Lockport native Kim Alexis speaks her mind on aging and ‘She’s Got the Look’
It isn’t exactly an extreme makeover, but host Kim Alexis plans some changes in the second season of the TV Land reality series “She’s Got the Look.”
“I got tougher,” the 48-year-old Lockport native said in a wide-ranging telephone interview that focused on the show and the state of aging and modeling today.
“This season, I felt I might as well say what I think. Last year, I looked at the episodes and I had opinions and kept my mouth shut. My opinions are valuable. This year I just put them in.”
A former cover girl who appeared in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue six times and has 500 magazine covers on her resume, Alexis basically gave the 10 aspiring models over the age of 35 chosen for Thursday’s 9 p. m. premiere a reality check when they complained about standing in the cold for 15 minutes. “I told them ‘shut up,’” recalled
Alexis. “ ‘So you’re cold. We had to stand outside for hours.’”
There are a few notable changes in the show this season, too. The three judges –former Buffalo supermodel Beverly Johnson, Wilhelmina Models president Sean Patterson and celebrity stylist Robert Verdi – will be on display for eight episodes rather than last year’s six. The winner now gets $100,000 in addition to a contract with Wilhelmina Models.
“There was so much content,” said Alexis. “We found it was so tough to edit that they felt it was worth eight shows.”
I saw one of the surprises in the premiere coming and accurately guessed the eventual winner, after telling Alexis I wouldn’t reveal the secret.
Alexis joined “Look” because she “loved the idea” of having mature women try to recapture a dream that they might have given up for love, for children, for career or for something else.
“This is a second-chance opportunity for these women who maybe didn’t pursue a true love of theirs,” said Alexis. “What is it really like? Do I have what it takes?”
The show seems to be partially inspired by the success of the Tyra Banks reality hit, “America’s Next Top Model.” Alexis illustrated her new tough talk when giving her opinion on “Top Model.”
“I can’t watch a whole show,” said Alexis. “I just don’t like it. I feel it is a little too bizarre and too vicious, criticizing these girls, though some of them really need it. There seems to be younger girls who have this sense of entitlement . . . I believe part of that harshness maybe is to get rid of that because these girls really don’t have a clue.”
Alexis wouldn’t treat mature “Look” contestants that way. “I don’t think you’d treat a mature woman, a grandmother or a mother the same way you would treat those young girls,” she said.
Alexis believes young models are more insecure about their looks than mature ones.
“They feel pressure from other people and the magazines,” said Alexis. “And immaturity. They don’t quite know who they are themselves . . . People take it more to heart than when you’re older and those words fall on deaf ears.”
Alexis, a swimmer who fell into modeling as a teenager and never dreamed about entering the field, wonders how she would have taken the criticism if she had become a model later in life.
“That’s why I’m very gentle in how I deliver any form of criticism or try to have these women change or teach them something,” said Alexis. “Because I know how I would feel if I were standing up where they are alone by myself and having all these people judge me.”
The contestants range in age from 35 to 72. Yes, 72.
“As a TV show, you want to hit a vast majority of women who can relate to somebody,” said Alexis. “And therefore, Delores [the 72-year-old] was very good to have on the show. You also want to keep the show credible, which means you might have just the best of the best look. But believe me, there is a market for a woman who has silver hair, a grandmotherly figure.”
Though they aren’t exactly auditioning for the Supreme Court, the candidates’ life stories do have an impact on who makes the cut. The premiere includes a performer who grew up in a carnival circuit, a military woman and someone who is identified as a transgender.
“The main goal is that she’s got to be viable to work,” said Alexis. “Wilhelmina has to be able to say, ‘Yes this woman is 50 but she looks 30 or she is 35 and she can pass for 25.’ It is not about personality when it comes to modeling. As a facet of the television, yes it is some personality . . . We don’t cast them because of the kooky personality, we cast them for their look and then personality is part of the show that creates the new girl.”
The primary lesson the show is trying to teach viewers is simple.
“That it is OK to better yourself and try something new,” said Alexis. “Mature women can still look good and that age is just a number, it is not a parameter of looks.”
Alexis, who is married to former New York Rangers star Ron Duguay and has three sons and two stepchildren, feels that aging is a natural process that is no longer dreaded.
“I still can train and run and look a certain way and feel good,” said Alexis. “I don’t worry about it. I know it’s coming. But if I’m doing everything I know how to do to stay younger and be the best that I can, that’s all I can do . . . Society has given women the permission to go and seek and be what they want to be. It is not just we have anti-aging creams that work. It is that society doesn’t mind that a 70-year grandmother who might have been retired for 40 years goes back in the marketplace.”
The new marketplace for modeling superstars is reality TV, with Alexis joining a field that includes Banks, Heidi Klum and Johnson.
“For us, modeling is a steppingstone,” said Alexis. “You don’t get your personality involved. There are certain models that could transform and give another dimension — which is a speaking part ... Some of us dwelled in the business. And reality is out there.”
Besides, she notes that it is only fair that models become TV stars.
“In the last five years, the biggest difference is that covers of magazines and top national perfumes, makeup ads and hair ads have all gone to actresses,” said Alexis. “So we have lost our own business and it has gone to women who are already working very hard and making millions of dollars. Now they’ve got our business, too.”
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