EMPIRE MAGAZINE ARTICLE:

By Simon Braund

[For Those Who Are Not Familiar With Empire Magazine, It Is Literally The UK'S Leading Entertainment Magazine, And Is Considered A Very Important Entertainment Industry import here in Los Angeles.]

The very day Malerie Grace made her Hollywood debut as Marilyn Monroe, strategically positioned in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater, decked out in vintage Seven-Year-Itch-era white dress, immaculate makeup and iconic blond wig, she was approached by a man. Not that there is anything unusual in that when you're on a public street, thronging with tourists, effecting a more-than-fair approximation of the most potent sex symbol ever to roam the earth. What was unusual, however, was that this particular man was not a camcorder-wielding mid-westerner with an Idaho-sized ass and a thing for dead blondes. No, this was half-pint Hollywood legend Mickey Rooney's son Jimmy who was so transfixed by the billowy-skirted vision before him that he insisted on taking 'Marilyn' to dinner, regaling her with stories of the genuine article who was, apparently, a regular visitor chez Rooney back in the day. As you'd expect, Grace (who also does Audrey Hepburn and Elvira) takes no little delight in recounting this anecdote; it is, after all, a tremendous compliment.

It's also a story echoed by her friend and fellow Boulevard fixture Gerard Christian Zacher, who prowls the pavement in various guises ranging from James Dean to Luke Skywalker to Beetlejuice to The Grinch. On the evening in question he was appearing as Freddie Kruger, one of his most celebrated characters, and one, Empire can confirm, he performs with energetic menace and much slashing of talons, particularly if there's a limo-load of shrieking Valley Girls in the vicinity.

"Robert Englund happened to be going to a premiere at the Chinese Theater," recalls Zacher. "I didn't spot him but my friend Mitchell did and he literally dragged me over to him. I've met celebrities before but I was really nervous. I was thinking, What if he hates it? I'll never be able to do Freddie again. He looked at me and was like, 'Sheesh. I wish I had my camera.' He pulled my hat down ever so slightly and said, 'Now you're perfect.'"

The be-costumed characters that populate the stretch of Hollywood Boulevard between Grauman's and the junction with Highland Avenue are as much a feature of the neighbourhood as the Walk Of Fame itself. And, to the casual observer (anyone who has been in LA for more than a month) they blend, like other aspects of Lala Land catering mostly to the tourist trade, quickly into the woodwork, dismissed en mass as a bunch of inconvenient pan-handlers with a little more flair and imagination than the average. But, as the above anecdotes illustrate, there is a lot more going on than that.

On an unprecedentedly rainy Friday in Hollywood – braved only by a forlorn looking Darth Vader – Empire met up with Zacher, Grace and Mitchell Schonberner (he of the Robert Englund incident whose alter egos include Indiana Jones, Han Solo and Jason Voorhees) at Audrey's, a bijou Audrey Hepburn-themed coffee shop a stone's throw from the Chinese and well worth a visit if you're in the area. It's the characters' regular hang-out. Sadly, due to the rain, Empire is denied the spectacle of Spongebob sipping a gunpowder green tea while Boba Fett and Batman split a bran muffin. In fact, Mitchell is the only one not in mufti today, gamely turning out as Indie despite the inclement weather. Which is a shame since when they are in costume, they're something to see. They distinguish themselves from the run-of-the-mill lookalikes with authentic , often expensive costumes they assemble themselves and, where necessary, elaborate makeup – when Zacher appears as Freddie Kruger, for instance, it takes him over two hours to put his face on; when Grace does Marilyn, she claims, the transformation is so complete even her friends don't recognize her.

"I started [doing characters] about five years ago," says Zacher. "I had a friend who was doing clown work out here and I kind of got introduced to it from that. I had just finished working at Disneyland and it looked perfect to me. You could be a working actor every day; I pursue acting through the normal routes, but this is a little something extra, like an internship." Surmising that the scene, then dominated by a clutch of spandex superheros, another Marilyn, Elvis and Elmo, could do with some livening up, Zacher started as Bram Stoker's Dracula and progressed from there. "I thought there was room for some more variety," he says, "something a little more theatrical. And I didn't want to come out here looking like a trick-or-treater, I wanted to be professional about it."

It's this insistence on professionalism, taking what they do seriously and putting on a performance that sets the real Hollywood Boulevard characters apart from the drug-store-costumed cup-shakers, and out on the street it's blatantly obvious who is there to put on a performance and who is there to hustle for change.

"I had just finished doing a lot of musical theater," says Grace. "I actually got introduced to character work by my boyfriend Michael (one of numerous Jack Sparrows, and reputedly the best, although there's some stiff competition). I'd just got off a show and [doing characters] felt like I was working, practicing my art. And I love it. Once I get into the costume I can't act any other way than as Marilyn: my voice changes, my laugh changes, my mannerisms are all hers."

"I started about five years ago in New Orleans," says Schonberner. "It's a little different down there, a lot of mimes and a lot of guys standing still. Thing is, I like dressing up. But it's not just about the costumes, I don't just try to look like the character. When I do Indie I try to get his walk, his movements, everything. It wears me out. Sometimes I have to sit down and take a rest."

"It's a show to us," says Zacher, "giving people something to really enjoy. And it keeps our performance juices flowing."

Inevitably though, given the hierarchies involved, the unregulated, street-level nature of the characters scene and the fine line that divides accepting a gratuity and begging for money, friction on the Boulevard is not uncommon.

"We're out there putting our heart and soul into this, trying to look good as possible," says Schonberner. "And then you have these guys showing up in store-bought, Halloween costumes."

"The main difference between us and the people who just throw it out there," chimes in Grace, "is that we've studied our characters. And I would never approach anyone as Marilyn, because Marilyn would never have gone up to somebody and said, 'Hey, wanna take my picture?' I tease and flirt and blow kisses."

"Mostly people do give us tips [when they take our picture]," says Zacher, "but they do that by themselves; we don't beg. There are some characters who beg for money, and it's normally the ones in the bad, cheap costumes. It's frustrating because we put so much work into it. Like the Grinch. I made that costume from scratch and here comes someone with a fake mask begging for money. That aggravates me. They don't all behave professionally and you can't control them. There's nobody out there monitoring us or overseeing us, and I wish there was."

And if you thought the police might be ideal candidates for that job, think again. A recent incident involving Zacher sums up succinctly the LAPD's attitude to the characters. "This guy who was drunk or high attacked me," he says. "He was in my face, pushing and shoving me, trying to hit me. Then he ran off." Despite a crowd of witnesses, it was Zacher who got arrested. And, thanks to a tiny nick on his assailant's side, inadvertently inflicted by his Freddie claws, he was charged with assault with a deadly weapon. "It was humiliating," he says. "I was in the Freddie makeup and the cops were trying to force me to do photos for their cell phone cameras. The guy was out harassing and assaulting people on the Blvd again the next day while I was in jail." In the end, the charges were dropped, although Zacher was fined for being in possession of a blade longer than three inches. "I couldn't argue with that part," he says ruefully. His talons are now plastic.

In a typically botched attempt to impose some order on the Boulevard, the cops did call a meeting with the characters to establish some ground rules – no hustling for money, no fighting over territory, no trespassing on private property and so on. "And then they pulled a sting operation on Elmo," says Zacher, darkly." In an instance of blatant entrapment, two undercover cops, pretending not to speak English, provoked the hapless Elmo into explaining what a tip was, then promptly cuffed him and hauled his purpley-red ass to jail. The upshot of that, according to Schonberner, was that Elmo successfully sued The Fuzz who now no longer enforce the rules they themselves set down for fear of future lawsuits.

"The police hate us," says Zacher. "They don't protect us. We have a bad reputation because of the pan-handlers so there's automatic discrimination against us, which is why I got arrested."

"It's been a free-for-all out there for the last two years," adds Schonberner.

Even so, aside from problems with the cops, crappy Shreks, rubbish Homer Simpsons, shakedown artists, drunks, junkies, crazy people, gigantic leisure-suited keisters and the myriad other inconveniences, annoyances and hassles that come with working on the street, the Hollywood characters are a fun, vaguely anarchic, occasionally edgy part of the Tinseltown experienced – one that is increasingly falling prey to the dead hand of corporate control. And that's thanks mainly to the likes of Zacher, Grace and Schonberner who do their utmost to give the out-of-towners a photo op worth taking, rather than standing around morosely in a dime store mask waiting for a hand-out.

"It's great for us and it's great for fans of the characters," says Zacher, "and that's who we do it for." And their dedication and professionalism has brought other rewards. Zacher features prominently as the star character of 'The Reinactors', a documentary on the Hollywood Characters scene, featured at the Rotterdam Film Festival and Gerard (as Hollywood Luke Skywalker) is the main focus of 'Fanpire', a film that probes the effects the 'Star Wars' movies have had on their fans and stars, and for which he was followed by the camera crew for several months (in addition to the camera crews of "Reinactors" and another film, "Ambassadors of Hollywood" all simultaneously at times). "I had to learn to live on camera," he says. "It actually almost kind of got to me just a little at one point. But the chance to – sort of – play one of my favourite characters of all time in a movie, how could I pass that up?" Zacher also plays a cameo in legendary oddball Dennis Woodruff's latest movie, 'Spaceman', an experience he describes as "Utterly corny and bizarre." Which could also serve as a succinct summation of the Hollywood Characters and their fringe milieu. And this being Hollywood, that's exactly as it should be.

Simon Braund