_Ian Somerhalder: The ModelWatch Profile
_Our Celebrity Male Model profile of Ian Somerhalder by the fab _webmaster of IanSomerhalder.net, exclusively for Modelwatch!
_By Debi Hutchins, February 2004
Get to know  Ian Somerhalder as Modelwatch launches his Profile written by someone who knows the man and has come to admire him deeply.

From his early modeling pursuits to his constant struggle not to be misunderstood and his attempts to make people realize who he really is- to separate the roles he played on films with the real Ian Somerhalder.

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"That I actually have a brain." That was Ian Somerhalder's response when asked by a fan what was the one thing that people usually misjudge about him. And it's easy to see why. Between his impossibly blue eyes and killer smile, it's easy to see why most people never get past his looks. Make no mistake though, there is a lot more to Ian Somerhalder than a pretty face.

He's been modeling since the age of ten and readily admits that he would not let his children model, but he also admits that his looks have served him well. Modeling allowed him to travel extensively, experience things he never would have experienced by staying at home in Louisiana and provided financial stability.

He's done everything from catalog work to the likes of Guess?, Dolce & Gabbana, Valentino and Versace's Versus. As great as all that was though, it wasn't what he wanted to do for the rest of his life, so he used his modeling career as a stepping-stone into a career in Hollywood.
His role as Hamilton Fleming in the WB series Young Americans introduced Ian as an actor, but the show was canceled after only 8 episodes. Undaunted, Ian signed on to play bad guy Russell Henderson in MTV's Anatomy of a Hate Crime and teenage drug dealer/pimp Josh in Life as a House. Life as a House then led to his biggest role to date; Paul Denton in Roger Avary's The Rules of Attraction. It also gave him an education in mainstream media.

Extremely proud of the movie as a whole, Ian was frustrated by the obsessive attention paid to the ten-second scene in which his Paul fantasizes about James Van Der Beek's Sean and includes an on-screen kiss. As a result he was often misquoted in interviews and came off sounding obnoxious and homophobic – two things he is most definitely not.

As frustrating as the press was for Rules, the movie allowed him to move onto 
something he really wanted to do work behind the camera as well as in front 
of it. After finishing work on the still-unreleased WWII drama, In Enemy 
Hands, he and business partner Chad Walters formed a film production company in early 2003.
Their first project was a short film called Recess about three kids wanting to escape the corrupt authority of utopian society medicated for optimum performance. Ian also starred in the movie and they hope to take it on the festival circuit. 

When offered the chance to work on an upcoming WB/Jerry Bruckheimer project, he signed on to Fearless and filmed the show’s pilot episode. Sadly, the show was recently canceled without ever being given a chance in front of audiences

Continued...>>>
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