20 Questions: Lauren Hutton

David Rensin met with actress and instantly identifiable Revlon model Lauren Hutton over lunch in Los Angeles. His report: "I know there are men who cut out all the ads that Lauren Hutton has appeared in. I play baseball with those guys, and they would give up a .500 batting average just to spend two hours with her. Lauren is, of course, beautiful. And intelligent, intriguing, ingenuous and inspiring. She also knows how to have a good time. In fact, eating lunch with Lauren Hutton is even better than sitting in a pile of Ultima II ads all day long. She can call me any time."

1.

[Q] Playboy: Do most people think you're taller than you actually are?

[A] Hutton: Yeah. Everybody does. But that's when I had more of a magazine identity to people. Since my movie roles, it hasn't happened that much. Actually, I was one of the smallest models in the business. I'm 5'7 3/4". When I started, it was in the days of the giant Germans. A short girl was 5'11". Veruschka was 6'4". It's one reason why it took me so long to get started. So I talked very loud, moved very fast and wore very, very high heels.

2.

[Q] Playboy: Has your modeling kept you from getting the movie parts you wanted?

[A] Hutton: Sure. I would never have gotten the chance to test for the role in Gigolo if John Travolta--who originally was cast in the lead--hadn't wanted me. After that, Paul Schrader, the writer-director, met me for five minutes at a party and found out I could walk and talk at the same time. That's prejudice. You have to work harder to overcome it. So my work has to be that much better. I was in Mexico, lying on the beach, when all the reviews for Gigolo started coming out. My old man came up and threw me a copy of Time. I forced myself to read the review line by line. And it was wonderful. I didn't even realize I was going to be so scared. Richard Schickel said I had "open, vulnerable playing" and that he "believed every minute of it." For the rest of the day, I felt so good, so legitimate. And then it started sinking in that I had considered myself illegitimate for the past eight or nine years. Fortunately, I'd been so busy I had never had the time to sit and stew about it.

3.

[Q] Playboy: Who do you think is heir apparent to your top-model crown?

[A] Hutton: There's a really beautiful girl named Roseanne Vela. There are lots of them now, really. We'll just have to wait and see.

4.

[Q] Playboy: You're 36 now. Isn't America becoming more fascinated with mature women like you, instead of nymphets?

[A] Hutton: I think it's both. We're finally getting an idea of sexuality's full range. It's nice. It's a good time to be an actress. Roles that explore sexuality, explore life. Try to think about some change in your life that wasn't at least partly ticked off by sex. There are finally some parts for women who are real, not just adjuncts to men. But only in the past five years.

5.

[Q] Playboy: What do you think of women's movies?

[A] Hutton: Real women's movies, to me, are just as boring as real men's movies. What's erotic for me is to have it mixed. What's erotic is something totally different from oneself. I guess that's why I'm heterosexual. Once in a while, it's interesting to go into a men's bar. Recently, I was in a place in New York with about 300 guys all shoulder to shoulder. And I was invisible. It was great. I haven't been around a crowd of people where I was invisible for a long time.

6.

[Q] Playboy: Were you a Playboy Bunny once?

[A] Hutton: I was a Bunny for about five months. It was after I'd left college and gone to New York. I was starving. And I couldn't do anything. Someone told me the New York Playboy Club was opening. I didn't think I was amply enough endowed for that. But, anyway, I was too young to work at night, so I worked during the days. It felt strange; I had never been in night clubs before.

7.

[Q] Playboy: How do you feel about breast implants?

[A] Hutton: I certainly wouldn't do it. I think it's silly. If someone had a strong need for them, she should do it, but I think of them as projections.

8.

[Q] Playboy: How can a man prove to you that he's liberated?

[A] Hutton: Well, he wouldn't have to prove it. I would assume it. I'm sort of American that way. You're innocent until you're proven guilty. So, quite often, I get stomped three seconds in. You can sort of feel attitude. I just like to be treated like another human being, except one who's frailer, not as strong physically. Women have always been, biologically, in a poorer position. They need protection. Men sometimes have to be inhuman and cruel. But I'd rather meet a bad man than a bad woman.

9.

[Q] Playboy: Why?

[A] Hutton: Women are rougher. I think men in their hearts are much more delicate than women. The older I get, the more I think about it. My mother always taught me, of course, that men were tough creatures who would hurt you and desert you and all that. That love didn't mean as much to them. That they just had a different attitude. I got the idea of women's being shrinking violets, but now I don't think so. I certainly haven't been. I think women will survive more. Every time. And hurt for less time from a bad affair of the heart.

10.

[Q] Playboy: How do you handle a delicate man without offending him?

[A] Hutton: I'm from the South, and every once in a while, I go back. I meet up with all these good old boys, whom I love, because I grew up with them. I know their heart. I also know their oldtimy way of puffing up [she inhales and holds her breath], and I don't buy it. They're like chameleons. In Africa, chameleons puff up when they're about to be attacked or they're threatened--which is all the time, because they have no defense. They puff up and stand sideways to present what they feel to be this huge front. Meanwhile, they're just little guys. So I tease. I come on strong and macho, then make a quick feign back to being a delicate flower. That confuses them, and then we can get by all that other stuff.

11.

[Q] Playboy: What is romance to you?

[A] Hutton: [Long pause] It's something that breaks patterns. So all of a sudden you're seeing yourself in a way that you haven't really known for a while. It makes you new. To get through our lives, we're so attached to patterns that become more and more complicated each second. We set up so many restrictions on what we think and feel. Every time I see those patterns broken in myself, I'm in love. It could be a person, a place, a new way of seeing the sky.

12.

[Q] Playboy: Do you prefer garter belts or panty hose?

[A] Hutton: I don't think I should talk about my collection of garter belts to the public. It's too rare, and other collectors will be trying to buy it.

13.

[Q] Playboy: What do you consider most attractive about yourself?

[A] Hutton: My old man says I have spunk and spirit. I guess that must be it.

14.

[Q] Playboy: Why haven't you married?

[A] Hutton: I was afraid of a question like that. Well, because I didn't want to get divorced. My mother was divorced when I was an infant. It was a major tragedy of my life. I didn't even know my father, for whom I was named. I will miss that for the rest of my life. I don't ever want to do it to anyone else. For me, marriage is for children. Otherwise, you're married in your heart. I've been with someone for a very long time. And if we're not married, I don't know who is. But for the actual thing, I don't know if I could stand the idea of being hooked.

15.

[Q] Playboy: Did you feel that way from the beginning of your relationship, or grow into it?

[A] Hutton: He taught me. Wait a minute. No, I felt that way since I was 13. I'm not supposed to talk about him. He hates it. I miss him. It's been two weeks and I'm getting crazy. But I must say that when I was very first in love, I suddenly saw big white dresses and little engagement rings. They were all the things I had felt very much above when I was growing up in the South. I would get rushes of dates because boys thought I believed in free love. And then, when I didn't come across, I didn't get asked again. I didn't know why guys were jumping on me; perfect strangers at football games or hamburger stands taking a lunge at me. I guess it was because I had told some girlfriends that I certainly wasn't going to be a virgin when I got married. It was a very hot idea for the time. But it came from all my reading, not from someone telling me. But I think that every girl around 23 or 24, whenever it is that you truly make that connection with someone--if you're that young, I think bells go off. We really are nesters. And for a woman to say "I never want children," just watch out. We've got 50,000 years of history to contend with. But when a commitment is of the heart, it's purer. It's more faith in yourself. People separate because they change and grow in different directions. That's natural. I've met someone who, despite all the changes we've gone through, is still interested in the same things I am. I lucked out.

16.

[Q] Playboy: What do you like to do?

[A] Hutton: Well ... travel. It's always been my first great love. I've been all over the world. Traveling really helps my perspective. I did a lot of reading as a kid. I thought America had real luxury that other countries didn't. But that's not true. I went to Morocco and the living was unbelievably sensuous and erotic. Eating under the stars while little kids entertain you. Flowers big as dinner plates. Lying on cushions, eating out of communal bowls. America is all right angles--it's not built for animal living. We've gotten very much away from that and become dependent on machines. One wonders what happened to the flesh. And I love animals. The whole thing. I even collect bugs.

17.

[Q] Playboy: When people see you on the street, how do they react to you?

[A] Hutton: On my time off, I'm seldom duded up, and because I've lived in the Village for 14 years now, everybody is used to seeing me around in sneakers and a T-shirt. However, every once in a while, something strange happens. For instance, about seven years ago, I was walking down Madison Avenue and someone started yelling my name from across the street. I put on a little speed, but he caught up with me. He was a very distinguished-looking man in his late 30s, with a three-piece suit and a briefcase, which he flung. I immediately liked him because it was out of kilter with his drag. Anyway, he got very excited and flung his case down on the ground and ripped it open and started telling me that he would freeze me for free. He said he'd written letters to me but didn't know where to send them, that this was his great moment. He was a guy who had a cryonics bin out on Long Island--a big cylinder--and there were 12 slots but only three filled up. He wanted to give me--well, I can't call it a life membership. But any time I wanted to get frozen, he was ready. That was funny.

18.

[Q] Playboy: Do you own any beach-front property?

[A] Hutton: I own nothing. Seriously. No car, nothing. If you're thinking it looks good on my taxes, forget it. I get nailed every year.

19.

[Q] Playboy: What's the etiquette for your tooth cap?

[A] Hutton: I put it in when I think there's a character I'm doing who would use it. I used it for Revlon because they wanted it. I'm not sure I would continue using it.

20.

[Q] Playboy: How does a girl like you get to be a girl like you?

[A] Hutton: That's a good question. Keep your eyes closed and your mouth shut. No. Keep your eyes closed and your mouth open. I don't know. Curiosity, probably.