Beautiful People 2015: Arielle Holmes

Since August, so like seven months. I was born here, but when I was not even a year old yet, I moved to Jersey, where my mom's from. So I grew up in Jersey. 

It depends. I just finished shooting this movie in buffalo called Winter's Dream. And in a month I'm going to start on a third project. I can't tell you what that is, not yet.

Completely different. It's hard adjusting, you know? But I'm getting the hang of things. Just feel a lot better about life and everything I'm doing. It's good now.

No, not really. I'm really happy with how the movie came out. I don't really see it as my story; I feel like it's just the story of that lifestyle in general. And I love how it was expressed. Whatever changes that were made from what actually happened in my experience, I'm fine with it.

Not at all. Aside from a couple school plays when I was in third grade or so.

Probably the scene where I freak out on the bus. Josh [Safdie] was explaining to me how he wanted it to look like a ballet or a dance in a way. I don't know if I made it look like that at all, but I tried to be very flamboyant, I guess, with my motions. Animated, that's the word. And then when I sat down and kicked the bus apart, that was really fun. [laughs] I accidentally broke the window. 

That changed the whole movie, actually. There was originally a different ending, but since I broke the window, we were like, "Alright, well, if she actually broke a bus window in real life they'd probably throw her off." So that's where the ending came from, but I love that it worked out that way, 'cause I think it ends perfectly. 

Yeah, I was going to make it to Florida, alone, and end up helping this guy move these boxes or reptiles or something like that, and that would just be the end. But I like how it ended so much better.

Like getting to view myself through another perspective, through someone else's eyes. And I actually got to see myself and how I was living and what I was doing -- it was very surreal. Now when I watch it, it's more separated from myself, more like it's just a character.

I don't know when it will come out. It's not as ready as I thought it was. At first I intended to publish it as a memoir, but I don't want to do that anymore; I want to take all those writings and turn it into a work of fiction. I want it to be more like a story than my personal diary, you know? 

Drugs should be legal. I believe we should all be informed about all of them, and people who would go down a bad path and really destroy themselves should be helped, rather than put in jail. People don't get fucked up drugs because they're happy, you know? And recreational use -- I think that if drugs were legal and accepted as a thing that some people choose to partake in, I don't think it would lose as many lives, because there wouldn't be a need to hide it; they wouldn't have to worry about losing their jobs or being arrested. I'm not saying people should use drugs, but there are a lot of benefits that can come out of certain drugs. But in the long run, it's your choice. People are doing drugs whether they're legal or not, and I think one of the reasons they're illegal is because the government makes money off it by putting people in prison. Then you've got the pharmacy that prescribes really dangerous drugs to people. Those are legal. It's a messed up system, but I hope it changes. Somehow.

Styling by Jessica Zamora-Turner, hair and makeup by Christy McCabe at Utopia the Agency

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