Rochelle Aytes—you might not recognize the name just yet, but you may have seen her face in print ads for The Gap and commercials for Dasani Water. She is making the transition to the big screen with her first role in this summer’s comedy, White Chicks, starring Marlon and Shawn Wayans as undercover FBI agents protecting the affluent Wilson Sisters. Rochelle plays a reporter trying to get the scoop on the Wilson Sisters and falls for Shawn Wayans’ character. I got a chance to have lunch with Rochelle in New York and get the scoop on her acting leap and the behind-the-scenes of White Chicks, which opens June 23rd.
Talk about how you made that jump from commercials/print work to acting.
In the beginning, I didn’t really think about acting at all. It was all about dance. I think being a versatile dancer—ballet, modern, jazz, and hip-hop—so I did the video stuff as well as the company stuff, and I kind of fell into commercial stuff as well. So I started doing commercials, dancing in a Dr. Pepper commercial, and then from there I found a commercial agent. That kind of switched my gears into doing commercial work. But the acting came more so after I did Aida. I toured with Aida.
How did you get the part in Aida?
It started because I was freelancing as a dancer. It started with this industrial video for Mercedes-Benz with Wayne Sorrento, a choreographer. So when I did that, which I found in Backstage, most of my work came from going into Backstage and just going to auditions or word of mouth. And when I worked with him, he suggested I come and audition for Aida, because he was the choreographer. So I auditioned for that and got my little song together. I don’t really sing, but he said, “Don’t worry about it, and I’ve got it.” This was in 2001. We had so much time while on tour that I met this guy Mark, who was a really good actor, and we started reading scripts together and reading scenes. The show is about acting, singing, and dancing, and I realized I could do this (acting). I wasn’t as shy anymore. I left Aida after a year and went back to New York, and I just decided to get a manager and an agent.
Talk about what some of your goals were when you got into this business and what you have accomplished from the initial list, and what’s on the list now.
Originally, my goal was just to be a dancer. That’s really all I knew. Being in school, I wanted to be in Ailey, but I never got there. My goal to be a dancer came true. I was in a company, Ballet Hispanico, for a few years, so I kind of fulfilled that part of it. I followed through with each of my goals, and then I decided, “Let’s see what happens with modeling, commercial work, and acting.” I did like ten commercials last year, and I got a film. I got pretty lucky. I’ve only been studying (acting) for two and a half years. I think most of my goals are coming together now. For the future, I love acting and just seeing where it takes me. I would love to do films. I don’t mind doing television, and ultimately, I would like to just give back to the community.
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Give me the background on how you got the part in the film White Chicks.
My agency in LA submitted me for the role. They said to put myself on tape with my coach and sent it to LA. The casting director told my agent, “I think she’s got what he’s looking for, so she should fly herself out.” So I flew out and auditioned for Keenan, Shawn, and Marlon Wayans. It was the last callback. So I went to audition on a Monday, and by Friday, I was told I got it.
So the role you auditioned for is the one you got, or was it a different one?
I auditioned for two roles; one role was to play the love interest of Shawn, and the other was to play Marlon’s wife. By the time I had flown there, though, I was told I was just auditioning for the love interest of Shawn, so I had just prepared that scene.
Were you more excited/disappointed about auditioning for just that role?
I was relieved because I had a choice, and I originally thought the other role was more on the ghetto side. The actress who got it ended up playing it in a different way, and she handled it well. It’s not that the role itself was bad, but in my audition, I leaned into that tone, and it didn’t feel true to me. I kept thinking, “I hope they don’t call me back for that,” because it would have been a big stretch for my first film. I’m open to growing into different roles over time, but for a first job, I wanted something closer to who I am before branching out.
What’s the chemistry like between you and Shawn?
When I auditioned, I felt there was real chemistry between us. Reading with him, I saw right away that he carried himself well and had an easy presence. The scene didn’t call for humor, so he played it straight, but the connection was still there. Once we started working on the film, that dynamic continued, and we matched each other’s energy throughout the process.
How does your character fit in with the rest of the movie aside from the fact that you are Shawn’s love interest?
I play a reporter for New York 1 who heads to the Hamptons to chase an exclusive on the Wilson sisters, a play on the Hilton sisters. Marlon and Shawn Wayans play detectives who go undercover as the Wilson sisters, and my character has no idea whether she’s meeting the real sisters or the detectives in disguise.
Shawn’s character recognizes me from television and approaches me while dressed as one of the sisters. He’s really just trying to get to know me, but I’m convinced I’m finally getting my story. Later in the film, I meet him again—this time as himself—on the beach. I’m drawn to him, and we end up talking before going to dinner that night.
When we meet, he’s dressed up in a suit with flashy earrings and pretends to be a basketball player named Latrell. I never meet him in his actual role as a detective, so throughout the movie he’s juggling two identities in front of me.
Was it a big stretch to play a reporter, and how did you, if at all, prepare for this role?
This was my first movie, and I’d never played a character like this—not even in acting class. She’s deeply grounded, and with so many comedic personalities in the film, they needed someone who could bring that steady center. The character has a history of bad relationships with men, which is implied throughout, and in a way, I connected with that. I’m single and focused on my career, and she shares that same drive.
Building the character meant looking inward. I focused on the parts of myself that had been hurt or lonely and were still searching for someone to fill that space. As an actress, I’ve always been determined and clear about what I want, and I’ve experienced my own share of difficult relationships. All of that made the character feel familiar.
Because she’s a reporter, I tried to do some traditional research, but we were shooting in Canada, so I worked with what I had. I watched a lot of news broadcasts to study how reporters told stories on-air. I also watched movies featuring reporters. In my room, I practiced with a fake microphone, and on set, whenever I wasn’t filming, I’d shadow people behind the camera. If someone had a camera available, I’d pretend to interview crew members. All of that helped me shape her.
Being your first movie, what was it like being on set, and what experiences did you take away with you?
It took me three weeks before I got on set. I was there for three weeks and didn’t know when I was going to shoot. I was just so anxious and nervous just waiting around. Finally, on the first day, I went to the set, and I didn’t even shoot that day. You could see sometimes they were a little nervous, and it made me feel better that I wasn’t the only one. The second day, I was first up to shoot at a beach scene, but I was so cold. It was like 40 degrees out on a beach in Canada, but they made it look like summertime. My first scene was in the middle of the script; I had to mentally put myself where I would be at that time. Shawn was really nice and understanding. Keenan didn’t even know it was my first movie until we had a conversation, and he asked me what other stuff I had done, and when I told him that was it, he was like, “Really?” So that made me feel good.
Did you get any tips from Keenan from a director’s standpoint or from anyone else?
Keenan told me to always bring myself to the character. People want to see you vulnerable. They don’t want to see you always strong and guarded, and to try and practice that in your everyday life. It’s important to let people see that you’re normal because that’s what people are attracted to in a movie. We had a table reading, and Keenan told us right before we read, “This is a comedy; I want you to throw away anything that’s remotely vain. Don’t think about how you look; that’s my job. Just be funny and act.”
What’s exciting to you now that the movie is about to come out this summer?
My fantasy world is that the phone is going to ring off the hook at my agency, and people are going to ask who that girl is in that movie. I want her for my next film. In reality, I’m looking forward to the premiere. I’m really excited to fly there with my mom. She’s never been to LA, and for her to see it and to be connected to all the people in the film again, because we had such a great time together.
Expectations for the future?
I am getting the buzz of who I am; my agent works really hard for me and is getting me some really good auditions. As a matter of fact, I got a few callbacks for a movie Damon Wayans is producing, and Marlon is playing the lead in. I didn’t get it, but I did get down to the last three girls, and it was a pretty dramatic movie. I thought that would be great to do, something really dramatic to show more skills. I’m not going to limit myself. I want to do action; it could be light-hearted comedy, or it could be dramatic.
– BY STORM
