She loves late-night clubbing, sleeping in
She plays Michelle Dessler on the popular Fox show “24.” Reiko Aylesworth will only insinuate a few of the plot twists and turns yet to come on the series this season: There’s a lot of confrontation, uncertainty and turmoil, and then her life really gets intense. That’s all that she will share. Born in Chicago, reared in Seattle, Aylesworth began her career in New York, but has landed in West Hollywood.
Home, sweet ...
I love my neighborhood: There are Russian families, the artistic community, the gay community and industry professionals -- all ethnicities and ages are represented. That’s the kind of neighborhood that I grew up in. My family is mixed. I’m part Japanese, part black. Our neighborhood was mostly black and Puerto Rican, so I’m ready for the diversity.
Night owl
My Friday nights sometimes start in the early hours of Saturday morning. But if we get a chance to get out of work early -- like 7:30 p.m. or so -- then I’ll go with the crew and some of the cast to Chimneysweep Lounge. It’s a bar so they don’t have food, just popcorn. So if we’re hungry and want to eat, we’ll go to El Compadre on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood -- their margaritas are great and they have a Veracruz chicken burrito that’s really good. If there’s a band playing at the Troubadour or at the Knitting Factory, we might check them out. I like alternative music, so I like to hear new bands. Only one problem: Things close here really early. I’m a night owl. I’ve been looking around for some after-hours clubs, but I haven’t found any.
Saturday relaxation
I’m not an early riser. I get up, then I’ll maybe go to meet a friend for a hike over at Fryman Canyon. And after, I’ll go to this place called the Boba Loca in North Hollywood. They’ve got this drink that has taro root and ginger with little tapioca balls in it. It’s kind of like eating ice cream, probably worse for you than ice cream. But this is tastier, it has all of that extra sugar. It’s a little reward I give myself.
I was a big foodie when I was in New York. I’ve found some good sushi places here, like Sushi Nozawa in Studio City. Nozawa is the master of straight sushi -- he’s great.
I love going to the ArcLight theaters in Hollywood. The last picture I saw was “Monster.” It was great and Charlize Theron was just amazing. After a movie, I’ll go next door to Amoeba Music and buy several CDs. The last time I was in there I bought CDs by Air, PJ Harvey, the “American Splendor” soundtrack, Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughn, Thelonious Monk, Mingus -- I love music.
Another thing I’ve discovered, just since I’ve been living in California -- rodeos. I’d never been, but we went to the Anaheim rodeo, and I’m surprised I liked it so much. I’m such an urban person, but it’s so much fun. Sometimes we’ll even go paint-balling. There’s always something crazy to do. It’s different every Saturday.
Great pizza
Just like Saturdays, I’ll sleep in for a while on Sundays. Then maybe I’ll meet up with friends and go to Cheebo’s. I always get their pizza. It’s not Chicago-style pizza -- my family would kill me if they knew that I loved this -- but I don’t know what they do with it, but it’s just so good.
Then there’s this specialty store over on 3rd Street (near the Beverly Center), it’s called OK. Really, just OK. I love it. They have lots of art books, art pieces by local artists, they have locally made crafts, imports and all of the people who hang out there are people who are excited by the arts.
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