Devon Aoki: Model, Killer, Super Spy
By Mike Szymanski
http://www.zap2it.com/movies/features/scenes/story/0,1259,---
25166,00.html


Devon Aoki has only four movies to her name -- so far. Yet, the
model-turned-actress has played a hipster in "Death of a Dynasty," a
race car driver in "2 Fast 2 Furious" and coming up she's a snarky
super-spy in a short skirt in "D.E.B.S." and a brutal killer who
chops up Oscar winner Benicio Del Toro in "Sin City."
"It was scary fun," she says about playing the assassin in "Sin
City," demonstrating how she would wildly swing the same sword that
Uma Thurman used in "Kill Bill." "I'd be doing these scenes with
Benicio, and he's like, 'Does she have to do this with me sitting
here?'"

But first, audiences will get to see the exotic model in a stylish
teen action comedy, "D.E.B.S." about a school of top secret girl
agents who seek to bring down an international master criminal. Aoki
plays a bratty chain-smoking French girl named Dominique. Director
Angela Robinson says actual French models came in to audition for
the part, but Aoki nailed it right away, mangled accent and all.

"Devon came in and had the crazy accent and she was genius," says
the director, who's now doing "The Love Bug" Disney remake "Herbie,
Fully Loaded" with Lindsay Lohan. She also cast Meagan Good, Jordana
Brewster, Jill Ritchie and Aoki's former classmate Sara Foster in
the film.

"I knew these girls before, we had existing friendships, so it was a
lot of fun," Aoki says. "And there were no cat fights."

She went to prep school with co-star Sara Foster when they were 12
and 13 years old. She was familiar with plaid skirts and uniforms.

"It was reminiscent of my days at a prep school, where I went to
school with Sara for a year," says Aoki, rolling her eyes. "They had
uniforms just like that, and so I can remember always sort of
rolling my skirt up, trying to get it shorter, because you know, you
try to sort of jazz up the school uniforms because they're pretty
boring."

That's before Aoki's family moved to London. Her father is Rocky
Aoki, owner of Benihana's Japanese Restaurants and her godmother is
supermodel Kate Moss. With Japanese, German and British ancestry,
Aoki's exotic looks landed her as a Chanel model.

Modeling since 13, Aoki's big break was in John Singleton's street
racing sequel "2 Fast 2 Furious," but she didn't know how to drive
and was taught by stunt drivers.

She faced even more challenges in "Sin City," the graphic novel-
turned-film by co-directors Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez. They
put her in scenes with no sets, just green backgrounds with details
added in later by computer.

"That was very different," Aoki says about the film which also stars
Bruce Willis, Elijah Wood, Jessica Alba, Rosario Dawson and many
others.

"You basically go into the same set every day, the same stage, and
you're surrounded by this bright green color, and it could be sort
of difficult to imagine the things that will be surrounding you once
the movie's up on the screen," she explains. "But it was sort of
seamless and really enjoyable, and you're working with actors who
are brilliant, so you start to sort of believe the scene material
and stuff."

Next up, she's working with Jackie Chan's former director Corey Yuen
in China on "D.O.A." "I actually leave for there in about a month,
and I'm going to be there for about three months," she says about
the movie based on a video game. "There's even more action in that
one. I'm going to do five hours of training a day."

Like all Chinese action films, that will require some wire work,
too. "It's going to be very physical and I'm looking forward to
that," she smiles.

Aoki says she's feeling more comfortable as an actress. It was her
idea to incorporate the broken Franglish in her "D.E.B.S." character
and says, "It was great to play like a character that obviously
spoke with sort of an accent, but for me as an actor, it was a
challenge."

Even more of a challenge, however, was her short skirts
in "D.E.B.S." and how she always bundled herself up with big robes
because she was cold.

"Devon was funny because she'd be in a little corner with both her
feet completely up, tucked into a little ball, rolling back and
forth, waiting to shoot," says co-star Meagan Good. "I was
like, 'How did you get in that position?' And she'd be totally cool
just waiting for the next shot."