Natalia Bonifacci, Model/Writer/Actress [14-15]
Any fun moments come from being in the video?
None of my old lovers have reached out to me to comment about it, but I did get funny proposals from old buddies of mine being like, "Now I want to kiss you, too." Some messages made me blush. It's weirdly flattering. Weirdly flattering.
Have you been recognized by anyone due to the video?
There was this woman at a party. She was staring at me for quite a bit before finally coming up to me to introduce herself. She said I looked familiar and asked if we had met before. I'm usually coy about these things, but I told her, "Well, you know, there is this video going viral…" And she yelled to her boyfriend, "OMG! This is the girl from that kissing video we watched all morning!"
Have you seen or talked to anyone else that was in the video since?
As far as Karim, my kissing partner, I haven't seen him since the shoot. He did friend-request me on Facebook, though, and we chatted a few times since.
What was the experience like being filmed?
I have kissed men on set in the past, but always for acting purposes, which is also way different because you are protected by a different identity when you act. The day of the shoot I woke up wanting to cancel because I was incredibly nervous. Karim had forgotten about the shoot, so he ended up showing up over an hour late. I'm really punctual, so I had a good amount of time to get more nervous and shy and giggly. We introduced ourselves to one another on set in front of five rolling cameras. I kept laughing, and talking, and I was barely looking at him, and then I realized I had completely forgotten his name. It was nerve-racking. Eventually, I was the one who leaned in to kiss him. I did feel really good afterwards, though; I love feeling bold.
Why do you think people like the video so much?
In a world where people communicate via WhatsApp, where people screen their phone calls before calling you back, where people flirt through Facebook but then ignore one another face-to-face, where we all tend to protect ourselves from a deep human contact, I imagine that seeing vulnerability—true and pure vulnerability—can be very touching. Someone even said, "It made me believe in love again; it gave me hope."
What are you up to next?
I'm a full-time model, but when I'm not traveling, I'm the perfect, walking LA cliché: model/wannabe actress! Besides that, I write. I have two interview columns for a Milan-based online magazine called RedMilk. My Instagram is connected to Italian magazine Grazia.it, where they feature my day-to-day visual diary. I also write articles for them every once in a while.
source scrambled-fashion.blogspot.com
