At 22, Miss October is ready to be noticed. Layla Harvest Roberts grew up in Los Angeles and in Mexico City, where her mother was a famed model. Layla modeled here and in Europe, and last year she made a brief splash on "Baywatch." Now movie producers are after her. We cornered her for an intimate talk in Los Angeles.
Q: How did you come by your unusual name
A: My mother was a bit of a hippie. She thought Harvest sounded pretty. Layla is for the Eric Clapton song--the original, fast version, of course. I'm lucky Mom had good taste in music; I could have been named Chicago Harvest Roberts.
Q: You were a cheerleader at Beverly Hills High. Totally cool?
A: I was overweight and weird. They let me be a cheerleader only because I was a good dancer. Which I still am, by the way.
Q: But you're no longer overweight and weird. What happened?
A: Alicia Silverstone was in my class, and she was already famous. But I was friendless. Finally I decided to be a model, like Mom. I lost weight, got noticed by a modeling agent and lived in Paris.
Paris sucked. It's a beautiful city, but the people were mean and I was homesick. That was the end for me as a model. I quit. But then one night in Los Angeles, I was at a supermarket when a woman began following me. A lesbian, I thought. I tried to sneak away, but she came running up to my car, saying, "I'm with Elite Models! I think you're perfect!" I was back in.
Q: Now you're acting and dancing as well. You appear in the movie The Good Life with Sylvester Stallone. You vamped in Aerosmith's latest video. Why did you want to be a Playmate too?
A: It's every girl's dream, isn't it?
Q: What film roles do you covet?
A: In my cartoon fantasies I am Tara, a warrior woman who dresses in kneehigh black boots and not much else. She is stronger than any man.
Q: How about sexual fantasies?
A: They're pretty much the same.
Q: How was it posing nude?
A: Wonderful. What does nudity mean? It might only mean I don't have on my favorite black vinyl lingerie yet.
To get closer to Layla, call the Playboy Super Hotline. See page 153 for details.
Playmate Data Sheet
Name: Layla Harvest Roberts
Bust: 36 C Waist: 24 Hips: 36
Height: 5'9-1/2" Weight: 121
Birth Date: 10/22/74 Birthplace: Kealake Kua Kona, Hawaii
Ambitions: To act in the best films of the early 21st century
Turn-Ons: To turn me on, a man needs to be a good dancer and a good masseur.
Turnoffs: People who think they are hot shots, substance abusers and black licorice
Role Models: Al Pacino, Faye Duraway and my mother
Favorite Films: Dog Day Afternoon, Scarface, Bonnie and Clyde and last exit to Brooklyn.
Mood Music: Elvis Presley, Eartha Kitt, Barry White, Rolling Stones, Joao Gilberto and Antino Jobim.
Favorite Place: In Greece it's so dark at night you can see every star-you feel like part of the galaxy.
Passions: Sex, Rock and Roll Strawberry Twizzlers.
