Xenia Siamas will definitely become a household name very, very soon. With her alluring presence, stunningly exotic looks and extremely seductive desert-grey eyes, she has become one of New York’s top models and has been featured in print with various fashion campaigns including; JLo Swimwear, watch collection ads for Russell Simmons, St. Barth and Signora Militare. She has also been involved with campaigns for Beck’s Beer, Kimma Cosmetics, Opia Cosmetics, Back Fashion Cult and Jolie Magazine as well. She has acted as a spokesmodel for Magic Bra and can be seen in Ford and Jaguar commercials, as well as leading roles in videos for Fuse and MTV. Xenia has also appeared on ABC’s “One Life To Live” and she has just sealed a three feature film deal with TITAN WORLDWIDE ENTERTAINMENT which is run by her business partner and fiancé Brad Feinstein. She is co-staring in the forthcoming feature film directed by George Hickenlooper entitled: “Casino Jack”” with Kevin Spacey, who portrays Washington D.C. lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Like I said earlier, Xenia will be a household name. She already has the likes of Bob Guccione Jr., Patrick Demarchelier, Playboy and Antoine Verglas raving about her!
Xenia recently phoned in to bring us up to speed on what’s been happening in her life and Brad Feinstein also phones in to share his thoughts on her as well.
The Entertainment Nexus- Hi Xenia, how are you today?
Xenia Siamas- Hi Troy, I’m doing well.
TEN- Tell me what it was like being a pre-med student and then deciding to become involved with modeling.
XS- When I was 18, I’m going to be 26 this year, I was scouted on a beach in Fort Lauderdale while visiting my dad and I was immediately signed to Elite Model Management in New York City. I relocated here (NY) and started working as a model. The reason that I was in Florida was not only to visit my father but also go on a quest to find an Ivy League school. I had a scholarship from the government of Québec to an Ivy League school my choice in North America and I was going to pursue medicine. Even though I ended up not going then, I went back and got my associate’s degree in psychology at Columbia. In the same time, I also received my degree in broadcasting from the New School and I studied film and television with Estelle Adler. I modeled from 18 until 22-23 and then I got diagnosed with a tumor on my thyroid gland. I had to stop modeling and undergo treatment for my thyroid…which took me out of the business for about a year and that’s when I decided to study film, television and acting. I thought: “If I can’t model when I come out of this…let me just pursue acting.” I was on ABC’s “One Life To Live” for a little bit and then I did a small movie with Chaz Palminteri called: “Push.” After that, I did small “cameo roles.” I was the bartender in “Shallow Hal” and after doing them, I decided that I wanted to get really serious with acting. Brad and I ended up meeting on the set of “Push.” We then got involved romantically and we decided that it would be a very smart thing to do if we developed a “multimedia” company that deals with film/television/music/music publishing because of his contacts and mine. He came from a strong background in the broker business. He ran the “sports and entertainment management” for a major bank in America. His clients were; celebrities, athletes, models, rappers, etc. A lot of people would call him and say; “I want to invest in a film and I don’t know what to do with my money.” So, he decided to do an offshoot of that and start his own company because he had all of these great requests for film financing. He then left the bank and started his company which is called: “TITAN WORLDWIDE ENTERTAINMENT.” Now we do full-fledged production, financing for films and television and also some music stuff. We have basically been doing that for the past couple of years and I still do modeling and acting. I do a lot of different campaigns. I’ve also done a show called: “Hotties In Hicktown” with Victoria Talbot at Hype Inc. It’s a reality show which I am hosting with her and in the interim I am starring in a movie called; “Bagman” which is directed by George Hickenlooper and Kevin Spacey is in the lead role. It’s basically the Jack Abramoff story. Over the weekend, Kevin Spacey and George Hickenlooper went to visit Jack in jail in Washington D.C. This morning on Fox News, Kevin announced that he will be playing the lead role and that he is researching the part. I’m attached to it; I play the love interest of his partner. Brad my fiancé, is one of the executive producers to the film. If you want to read more about the film…please checkout the blog by Nikki Finke. She did an article on the movie. Paradigm is packaging the whole movie and I am represented by Paradigm as well as Brad.
At the same time we’re also bringing finances to the sequel of “Point Break” the famous Patrick Swayze movie. It’s called: “Point Break: Indonesia.” Brad is again bringing the finances to the table; I’ll be in one of the roles as well. I’m all about branding myself and getting the company out there. I don’t necessarily go hand in glove with TITAN WORLDWIDE ENTERTAINMENT. Brad is running it and I am helping him on the development side. I am more focused on me as an actress. Also, every month I get featured by a different magazine, like for instance…tomorrow Maxum UK is featuring me as the “online the girl of the month.” A Greek magazine called: Status featured me two months ago. It’s all relevant to my career/image/branding and whatnot. My origin is Greek and I was born in Montreal but I am very ethnically ambiguous. No one ever guesses Greek. They usually favor Russian or Eastern European. I speak four languages; French, English, Greek and Italian. I currently reside in New York but fly back and fourth between here and L.A. with most of my time being spent in New York.
TEN- You have the most amazing eyes. Do you think they are your best feature which draws people to you?
XS- Thank you! No, actually I don’t think it’s my eyes…it’s my presence. I think in a photo you can have beautiful eyes but I think if you own the picture with your presence…just the way your energy is coming across to whoever is looking at you whether it’s in photo, television or in person. I have a very strong will and I’ve been through an illness in my life at a young age have become very independent, if you will, since the age of 16. I went to school in Paris, I traveled a lot. A lot of people ask me that question and I think maybe from an extended point of view it may be my eyes, my face, my features, you know the angles on my face kinda blend in together. But I think it’s my presence and my energy that comes across. When I deal with people I am a very humble person and I try not to come off as “snotty.” When people tell me I am beautiful I say: “Well beauty’s only skin deep.” But working in the modeling/entertainment business you hear that everyday and it hasn’t gone to my head and it never will. I would rather leave an impression that is lasting and that comes off in my personality. If I can help anybody I will. I want to help people. I used to have a consulting company called: The American Model Consultants and I would do free seminars for models and actors who wanted to get started in the business. The seminars became quite popular. They were free…they were strictly informational and I offered guidance and recommendations to people who wanted to get started in the business without getting scammed and falling into the wrong hands. But between my company and my career, I couldn’t do the seminars anymore but still wanted to help people. I still want to be able to have a personal relationship with the public. If somebody would e-mail me a question, whether it’s on my Facebook page or my e-mails, I personally will be responding… not an assistant. I like that personal touch. If I can respond to them in a timely manner, I like to respond to them. I do get a lot of hits on my web site and a lot of people ask me questions and I respond to each and every one of them. If it takes me a week…it takes me a week but I do respond.
TEN- That’s something you don’t see very much anymore, somebody like yourself, personally replying to the questions.
XS- I find it very important. If somebody sends me a compliment on my Facebook page, even if it’s just a simple thank you…I don’t take it for granted. It’s a very personal relationship that I want to keep. It’s a very important thing when you are developing your career and to remain humble to the people that at least value you enough to put you in demand, whether it’s for a television network or hits on a web site. That leads to bigger and better things.
TEN- You are also involved with charity work as well.
XS- I am. It’s called: “Palms for Life” and it’s all about fighting world hunger. We try to raise awareness and raise money through donations and events and send the money to impoverished countries and cities. We try to focus on getting food to hungry people immediately if there is a natural disaster. We try to intervene and send out as many boxes and supplies as we can. We work with different channels to get the food to the locations. We’re not a big organization. You can go on www.palmsforlife.org or my web site and read about it. When I stopped doing my consultation work, I still felt the need to further continue some kind of way to give back. I love to help.
TEN- I read recently that Playboy’s editorial division was going to run a story about your career.
XS- Well what happened is that they did want to do an editorial on me but unfortunately it may or may not work out. The first offer I had was a completely nude pictorial…which I refused because I don’t believe at this point in my career a completely nude pictorial would help me as a serious actress. Maybe once these movies come out and I’m viewed as the serious actress who has studied and who has trained then I can come back to that and maybe do a semi nude. You know… where I don’t show the obvious parts but something more on the sexy side. What they were offering me at that moment was something I was not interested in so I basically turned it down and said: “I’ll come back to you in the future and maybe you’ll let me be the judge of whether I’ll be exposing or not but for now I would rather just deal with other channels like Maxim, FHM, GQ…the regular magazines that will just accept lingerie or bikini or semi nude.” That way I can at least keep some dignity because I don’t feel I am ready to do that right now.
* Editors’ note: Xenia now telephones Brad to include him in the interview
Brad Feinstein- Hi Troy, how are you?
TEN- I’m doing great!
TEN- Tell me a little more about TITAN WORLDWIDE and your role in the company.
BF- I’m the CEO of TITAN. I started it as an offshoot because I’ve been in the finance business for 17-18 years now. I was running the East coast entertainment management for a very well-known, high-profile bank. Most of my clients were celebrities, actors, rappers, athletes, etc. and slowly but surely they started coming to me asking me for money for their projects. I started putting money together for record labels and films and it started taking more and more of my daily life. So, I was spending a lot of time doing those projects. We have several films coming out right now. We are working on the sequel to “Point Break” and we’re working on another film called: “Bagman” which I think they just changed the name to: “Casino Jack.”
XS- Really! I didn’t even know that!
BF- I still call it “Bagman” because I’ve been talking about it for six months. George Hickenlooper is directing it. Kevin Spacey is starring as Jack Abramoff. I’m sure you’re familiar with the whole political scandal. Xenia is playing the girl who sort of took them all down.
TEN- Will your company branch out to include other actors and actresses and other projects as well?
BF- Xenia is my brand right now and the thing I want most in the world is for people to have an understanding of who she is and have her be a household name. We do not have an active management component. We are strictly film, film finance and music. We have a lot of good projects coming out and when they come up will certainly stay in touch and give you some opportunities to feature them.
XS- It’s worthy to mention that Brad does the financing for not just projects we do. There are a lot of companies out there, very well-known companies and studios that come to him for loans, bridges, to complete financing. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a project that we’re involved in or working on. It can be something that they strictly need financing from Brad and he can help with.
BF- I’m sorry, I should’ve been clearer about that. When I say we do film finance, film production and music, I mean that we will finance anything that’s in range if it makes sense. We look at everything. I get at least 10 scripts a week but beyond that we have also financed some very large well-known production companies…some very big well-known players in Hollywood and also music. We are very much in the music space and we’re looking for artists to break. My partner on the music side is Commissioner Gordon (Gordon Williams). He has won probably eight Grammies. He did the Fugee’s “Miseducation of Lauryn Hill”…Santana’s “Supernatural”…Joss Stone…Amy Winehouse…Alicia Keyes…he’s done everyone! There are quite a few things going on music side as well and we are very excited about that too. I am also represented by Paradigm as well.
TEN- It sounds like both of your plates are full.
BF- Yes they are! I don’t get much time and as a matter of fact, I have to run to another meeting. I will leave you in very capable hands and thank you for taking the time to talk with us!
TEN- Thank you!
TEN- Getting back to you, I hear there is a coffee table book in the works.
XS- I have been working in this business since I was 18 and I have been approached by a lot of different photographers, if you will. I have been approached 3-4 times by different publishing companies to put together a series of different shots. I have worked with these huge photographers; they are on my web site. The problem with doing a coffee table book at this point right now…I have held off on it because I want my “Star Meter” to go up. I just don’t want to put a book out there and let it sit on the shelves in a bookstore and sales do badly and I’m stuck going “The book didn’t sell!” I would rather wait 1-2 years and release it at a critical moment. So yes, there are talks, something is brewing. I’m just looking at offers now from a couple different companies and I’m still shopping for the best deals and I’m opened to suggestions. The timing has to be right in conjunction with my career as an actress.
TEN- How did you meet Victoria Talbot and how has your career changed since meeting her?
XS- I met Victoria through one of my agents about a year ago. It was a casual meeting. She was taking meetings in the agency with several different actresses and models to see how she can get involved as a PR agent. When she and I got to talking, she was very intrigued with my background and my capabilities because I’ve been formally trained as an actress and a host and my background is modeling. She was putting together this show; “Hotties In Hicktown” and she needed some help on the production side and financing. She needed me to come in, not only as a host, but she needed me to have Brad get involved from production standpoint to help out the show. I introduced her to Brad, they became friends and we all decided that we would do this “Hotties In Hicktown” together. I am involved with it not only on the development side through TITAN but also as host now. In exchange for doing this, Victoria gets the press and tries to help me and my career as much as she possibly can and that basically helps the show.
TEN- I recently saw a video of you and Victoria interviewing Sasckya Porto. What was the experience like to sit down and talk with her?
XS- Sasckya Porto is a very interesting character. I believe other than her looks…that’s as far as talent goes. She’s a girl that came from Brazil and is willing to do anything and everything to climb the ladder. She said it in the interview that she has no problem taking her clothes off. She was a Playboy Playmate. I having a personal experience with Playboy, turned my head and wanted to do my own thing. You know, wanted to basically go where there is no path if you will and leave a trail. She felt different. Aside from the way she looks…which I think she’s a beautiful girl…that’s all I have to say about her. I don’t believe in her as a talent in terms of acting. The interview was strange…the energy was strange. My question was; “Well this is America and if you take your clothes off in America, you are perceived differently than in Brazil where you might not be.” She got very defensive. They cut a lot of pieces out of the video. It was a little bit grimier, if you will and they edited that part out. What do I think of her? I think she’s a beautiful girl…I can’t speak for her talent and I don’t believe in her politics.
TEN- Okay, here’s the question: “Tell me something disturbing about yourself that you’ve never told anyone before.
XS- Something disturbing about myself. I have several things. I am very “witchlike.” Maybe because of the things that has happened in my life. Maybe because of how fast I grew up. I literally have the intuition…my “sixth sense” is very acute. It’s disturbing in the sense that I predict things and they happen instantly. It’s not even a question of me being a dreamer or me wanting things to happen. It’s a question of, I meet people, I’m in a certain place, I have a feeling and that feeling is always…always right. It’s eerie to the point of where I’ve been called a witch. That’s quite disturbing because I don’t necessarily like that. I don’t like it when it interferes with my personal life and my emotions…and it does…it really does. It gets very annoying. The second thing is that I am completely straight with respect to love between men and women. Of course I prefer men in a relationship; I’m engaged to a man. But I do find women extremely beautiful. I think women are beautiful creatures and there’s a part of me that is very exploratory if you will. And…we’ll leave it at that. I don’t swing both ways by any means. I’m not a bisexual I just think women are the most beautiful creatures on the planet and I have no problem acknowledging it. There’s not a jealous bone in my body when it comes to a beautiful girl.
TEN- That’s very encouraging because most women are “catty.”
XS- I’m definitely not “catty” and I’m the first to acknowledge beauty. I’m the first to give somebody complement and I’m the first to help in any way if a woman is beautiful and talented. But, it has to be on “feelings and vibes” again circling back to the Sasckya Porto interview; she was very catty and very competitive. I don’t like that so I steer clear of energy like that. There’s no need for that…you know what I mean?
TEN- Is there anything else that you want to add or say?
XS- What else do I want to say? I never thought that I would be running TITAN WORLDWIDE ENTERTAINMENT with Brad. If you have asked me five years ago; “Where do you see yourself?” I would never have said: “Doing all of this.” I am very happy and I’m turned on by the fact that I not only work as an actress and have aspired to take that to the next level and it also turns me on in the morning to wake up and be with somebody that believes in me and wants me to succeed as much as I want to succeed. His passions are aligned with mine and he’s not a jealous person…being that I work in this business. It’s a very good position to be in at this stage in my life.
For more information on Xenia please visit www.xeniasiamas.com
www.maxim.co.uk/maximgirls/internationalgirls/16577/xenia_siamas.html
www.status.gr/article.php?art_id=2302
Nikki Finke’s Blog www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/exclusive-abramoff-gets-hollywood-visit
For more information on TITAN ENTERTAINMENT please visit www.titanwwe.com
To watch the video interview with Sasckya Porto please visit www.downhomehypeproductions.com
For another exclusive photo of Xenia, visit the “Showin Some Love For T.E.N. link