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Grace Morley Interview
(also known as Bambi Jr.)
She's a Vegas showgirl, following in her mother's footsteps. Grace Morley
or Bambi Jr. (stage name) has got it all. Looks. Talent. Driving ambition.
But is that enough to get her to the top? We'll let her explain.
Q: Grace, you perform 3 shows a night, 7 days a week. That doesn't leave
time for much else does it?
A: The only time it leaves is for my acting classes. No matter what the
circumstances are, I make it to my acting classes. I work very hard and
have been for a few years now. Everybody says, "Well, you gotta pay
your dues kid." Well, I guess I've been paying my dues and learning
a lot at the same time. Instead of being a waitress,- I've been lucky enough
to have people behind me in Vegas who like me and my performances and this
is basically what I'm doing to get up the ladder. I'm paying my dues right
now. (Laughs).
Q: You are part of a "Cold Reading Workshop".
What do you learn in that workshop?
A: Well, actually, a few things. It's much nicer for what I'm going for.
I took the Lee Strasberg method, but I realize that takes years. I'm more
in the comedy level, which I enjoy. I would do dramatic if I was offered
something. I wouldn’t turn anything down. I think a Cold Reading course
teaches you how to audition. People think you just go in and read something.
I learned it’s not a matter of memorizing. They want to see what person
you are, because anybody can go in and read.
Q: If you look at some of the top actresses around
today, they don’t
look like you. You’re better looking. And, I’m just wondering
if some people in the industry would hold your good looks against you
and not take you seriously?
A: Oh, most definitely. In fact, it’s funny because you’re
caught in the middle. If I go in on an audition for something and I dress
like the agent tells me, a short skirt, it’s too much. It’s
overwhelming. They cannot look at me read at all. They’re too busy
looking elsewhere. (Laughs). If I go in, in the baggy clothes etc. then
it’s…”we need to see”…so, it’s a double
standard. But, what I’ve learned is, it’s much nicer to go in
with no make-up on, baggy clothes, and if they like the way you read, then
you show them the portfolio, and say this is the way I look in a bikini
and then blow their minds! And, I learned that from Bill Cosby. He said, “don’t
ever go in looking sexy and dressy, because they won’t take you seriously.
You’re too distracting.”
Q: You went to Hollywood for eight months and spent all your money?
A: I went during the writers strike. I was out there a week and a week
later the writers strike came up.
Q: Were you pounding the pavement out there, trying to get into agents
offices?
A: That's what I was trying to do.
Q: How successful were you?
A: Not very, only because they said we don't have much brewing because
of the writers strike. And, the people I knew were more on the dating level.
It gets frustrating because of that. Go meet so and so, he's a good friend
of mine, and I get there and it's what are you doing for dinner tonight?
I'm sorry. I can buy my own dinner.
Q: Does that lead up to the 'casting couch’,
we hear so much about?
A: Even if there is a casting couch, you're still not guaranteed anything.
Q: Theatrical agencies like Creative Artists Agency will offer a studio
a package deal, the actors, the director, the producer and so on. So, if
you're not represented by the 'right' people, how do you break in? Where
does that leave a Grace Morley?
A: Hopefully these are the right people I've met, to get in, and be taken
seriously. But, you're exactly right. In Stallones's movie with Kurt Russell,
I read in a Vegas paper that they were looking for a girl to play Stallone's
sister and Kurt Russell's love interest in the movie. They described her
and it's what I could have read for. So, I called an agent I do know in
L.A. and he said forget it, it's already tied up. I said, "why would
they put it in the paper?" And he said, "you know, they got to
make it look good." Come to find out, Stallone's girlfriend got the
part. So, it's all tied in like that, and it gets frustrating. This Maria
Maples thing; I was in Hawaiian Tropic with that girl. She did not come
in third place. She didn't even place. And she was with all these men, and
so was her mother. At the time I was still working in Vegas. When I went
out there, they all knew I was a performer, and they get scared of that,
because they know you're professional. And they know you know the games
people play. So, they kind of treated me differently. They didn't teach
me to break up marriages, and sleep with people in acting school. Why are
they rewarding her (Maria Maples)? Then, you take somebody like me and people
put me down, because I work in Vegas. But, I work. I will not sleep with
a married man and I won’t sleep with any body for anything.
Q: If you know how this game is played and you won't play it, what then
keeps you going?
A: I have a spark way deep-down inside that I've always known since I
was a little girl and I guess that's what keeps me going. I said to Bill
Cosby, "I'm getting old, Bill." He said, "What do you mean
you're getting old? I don't ever want to hear that from you. You never put
a limit on when you're going to make it. Because when they see a 20-25 year
old walk in the door, they say, oh, a nice little bimbo here, but when they
see someone in the 30 year range, you're taken more seriously."
Q: What is this "Crazy Girls" show you're
a part of? What's that all about?
A: It's a French Revue. It's a take-off on the Crazy Horse in Paris, which
there, it's totally nude, but it's so accepted in Europe, and people look
on the human body as a work of art, whereas in America, unfortunately they
look at it as a sex toy. So, this gentleman from Paris had the idea to bring
this French show here with American girls, in it. So," that's what
it is. I am the Emcee. I do my airline pilot number, which is a strip, but
a strip-tease. There's a big difference. I'm in the Lili St. Cyr and Sally
Rand type. I don't take off my clothes and show my naked body. I am not
ashamed of my job. People say to me, when you make it, and you're asked
about being a stripper, what are you going to say? Well, it's my bread and
butter. I wouldn't be ashamed to have the President see my act. I learned
from my mom and she is from the old school.
© Gary James All Rights Reserved
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