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Darryl Roberts explores the 'beauty' of America
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Darryl Roberts, the writer, producer and director of the documentary, “America the Beautiful” explores the world of beauty and America’s obsession with it. Check out the trailer:
I mean, who’s not obsessed with one’s self image? But there is a point where it can go a little too far.
In the film, Roberts interviews celebrities (like Paris Hilton, Jessica Simpson and even Martin Short), average Joes and Janes as well as professionals in the fashion and beauty industy to “unearth the origins and deadly risks of our nation’s quest for physical perfection.”
In addition to these revealing (and sometimes disturbing) interviews, Roberts follows Gerren Taylor, a 12 year old girl who practically became a supermodel overnight, strutting her stuff on the runway at Marc Jacobs, DKNY and Tommy Hilfiger fashion shows (just to name a few). Ultimately, we get to find out if this supermodel life was a good idea for the young Miss Taylor.
I had a chance to speak with Darryl Roberts about his insightful documentary and his personal opinions about the world of fashion and beauty.
With all the strong (and sometimes idiotic) opinions of the people featured in “America the Beautiful,” how did you manage to keep your own opinions off the screen?
Right from the beginning, I wanted to make a film that had two components. I wanted the public to tell what they thought was going on (in the world of beauty) and I wanted to let the industry to give their side. I used to be an entertainment reporter for NBC news in Chicago for two years. That’s probably where I got my objective point of view.
The subject of beauty and self-esteem is covered so often. What do you think makes your perspective different?
When I see stuff this kind of stuff on the E! Channel, it normally from a perspective of trying to get you to idolize celebrities – to tell you that celebrities are hot and that you should be like this. I wanted to do something that shows you how things you do in your everyday life like plastic surgery, cosmetics and all this stuff can actually be bad for you. That’s something that is not talked about a lot – how wearing makeup can be bad for you. You normally see stuff where wearing makeup can make you look beautiful. That’s what I thought would be the difference between this and other things like it. In every topic that we cover, I show you how harmful it can be – things that you may have never really thought about.
Have you always been curious about fashion and beauty?
I’ve never cared about fashion. (laughs) As for beauty, I think I was a victim of beauty. There were these two women I dated (separately) – each for five years. They were both great, beautiful women. I just don’t just mean that externally, but internally. Both times, I was thinking, “Wow! I can find somebody just like this that’s even more beautiful!” That never happened. I didn’t marry either of them.
I guess it’s like saying you never settled for the beauty you had in front of you.
Which is really bad! (laughs)
How did you hear of Gerren?
I was at a fashion show and she was on the runway. I wasn’t thinking anything of it. I just thought she was another model. The guy standing on my right looked at her and said, “Wow! I’d like to take that model home tonight!” Some lady heard him and said, “Well, if you do, you better be careful because she’s only 12.” When she said that, I looked up again and I thought, “Oh my God, that girl is 12 years old with her body hanging out – the fashion industry has resorted to sexualizing a child.” I started thinking about those Calvin Klein ads that had those 10 year olds in their underwear. I met her mother at the fashion show and told her what I was doing with the documentary and she agreed to let me follow them for the next three or four years.
Since you made the film, have you seen a change in the world of beauty, self-esteem and fashion?
From the time I started in 2003 til now, the only change I really seen was that in a part of Italy, they decided that you couldn’t model if you were under a certain body mass index. The interesting about that is that the United States refuses to do it. Diane von Furstenberg and other designers just said “no, we’re not gonna do it.” I see that across the board when it pertains to beauty in the United States. Also, Europe banned 450 carcinogens in cosmetics. The FDA (in the U.S.) has only banned six and refuses to ban the rest. Here, in the United States, you can’t put “eating disorders” as a cause of death on a death certificate because they don’t want statistics compiled. Even though the United States is one of most powerful countries, we seem really backwards. I do believe that most of the things I am talking about primarily affect women and historically, in this country, things that affect women don’t get the proper attention that they would if it had affected men. In the United States, I haven’t seen that much change.
Do you think it’s worse or better?
On a scale – day by day, it’s getting worse. One of the things we did to prove that was what happened in Fiji when television went there. Within three years, eating disorders went from zero percent to eleven percent. Kids started getting disrespectful. Within five years, their thousands o years of culture got undone. That’s the same thing that’s happening to us except we weren’t starting from this rich, cultural perspective in the first place. If we look at our kids, they are empty and vapid. They just don’t know what’s going on. Nothing of substance is getting pumped into them unless they are getting it from their parents. With cell phones and computers, people don’t spend quality time with their children anymore. Most relationships I see now are very shallow – it’s very shallow.
I think we might be living in the vainest time in history (laughs).
I agree – especially with our youngsters.
Did you see when John Galliano used a plus sized model in his show?
No, I didn’t hear of that. The only one I have heard of was Bradley Bayou out of Los Angeles. He’s been really bucking the system.
What would you like to see happen in the beauty and fashion world?
Personally, I’d like to see the entire industry to develop some sort of social responsibility. Meaning, make the billions of bucks, but also think about the people who are buying the products. I know it could be done. The only instance we have in the film is in the cosmetic industry. In Europe, they found a way to sell all of their cosmetics, but make it safer. That’s how it should be here. Make the money, but also think of the people.
Ultimately, in the fashion and beauty world, it is about exterior beauty. Do you think glossy magazines and things of the like are unapologetic or do you think that they are sensitive about self-esteem?
From all the interviews with the editor and chiefs of all these magazines, I found that you do have some editors that are sensitive to what’s going on. Susan Schultz from Cosmo Girl is a big proponent for fighting eating disorders. She does a lot of articles about full-size women and having a good self-esteem. She even did an airbrushed photoshoot with herself to show girls that isn’t real but what happens is that every time you get a responsible person at a magazine, you get 20 advertisers – they are the unapologetic ones. When you look through a fashion magazine, the first twenty pages are ads and it’s overwhelming. Advertising is so heavy in magazines that it undermines any good that writers or editors are trying to do.
Do you think that the obsession of beauty for men has reached the same level as women?
It’s not the same level because women have been going through this for thousands of years. Richard Knight, from the “Windy City Times” in Chicago reviewed the film and I did an interview with him. It’s the top gay newspaper in Chicago. I had a long talk with him. He was saying that in the gay community, they are starting to have plastic surgery and body image problems like women. He wasn’t comparing it to be equal, but he says that a lot of editors from men’s magazines are gay so they put the typical perfect body in all these magazines. He said there are a lot of insecurities in the gay community and since these images are in magazines that everyone sees, it’s even spilling over into the straight male community. I wish I realized this when I was making the film because I just skirted over it.
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