I was on a walk with my wife one day and my phone rang. I usually don’t pick it up in this situation but for some reason here I did. The voice on the other side goes: Hi, this is Amy Smart!

I grew up in Germany and I always loved Amy but of course only knew her from the screen. And here she was on the phone!

I ended up shooting images for a commercial project of her husband and her’s but I built-in a request to take a portrait. So for about 10 minutes in between shots I got her in front of a cream colored backdrop my assistant had put up just outside her garage. It was open shade and soft light. I wanted her to sort of melt with the background with her blonde hair and fair complexion. I also shot color negative film to further this blending effect.

I only shot two rolls of film I think. She kept looking to the side, just off camera and I didn’t quite know if she did it intentionally or not. We were comfortable with each other at this point so I ruled out that she was messing with me and I just went with it. It created these moments that were powerfully clean and yet vulnerable. Then she did this little smirk and I pressed the shutter. That portrait has some vulnerability to it but the smirk and the gaze to the side keep her in control. I was happy and we returned to the job.