She's Not Looking for Another Pretty Face

blog_jennifer_venditti_02.jpgFashion ads and editorials are dominated by 5' 11" glamazons who weigh 135 pounds. But when photographers need subjects who don't fit the usual bill, they call Jennifer Venditti. The New York casting director is known in the industry for her rare eye for finding the imperfect, but captivating, beauty in everyday people. For the past ten years, she's cast her vibrantly strange characters in innumerable advertisements (including the current Dolce & Gabbana campaign, above) and editorials (many for W).

blog_jennifer_venditti_03.jpgLast year, Venditti took her talent for embracing the unique to filmmaking. Her first directorial effort, Billy the Kid, which just came out on DVD, follows the lovably eccentric Maine teenager Billy Price through a week of his sophomore year, complete with lunch periods spent alone, KISS-inspired guitar freak-outs, and his first brush with love.  "I'm attracted to someone with a strong sense of self and a unique spirit," she says. "Someone who isn't willing to conform and has a story, of course."

Most recently, Venditti (pictured below) helped cast Spike Jonze's adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are, slated for a 2009 release. And she's currently mapping out a script for her next film (a feature inspired by, among other things, "women, survival instincts, madness") and casting an art project for fellow downtown fixture photographer Ryan McGinley.

The DVD is available through Zeitgeist films; it's also, of course on Netflix.

blog_jennifer_venditti.jpgPortrait courtesy of Jennifer Venditti.

Categories:

Utilities:

Comments

Post a Comment

Enter for a chance to win these six luxurious new beauty products, featured in the January issue.

Check in daily for the latest fashion news, shopping tips and celebrity scoop from the editors at W.

Our editors pick the very best lip balms, winter hats, sweaters and more.

Join W on our Facebook fan page!

Our up-to-date archive of all W's exclusive fashion and celebrity videos.
W Specials

Revisit Posh & Becks, Brad & Angelina, Naomi on cleanup crew, Madonna's yoga poses, the Kate Moss tribute issue and more at W Classics.

Check out W magazine's covers from the past five years, starring everyone from Angelina Jolie to Renée Zellweger.

From a castle in the Dolomites to a modernist masterpiece in Malibu, revisit some of the most spectacular homes featured in W.
Inside Wmagazine.com

Blake Lively is emerging as the buzziest (and busiest) of the Gossip Girl gang.

See our sexy photos of the James Bond star from his 2007 shoot with Nicole Kidman.
The Countess's Corner

W's resident aristocrat, the acid-tongued Countess Louise J Estherhazy, spares nobody. Read her columns here.
WWD Feed

Had Ryeisha Berrain not left a voice mail for producer DJ Blaqstarr when she was 15, she might never have met M.I.A. nor landed a plum record deal.

How about disposable paper frocks during the credit crunch?

Back off, Batman. Belstaff, which dressed Christian Bale's caped crusader in "The Dark Knight," is working some wardrobe wizardry on actor Daniel Radcliffe for the next "Harry Potter" film.

W Newsletter

Sign up to receive the latest on fashion, art and style delivered to your email inbox.

W Newsletter

Sign up to receive the latest on fashion, art and style delivered to your email inbox.

Christy Turlington Burns

Champion

One good classic deserves another. Christy Turlington Burns works the warrior-goddess side of Greco-Roman influence. Photographed by Michael Thompson.

W Blogs

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie

Domestic Bliss

The Steven Klein shoot that started it all: Mr. and Mrs. Smith costars Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie play house in Palm Springs. (July 2005)