Babin Fever
What's a nice East Texas guy like Lucas
Babin doing modeling for Gucci and Versace?
Making up to $7,000 a day,that's what.
by Eileen Schwartz
*special thanks to T for
sending this to me*
Funny,Lucas Babin looks more like a West L.A.
hipster than an East Texan. But take away the
makeup,the lighting,and the air brushing,and
the 21-year-old model with shoulder-length
sandy blond hair,chiseled cheekbones,
and almost feminine good looks would seem
just as natural behind the wheel of a pickup
as he does wearing a Gucci suit. Speaking of
which,it was,it was just a year ago that Lucas
was photographed wearing his first such getup-for
an ad for the venerable Italian couture house-a
mere two weeks after he had signed with Ford Models.
This season his face is also popping up in ads for
such labels as Gap Jeans and Versace Jeans Couture.
In late September 1999,dressed in off-the-rack
jeans,a black T-shirt,and flip-flops,Lucas walked
into the modeling agency's Los Angeles office during
an open call.He had never modeled before,but within
days he was booked for an Abercrombie and Fitch ad
shot by top fashion phtographer Bruce Weber,and
a week later he did the Gucci shoot. "It's crazy,"
he says. "A lot of guys do this for years hoping to
get Gucci." In Lucas' opinion,luck and looks are what
it's all about:"If you're told you need to go to
model school or model camp by someone,they're
just trying to get your money. Modeling isn't something
you can learn how to do.It's all about how you look.
"Confidence and charisma don't hurt either,and Lucas
seems to have more than his share of both. When he did
the Gucci ad,he persuaded the label's creative director-
one of the fashion world's hottest designers,fellow Texan
Tom Ford-to give him a suit he'd modeled.
"They don't give you anything,"he says."You have to
ask for it.You can't be bashful out here."
Lucas doesn't sound like an East Texan either,although
he grew up in Woodville,a small town nestled among rolling
hills and dense forests about fifty miles north of Beaumont.
He calls Woodville "the coolest town in America" and his
childhood friend Brad Shepherd agrees. "Nothing beats
the Wal-Mart parking lot on a Saturday night or driving the
back roads just for fun," Shepherd says in a drawl
that leaves no doubt about his roots. When I ask Shepherd
why he thinks Lucas doesn't have an accent ,he chuckles
and says, "He never really had one. He's not your typical
guy." Lucas grew up with his twin sister,Kirsten,and their
three older siblings-a brother,Leif, and two sisters,Marit
and Lala. Their parents told them they could be whatever
they wanted to be, and Lucas always knew what that was.
"I'vealways known I wanted to do film and music,"he says.
His father,Brian a dentist and the town's mayor,nurtured
the latter ambition,buying Lucas almost any instrument
he desired. One year the coveted item was a drum set."I
thought,'No way I'll get that," Lucas says. But he did,
to the consternation of his mother,Roxanne,who would wear
earplugs when he practiced,"It's the coolest present I ever
got,"he says.But his father could be less enthusiastic
when it came to no-music-related paraphenalia,making Lucas
wait awhile for a new tennis racket,for example, "I'm glad
about that now,says Lucas, who'd rather hold court onstage
at the keyboard or with a guitar.Both father and son play
guitar,and like his father,Lucas is also an accomplished
pianist.Roxanne is a singer "with a beautiful voice,"
according to Lucas,who says that his parents used to sing
and play country and folk music together in clubs in
Houston and their hometown of Beaumont to help pay for
Brian's dental school tuition.
After Lucas graduated from high school,he worked for
a surveyor in Woodville,earning about $5 an hour hacking
through brush with a machete. When his brother moved to
San Diego,Lucas followed him to give acting a try, He
attended "some stupid junior college" in San Diego and
would go to L.A. for auditions. "I had no idea what I was
doing," he says. "I didn't know any agents or casting
directors.I didn't know anything." One thing he did know
was that he didn't want to go back to cutting brush,so he
decided to drop in at Ford,putting his days of minimum wage
behind him. "They pay you ridiculous amounts of money
[to model]," he says. "You can get addicted." He now earns
between $2,500 and $7,000 a day-"But I don't work everyday,
"he points out.He also began to have some success as an actor
,doing MTV's late-night soap Undressed and an MTV pilot
titled This is How the World Ends, and he recently
landed a small part in the WB network vampire saga
Angel.Meanwhile,he's still hoping to make it onto the
big screen.I've been so close lately,"he says. "I almost booked
three different feature films."
So far,all the success doesn't appear to have
gone to his head. He shares a $1,000 a month
apartment in West Hollywood with a fellow aspiring
actor from Woodville,Bryan Gay.Occasionally Lucas is
recognized on the street,but he insists that there's nothing
glamorous about his life,until he goes to work. "The
extravagant part comes with the job,"he says. "
You know the parties and that kind of thing." When
life does get a little overwhelming,he heads back
to Texas and goes deep-sea fishing with his father.
The Gulf was rough on a recent trip,and the fish
weren't biting."It's amazing how no fish
and throwing up over the side of a boat keeps
you grounded," he says. After more than a year
in California,Lucas says he still misses Texas,
"especially barbecue and Sonic."
But for now he'll remain in L.A.He may even
go back to school and pursue a degree in film
at the University of Southern California.
"Eventually,"he says,"I just want to make a
contribution to society through film and make
movies that are about average people accomplishing
great things,like Saving Private Ryan."
But it isn't the movie industry that's knocking on his
door these days.Lucas can be seen sporting those $2,000
Gucci suits again in new ads,as well as in campaigns
for Calvin Klein Eyewear and Versace that will run
through spring.Tear Sheet,an insider magazine
for the fashion industry (which bills itself as "the
loud-mouth of the beautiful biz"),recently named him
one of its" 50 Most Beautiful." He was also featured-
wearing tiger-striped suede pants and a sleeveless black
muscle shirt-as one of "This Year's Models" in the
September 14 "Hot Issue" of Rolling Stone.(His
feelings about the photo,however,are lukewarm:"They took
all these shots of me playing my guitar,but I'm not playing
it in the picture.")And he made headlines in July when
he walked the mistress of fashion herself,Donatella
Versace,down the runway in Milan after the show of her
men's collecion for fall 2000.That night he proved he
wasn't just another pretty face by playing the piano at
a gathering in the lobby of the Hotel Principe di Savioa
that was attended by such stars as Matthew McConaughey
and Boy George.Lucas had just met Elton John backstage
at the show,"So I played 'Rocket Man,'" he says proudly.
Of course,when you're a male model,even one as talented
and ambitious as Lucas,it's hard to avoid the stereotypes:
that men so good-looking must be conceited and shallow,for
example.And they're often assumed to be gay."But that's not
true at all,he insists.When I mention that he doesn't sound
stuck-up,he says,"Tell all the girls that," and notes that
the harshest critics are often other men. "They do get
jealous,"he says."But they just see all this makeup and
airbrushing.Sometimes I think I look like a total jerk.but
it's just an image."As it happens,when I showed Lucas'picture
to several co-workers,the men's reactions were just a tiny bit
defensive."Oh that's a man?" and"He's a pip-squeak" were some
of their responses,while the women all chimed in with choruses
of "He's beautiful" and "Good hair."(The folks back home tease
him about his long hair,a style "not at all typical in Woodville,"
says Shepherd.)Another mis-conception about male models,according
to Lucas,is that they date their female counterparts. "The women
are harder to impress because they make so much more money,"he says.
Just after his combined fashion coup and musical debut in
Milan,a New York Timesarticle quoted him as saying
that he was looking forward to working with model Sophie Dahl on
an upcoming ad campaign and that photographer Steven Meisel
was going to "hook him up" with the British babe.But Lucas claims
he was never interviewed by anyone for that story.Dahl is a friend,
he says,but he doesn't want to date her:"And I'd never rely on Steve
Meisel to hook me up!"Despite that experience,Lucas tells me that
it is nice to have the opportunity to talk to the press,"because
when you're modeling,you're just a face."Indeed the author of
that New York Timesstory called him "one of the most talked
about new faces of the week."
For this small-town guy,such big-time success still seems
strange,he says.When he first arrived in L.A.,he didn't know
a soul.About a year later,while driving down Sunset Boulevard,
he spotted a bill-board with a larger-than-life image of himself.
"I was all alone,"he says."I got out of the car and took a
picture.It kind of gets to you,you know?"
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