Flaawsome Talk with Kjersti Flaa - Hollywood hair stylist tells all !!

00:00:00.000 From the moment I met Blake, it was like the little mini version of Anne Hathaway.

00:00:05.840 With Anne Hathaway, it felt calculated.

00:00:08.640 I'm going to talk about you behind your back, but not to your face.

00:00:12.460 From the very moment we met, she wanted me to know, I'm the star, you're the servant.

00:00:22.840 Hi and welcome to Blossom Talk.

00:00:24.380 I'm Sien-Stick Blanc, journalist, Hollywood truth teller, and your voice of reason in a town built on delusion.

00:00:31.240 Okay, I have the best guest with me today.

00:00:34.920 Emmanuel Miller has worked in Hollywood for decades.

00:00:40.520 He's created the most iconic looks in movies, and at the same time worked so closely with some of the biggest movie stars in the world.

00:00:49.820 According to IMDb, he has 88 credits of movies he's worked on.

00:00:56.880 The celebrities include everyone from Johnny Depp, Angelina Jolie, Tom Hanks, Brad Pitt, Bill Murray, Blake Lively, Amber Heard, and Anne Hathaway.

00:01:09.960 Now he's spilling all the tea.

00:01:13.320 He's released two books from his experiences over four decades working in Hollywood.

00:01:22.500 And Emmanuel is one of the most honest people I think I've ever interviewed.

00:01:28.200 He's not afraid to share what people are really like when they don't think anyone's watching.

00:01:35.600 And I'm sure after you heard some of his stories that he's about to tell you here,

00:01:39.520 you are going to want to get your hands on those books.

00:01:42.780 And Manuel Miller, thank you so much for being here on Floss on Talk.

00:01:48.100 I have been really, really looking forward to this.

00:01:51.520 Well, I think I told you out of all the people on Instagram, I would want to be interviewed by you.

00:01:57.040 That's really nice.

00:01:58.460 Thank you.

00:01:59.700 So I saw you, I think it's about a year ago now.

00:02:03.480 I saw you, I think it was an article in the Daily Mail where you talked about being a hairdresser to a lot of celebrities.

00:02:10.380 And some of them were not so nice to you.

00:02:12.780 I remember, I feel like we have the exact same experience with the same people, more or less.

00:02:20.300 So, you said something that I found very interesting.

00:02:24.720 You said, according to the article, that Anne Hathaway was worse than Blake Lively.

00:02:34.480 Yes, I did. I did say that.

00:02:37.020 Well, I thought about this a lot when you and I spoke briefly about it.

00:02:41.280 And I think what the example that I can use, when you've worked with people like Cate Blanchett, Judi Dench, Tom Hanks, Johnny Depp, and people who are genuinely, seem genuinely invested in their career and their art and the passion for it, that it's not hard to notice when somebody seems like they're fake about it.

00:03:04.160 And that's what I felt from Anne Hathaway. I felt that she's very good. She's mastered the art of faking people into believing she's a good actress or she loves her career because it feels like it's all, to me, it felt like it was all about fame and not the job, the passion.

00:03:24.040 And I had the pleasure of working with Cate Blanchett on eight films, Angelina Jolie on five films.

00:03:29.120 And when you watch women like that work or actors like that work, they have a passion for it, a love. 0.81

00:03:34.680 It's for the art of it.

00:03:35.980 And I never felt that once from Anne Hathaway.

00:03:39.100 That's so interesting that you say that.

00:03:41.080 And you also talked about, you know, how she just like kind of ignored you that you were there.

00:03:45.840 And I think it was, was it five months you worked on a film with her?

00:03:50.880 Uh-huh, five months.

00:03:51.840 so within those five months you came and you spent every single day with her basically then

00:03:58.440 what movie was this for it was a movie called get smart and i was working prior to that i was

00:04:04.700 working with tom hanks directly and emily blunt happened to be in the film that i that with tom

00:04:11.700 hanks and when i got the phone call if i was available to work with ann i went to emily who

00:04:18.120 did Devil Wears Prada with her. And I said, what do you think of that? And Emily said,

00:04:24.000 oh, Annie will love you. Well, she must have said something to Anne about me. And he's worked with

00:04:28.760 Cate Blanchett and Angelina Jolie. And now he's working with Tom Hanks. Most actors do when I

00:04:34.500 work with them. They want to know who I've worked with, what projects I've done. Anne never once

00:04:39.600 asked me about that. Never once did she. I never once remember her saying, thank you. Good morning.

00:04:46.880 Hello. It seems like from the very moment we met, she wanted me to know I'm the star.

00:04:54.480 You're the servant. You're here to serve me. And don't think anything different.

00:04:59.280 And that's how it was for five months.

00:05:01.500 Oh, my God. How horrible. What was she like to the other people?

00:05:05.220 Like the makeup artist? Did you see her interactions with other people?

00:05:08.260 I think with her makeup artist, Nikki Liederman, who's just lovely.

00:05:12.400 and I got along with very well, worked with her on The Devil Wears Prada.

00:05:18.280 So she was familiar with her.

00:05:19.900 I think with Anne, she had been given this background with me.

00:05:24.440 It felt as if it was a personal thing.

00:05:28.040 It felt as if you, I'm going to be nice to everybody.

00:05:31.220 I saw her be nice to Steve Carell, who was the star of the film,

00:05:34.840 and Dwayne Johnson, and just so many lovely, the cast was lovely.

00:05:40.980 But to me, it's like she wanted me to know that you are here to do a job,

00:05:47.740 to do my hair and not only speak when you're spoken to.

00:05:52.360 Wow.

00:05:53.380 Was that like the first time you experienced something to that degree

00:05:57.660 of feeling like the stars treated you like basically the help?

00:06:03.440 Did that happen to you before that?

00:06:06.340 No, that actually had never happened.

00:06:08.780 And one of my first paid jobs was working with Tina Turner on her Love, What's Love Got to Do With It video.

00:06:15.840 And I remember thinking, she's the star of this.

00:06:18.740 And she was so lovely.

00:06:19.820 And it had continued that with things like Betty Buckley or, again, having worked with Cate Blanchett and Angelina Jolie.

00:06:28.960 But Anne, I never got that.

00:06:30.540 And I thought, what is this a personal thing?

00:06:32.660 Is it personal that I never said anything to her that I thought might have been rude?

00:06:38.460 I would say good morning to her.

00:06:41.120 It was just, I was married for 32 and a half years, and I'm very happily divorced now.

00:06:46.800 And it's that same kind of thing of, I just, I couldn't wait to get away from that situation.

00:06:52.480 When the movie was over, I was relieved.

00:06:57.000 And you told me that she actually sent you a gift when it was over?

00:07:00.800 we were the last filming we filmed in los angeles uh washington dc montreal and russia in moscow

00:07:09.020 and i i wanted this to be over as they were yelling that's a wrap on red square i was

00:07:15.560 walking away it felt like a movie scene as i was walking towards the the famous cathedral and i

00:07:20.680 could feel see the movie lights behind me that were on illuminating my shadow and i thought i've

00:07:26.980 got to go get my stuff out of the trailer and leave, go back to my hotel because I was flying

00:07:31.360 to LA the next day. And I was told by the makeup artist that she brought in a little gift and said,

00:07:38.460 he's gone. And she said, it was kind of sad, Emmanuel. She looked sad. Well, that gift was

00:07:44.680 delivered to my hotel room. There was a knock on the door and I looked in the bag and there were

00:07:49.440 three boxes and I couldn't bring myself to look what was inside the boxes. So I carried that bag

00:07:55.060 with me on the flight back to LA, put it by my desk and I composed a letter. It took me three

00:08:01.940 days. And I said, no, I've got to do this. And I said, thank you for the gift. That was thoughtful

00:08:06.420 of you. I wish I could say I enjoyed working with you, but I did not. So I'm returning the gifts.

00:08:13.920 And that's, it kind of went on from there, but I never heard back from her. She could have reached

00:08:19.420 out to me and said, what happened? Why do you feel that way? But no, I never heard back from her,

00:08:23.440 But I couldn't keep those. I've received so many incredible gifts from, again, Jane Fonda or Tom Hanks or the people I've worked with. I couldn't in good conscience keep whatever was in those three boxes and feel good about wearing it or owning it.

00:08:38.900 Wow, that is a very big statement from you to do something like that when you're in the middle of your career and you're actually telling someone like Anne Hathaway that you weren't nice and I'm signaling that to you. What prompted you to do that?

00:08:58.520 I have a sense of myself of who I am. Years ago, I was working with Bill Murray on the movie What

00:09:03.960 About Bob? And we found, at the time being married and having three small children,

00:09:09.700 I found a house in Atlanta and I moved out of LA. And Bill came up to me and he said,

00:09:14.900 I hear you're moving to Atlanta. And I said, yes. And he looked at me and he said,

00:09:18.400 what are you going to do for a living? And I thought, well, I'm doing your hair. So I thought,

00:09:23.900 I told him, I said, I guess I'll work at Walmart if I need to, Bill, but I just want to raise my

00:09:28.160 family outside of LA. And Bill, about a year and a half later, I got a phone call from Bill's people

00:09:36.100 asking if I was available to do Groundhog Day. And my point of this story is I've had so many

00:09:42.080 people that have confirmed to be true to myself, to stay true to myself, to move my family to

00:09:48.400 Atlanta, to raise my children, that when I was around somebody that it'd be like if I hired a

00:09:55.620 cleaning lady to come into my house, but never said good morning to her or hello or thank you 0.90

00:10:00.960 or how are you today or get to know her name. And that's what I felt like, actually. I felt

00:10:06.660 like somebody who thought, I've got to find a sense of myself after this movie. I know she's

00:10:12.080 Anne Hathaway and now she's supposedly a big star. But I think I would have lost myself had I not

00:10:19.720 said anything, had I not returned those gifts, had I kept them. I'm just not that person.

00:10:25.620 Very interesting. You also told me that you actually reached out to her. Was that after

00:10:32.700 she had apologized to me or did you reach out to her and say, hey, it's okay, you can apologize

00:10:39.500 to me? Did you do that closely after it happened or when did you do that? Did you do it several

00:10:43.900 times? A couple of times I've made comments on Instagram. And again, I've had people more

00:10:50.640 comments confirming that, yes, I always felt that way about her or I never really liked her. I never

00:10:56.860 got a good feeling. And every now and then there's a person that says, well, why should she talk to

00:11:00.720 you? And she shouldn't have to talk to you. And it sounds like you're a spoiled brat. And so I've

00:11:06.500 made comments. I've told people what it was like working with her. And the comment I made

00:11:11.700 afterwards was, Anne, if you would like to apologize, I'm ready to accept your apology

00:11:16.360 at any time if you want to meet or sit down and talk,

00:11:21.220 like a human being, like a person.

00:11:23.740 And I would like to know why she felt the need

00:11:27.160 for five months to treat me to be so dismissive.

00:11:31.540 That's the question I would like to ask her.

00:11:34.080 And she never reached out to you?

00:11:36.840 No, no, no, no.

00:11:39.940 I think what's surprising to me is

00:11:42.640 she has five movies, I think, coming out.

00:11:45.160 I don't get it. Again, I did the movie, I worked on the film Inglourious Bastards. I was a head

00:11:54.020 hairdresser. And when you work with someone like Christoph Waltz, after three days of filming,

00:11:58.460 I said to him, if you don't win the Academy Award for this performance or at least get nominated,

00:12:03.380 I will be shocked. And he looked at me almost dumbfounded. But I've said that to Angelina Jolie,

00:12:09.220 you are going to be a huge star. I never got that impression from Anne. That's why it's a little

00:12:13.180 shocking people still put her in movies do they not feel the insincerity i i don't i mean that's

00:12:21.100 that's how i feel i i think wow she keeps working she must have great a great team behind her but

00:12:26.600 i i just wonder when people are going to say get it it's interesting though because i mean she was

00:12:33.020 kind of canceled about 10 15 years ago when there was this whole like movement the hatha haters

00:12:40.420 online people were like hey we don't like Anne Hathaway anymore and I think that was about the

00:12:46.100 time where I did my interview where she was so dismissive of me and it's it's interesting because

00:12:52.740 when I published that interview uh of course and Anne Hathaway reached out to me and said she was

00:12:58.020 sorry which I believe was kind of like okay I saw what happened to Blake Lively in that interview

00:13:04.320 And the backlash from that

00:13:06.620 So I don't want to end up like her

00:13:08.900 So she reached out to me

00:13:09.960 Now I feel like that's why she did it

00:13:12.180 Because she did also say in that note

00:13:14.840 That she wanted me to come and interview her

00:13:18.300 For one of her movies this year

00:13:19.700 And she never reached out

00:13:21.000 But it's interesting when you say

00:13:23.800 That people were criticizing you

00:13:26.320 Saying why should she say hello to you

00:13:28.900 Same thing that people said to me 1.00

00:13:30.540 She doesn't have to be nice to you

00:13:33.160 you didn't ask the right questions, you know, blaming it on the other person. And I think that

00:13:39.140 is, I think that's pretty shocking. Did you experience a lot of that when, and in your book

00:13:45.220 as well, when you're talking about these experiences, have people like, you know,

00:13:49.200 criticized you for being honest about these things? I didn't have people criticize me. I mean,

00:13:53.460 I think people stayed away from me, even though I kept, by the grace of God, I kept getting work

00:13:57.860 and there were makeup and hair people that I'd worked with that probably didn't call me because

00:14:02.400 they didn't want me to stir up trouble. But again, I mean, I'm happily retired. I've written

00:14:10.020 a book. It took three years. I wrote a book because actors told me, you must have amazing

00:14:16.780 stories. You cannot work with the people that you've worked with and not have stories. So I

00:14:21.460 wrote my book, The Kindest Cut, Intuitive Life Lessons Learned by Hollywood Hairstyles. But

00:14:26.700 But as far as that goes, I think people were afraid.

00:14:32.060 A lot of people have told me, aren't you afraid you're never going to work again?

00:14:34.960 And I thought, I'm retired.

00:14:37.720 I don't care.

00:14:39.520 And I'm not afraid.

00:14:40.320 I mean, I've done some incredible films.

00:14:42.300 I'm so proud of the work that I've—that's what it is.

00:14:45.700 It's not the people I've worked with as much, even though it's been an amazing resume of people.

00:14:51.940 It's the work that I've put on film.

00:14:53.860 Quentin Tarantino once told me, he said, hey, I looked at your resume and he said, you really have created some iconic looks on film.

00:15:02.480 When people like Bill Murray tell you, I've never looked more handsome in a film like you made me look in Groundhog Day or people have commented on Angelina Jolie's Look in Girl Interrupted.

00:15:12.940 That's my work.

00:15:14.500 And I take pride in my work.

00:15:15.940 So, no, I wasn't afraid I wasn't going to work because I wasn't looking for fame to begin with.

00:15:22.140 Interesting.

00:15:22.580 I mean, like we talked about, too, all these iconic looks that you've created, that's kind of like your legacy is out there, no matter what these relationships with these actresses were like.

00:15:34.460 But yesterday when we spoke to this, this was the most shocking story that you told me, I think.

00:15:39.920 The one with Russell Crowe. Can you tell that story?

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00:17:30.440 Russell Crowe, he did the same thing.

00:17:32.640 He was actually one of the first males

00:17:34.560 who did the Anne Hathaway thing.

00:17:36.260 And Ron Howard, I had just worked with Ron Howard on a movie called The Missing with Cate Blanchett.

00:17:42.760 So Ron asked me if I would do Cinderella Man with him, and I would be working with Russell Crowe.

00:17:47.480 From the moment Russell met me, he almost mocked me during a meeting of when I said his hair color could be dark brown.

00:17:55.520 And to make a long story short, it just built and built where Russell, never a good morning, never a how are you, nothing.

00:18:03.200 and one day

00:18:05.160 he was doing a fight scene

00:18:08.040 it was around 1.30 in the morning

00:18:09.620 we were supposed to wrap at 10.30 that night

00:18:12.020 it was between him and Paul Giamatti

00:18:14.180 and the first AD said

00:18:16.980 if you guys could get in there

00:18:18.220 his team, I was doing his hair

00:18:19.900 David was doing his makeup

00:18:25.780 so we were going to take turns

00:18:27.800 so I stepped in first

00:18:28.860 and Russell said

00:18:29.600 not now Emmanuel

00:18:30.720 and he swung his hand up

00:18:32.200 And if I had not put my arm up, his watch hit me on this bone right here.

00:18:37.380 And I flinched while I saw that Ron Howard saw it on the monitor.

00:18:41.720 And I got so upset, I left set, which I've never really done.

00:18:46.980 I just stormed off.

00:18:47.800 And then Ron called me.

00:18:49.220 And he said, are you okay? 1.00

00:18:50.300 And I said, Ron, if that motherfucker ever touches me again, I said, I'll take it. 0.99

00:18:56.500 And anyway, I was just very upset that night. 0.99

00:18:59.000 And three days later, we were on the dance floor shooting this big scene with about 50 extras and the whole crew.

00:19:06.000 And Russell was wearing a suit.

00:19:07.420 And I went to fix his hair right before a take.

00:19:10.120 And his son, he gave his son Charlie a kiss and handed it back to the nanny.

00:19:14.460 And as Charlie grabbed his hair, he had two little antennas sticking up.

00:19:18.480 So I turned around and I saw it.

00:19:20.160 And I raced back and I pushed it down.

00:19:22.080 And as I walked away, I heard, cut!

00:19:25.640 And it was Russell yelling, cut!

00:19:27.220 and he was coming after me with his fist in the air. And I turned around and he was two feet in

00:19:33.280 front of me. And I said, do not hit me. And he said, hit you like he was in a daze. And I said,

00:19:39.020 you hit me last Friday in the locker room. I said, you touch me again and I will punch you in the 1.00

00:19:43.420 face and I'm out of here. Do you understand? And he lowered his fist and he said, why would you do 1.00

00:19:48.060 that? Why would you do that right before I take? I said, your son messed up your hair. I said,

00:19:52.300 I was doing my job. And he said, you and I aren't done. He said, how's my hair now? And I said,

00:19:56.560 fine. He said, you and I aren't finished yet. So he did the scene. And then he calls me and he

00:20:01.600 says, Emmanuel. And he takes me to the back of the restaurant. And behind the studio is just

00:20:07.160 the screen. It was just him and I. And he said, do you know what it takes? Do you know what it

00:20:11.460 takes for me? And I thought, are you kidding? You're crying. You're playing the victim here

00:20:18.140 when you hit me. I could have sued you. I could have sued you. Who hits somebody at work? But

00:20:26.560 There were actors who just had this lovely feeling towards me like Judy Dance or Jane Fonda.

00:20:32.160 And there were actors that just had this aversion to me of, I don't care who, I don't know who you think you are, but I'm the star.

00:20:38.860 I'm the power here, not you.

00:20:40.680 And I never tried to take it.

00:20:43.120 I never said I was the star.

00:20:44.900 I never tried to be the star or the standout hairdresser or the grandstander.

00:20:51.560 So interesting you said that about Russell Crowe.

00:20:53.700 I told my partner, Magnus, who's also a journalist, who also interviewed Russell Crowe, he's like, Russell Crowe is the only person I've been physically scared of.

00:21:04.280 He's the only person that I, you know, could feel that could do something, you know, like be that, yeah, physical.

00:21:12.620 I've met him a couple of times.

00:21:14.080 I had good experiences with him, but I will tell you, I was terrified when I sat down to interview him because he has a reputation like that.

00:21:23.700 So you're kind of not expecting it, but it's, you know, it's Russell Crowe.

00:21:29.160 But you said something to me yesterday when we were talking on the phone.

00:21:32.000 You said you'd rather work with Russell again than Anne Hathaway.

00:21:38.140 That's pretty smart.

00:21:40.220 You have a good memory.

00:21:42.620 Yes, because Russell, I knew what I was getting.

00:21:45.580 I knew it felt to me like he was insecure about playing this character, James Braddock, a real-life character.

00:21:55.580 He was carrying the movie.

00:21:58.360 I could see who Russell was.

00:22:02.720 And one day he said to me, he said, you know why I don't talk to you?

00:22:06.140 And I said, no, Russell, tell me.

00:22:07.860 Why don't you?

00:22:08.320 He said, because you're always there.

00:22:09.720 You do a good job.

00:22:10.480 And you're one less thing I have to think about.

00:22:12.620 So I thought, so that's the reason there's no good morning. 1.00

00:22:14.880 hello, thank you, goodbye, fuck off, anything. And with Anne Hathaway, it felt calculated. It 0.99

00:22:22.280 felt, I'm going to do this, but it's going to be subtle. I'm going to talk about you behind your

00:22:29.140 back, but not to your face. I'm going to, Russell told me, he told me how he felt about me. He tried

00:22:35.840 to hit me. And it was just, it felt like it was, I'd hear things. The first AD one day pulled me

00:22:43.220 aside. He said, be very careful, Emmanuel. He said, Anne was telling people how unprofessional

00:22:47.980 you were. And that was Steve Carell and Dwayne Johnson. And these people really liked me.

00:22:54.100 But yet Anne was saying, I can't believe how unprofessional he is. And I just thought,

00:22:57.460 why don't you have the courage to tell me to my face?

00:23:00.060 Why would she say you were unprofessional? What did you do that was, according to her,

00:23:04.800 unprofessional?

00:23:06.360 As I mentioned earlier, prior to that movie, I had been working with Tom Hanks and we were

00:23:11.400 shooting a movie called Charlie Wilson's War and we shot some of it in Morocco and they had to

00:23:17.740 recreate some of the scenes with Julia Roberts and Tom and they were recreated in Los Angeles

00:23:24.120 in Santa Clarita Valley to make it look like I guess the Atlas Mountains so Tom asked me if I

00:23:31.080 would be available so I mentioned at the beginning of Get Smart if I could be in May there's going

00:23:37.780 to be a week of reshoots. Could you please figure out the scheduling with Anne Hathaway that she

00:23:43.200 wouldn't be working at that time so I can work with Tom Hanks and recreate the look I created

00:23:48.020 for him? Because it was very specific, creating a look for Charlie Wilson. Well, it was discussed

00:23:54.420 as we got closer to May. I was told that Anne's going to be working that week. And I said,

00:23:59.460 I asked for that week off. It's for Tom. And Anne wouldn't do it. She sent her people in to

00:24:07.400 scold me. I was scolded. Anne thinks you're very unprofessional. And this is really bothering her.

00:24:13.900 So I called Tom and I said, Tom, I'm going to have another hairdresser flown in, Sasha Quarles

00:24:19.300 from New York. He knows my work. He can recreate the look. And I said, but Anne Hathaway won't

00:24:25.160 give me the time off. And Tom, I remember Tom saying, okay, I'll remember that. He said that.

00:24:32.500 So the morning, the first morning of the reshoots for Charlie Wilson's War, I raced all the way out to Santa Clarita, got there at 6 a.m.

00:24:41.440 Tom got there early.

00:24:42.680 I recreated the look, showed Sasha how to do this look I had created.

00:24:48.320 And then as I was leaving, I saw Julia and she gave me a big hug.

00:24:51.960 And so I started on my morning right, but I sat in traffic and trying, if you know Los Angeles, trying to get from Santa Clarita to Long Beach or San Pedro at nine or eight o'clock in the morning is a two hour, three hour drive.

00:25:07.080 So while I was late, everyone was aware of what I was doing, that I was working with Tom Hanks, that it was Mike Nichols directing.

00:25:14.280 But that's when they warned me.

00:25:15.960 They said, be very careful.

00:25:17.000 She's saying, I can't believe how unprofessionally he is that he would be late to work when it's not because I was drinking or overslept or drunk or it was because I was doing something for another actor.

00:25:30.440 And anyway, so that's so it's things like that that I just thought any chance I felt that she had any chance she got to stab me in the back or talk badly about me, she did.

00:25:42.900 maybe that's what this karma is

00:25:44.900 I mean I'm not

00:25:47.060 angry at her but

00:25:48.100 I'll sing like a canary of my

00:25:50.820 experience with her

00:25:51.940 I love that

00:25:54.540 and of course we have to talk a little bit

00:25:57.120 about Blake Lively as well because my audience

00:25:59.160 here on my channel have been following

00:26:00.740 the legal drama and of course

00:26:02.820 watched my interview with her which I think

00:26:04.900 you also mentioned that you watched

00:26:06.500 and you work

00:26:08.960 with Blake as well

00:26:09.880 what was your experience like with her?

00:26:12.900 I, to sum it up, I was a makeup artist that, that her makeup artists got me the job because I had

00:26:23.220 got, I had got her so many jobs. So she said, would you come and do Blake Lively's hair? From

00:26:28.860 the moment I met Blake, it was like the little mini version of Anne Hathaway. The, oh, I've had

00:26:36.220 five months. This is just a month of doing your hair. But every conversation, everything was about

00:26:41.560 her and centered around her and in the trailer. And she thought she, I don't remember her ever

00:26:47.500 saying hello to me. Good morning to me. Thank you. Anything as I did her hair. And again,

00:26:52.680 not that they have to, honestly, I don't want people to get the wrong impression that I,

00:26:56.320 if I'm not thanked or, but it's just, I'm walking my dog down the street. I say good morning to

00:27:02.160 strangers and you say good morning. So, but to sum it up, it was Easter time. Blake, I was invited

00:27:10.880 to her house, which was on Wilmington Beach. They rented a house for her. And her makeup artist said,

00:27:17.060 if you don't go, because I know you don't like her, but if you don't go, she's going to wonder

00:27:21.440 why. So I went to this Easter brunch that was supposed to start at one o'clock. Eddie Redmayne

00:27:27.660 was there. He was also in the movie. Chloe Moretz Grace. Anyway, she was there, their family. She

00:27:36.660 had about 20 people at her house. Not once did I see Blake greet her guests. She was making

00:27:43.500 desserts and the dining room table was covered in desserts. I was told she was up all night

00:27:48.600 making desserts. The food wasn't served. Finally at four o'clock, I left. I said, I can't take

00:27:54.120 this. After I picked up the honey baked ham that was on the kitchen counter, I got some food,

00:27:59.700 but I left. And I heard that the food wasn't even served almost till eight o'clock that night,

00:28:04.320 if food at all. So that just sums up, that's my experience with Blake. She invited people over for

00:28:10.760 Easter dinner, but she didn't greet her guests. She didn't feed them. It was all about her. And 0.98

00:28:16.320 that's how I summed it up, that this is all about her. This is about her clothing, her makeup,

00:28:22.860 her hair, her life, her story, and nobody else. That's my summation.

00:28:28.940 I feel like that sounds like the Blake Lively we all got to know now even I mean this lawsuit of course has been telling us even more about who she really is but talking about lawsuits because you have also worked with both Johnny Depp and Amber Heard and I think I agree with everything you said about them too.

00:28:54.600 So first, let's talk about Johnny Depp, because I adore him.

00:28:59.300 I interviewed him a few times, and I just felt like this guy is for real.

00:29:04.300 He's so authentic.

00:29:05.920 He is just present.

00:29:07.440 He's so warm and so gracious and humble.

00:29:12.420 And yeah, is that your experience, too, working with Johnny?

00:29:16.660 Lovely, lovely, lovely is what comes to mind.

00:29:19.920 And the morning that I met him, I went to do this movie called Public Enemies.

00:29:23.920 We were shooting in Chicago.

00:29:25.400 And I was called one morning.

00:29:26.680 It wasn't decided I was going to be the head hairdresser, but it wasn't decided who was

00:29:31.460 doing Johnny's hair.

00:29:32.620 So I got a phone call and said, would you be willing to meet Johnny at his hotel, at

00:29:36.800 the Peninsula Hotel at 10 o'clock in the morning and see if there was, have a little

00:29:42.000 meet and greet, see if we connected.

00:29:44.380 And I walked in there and it was just Johnny.

00:29:47.340 His bodyguard met me in the lobby, took me up to the 12th floor, and I was waiting in the living room.

00:29:53.720 And Johnny comes in and he said, Emmanuel, he said, I've heard a lot about you.

00:29:57.660 And I said, I've heard a lot about you.

00:29:59.360 But we both kind of laughed because it wasn't Johnny Depp, the movie star.

00:30:03.420 His makeup artist, Patty, had told him about me, what a great guy I was.

00:30:07.160 And she was telling me what a great guy he is.

00:30:09.840 Well, in our conversation of waiting for Michael Mann, the director, to show up to give Johnny a haircut,

00:30:15.540 But I guess it was decided that Johnny said, this guy is going to be the one who's going

00:30:20.320 to do my hair.

00:30:21.420 I told him, he said, what are you doing this weekend?

00:30:23.620 And I said, well, my son, my youngest son is in town.

00:30:26.080 He's going to Iraq.

00:30:27.440 He's a soldier.

00:30:28.460 He's a soldier in the army, and he's going to Iraq.

00:30:32.220 And Johnny said, I'd love to meet him and thank him for a service.

00:30:36.280 So he said, please, could you call him?

00:30:38.320 So I called my son.

00:30:39.520 He said he was 10 minutes away.

00:30:41.700 Stephen showed up, and as he walked into the hotel room in the lobby, I looked at my son,

00:30:48.380 who was going off to war, and I said, Johnny, this is my heart. If anything would happen to

00:30:53.480 this boy, a piece of me would die. And I broke, because I was being sincere. When I looked over

00:30:59.460 at Johnny, he had a tear in his eye. He later told me, he said, that really touched me,

00:31:05.560 how you spoke about your son. I feel that way about my kids. And that was our bond.

00:31:09.820 before I did his hair on set, always lovely to me, always good morning, always thank you.

00:31:16.320 I mean, he didn't talk much when he was really in character, but when you work with something

00:31:20.540 like that, that's why it's so, it stands out so blatant about people like Blake or Amber Heard

00:31:27.120 or Anne Hathaway when they treat you the opposite way. No, Johnny is just lovely, lovely.

00:31:32.460 I've never heard anyone say anything bad about him that actually have met him or worked with him.

00:31:38.480 And maybe some people said that he's sometimes late or whatever he can.

00:31:43.440 But apart from that, everyone's just like, this guy is just a really nice, nice human being.

00:31:49.620 When you work with an actor 12 hours a day, even sometimes longer, because Michael Mann shoots long hours, and then you see them go back to their trailer, shower and change, and then greet the people.

00:32:01.380 I had never seen as many people waiting outside.

00:32:04.960 They would start at six in the morning or five in the morning.

00:32:07.420 there'd be maybe a handful of people. By the end of the day, there'd be maybe a thousand people,

00:32:12.820 700, a thousand people or more waiting for Johnny. Johnny would walk. I would told his makeup artist

00:32:19.460 because I would go home. She said, I said, how long were you here last night? She said, three

00:32:23.580 hours. Johnny walks the crowd, shakes hands, signs autograph, takes pictures. Every night he would do

00:32:30.700 that wow that says i've never i never it does because i'd never experienced that with an actor

00:32:37.360 who was that loyal to their fans and that uh genuine with their fans i've heard the same

00:32:45.080 stories actually that he would even walk out it was raining and he would just like

00:32:49.440 spend time with everyone um but anyway so uh talking about johnny we have to talk about amber

00:32:55.960 because you also worked with Amber Heard.

00:33:00.980 You can imagine.

00:33:03.140 No, go ahead.

00:33:04.320 Yeah, no, just go ahead.

00:33:05.820 What was your experience like with Amber Heard?

00:33:09.100 Well, to me, when I was watching the trial

00:33:11.500 and I watched almost every bit of it,

00:33:14.560 imagine it's like watching your friend on trial

00:33:16.980 to say, that's not true, that's not true,

00:33:18.940 I would tell to talk to the TV screen.

00:33:22.420 And then watching her sit there,

00:33:23.900 I, from the moment she walked, I did a project called The Playboy Club.

00:33:29.280 It was a pilot for NBC. 1.00

00:33:31.640 And she was supposed to be one of the main bunnies.

00:33:34.740 It was 1963.

00:33:36.420 From the moment she walked into the trailer, everybody else was Laura Benati, Jenna Dewan, 0.98

00:33:43.400 just would let me create these lovely, elaborate 1963 hairstyles, teased up hair. 0.99

00:33:50.240 Amber, before she even said hello, she said, I don't want my hair teased.

00:33:53.900 I just did a photo shoot in Paris, and they broke my hair.

00:33:57.540 I don't want any hair extensions.

00:33:59.340 I don't want any hairspray.

00:34:01.340 And those are the kind of things you want to say to somebody,

00:34:03.320 well, hello to you as well.

00:34:05.860 And she was that way, the continuous way, continually for over a month,

00:34:11.380 to the point where, again, she got the Anne Hathaway treatment.

00:34:15.020 Not that I returned her gift, but on the last day of shooting,

00:34:17.800 just to make my point, I refused to touch up her hair.

00:34:20.820 And as I walked by her after touching up the two actresses beside her, she said, aren't you going to do my hair?

00:34:26.200 And I said, no.

00:34:27.800 And I said, because I just thought, yeah, I said, no.

00:34:33.520 But again, watching the trial, I just wanted to say she's lying. 1.00

00:34:37.680 This woman is, she's conniving. 1.00

00:34:40.400 And also when I met her, she had a girlfriend. 1.00

00:34:43.000 She brought her girlfriend to, I have no problem with that. 0.96

00:34:47.180 My oldest son is gay. 0.99

00:34:48.840 My daughter's a lesbian or she's gay. 0.97

00:34:50.820 And I have a straight son. 0.96

00:34:52.040 So it's not the gay thing.

00:34:53.440 But I just thought, you married Johnny Depp?

00:34:56.520 How come when I met you, you had a girlfriend?

00:34:58.660 That was my experience with Amber. 1.00

00:35:00.100 She just was so unpleasant.

00:35:01.680 So when did you work with her?

00:35:04.480 What time, what year was that compared to when the trial was?

00:35:07.740 Was that around the same?

00:35:09.360 No, this was probably a couple years before.

00:35:12.940 I mean, again, she was dating a girl that I met.

00:35:16.880 um so it must have been two three years after she must have met johnny and i mean i was shocked

00:35:25.120 when i heard that they were together but this whole trial i i kept watching it just thinking 0.71

00:35:31.060 can please people please see that this woman is lying and she's not a nice person 0.97

00:35:36.860 again these are thing my experience they weren't nice to me yeah um but actually i don't think i

00:35:44.900 saw anybody uh interact with amber on set i don't think she interacted with anybody nicely

00:35:50.820 it's so interesting how we have the exact same experience with people like when you're saying

00:35:57.140 this person is nice i have the good experience with them so it's like you know i think when

00:36:04.280 we say that a lot of other people have similar experiences with these people you know the amber

00:36:13.040 Hurds and Blake Wivelys and Anne Hathaways out there. Although Blake Wively and Amber Hurd are

00:36:20.380 basically canceled, Anne Hathaway is more successful than ever. Yeah. She is, but honestly,

00:36:29.660 it has to be her people. It has to be her people or forcing somebody to hire her or they know where

00:36:37.000 the bodies are buried because, again, I did not feel, I made a list because we talked yesterday

00:36:43.000 about are there people that I liked working with that I had a great experience in. The top of the

00:36:48.540 list was Cate Blanchett, Angelina Jolie, Kristen Wig, Kirsten Dunst, Julia Roberts, Cameron Diaz,

00:36:57.500 Emily Blunt, Jane Fonda, Judi Dench, Melanie Laurent from Inglourious Bastards. I mean,

00:37:03.420 And I've had great experiences with so many people.

00:37:06.400 And those are just the women that I've worked with.

00:37:10.440 I've had great experiences with men.

00:37:12.320 I don't know what it was with those three women, but they, I think, I don't know if

00:37:16.200 it was insecurity or to this day, I'd be happy to meet any one of them and ask them

00:37:22.500 the question, what was going on?

00:37:24.700 I should invite all of them here on my channel and then we can both be here and they can

00:37:29.020 explain to us why it's so hard to just be nice.

00:37:32.240 And why is it so hard to be polite to people?

00:37:35.440 It's the easiest thing in the world.

00:37:37.480 It's much, you know, it takes so much more energy to actually not be nice to people.

00:37:43.340 Don't you think?

00:37:45.020 It absolutely does.

00:37:46.540 And the story I told you yesterday, I'll try to be brief with it, where somebody brought

00:37:51.960 in a magazine that I was mentioned in by Kirsten Dunst and Bryce Howard, because I did Spider-Man

00:37:56.800 3 with them.

00:37:58.180 And Anne was reading the magazine as I did her hair because she, of course, she didn't talk to me while I did her hair.

00:38:03.800 She pretended, I guess, she was in a beauty salon.

00:38:06.720 But she got to the point where my name was written on the page.

00:38:10.380 And she said, oh, look.

00:38:11.760 She said, you're in this magazine.

00:38:13.280 Did you know that?

00:38:14.000 And I said, yes, somebody brought that in.

00:38:15.500 She said, do you know them?

00:38:16.820 And I said, well, I did a movie with them, Spider-Man 3.

00:38:22.180 That's what they're commenting on.

00:38:23.880 And she said, give him my number and have him call me.

00:38:26.960 And I was so confused by that.

00:38:29.160 She said, well, then give them my number and have them call me.

00:38:31.440 I don't know if she was testing me.

00:38:33.140 She said, are they nice?

00:38:34.200 I said, they're great.

00:38:35.540 I said, I'm doing Bryce's next movie in Louisiana right after this.

00:38:40.000 And I was just in Kirsten's kitchen a couple of weeks ago.

00:38:43.980 And it was.

00:38:44.540 Kirsten and I were just talking in her kitchen.

00:38:47.220 As soon as she heard me say that, she said, you know, Kiki is, and I didn't hear the rest of it.

00:38:52.820 But she tried to, I guess, top me by saying, you call her Kirsten, us insiders call her Kiki.

00:39:00.580 And that's the kind of thing that just continued.

00:39:02.680 I just thought, Anne, what's the problem here?

00:39:06.040 What is the issue that you want to make sure that I've heard you're around all these movie stars and have worked with some of the biggest people in the business, but you're not going to get that kind of nice treatment from me.

00:39:17.360 That's what it felt like.

00:39:18.440 You're not going to get it from me.

00:39:20.460 So interesting.

00:39:21.420 like i said yesterday i feel like she's an elitist and that she's above everyone i was watching a

00:39:29.260 video when she was waving to fans and the way she was just waving to them and telling them off at

00:39:34.180 the same time like hello you can stand there you can stand there you can stand there and i'm gonna

00:39:38.020 just do this and then you can take your photos and then i'm going to leave i'm like oh exactly

00:39:44.400 i cannot take photos with everyone but i will stand here and wave if you'd like to take a photo

00:39:50.960 i cannot sign you are beautiful but i want you to have something so if you'd like i'll just

00:39:57.840 wave a little bit i cannot withstand you so then i have to with everyone and not only that during

00:40:06.360 well during the middle of shooting the movie titanic which i just love and i worked with

00:40:10.940 James Cameron on the abyss. And so I, I, I go see his movies, but, um, I was told her makeup artist,

00:40:18.240 Nikki, I was going to have a t-shirt made as a joke and said, but what is a movie star doing

00:40:23.460 situation? It reminded me of the scene where the ship was sinking and they put the, the people in

00:40:29.460 the lifeboats and the wealthy woman said, this is just first class. And that's what made me think

00:40:35.160 of Anne of the t-shirt, the t-shirt would have said, but what does a movie star do in this

00:40:39.940 situation, not a regular person, a movie star. And that's the impression. The only impression

00:40:48.400 I left with is, I don't know where you think you're better than people. My daughter was her

00:40:54.800 stand-in while we shot in LA for six weeks. And I would see her, she would come on set and she'd say,

00:41:00.640 hi, Kate. My daughter's name is Catherine, but she would call her Kate. And not once did Anne say,

00:41:08.060 So do you have any other children or your daughter's my stand-in?

00:41:11.360 No, there was never just a natural conversation between us that normal people,

00:41:17.160 I mean, when you work with somebody for five months, you say,

00:41:19.480 so where do you vacation or where did you grow up?

00:41:22.320 What did you do this weekend?

00:41:24.120 Yeah.

00:41:24.800 Yes, exactly.

00:41:26.140 Exactly.

00:41:26.860 How was your weekend?

00:41:28.140 No, no, you're not going to get one, not one iota of kindness towards me.

00:41:36.480 Oh, my God.

00:41:37.460 Thank you so much, Emmanuel, for telling us all these stories.

00:41:40.600 They are amazing.

00:41:42.180 I'm sure you have so many more.

00:41:43.880 And people can get your book on Amazon.

00:41:47.920 And what other projects are you working on now?

00:41:50.520 There it is.

00:41:51.780 The kindest cut.

00:41:52.800 Let's see how thick it is.

00:41:54.120 It looks like a...

00:41:55.560 Oh, my gosh.

00:41:56.700 There's a lot of stories in there.

00:41:58.920 But that's volume two.

00:42:01.160 This is volume one.

00:42:03.620 Oh, my.

00:42:04.160 How many pages?

00:42:06.140 Wow.

00:42:06.580 My editor said I could have done four books.

00:42:10.260 He said, you've really got to cut it down because, so he said, let's just do it.

00:42:15.980 And so right in the middle of Kill Bill, working on Kill Bill, I've cut the book in half.

00:42:22.860 So if you're reading volume one, you might want to buy volume two to finish what I started to say.

00:42:29.660 Wow. I love that you call it the kindest cut.

00:42:32.180 What did you mean by that, by the way?

00:42:33.720 And years ago, again, actors would say to me, you really should write a book.

00:42:38.180 And I thought, I couldn't imagine myself being a writer.

00:42:42.740 So the words came to me, the kindest cut, if I was ever going to write a book.

00:42:49.380 And I imagined a pair of scissors, like that's a pair of scissors saying the kindest cut.

00:42:56.320 What I mean is, I don't mean to be mean.

00:42:59.080 I don't want to come across as bitchy or angry hairdresser.

00:43:02.880 So it's the kind cut of saying, it's a play on words, I cut your hair, but also I saw a truth about these people.

00:43:10.900 I saw a truth about Johnny Depp, just as I did Anne Hathaway.

00:43:16.500 That's what I meant by that.

00:43:17.760 So my friend Kyle Colt, who is a brilliant actor, he's the one who suggested to write intuitive life lessons learned, because I love intuition.

00:43:26.700 I love using my intuition.

00:43:28.020 So it's intuitive life lessons learned by a Hollywood hairdresser.

00:43:31.280 Not just they did this and I had lunch with them and we were besties, but just these are the things that I picked up being around them.

00:43:39.580 Because, again, by the grace of God, I've been around a lot of people.

00:43:43.660 I forget how many people I've actually worked with or met over the years.

00:43:48.000 And you survived, as you said, for so many years.

00:43:51.580 That is so impressive to me.

00:43:53.500 I mean, I interviewed these people for about 15 to 18 years, and now looking back at it, all the stuff that I had to take from all these people, not only the celebrities themselves, but the people around them that, you know, are even worse sometimes.

00:44:11.860 And you did this, and you did, like, I think you have like 88 movies on IMDb that you worked on.

00:44:18.740 I mean, it is so impressive to me and you kept true to yourself and you called out BS and I just love it.

00:44:27.940 I think it's just amazing.

00:44:29.780 I mean, yeah.

00:44:30.960 Thank you.

00:44:31.480 Thank you.

00:44:32.020 Yeah.

00:44:32.340 That means so much to me because you just described that's what it was about.

00:44:36.980 That's why I moved to Atlanta for 10 years.

00:44:39.360 I lived there for 10 years.

00:44:40.440 My youngest son was in kindergarten and we left when he was in high school.

00:44:45.540 We moved back to L.A.

00:44:46.760 But I think that's how I survived it.

00:44:48.560 I would be working with Jean-Claude Van Damme, riding an elephant in Thailand.

00:44:53.200 And then the next day I was sitting at a soccer game in Roswell, Georgia, cheering my son on.

00:44:58.400 And the two worlds, they never collided, really.

00:45:02.000 My kids would visit me on set, but I could work with Bill Murray on this movie and then go to a PTA meeting.

00:45:09.800 And I think that's what it grounded me.

00:45:11.880 And that's why when somebody tried to act like, as we described in this interview, a big star or they're better than somebody, I would just see it and just think, no, you're not.

00:45:22.780 I mean, do you change diapers?

00:45:25.520 Do you drive your kids to school?

00:45:27.080 Do you prepare lunches?

00:45:29.760 That's what matters, really.

00:45:32.100 Yeah, so true.

00:45:34.200 Well, thank you again so much for being here.

00:45:37.140 And I'm sure people are going to order you books.

00:45:40.420 I will.

00:45:41.220 I mean, I didn't even know it was two of them.

00:45:43.680 Now you have everything that you need to read before Christmas.

00:45:49.440 So, yeah, Manuel, thank you so much for doing this.

00:45:52.000 And thank you for being honest.

00:45:53.620 I really appreciate it.

00:45:55.460 That's what I'm all about as well.

00:45:57.280 Tell the truth.

00:45:58.720 And some people can't handle it, but that's their problem, right?

00:46:04.080 Well, I appreciate you having me because it is a good feeling to just tell the truth.

00:46:08.900 Again, if anybody listening, if you get offended by this, I'm not, I'm not, I wasn't trying to bash anybody.

00:46:16.120 I'm just telling the truth of this is what my experience was working with them.

00:46:20.460 And by the way, I'd be happy to send you copies of my books.

00:46:23.540 I'll order them.

00:46:24.540 To the least I could do.

00:46:27.140 Thank you so much.

00:46:28.300 I'd love to have you back on.

00:46:29.900 I'm sure like we now have seen the, how thick your books are.

00:46:33.120 I'm sure you have so many more stories and I would love to hear all of them.

00:46:36.580 So again, thank you, Emmanuel.

00:46:39.720 And if people want to follow you on social media, whatever, I will leave link below to that as well.

00:46:46.480 And yeah, is there anything you want to say before?

00:46:49.740 Other than you've confirmed that what I've attracted in my profession is a loveliness.

00:46:55.880 And this has been a lovely interview.

00:46:58.220 You yourself are lovely.

00:46:59.000 One of the reasons that made me want to do the interview was a few years ago when I saw how Anne Hathaway was you and the Blake Lively thing, I said to myself, I would want to help that girl, that lovely interviewer to just say that I know what you went through, that that's what it is.

00:47:19.080 So I'm so glad we got a chance to do this.

00:47:22.020 Me too. And I'm so sorry I had to go through that for five months. I only had five minutes and you had five months of that. I'm so sorry.

00:47:31.660 That interview captured exactly. That's what made me want to do this when she said, well, you can do that, but I won't be answering that. I thought, imagine that 12 hours a day, five months.

00:47:43.660 oh my god oh my god oh i'm so sorry okay anyways emmanuel take care and i hope i

00:47:51.000 see you here again soon and uh anytime anytime you want to talk let's talk

00:47:56.200 so i was gonna ask you to do the first question and singing can i sing it to you and you can

00:48:05.760 sing back the answer well i won't be doing that but you're more than welcome to sing

00:48:08.880 Kirsti Fla from TV2 Norway and you have speed.

00:48:12.880 Do you feel that love was more passionate back then or people would sacrifice more for love than we do today?

00:48:18.880 No.

00:48:20.880 No?

00:48:21.880 No.

00:48:22.880 Do you remember your first crush?

00:48:24.880 No.

00:48:25.880 We don't?

00:48:26.880 Okay.

00:48:27.880 Thank you very much.

00:48:28.880 Thank you very much.

00:48:29.880 Thank you. It was nice to meet you.

00:48:38.880 Thank you.

Flaawsome Talk with Kjersti Flaa - September 26, 2026

Hollywood hair stylist tells all !!

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