cole Archives - MediaMikes

Kimberly Cole’s first single “Smack You” made it to number 3 on the Billboard music charts and Kimberly’s current single “You Make Me Wanna” is on its way to doing just the same. Media Mikes had a chance to talk with Kimberly about her such and her recent audition tape which has since gone viral.

Adam Lawton: What has it been like for you after the success of your first single “Smack You”?
Kimberly Cole: It has been crazy! Things have been amazing. After the video release on Oxygen and then the song going to number 3 on the billboard charts it was game on. I think that song legitimized me as an artist. So many doors have been opened which has allowed to me to really grow. I will still watch that video from time to time.

AL: Did you think the song was going to do what it did when you were writing it?
KC: That song was written in an hour. It was inspired by real events and when we were done writing we knew we had something. I played it for my manager and some other people and they all thought it had something. My choreographer did some work with the song and people started asking how to get it. Then people started blogging about it. The song is two years old now and still to this day people are still finding out about it. It’s sort of this cult underground hit. It’s been exciting.

AL: What experience have you gained from opening for acts like Katy Perry and LMFAO?

KC: It is amazing to be at a place where I am with their crowd and the energy. It makes me feel like I am not only on the right track but we are colleagues. I am working my way to being a headliner but I still love opening for other bands. I love the surprise factor. In the studio I am a writer but on stage I am something completely different. I am someone who likes to think a little outside of the box when it comes to my shows so it’s great. It’s really fun to get the energy from someone else’s crowd and win them over.

AL: Can you tell us about some of the other things you were able to be involved in through the release of your “Bad Girls Club” album?
KC: The album did really well and because of the success of the single the Oxygen Network put a clip of the song on one of there shows. From that minute and a half song placement the network was very excited to do something else. We ended up premiering the video for “Smack You” on the network and it did well. Through the album I was able to create a unique relationship with the network which has resulted in talks of doing more work with Oxygen.

AL: What are you currently working on?
KC: I have a new clip out that is sort of a pre-video to my new song “You Make Me Wanna”. It is called “The Kimberly Cole Audition Tape”. The video has a character in it who is sort of a “Napoleon Dynamite” type guy. This character played by Nathan Barnatt crashes the supposed video shoot for “You Make Me Wanna”. The clip has created quite a buzz around the official video because in the audition tape people are rooting for this guy who crashed my shoot to be in the actual video. Because of this we are in talks for the new video and we have a really great treatment planned. Nathan blew us away so we are going to be changing the game a little bit with what the official video is going to be. I also will be doing a show called “A Day in the Life of Kimberly Cole”. The show will have me hanging out with friends and people who I work with. Some of the people I work with also work with major celebrities and are what I call the “Glam Squad” behind some very famous looks. We go behind the scenes to see how these iconic looks are put together. There’s really a lot that goes on to make these looks work. I also have some television things coming up as well. There is a lot of good stuff going on and we are in a really great place.

Read Complete Article

Julie Dawn Cole started her career with the role of Veruca Salt in “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”. Her career turned towards performing on TV and theater. She is presently working on getting a degree counseling and psychotherapy and hoping for a Willy Wonka reunion in the near future. Movie Mikes has the chance to talk with Julie to ask her a few questions about “Willy Wonka” and what’s the come in the future.

Click here to purchase “Willy Wonka” merchandise

Mike Gencarelli: How do you feel that “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory has impacted your life”?
Julie Dawn Cole: A lot actually and I am currently working on my memoirs at the moment. Which hopefully will be published in four or five months. It has given me a lot of time to look back on it. Obviously at the time as a 12 year old, I had no idea the impact it was going to have and continued to have. I was just a kid having fun doing a movie of a great story. Little did I think I would be talking about it 40 years later.

Mike Gencarelli: Who was your favorite cast member during the shoot?
Julie Dawn Cole: Obviously I because very close to Denise (Nickerson) who played Violet Beauregarde. We were two girls, we were both away from home and both almost 13 years old. We became very close like sisters. However we both did have a crush on Peter Ostrum (Charlie Bucket). There definitely was a little bit of rivalry going on. The entire cast we were all very close. I do have a special place in my heart for both Denise and Peter.

Mike Gencarelli: Do you keep in touch with any of them still?
Julie Dawn Cole: Yes, I do. In fact we lost touch for a long time but thankfully there was reunion in ’97 for a convention in NJ at Chiller Theater. That was the first time I saw Peter Ostrum and Paris Themmen since we finished shooting in 1970. So I met up with them. Since then I have met up with Denise, Diana Sowle (Mrs. Bucket), Rusty Goffe, he was an Oompa Loompa, Mel Stuart. Pretty much the rest of us has been meeting up occasionally since then.

MG: Sources say that you have two props from the movie? Can you tell us about that?
JC: Well I did have an Everlasting Gobstopper, I believe I was one of the only ones to end up with one of those. I do have a Golden Ticket. I do still have the wrapper of a Scrumdiddlyumptious bar and the Wonka Bar. A lot of the stuff we were a loud to keep at the time. Once they were used in the shooting they were redundant. At one point I had about ten Golden Tickets, but over the years I have lost track of them.

MG: What was your favorite memory from the filming of “Willy Wonka”?
JC: Lots of different memories, probably a favorite scene would just being in the chocolate room. The pure imagination set with all river and waterfall, it was just magical to experience. I suppose I found have to say that filming my song, which was largely filmed on my 13th birthday is my most memorable.

MG: Do you have a least favorite?
JC: Would have been in the pure imagination chocolate room because I had to eat all this chocolate stuff out of a styrofoam watermelon. I had to scoop all the chocolate stuff out and as a child I did not like chocolate. Which is ironic being being in the movie “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”. I especially didn’t like the chocolate goop that was in there it was rather disgusting, so that was probably my least favorite.

MG: Shortly after “Willy Wonka”, you only acted in two more movies? Any reason you stopped making movies?
JC: Largely in the UK, our film industry wasn’t as big as your in the US. The work that was available was in television, so that is the direction that my career took.

MG: You have been extremely active in television over the years, what has been your favorite project to work on?
JC: Wow, over the years I have several. Most recently I have done presenting (on “This Morning”, a British daytime television series), which enabled me to travel and I went to China, India, and all sort of other places. I worked on a drama for about two years about nurses, I was 17 or 18. Also lots of costume drama which I have enjoyed as well. I have been very lucky with my career.
MG: How do you feel about the remake directed by Tim Burton “Charlie and The Chocolate Factory”?
JC: I have mixed feeling about it. Obviously I am going to be loyal to my own. I enjoyed some parts of it, specifically the exterior shots of the factory. The rest of it, I do know that probably best for other people to decide. I couldn’t be objective.

MG: Tell me how you came up with “Veruca Salt’s Big South African Adventure?
JC: That came about because from an advertising campaign in the UK for Virgin Holidays. They used a singer Charlotte Church, who is well known over here and she recorded by song “I Want It Now”. The emphasis was “I Want the World, I Want the Whole World”. They thought it would be quite fun to take the real Veruca Salt to an exotic location and if it was good enough for Veruca Salt, then it would be good enough for the rest of us. I had a fantastic few days in South Africa courtesy of Virgin Holidays. I was just having fun and being a grown-up Veruca Salt. The premise was what would Veruca Salt be like if she was grown-up…probably still demanding.

MG: Would you ever be interested in a Willy Wonka cast convention reunion?
JC: Definitely, definitely. I am rather hoping that when my book comes out, me might all get to meet together again. It has been too long, it is time we do another one. It is the 40th anniversary next year so maybe its time they got us back together again. The main kind of instigator was Paris Themmen, he was quite active in getting us all together. He got involved with other things and we lost our connection. I had a fantastic number of years, we traveled New York and all over America. It would be fantastic to do more. Chiller Theater was an amazing experience. The first one was was huge back in ’97 and there were lines around the block. With my book and with the 40th anniversary maybe they will have a reason for hooking us back together again.

MG: What do you have in store for the future? Any adventures planned?
JC: It is a possibility I may be doing a show based on a show we did at Melborne Comedy Festival in 2004, I may taking that to Edinburgh for the Edinburgh festival. I have been working hard in a completely different area and I am about to qualify with a BA in counseling and psychotherapy. So my career could be doing off in a completely different direction.

Click here to purchase “Willy Wonka” merchandise

Read Complete Article

Tag: cole

Kimberly Cole talks about her music with Media Mikes

Interview with Julie Dawn Cole