Karl: Today is March 6, 2015 and I’m lunching at The Abbey with the lovely Eve Mauro whom I have just met for the first time a few moments ago. How old are you, Eve?

Eve: I’m 33… I’m biblical.

Karl: Current relationship status?

Eve: Freelancing… (I’m single.)

Karl: Do tell.

Eve: I have always been the type of person that stays in relationships for long periods of time. I realized there are all these warning signs before I even start, but the relationships kept going and dragging on. Now, if there’s something that doesn’t work, I stop. I have rules now while dating… no one can stay the night at my house, no sleeping in my bed because it creates this automatic faux relationship. I’d rather keep things light and simple. So far I’ve been single since October and it’s worked really well for me.

Karl: Describe your occupation.

Eve: I’m an actress, which I enjoy, and it pays the bills. But I’ve just recently started bartending (recreationally) at an after-hours club. A friend of mine asked if I’d mind bartending for him. I don’t need the money but I really like the dark, gritty, underground scene. It’s fast-paced, there are people everywhere… You know how you imagine Studio 54 back in the day? It’s that, right now, in LA. So I do that a couple of nights a week from midnight ’till about 6:00 in the morning.

Karl: I can only imagine the things you see as the bartender.  Has that been a networking opportunity for you? I mean, you must be meeting so many people.

Eve: In the industry? No… this is pure debauchery.

Karl: What has been the most challenging obstacle while being an actor in LA?

Eve: It’s being patient. You can do an amazing job but sometimes producers just want to go with a name even though you’re perfect for the role. And that’s fine, but sometimes just being patient is the most challenging.

Karl: Have you found the industry to be welcoming?

Eve: Yes, if you do a good job, if you’re always prepared, if you’re always on time, then people want to work with you. I continue to get work because people have worked with me before and know I’m easy to work with. I don’t come with a lot of baggage. Everyone’s doing the same job… maybe they’re a lighting person, maybe they’re a boom operator, but we’re all doing the same thing – we’re creating something.

Karl: What are some of the best parts?

Eve: I get paid to go to summer camp. We’re together for two months at a time – groups of people in hotels getting away from life. You’re working your ass off, 12-hour days, but every movie feels like summer camp. It’s pretty cool.

Karl: Has anything crazy ever happened while on a shoot?

Eve: I don’t know how much I can share but I did a movie called The Steam Experiment, and the director’s name was Philippe Martinez. He is amazing, and we’re still friends, but we would do these night shoots and would get off at six in the morning. Val Kilmer, Eric Roberts, Armand Assante, Patrick Muldoon… we were all staying in this hotel in Grand Rapids, Michigan, which is kind of bible-belt’ish. But we’d buy a whole bunch of wine and sit in the hotel drinking, and Philippe would say, *French accent* “It was shit today, what we did was shit!” And we would start yelling and screaming, and he’d call Eric and say, “We’ve changed all your lines, this is what you say tomorrow…” And we all thought “What the fuck?!” There were fights on the set everyday… not real fights, more passionate fights. But he’d stand over you with his big cigar and everything would get changed. It was insane. You didn’t know your head from your ass.

Karl: But it all came together in the end?

Eve: It did! It was so much fun. He said, “The writer is good, but what they put down on paper is from sitting in front of a type-writer or computer. When you bring it to life, they don’t see that sometimes things just don’t work. So you have to be agreeable to change.” So we’d get our lines, roll into bed at 10:30 in the morning, Starbucks at 7:00 at night, and do the same thing the next day.

Karl: He obviously knew what he was doing.

Eve: He did. We were like a family in the end, which is how it should be. Philippe was dating his wife, Megan, at the time and they now have a kid together. I’ve remained friends with everyone else on set. Patrick Muldoon and I dated for three years and we’re still friends. Philippe really did create a little family.

Karl: Full disclosure – I haven’t seen it, but I haven’t seen anything since my daughter was born eight years ago so that’s not saying anything. So I apologize.

Eve: *laughs* No way, I only watch one show, The Returns – a French TV show, it’s really good.

Karl: Well, your resume is incredibly impressive. You’ve been on Dexter which is awesome.

Eve: Funny enough, while doing Dexter, I met my other ex, Desmond, there, and we dated for three years. There’s the seven-year itch, for me it’s the three-year itch. I only do the three-year dating thing.

Karl: I read you’re from Florida. What was it like moving to LA? Was that an easy transition?

Eve: I moved to Wisconsin for a little bit but it wasn’t working for me. Everyone was saying, “Oh, you’re Mexican coming up here for work…” and I’d say, “I’m Italian!” And they’d say, “Oh you’re Aye-talian.” Everyone was just so white. So I lived there for 6 months and moved back to Florida. I got a job at a law firm working as an Administrative Assistant but they were over-staffed and let me go with a severance package. I was single, had the severance pay, and really had nothing to lose. There was nothing in Florida for me so I took the money and moved to LA with one suitcase. I stayed on someone’s couch at first, then got a car and rented a room in South Central. My first job was through a modeling agency. It was the Madonna, Hollywood video about everyone who moves to LA to try and make it.

Karl: God, what a dream, huh? Your first job and you’re working with Madonna?

Eve: It paid really well at the time. I was with her, they did a behind-the-scenes, Jean-Baptiste Mondino was the director… It was a great first job. From there things just picked up. I didn’t start acting right away. Everyone warned me that casting directors have the memories of elephants so you don’t want to go in there and leave a bad taste in their mouths. So I started going to acting school and did the modeling to pay the bills.

Karl: What was it like growing up in Florida?

Eve: My dad is from Sicily and my mom was born in Florida. She’s of Eastern European decent – blonde hair blue eyes. When my dad came to America, he had to either become a chef or a shoe salesman… so he became a chef. I was born in Atlanta, my dad used to own a lot of night clubs, strip clubs, hotels… stuff like that. Fidel Castro used to eat at one of my dad’s restaurants. So did Martin Luther King, President Carter… (My dad’s 80.) RuPaul was also a dancer at one of his clubs in Atlanta…

My mom met my dad in one of his clubs. My dad always liked women with blonde hair, blue eyes, big breasts… My mom didn’t have the big breasts, but they got married. Do you remember Bernhard Goetz? He shot all those people on the subway a long time ago… We bought his father’s house. I guess his dad had possibly died in the house. He was a German olympic swimmer I believe so the house had an Olympic-sized pool and all these marble floors. I was convinced I used to hear a man walking back and forth at night. Years later, after I had already moved out here, I was helping my mom and I met a small, mentally challenged boy who lived there. He said to me, “The man who walks around here scares me.” and I said to my mom, “What the fuck! See! I told you!”

Karl: Don’t go there. *laughs* That stuff creeps me out!

So you’re beautiful, obviously… Has that been challenging for you?

Eve: Yes, I hate modeling. Your weight is always an issue, your teeth are uneven, your eyebrows are this and that… I never even wore make-up before I moved to California. I meet all of these models who are so insecure with who they are. It doesn’t feel the same now as when I was doing it. I was having fun and being free. Now there’s the image dysmorphia thing when you never really see yourself the way you really look and you’re always judging yourself and trying to make yourself look better. You’re never happy with how you are but then you look back and think, “Oh, I looked good then.” It can really effect a person – to see a photo of yourself that looks nothing like you because it’s been Photoshopped and edited. A lot of the models here are self-absorbed but the more self-absorbed they are they less they love themselves. There’s this self-hatred thing going on. I like taking pictures, but I like having fun. I don’t like portraying something false. Then you’re not living life.

Karl: On the note of living life, what do you like to do in your free time?

Eve: Well after this meeting, my best friend is coming here to have a couple of drinks with me. Then we’ll go to my house and it’s kind of lame but we’ll watch Disney movies and drink. Occasionally we’ll go out and dance.

Karl: What’s your favorite Disney movie?

Eve: The Little Mermaid of course! Although I do love Robin Hood. My sister and I used to play Robin Hood a lot when we were kids and I liked to play Maid Marian.

Karl: How do we feel about the whole Frozen thing? Are we good with that?

Eve: Disney has lost it. Cinderella… The Little Mermaid… that was the good stuff! Jiminy Cricket… the things he said were philosophical! *looks up Jiminy Cricket quotes on phone* “If your heart is in your dreams, no request is too extreme.” C’mon! People talk about Dostoyevsky, Nietzsche, John Milton… but how many of us know real writers?

Karl: I’ll take Jiminy over Nietzsche any day.

You’re thin and in great shape… do you have to work out a lot?

Eve: When I start working out a lot I get bigger. I don’t work my arms because genetically I have man arms.  To be honest, I haven’t worked out since October.

Karl: Where do you like to go out?

Eve: If not my house, then Alvarado House or Overpass. Or this dive-bar in Mar Vista called Tattle Tale Room. It is the diviest bar you’ll ever find.

Karl: Can you describe your impressions of West Hollywood?

Eve: There’s San Francisco and there’s New York, and you think they’re really cool and gay friendly, but they’re not like here. From the streets to the restaurants, everything is just done up so perfectly. It’s hard to get in here (housing-wise) because they hold their standards so high. Everything is put in its perfect little place.

Karl: What are the people like?

Eve: All different. They call it “boy’s town” but it’s not just gay people. It’s everyone. Everyone here is really open and alive. If there was one word for this town it would be “love.” You can’t find any other place like this.

Karl: How has it changed since 2001 when you were first coming here?

Eve: 2001 was like that phase in a relationship where you’re arguing all the time but you know if you work through it, it’s going to get better… West Hollywood was working through a lot of things back then to get to greener grass.

Karl: What are some of the changes you’ve seen over the years?

Eve: Remember Rage back in the day when all the guys had their shirts off and were all grimey? It felt like one of those underground places from back home, where ever you’re from. Now you drive by and see some married couple sitting there while a guy’s dancing on their table in a speedo. It’s no longer this dirty, underground thing that people should be ashamed of.

Karl: What would you like to see more of in West Hollywood?

Eve: I think it’s just perfect the way it is. I think they’ve got it all figured out. I can smoke outside, I can go to a health store, I can go to that celebrity milk-shake store down the street. I imagine it’s one of the safest places to live in LA. Everything here is just perfect.

Karl: What would you like to see less of?

Eve: Traffic is congested, but everywhere in LA is congested. My sister came to visit and I told her it would take her an hour and a half to get to Hollywood. She said, “What?! It says it’s fifteen miles!” I said, “Yes, but you came on a Friday! It’s an hour to go five miles on Fridays!” I also had to explain how she needed to turn on yellow lights or someone will come up and punch her in the face.

Karl: Where do you see the city in twenty to thirty years?

Eve: Hmmm, when I’m 53 years old… That’s scary. I’ve never really thought about that to be honest.

Karl: Will you still be here? Do you plan to stay?

Eve: I plan to stay. I think once I turn 50 I might go to some town in Colorado with waterfalls. It’s going to get to the point where it’s going to take a lot of fucking money to stay here.

Karl: Anything you would like to say to yourself in the future when you read this years from now?

Eve: *laughs* You’re doing a good job!  Everything will figure itself out. Love yourself and be happy!

Karl: Have you struggled with that at times?

Eve: Well, yes, there are always struggles with being alone, but you pull yourself out of it. You have to love yourself before you can really love anyone else. If you can be happy when you’re alone, then you’re really happy when you’re with people. There were struggles with not getting jobs modeling, or spending holidays by myself, but everyone here is a transplant and you make your own family and make your own life. I can always find something negative to dwell upon, but I made it out of Florida! I’m successful, I’m a woman, I have a nice car, have a nice place… all those material things… but most importantly – I have people who love me.

Karl: What advice would you give to any actors who have just arrived with their suitcase like you did fifteen years ago?

Eve: Have fun with it! Don’t take it too seriously. You like acting because it’s fun and it makes you feel good. C’mon, let’s be honest… you’re an actor… you play pretend for a living, why are you so serious? Have some fun. Enjoy your life. And if you don’t get that job you wanted, be grateful that you’re even here! There are a million people who want to be here. Even if you’re broke, and a bum… you’re in fucking LA!