue to their journey. Tanner is a nice guy and it’s a shame that they will not be able to continue. He says that it is hard for him for this to happen to him and he feels that she deserves the world and that he is special.

Xavier arrives and he sees the rose sitting in front of him on the platter. She lets him know that it has been a tough week and that she has been on the fence about a lot of things and has had to trust her gut. She lets him know that she sent Tanner home and that even though there is one more rose, she doesn’t have to give it out. She wants to give it to him and she wants to learn more about him. He accepts the rose and he seems really happy. She wants to meet his family so that she can learn more and she feels that only time can tell. We’re looking forward to Hometowns next week!

Charity’s Hometown Roses | Aaron, Dotun, Joey, and Xavier.

Charity sent home | Sean and Tanner

Each night during this season, we will tweet about The Bachelorette and you can chat along with us (@AthleisureMag + with our Co-Founder/Creative + Style Director, Kimmie Smith @ShesKimmie) to see what’s taking place!

Each week we will let you know who our faves were from the last episode and if we’ve changed up since then as it pertains to who we think should go to Hometowns.

We also suggest a podcast that we’ve become obsessed with over the past few seasons, Wondery’s Bachelor Happy Hour to get their feedback!

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WHO WE WANT TO SEE GO TO HOMETOWNS

AARON

DOTUN

JOEY

XAVIER

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THE BACHELOR CONTESTANTS

AARON B. 29 - San Diego, CA

AARON S. 33 - San Diego, CA

ADRIAN 33 - North Hills, CA

BRAYDEN 24 - San Diego, CA

CALEB A. 29 - Ann Arbor, MI

CALEB B. 24 - Orlando, FL

CHRIS S. 27 - White Plains, NY

DOTUN 30 - Brooklyn, NY

JAMES 28 - Chicago, IL

JOE 30 - San Francisco, CA

JOEY 27 - Koloa, HI

JOHN B. 27 - NY, NY

JOHN HENRY S. 30 - Virginia Beach, VA

JOSH 28 - Bethlehem, PA

KALEB K 26 - Norcross, GA

KHALID 28 - Dearborn, MI

MICHAEL 29 - South Holland, IL

NICK 31 - Bayonne, NJ

PETER 33 - NY, NY

SEAN 25 - Tampa, FL

SPENCER 32 - Moorpark, CA

TANNER 30 - Pittsburgh, PA

TAYLOR 32 - Beaver Creek, OH

WARWICK 27 - Nashville, TN

XAVIER 27 - Carrboro, NC

Read the latest issue of Athleisure Mag.

END OF AN ERA | SARAH BOLGER

One of our shows that we can't wait to watch is FX's Mayans MC which is a spin-off of Sons of Anarchy! This series focuses on the Mayans biker club, the Galindo Cartel, complicated relationships that are generated in a number of ways and fighting to stay together by any means necessary!

We sat down with Sarah Bolger to talk about being part of this cast, the series finale, her character Emily Galindo, what she learned about being part of this show, what we can expect for the final season, about relationships that were established between cast and crew, and upcoming projects!

If you have not watched the previous seasons or have missed some of the episodes of this season, spoiler alert, we will be talking about plot points that include the previous seasons as well as up to episode 3 of this season. Catch up on Hulu and watch each week on FX.

ATHLEISURE MAG: What was the moment that you realized that you wanted to be an actor?

SARAH BOLGER: Oh my God, so I started acting – well, to answer your question, I don’t remember! I started acting when I was 5!

AM: Oh my God!

SB: My first feature film was a little Irish/UK co-pro film called, A Love Divided. That’s when I was 6 years old. That’s when we filmed it! But I will say that around the age of 13/14/15, when high school becomes more important and when it becomes a thing where one says, that one must be in school – one must pay attention – one must not miss class – it became really apparent to me that I missed acting. Like, this is every child. No child wants to be in school I’m sure; however, for me, it literally was a thing where I’ve never felt more at home in a place, than on a film set. That still remains true to this day as sort of woo woo as that sounds! It’s so true and it’s just one of those things that I have always felt really comfortable with and that I have always felt really confidant in. I have always felt that something about it was just the right place for me. So yeah, it was early on as mad as that sounds!

AM: We love hearing that and we love that even in doing it such a younger age, you were able to reconnect with it again which is awesome!

SB: Yeah, thankfully, I have been able to do a bunch of little parts back in the early days and then I did a film when I was around 10 that ended up bringing me to LA because it got nominated for a couple of fun things and proudly, that project was something that was really beloved and it was so interesting. I can look back on that today and it’s one of the few things, it was called In America, it’s one of the few things that I can actually rewatch because I’m so young in it! I don’t remember it and it’s a different person than me!

AM: You have been in some of my favorite shows from The Tudors, Once Upon a Time, Agent Carter, Counterpart and obviously, Mayans MC, what do you look for when you’re deciding on whether you’re going to audition for a role?

SB: I know when Mayans came along, there was a history of a couple of roles where I was playing a princess if I am going to be honest. I remember loving how opposite Mayans was to any of the worlds that I had been able to portray or to live in before artistically and I thought, this fascinates me. Not only in that the predecessor show was so amazing, it was more of that, “ok, this is just a world of violence and gangs and California, and modern day and family and culture! It’s just so wonderful and exciting and important – with Mayans in particular, it just felt so different than any other show that I was able to do before. Specifically, I didn’t have to wear a corset which I thought was great!

AM: That was a relief!

SB: Yeah, my ribs took a break, you know?

AM: Exactly!

You said that what attracted you to playing Emily. How do you approach playing her?

SB: Well I think that what’s so beautiful about having 5 seasons of a show is that every season, I have to approach her a little differently, because she has grown like I have grown! We all change and I’m not saying that we change so drastically year to year, but in circumstances to which Emily has lived in, being part of the Cartel which is stressful, I can only imagine how it is so stressful! It’s stressful to act in – not only to be in real life! Things like that and her having a child. These things that I personally as Sarah have not been something that I have experienced – it was just a lot to her that I felt that I had to do my research on and really learn her and change her as her circumstances changed as the stakes got higher. As it got higher and the show progressed, it got really clear that Emily was a person that was very dependent on changing herself to fit into whatever circumstance that was. Whether it was her ex-love, using people as crutches, whether it was hiding behind organizations, or her husband – I think that what happened with Emily which was so cool to be able to do is to remove herself from that sturdy position that she had put herself in and it kind of made her very wobbly and made her make a lot of mistakes and made her very unsteady and very uncertain. That’s kind of very cool and very human – very very human.

AM: How do you feel that she’s kind of connected between two very different characters – between EZ (JD Pardo) and Miguel (Danny Pino). How do you feel that she perceives that balance that she is always having to walk between the two because she’s inextricably tied to them constantly?

SB: Totally and well said! I think that for Emily it is the balancing act of secrecy and lies. She has this person, EZ, who is her childhood crush, who is the love of her life potentially, who by the way she knows that she can never be with. He’s progressed in an avenue of his life where she can no longer catch him. She has progressed to an avenue in her life that he couldn’t fit into. So it’s not like there is this long lost yearning for what could be.

I think that when it comes to EZ, Emily reverts to childhood, reverts to help me, she reverts to “I need you,” save me – she reverts to these things that happens to younger loves.

With Miguel, if people were to ask me if I think that she loved him, I think that she beyond loved him. I think that without him, she wouldn’t have Cristόbal (Obadiah and Benjamin Abel), her child and as much as she fears him or hates him, there is a constant and truthful admiration maybe for him, for the love that they shared in that pocket of time that gave them their family. It gave her hope, it gave her security, and that gave her a future.

I think that between the two, it’s like fragmented love. Emily has almost no lover for herself because she keeps part of her love for EZ and she keeps part of this love for Miguel, but really, she is lost in and of herself. So I think that if you were asking me, she is in between these two people, but it’s tearing her apart!

AM: Right!

SB: It’s only ruining her, it doesn’t ruin the other two.

AM: It’s so interesting to watch and we see your face and we see all the emotions!

SB: She’s just so sad!

AM: Last week’s episode was just oh my gosh – this is awful!

SB: I know! Are you up to episode 3?

AM: Yes, yes!

SB: I had to check ha!

AM: I mean on one level, they’re on the swing set together and they’re saying so much, but neither can go back because too much has been done!

SB: No! There is no going back for either of them. I know that I’m definitely pulling from history here in terms of the Emily and EZ story. Even though their story is very different, they have kind of had a little bit of a mirror life. They both had this trajectory of escapism, escaping their history, escaping their family, being together, going to college, getting degrees, getting jobs, and they were both crumped by EZ’s prison sentence. In truth, it sentenced them both to a life that they didn’t intend to lead. That’s not necessarily talked about because Emily – that’s not something that she has on her shoulders all the time. But me as Sarah looking from a distance, I’m looking at the show thinking that their actual trajectories are very very similar. They both have had to dig down and they feel that they are almost left with no choices right? Whether it’s the cartel of the MC, it’s these things that they had no intention of ever being involved in, but now they are so deeply involved in that the only way out is down!

AM: Yeah, it’s just heartbreaking because the puzzle pieces can’t fit.

SB: Right and of course, who knows how they will end, but I just know that for me, the storyline for me has not been about her trying to get back to EZ, but actually just having Emily get back to herself.

AM: Absolutely.

We’ve watched Emily do this over the past 5 seasons. For those readers that may need a bit of a refresher and to catch up, where did we leave Emily in season 4 and where are we picking her back up again this season?

SB: At the end of season 4, Emily had removed herself from her husband, had gone on the run, had taken – sort of kidnapped Cristόbal, her son, as it was and with the aid of her sister, was able to escape and with the help of her knowledge of certain criminal behavior, she was able to get a passport with a different name. She was able to steal Miguel’s additional cash and sort of go on the run and hide from him and people were convinced that Miguel had died, but she was never convinced of that. She took a job working in a restaurant, just so she could send money back to her sister and her child just to feed them. I think that the point of season 4 for Emily was that any life was so much better, even if it was a dingy apartment with cockroaches, it was so much better than that castle which was just a prison. She had been on the run and the final episode of season 4 is Miguel finding Cristόbal – killing – well we don’t know who necessarily kills her sister in terms of which hand, but the organization kills her sister and Emily being asked maniacally by Miguel to return home and that all is forgiven, and that they need to be a family again. Emily is without choice, she’s without options, without funds and without her child – so there was no other choice for her, but to return back to really just be close to her kid again.

AM: In looking at the 3rd episode of this season, it was really interesting because it’s looking at the complicated nature or relationships. Not just between Emily and EZ, Emily and Miguel, but more importantly you have Filipe and Miguel – there’s this whole crazy thing going on!

SB: I know! He has this whole thing for brothers.

AM: It’s crazy because at the end of the day, you ask yourself where does Cristόbal hang in the balance on all of this? It’s such a big family network, but it’s not a known family network yet – so it’s a lot of plot twists. What can you tell us about what we can expect as we continue to watch this season as I know you can’t really give spoilers, but what should we be looking out for?

SB: I think that family has always been a really big theme of the show. It’s been an important theme whether it’s the blood you come from or the blood you create. It tears us, it humanizes us, and humbles us and I think that knowing how important family is, I feel that this will be an important story developing from that, but also I think that even for Emily, I wonder if Emily ever gets all of that information and what would that do to her and her family? I guess we will see.

AM: We will see!

SB: We will see!

AM: What have you enjoyed the most about playing the part and also being part of this cast? What’s the biggest takeaway that you’re going to have once this show completely wraps?

SB: That day, my last day on set – I know that the end of a job is emotional for everyone. You’ve literally spent 16 hours a day, 5 days a week and mostly at midnight with this community and with this crew, and with this cast! They know when you didn’t sleep, they know if you have a headache, they know that the rain is miserable and we’re all soaked together or the heat is crazy and we’re all overheated together. There’s so much that you share and there is so much by osmosis that they learn about you and that you learn about them. There is just this element of the familiar – every day you’re like, “don’t worry, I’ll see you next year.”

Episode 10 wrapped and you’re like, we’ll get another season. There wasn’t that this year. Not being able to say, “hopefully, I’ll see you in 4 months,” was really gut wrenching for me. For both, our cast and our crew. I mean this so sincerely, our cast is insanely talented, but we have the best crew in the world! From the camera department to the AD, to the transpo unit, to costume – they work so hard! Again, we spend so much time together! I won’t have that tomorrow, I won’t have that next year. It makes me so sad because they were a huge part of my life for the last 6 years! It’s 5 seasons but it’s 6 annual years.

AM: Yeah, that’s a long time! It’s a significant chunk.

SB: Oh my God, I feel like, you know – we find ourselves in our mid to late 20’s – that’s when I started the show! I grew up there! I have become a woman who’s paid attention to taxes through the show!

AM: Facts!

Do you have any upcoming projects that we should keep an eye out for?

SB: You know, there’s a show that I am attached to and it’s called Rematch that is all secret except that I know that that piece of information has been released. It’s about Garry Kasparov who is a famous chess player and that’s the blurb that has been released so that’s all that one can say and hopefully that will be released sometime very soon. But that’s very excited and I really enjoyed filming that in Budapest.

IG @sarahbolger

PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS | PG 156, 158, 161 + PG 176/179 63MIX ROUTIN3S FX/Mayans MC

Read the JUN ISSUE #90 of Athleisure Mag and see END OF AN ERA | Sarah Bolger in mag.

THE SAGA CONTINUES | JORDANA BREWSTER

The latest Fast and Furious movie is out now! Fast X along with its spin-offs have taken us around the world to see amazing cars, maneuvers, and interesting storylines! We have watched Jordana Brewster throughout these movies and had the chance to talk with her about becoming an actress, being part of this franchise that shows no signs of stopping, what we can look forward to in this movie, another movie that released this month and how as a mom she incorporates post-game routines with her children who are active in sports!

ATHLEISURE MAG: What was the moment when you realized that you wanted to be an actor?

JORDANA BREWSTER: I grew up in Brazil watching soap operas and so I realized that at the age of 9 years old, I really really wanted to be an actor as a career.

AM: We’ve enjoyed seeing you throughout the Fast & Furious franchise. What attracted you to this show?

JB: I loved the role of Mia, I felt that she was really strong and had a really specific point of view. I also loved the culture of street racing. I thought it was – we weren’t necessarily the good guys, we weren’t necessarily the bad guys either so I was intrigued with that culture and that sort of grey area that we were exploring.

AM: Did you think that you would still be part of this franchise after all of these years and why have continued to be involved?

JB: Never! I thought it was going to be a really fun summer job because I was in college when we started shooting Fast and it came out over the summer. So I thought that it would be a fun summer gig. Never did I think that it would go over 22 years and 10 movies!

AM: You play Mia Toretto, can you tell us about her and why you enjoy playing her?

JB: I love her strength. What attracted me was her strength and that is what I love exploring now. But now, I love the physicality of it. I love the fight scenes, I love training for the fight scenes, I love the stunts, it’s challenging because I want to be able to prove to everyone that I can do it.

AM: What can you tell us about Fast X for those that have yet to see this film?

JB: For those of you that haven’t seen it, I think that Jason Momoa (Game of Thrones, Aquaman franchise, Dune: Part One) is a fun and interesting villain that almost makes it so hard to hate him. He’s sociopathic and to see that in a Fast and Furious movie, was really fun.

AM: What do you want to see in future Fast and Furious films?

JB: I would love to see a female spin-off with Helen Mirren (Catherine the Great, 1923, The Good Liar), Nathalie Emmanuel (Game of Thrones, Die Hart, Maze Runner: The Death Cure), Charlize Theron (Mad Max: Fury Road, Atomic Blonde, Bombshell), Brie Larson (Captain Marvel, Avengers franchise, Lessons in Chemistry), and Michelle Rodriguez (Machete, Avatar, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves)! That would be so much fun and I think that there are so many strong female actresses in the franchise now that it would be awesome to have a female spin-off.

AM: You have another movie that’s out, Simulant, tell us about this movie and why you wanted to be part of it?

JB: I think that now with the headlines of AI and how far we have come now with Artificial Intelligence, Simulant will resonate with audiences because I play this widow, Faye who brings her husband back as a robot and has to grapple with what that means. I think that that possibility is not too far in our future. I think that audiences will love Simulant and I had a really fun time filming it! It’s also directed by a female director, April Mullen (Imposters, DC's Legends of Tomorrow, The 100) who’s super super talented.

AM: When you’re not on set, you’re on the field with your kids! What do they play and what is it like getting them prepped and your post-game routine for them?

JB: So my kids, they’re very very active. They love playing football, lacrosse, Jiu Jitsu, soccer – there’s not really a sport that they don’t like. So there are tons of uniforms and tons of sweat so they get really really stinky. What I have learned that has really helped me in their routine is Lysol Laundry Sanitizer and what I have also realized is that it is the bacteria that makes the clothes so so stinky. Luckily, Lysol kills 99.9% of that so I just add that to my routine and they come out smelling fresh and clean and ready to play again.

AM: Tell us about Lysol’s Labs Tour.

JB: I will be visiting NY in about a month and I will do the Lysol Labs Tour and we are going to teach people how to use the Lysol Sanitizer and how to add it to their step. I think that it’s going to really streamline a lot for moms and it’s really going to help them. I think that the kids are going to be grateful too because they are no longer going to be stinky.

IG @jordanabrewster

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY | PG 136 Peter Mountain/Universal Pictures | PG 138 Lysol |

Read the JUN ISSUE #90 of Athleisure Mag and see THE SAGA CONTINUES | Jordana Brewster in mag.

THE BACHELORETTE S.20 E.4 | SEEKING CLARITY

PHOTO CREDITS | ABC The Bachelorette/Craig Sjodin

On tonight’s episode of ABC’s The Bachelorette, we head to Washington State to take some time to be one with nature as Charity Lawson continues her journey to finding love and getting to know more about the men that are competing for her attention.

Jesse Palmer meets the men at the lodge and lets them know more about the space that they’re at, that this area of the state has the most Sasquatch sightings and he leaves a date card. Dotun gets the 1-on-1 date card where they will leap into love. Charity arrives in a cool jeep to pick him up looking like a mountain bunny!

Brayden continues to love in his villain era as he’s annoyed about the other men saying that they have a strong connection with her when he feels that they haven’t spent the same amount of time with her. Thankfully, he kept it to himself. Dotun and Charity go bungee jumping - both seem to be really scared, why would Charity pick this if she felt that she wouldn’t do this - she actually has a number of tears just talking about it. But they not only do it, they do it twice!

Back at the lodge, Brayden and Aaron continue to get people involved in their drama. Hopefully, there will be a resolution this week. As night falls, the next date card arrives back at the lodge. Joey, Aaron, Michael, Caleb, Brayden, Sean, John, and Tanner have the group date. It seems like Xavier, our resident knitter, is going to have a 1-on-1 date.

Back on the 1-on-1 with Dotun, they’re enjoying smores! Dotun talks about how he got here and shares information on the immigration and visa process to get to the US. He talks about how that process shaped him as a person and how he cherishes the sacrifices that his parents did for him so that he could be here. She also talks about how growing up in her suburban area where people didn’t look like her, she created an achievement-oriented state of being. Their connection in being able to navigate the world in the midst of rising above their challenges is something that they both connect on. This connection is a reason why we can totally see him going to Hometowns! Of course, he gets the date rose! Their date ends in a hot tub - yet another element that tends to take place for these dates.

The group date takes place in the wilderness and Charity introduces the men to the Skamania Scouts who will put them through the ringer to get them to forage in the woods. It’s always interesting to see how they integrate kids into the challenges. The guys present the food that they brought, Tanner has mushrooms and pine nuts and the remainder of the men show what they found. In addition, the scouts have a Q+A round to get to know the guys more and the winner of this group date is Aaron.

The group date cocktail party shows Brayden yet again saying that he is using this time to see if he and Charity make sense for one another. Aaron lets him know that by saying that, he is wasting everyone’s time by staying there. The guys all question why he is there. Charity walks in hearing them argue and ask him what’s going on. The men let her know that Brayden doesn’t trust the process. She asks to see him and in their discussion, he tells her he is not happy there and she sends him home.

She lets the guys know that she sent Brayden home and she is not going to waste any more time. Aaron checks in with her to make sure she is ok. She knows that she needs to be there for the guys that are open to going through the process no matter how tough it is. The remainder of the guys put their best foot forward and she makes sure to be in the moment with each of them. The date night rose for the group date goes to Joey!

Xavier’s 1-on-1 date will take them to local favorites. She doesn’t question whether she is boyfriend material; however, she is looking to see whether he can be a potential husband! The ease between them as well as being attractive to one another is obvious! They try fruits, pepper jellies and more. We now understand why she has slight hesitancies as she sees some similarities between him and her ex! She realizes that as they sit down to dinner, she needs to ask these questions that she has been grappling with. She asks about whether he is loyal and she shares her personal story as well as with her ex, she dealt with infidelity one time too many! He lets her know that he is not hiding himself from her, he is there and he lets her know that his love was not reciprocated back to him in previous relationships. He lets her know that he will do anything for the people he is involved with. Of course, she offers the date rose for their 1-on-1.

The men get ready for the cocktail party ahead of the rose ceremony. Charity meets them and you can tell that everyone is feeling lighter about what is going on in general! They toast one another and he takes some time with Aaron as they reconnect. She takes the time with each of the men so that she can find out more and she feels less concerned about the distractions that have been taking place. The 9 men are eager to continue on and of course, Brayden arrives scarf and earrings and all to confront Charity.

Brayden came back and said that he came back because he was emotionally charged. Charity let him know that she can respect how he feels, but as a woman, she has given him the opportunities and he wasn’t taking them. The men on the couch are frustrated that again, their time has been taken away from them. As Brayden goes to the party bus to be taken off the property, the men let him know what they think of his ongoing antics. John wanted to finish his conversation as his date was interrupted, but Jesse let him know that the cocktail party was cut short!

The rose ceremony starts off and she lets them know that she sees quality men and respects them regardless of the outcome for the night. She gives roses to Aaron, Tanner, and Sean. It was quite a night and we’re so close to Hometowns!

Charity gave roses to | Aaron, Dotun, Joey, Sean, Tanner, and Xavier

Charity sent home | Brayden, Caleb, John, and Michael

Each night during this season, we will tweet about The Bachelorette and you can chat along with us (@AthleisureMag + with our Co-Founder/Creative + Style Director, Kimmie Smith @ShesKimmie) to see what’s taking place!

Each week we will let you know who our faves were from the last episode and if we’ve changed up since then as it pertains to who we think should go to Hometowns.

We also suggest a podcast that we’ve become obsessed with over the past few seasons, Wondery’s Bachelor Happy Hour to get their feedback!

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WHO WE WANT TO SEE GO TO HOMETOWNS

AARON

DOTUN

JOEY

XAVIER

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THE BACHELOR CONTESTANTS

AARON B. 29 - San Diego, CA

AARON S. 33 - San Diego, CA

ADRIAN 33 - North Hills, CA

BRAYDEN 24 - San Diego, CA

CALEB A. 29 - Ann Arbor, MI

CALEB B. 24 - Orlando, FL

CHRIS S. 27 - White Plains, NY

DOTUN 30 - Brooklyn, NY

JAMES 28 - Chicago, IL

JOE 30 - San Francisco, CA

JOEY 27 - Koloa, HI

JOHN B. 27 - NY, NY

JOHN HENRY S. 30 - Virginia Beach, VA

JOSH 28 - Bethlehem, PA

KALEB K 26 - Norcross, GA

KHALID 28 - Dearborn, MI

MICHAEL 29 - South Holland, IL

NICK 31 - Bayonne, NJ

PETER 33 - NY, NY

SEAN 25 - Tampa, FL

SPENCER 32 - Moorpark, CA

TANNER 30 - Pittsburgh, PA

TAYLOR 32 - Beaver Creek, OH

WARWICK 27 - Nashville, TN

XAVIER 27 - Carrboro, NC

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9LIST STORI3S | SEPIDEH MOAFI

Read the JUN ISSUE #90 of Athleisure Mag and see 9LIST STORI3S | Sepideh Moafi in mag.