Selina Lo – Cover Story

The ‘Tungsten Butterfly’ – She sings, she dances and she’s a mean hand with a pair of broad swords! An Urban Life exclusive with rising starlet Selina Lo.

They say good things come in small packages, and at 5.4”, with her petite frame and cute disposition, Selina Lo is just that. Given that she is known for her martial arts skills, at first glance she doesn’t exactly hit you as a particularly intimidating figure. But don’t let the cuteness fool you, because underneath that beguiling fragility lies a powerhouse with over 16 years of hand-to-hand combat and weapons training behind her. Basically, she can kick your arse, and then some!

It’s hard not to warm to Selina instantly, as I found out when we first met on location for the cover shoot. With her bubbly personality and playful character, it didn’t take long for the crew to take shine to her either, which meant we had a lot of fun on set. So when we arranged to meet for coffee and to do the interview a few days later, it was smooth sailing right from the get-go.

We missed our first appointment due to two castings running late in to the day, so of course my first thought was to ask how they went, the day before we met. “They went well, thank you”, came the cryptic answer with a smile. And no amount of probing could get anything more out of her. Already fielding questions like a seasoned pro I thought, and quite rightly so, as it’s a busy time for the young actress who is about to get a lot of media attention from all quarters.

Having just returned from a four year stint working out in Asia, Selina has a better celebrity profile out there than here on her home turf in the UK. But that’s all about to change with the forthcoming release of the Scorpion King – The Book of the Dead (Dir: Roel Reiné), the third instalment of the Hollywood blockbuster, currently in post-production.

Born in Edgware, but having grown up in Hendon in North London, where she spent most of her childhood, Selina went through school completing her GCSE’s whilst practicing and competing in martial arts every weekend. She’s also a trained singer (grade 8) and has studied at LIPA (The Paul McCartney Academy for Performing Arts), Sylvia Young and the English National Theatre. “I got a scholarship from one of the best drama schools (GSA and Mount View), but when I got in, I thought it is what I wanted to do, but now I just want to get out there in to the real world.”

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Adrian Holmes goes global

Best known for his roles on the small screen, Adrian Holmes is about to go global with a number of major Hollywood productions under his belt this year. Having made his mark in hit television series such as Supernatural, Human Target and Smallville, the British-born, Vancouver-based actor is now making his transition on to the big screen in Hollywood.

Currently in town promoting the release of Red Riding Hood, I couldn’t pass on the opportunity for a very last-minute interview with him for this edition. And, after a few frantic emails and phone calls between here and LA, we finally arranged a time to meet at the Criterion in Piccadilly.

Adrian Holmes was born in Wrexham, North Wales and lived in Liverpool until the age of five. It was then that his mother decided to join her twin brother and re-locate to Vancouver, which has been home ever since. At the age of 11, he was cast as the Lion in a school production of The Wizard of Oz, from where he caught the acting bug. “It was my first big production”, says Holmes. “And after the show this girl came up to me and asked for my autograph. I remember thinking it a little strange, as I’m not famous, but knew from then on that this is what I wanted to do. You could say I got the bug”.

Raised in a single-parent household until the age of nine, when his mother re-married, Holmes grew up being the middle child, with two younger half brothers and an older step brother and sister. “I went from having all the attention to having to fight for it” he says wistfully. You wouldn’t think he was the shy type, but during his childhood years he was and would do Michael Jackson and other impersonations to entertain friends and family to compensate for it. “Acting was like an outlet for me. It allowed me to express myself and come out of my shell. It gave me a voice when I felt I had none”.

Then high school and theatre school followed, taking acting roles in between, which started with his entry into television in 1991. But the route to academia was quite different, as Holmes graduated from nursing school in 2001, following in the family footsteps – there were many nurses in the family, including his mother. “God has a funny sense of humour because as soon as I graduated from nursing, my acting career really took off. But the reason I did nursing, even though my passion was in acting, was to have something to fall back on and have that peace of mind”.

Well, it seems safe to say that the nursing profession might not be his calling anytime soon, if recent roles are anything to go by. Amongst these is Frankie & Alice (Dir: Geoffrey Sax), which went on limited release in the US earlier this year. The plot revolves around a young woman with a multiple personality disorder, played by Academy Award winner Halle Berry, who also produces the film (and got a nomination for it at this year’s Golden Globes). “Yeah, I play her love interest which was incredible. Halle’s a great actress and I have always been a huge fan of hers, so to not only work with her, but to work with her so close was a great opportunity. And of course I get to kiss her, which not a lot of actors can say!” Indeed, and even though the part was fairly small, it was none the less integral to the plot and one that’s really sparked off a lot of interest. Not a bad thing, considering Halle Berry’s stature as a leading lady and the fact that 95% of the male population would give their right arm just to be near her, let alone kiss her.

Frankie & Alice is swiftly followed by Red Riding Hood (Dir: Catherine Hardwicke – Twilight, Thirteen), with Gary Oldman and Amanda Seyfried, which goes on general release in the UK in mid-April (Leonardo DiCaprio is one of the producers). “I’m Playing the role of ‘Captain’, the right-hand man to Gary Oldman’s ‘Father Solomon’, the werewolf hunter”, says Holmes. “I had a lot of fun doing this and working with Gary Oldman, one of my favourite actors, who I admire and have a lot of respect for was fantastic. I learned so much from him, he brought a lot”.

One can’t help but make the obvious association of Red Riding Hood with Twilight, so aside from the shift from vampires to werewolves, what’s different about this film?

“Well, for one it’s a different story altogether. Yes Catherine Hardwicke is directing it, but the similarities stop there especially as it (Twilight) doesn’t have Gary Oldman in it! But really, it’s a classic fairytale by the Brothers Grim brought to life. You’ll have to go see it and make up your own mind”.

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Monae Love

One of the world’s most original new recording artists? We think so. We talk to Grammy nominated US sensation, Janelle Monae

Recording Artist. Everybody knows what the term signifies but too many don’t understand what it’s supposed to mean. Over the years the transatlantic music industry has been punctuated with a whole host of manufactured acts, style over substance singers and ring tone rappers. Then, sometimes, we hit that exclamation point and suddenly we remember – the Recording Artist is why we love music. Step forward Janelle Monae, singer, songwriter, visionary, artist.

She’s already a rising superstar in the US and the underground buzz on her in the UK is set to carry her to the top of the charts here. Although originally from Kansas she found herself fulfilling her musical ambitions in Atlanta, via a brief flirtation with studying musical theatre in New York. It was in Atlanta she co-founded a creative collective called the Wondaland Arts Society and began to grow into her own style. She found favour with like minded Atlanta Hip-Hop stars like Outkast and it was their Idlewild project that represented her first real break (Wondaland Arts Society produced and featured on two tracks on the soundtrack album to the
movie of the same name). What caught the imagination of the US public is the many eclectic styles and influences that contribute to the Janelle Monae persona. In somebody else it might seem contrived, even disjointed, but here it seems organic and pitch perfect
– a lot of contradictions that shouldn’t work but do. “I don’t think about those things”, she tells me, “I’m always evolving as an artist and this is just the space that I’m in right now”. That ‘space’ also happens to be in the middle of a world tour promoting her new album, The ArchAndroid, the continuation of the story of Cindi Mayweather. First introduced to us with her 2007 EP, Metropolis: Suite I (The Chase), Mayweather is her android heroine and muse who inhabits a world based on the German science fiction silent movie classic, Metropolis. “The new album deals with self discovery and awakening. Cindi fell in love with a human on the first album and had to run because of it. Now she realizes she’s the ArchAndroid, rising above the division in the world to be the link between the
have’s and the have not’s”.

It’s at this point you realise that Janelle’s music has a lot to say, even if sometimes what she’s saying is not always entirely clear. On ArchAndroid, allegorical themes of perception, discrimination, oppression, hope and freedom are told in songs that range from the James Brown-ian funk of Tightrope (featuring Big Boi from Outkast), the big band sound of BaBopByeYa and the hybrid futuristic trip-hop of my favourite track, Wondaland – all told in a future world based on a 1920’s silent film. Don’t try and map your way through it, it’s better to just sit back, listen and let it all find you naturally. When I asked whether she ever ran into any creative roadblocks when combining so many styles, themes and genres her reply was a simple ‘no’, the kind of reply that tells you this is something she’s living, not marketing…

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