Redford

Trying to sleep during the day was a nightmare for me (or is that a daymare?). When I’m sleeping, I like it dark and quiet, neither of which was possible during the day. The house was on a quiet residential street but there was always some kind of traffic noise. I tried earplugs and even got a prescription for sleeping pills, all to no avail. I never did get used to it. At least my job didn’t involve much thinking because I was always tired.

On my time off, to get out of the depressing house, I began to visit the local library. I discovered that I had a real interest in history. There was no internet in those days so I couldn’t Google stuff. You had to read about it in books. I became interested in my roots, particularly the Celts.

The Celts were a people group in the British Isles when the Romans invaded. They originally came from central Europe themselves but were the dominant culture in the Isles by the time of the Roman invasion. While the Romans conquered most of present-day England, they never took Ireland, Scotland and parts of Wales. My father’s forebears are from Wales and my mother’s from Scotland. So I read with interest about my heritage.

My dad came to visit. He was speaking at a YWAM school in England and came to spend some time with me. He wanted to see Starlight Express but since I had already seen it a few times I convinced him to go see another show. It was a musical called Chess with music from the guys from ABBA. I regretted that decision for many years. My dad had just arrived from the US so he still had jet lag and Chess was not near as exciting as Starlight Express. Half way through the show, I looked over to see him asleep. He would never get another chance to see Starlight Express.

I knew I was never going to get anywhere in life as a night stockist so I started to look for another option and went right into another big-city scheme. Modeling is a legitimate big-city business, albeit with a lot of pitfalls. But there are also a lot of charlatans and wannabes and has-beens around the edges of the industry.

With legitimate modeling agencies, if they take you on as a client, they will send you to get test shots and get a portfolio together for you. Then with a portfolio in hand, they will send you on multiple “go sees” or castings. If you get cast for the job, you go do it, they pay the agency, the agency takes their percentage and you get paid the rest.

I did not know all this at the time and I did not get involved with an established modeling agency. I responded to a classified ad for a company on the fringe of the industry. Like many of the same kind of companies, they offered classes where you “learned” how to model. You then paid for your own test shots and they sent you on castings. It was run by two former female models.

There are a lot of hairdresser training courses in London where the trainees will cut your hair for free or very cheap. My mullet had to go and I started the classes and test shots. Models also needed what were called Z-cards or comp cards. They are like a business card but made of card stock sized 8.5 by 5.5 inches with a picture or pictures of the model and basic stats. They were used to project an image and catch the eye of the people making decisions. It was decided that since I had an American accent that I should project that image and call myself Redford. 

I got my Z card and portfolio together and started to go on castings. I had a little disadvantage with my height. I was 5’8 ½”. Male models are supposed to be taller than female models and most female models were in the 5’7” to 5’10” range. So I was a little short. Height wasn’t as important for photography but they decided to say I was 5’10 1/2”. There was another male model about my height already in the industry who was having success. I actually went to a casting that he had also gone to for Pepe Jeans. I didn’t get the job. But my world was about to change in a completely different way.

My Z Card