DANGEROUS BEAUTY
If Laura Elena Harring does not believe she’s a femme fatale, then clearly she hasn’t caught her act on screen. Or off. Or maybe it’s not an act at all.
On a bright and breezy L.A. morning, Harring arrives at Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1924 Ennis-Brown house in the hills of Los Feliz wearing a blousy red cotton dress she picked up at a bazaar in Thailand, paired with sequined sandals. Her dark hair is disheveled. She is likable, friendly, demure. Then Laura Elena Harring disappears into wardrobe and emerges a blond-a blond in a traffic-stopping Scarlett O’Hara-esque crinoline gown. She strikes a pose for the camera. The metamorphosis is instant. Sultry, pouty, feline, dangerous-and believable.
For those who saw Harring last year in David Lynch’s film “Mulholland Drive,” in which she played both a vulnerable and confused amnesia victim and a calculating Hollywood actress, the Mexico native is a natural in the femme-fatale genre. But Harring appears vexed by the comparison. “I see myself as more romantic and vulnerable,” she says. “But I’m starting to realize that there might be a femme fatale inside of me because so many people have told me that, particularly after ‘Mulholland Drive.’
“I just followed David’s direction, which was to ‘walk like a kitty cat.’ And that was my impression of a kitty cat. What everyone else saw was old Hollywood glamour.”
Off screen, Harring’s life reads, well, like a movie. Born in Los Mochis in northern Mexico (her grandfather was the country’s leading equestrian and fencer), Harring moved to San Antonio, Texas, at the age of 10. As a teenager she convinced her parents to send her to the elite Aiglon College in Switzerland, after which she traveled throughout Asia with a brief stint as a social worker in India. Upon returning to the States, Harring enrolled in several beauty pageants, successively winning the titles of Miss El Paso, Miss Texas and, in 1985, Miss USA, making her the first Latina to hold the title. At the age of 18, she met, married and shortly thereafter divorced the German count Carl von Bismarck, yet still retains the title of countess. She also dances a mean tango.
“The tango is my other passion,” the actress says. The first is, of course, clothes. “I wish clothes didn’t play such an important role, but it’s so much fun to play different characters.” She collects fabrics from Egypt, Israel and Sri Lanka, exotic Asian jewelry and traditional Mexican dresses. “I like to carry a little bit of Mexico with me when I go out. I love wearing flowers in my hair, like the ones you notice when you go to a beautiful Mexican beach. And I love to wear the sunset colors-wine, pink, coral, rust.” And let’s not forgot those $1-million Stuart Weitzman diamond stilettos we saw her wearing at the Academy Awards. Simply put, Harring likes to dazzle.
She continues to pursue stylized roles (or they continue to pursue her) that rely on her special blend of fragility and danger. Next up is New Line’s Hitchcockian thriller “Willard,” followed by director Paul Hills’ “The Poet,” which the actress is currently shooting in Vienna. “My character is at the same time vulnerable and very strong.” Which should come as a surprise to no one.
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Heather John is a senior Style editor at the magazine.
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Styled by Dana Marasca/Celestine; hair: Peter Savic for Art Mix/Redken; makeup: Jo Strettell/Cloutier; location: Ennis-Brown house, Los Angeles
