Oct. 16, 2007
I spend two hours in a Sherman Oaks park with Riley Weston Tuesday afternoon.
Now 41, she’s never played anyone older than 18.
She was born Kimberlee Seaman on August 26, 1966.
According to imdb.com, she got her first credits in 1987. She was featured in the initial episodes of "Growing Pains" in 1988.
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Riley Weston (born in Poughkeepsie, New York) is an actress and screenwriter who became embroiled in a debate about ageism in Hollywood, after it was discovered that she lied about her age to get work in the entertainment industry.
Weston had bit film and television roles as a young girl, including the 1980s sitcoms Growing Pains and Who’s the Boss?. In 1997, she legally changed her name to Riley Weston and began claiming her date of birth as 1979 in order to be considered for acting roles.
In 1998, at the age of 32, she began drafting screenplays and marketing herself to television studios as a recent high school graduate. (She claimed that her husband was her older brother.) She was soon hired by the WB Network as a writer for the show Felicity. Hailed as a child prodigy and "wunderkind," she was featured on Entertainment Weekly’s October 1998 "it list" of the "100 Most Creative People in Entertainment," which described her as an up-and-coming 19-year-old. Shortly thereafter, she was offered a half-million dollar screenwriting deal with Disney.
Her real identity and age were exposed after a Felicity producer checked Weston’s social security number. Soon after, her contract with WB expired and was not renewed, and her deal with Disney fell through. The story sparked much discussion about age bias in entertainment. Weston herself was quoted as asking "If I were getting a job in any other industry, do you think anyone would care how old I am?" She continues to work as an actress, singer, voiceover artist and author. Weston’s first novel, Before I Go, was published in September 2006.
"We grew up on three acres," says Riley. "I had horses. I had a dog and a cat."
"In my head, I had to get out [of her small town near Poughkeepsie]. There were two traffic lights. As far away as I could go was California, that was a great place to go.
"Now I can look back and it’s the greatest place ever. I go back every summer to the Adirondack Mountains. That’s what I call home."
Luke: "Your parents loved you?"
Riley: "Yep. They still do. My parents divorced [when Riley was a baby]. They have a great relationship."
"I’ve never had one drop of doubt from anyone in my family."
"When I decided to write a book [the novel ‘Before I Go‘] after 15 scripts, they said, ‘OK, how are you going to write a book?’ I said, ‘I’m just going to take my favorite script and I’m going to write it and I’m going to keep control of it and I’m going to star in it.’
"I didn’t set out to be a writer."
"I’ve always been very unique. I’ve always embraced my individuality."
"I think I embraced the talents that I have about a year ago."
Luke: "When did the first teacher say, ‘You’re a great writer’?"
Riley: "No one. Ever. The writing only came out eight years ago out of pure frustration as an actress over the scripts that came in."
Luke: "How would your best friends describe you in high school?"
Riley: "Determined. Really determined. I probably didn’t have many great friends because of that because I knew what I wanted to do. Most people, especially in a smaller town, probably don’t have that drive or that energy that says, ‘I’m not going to stay here. I’m outta here the second I can get myself organized. Then I’m not going to stay in this town and do what most people do — stay in this town, get married and have kids."
"Since age five, I knew that I wanted to do what they were doing on TV or in the movies. Whatever it took to get there, however long it took, that’s what I was going to do."
Riley graduated high school in 1984, spent a year in New York, and then moved to Los Angeles in 1985.
Luke: "When did you move to Los Angeles?"
Riley: "I don’t remember exactly. About 1993."
From Entertainment Weekly, Oct. 30, 1998:
Lying isn’t just for presidents. Meet Riley Weston, TV’s oldest whiz kid.
For 14 years, 32-year-old Riley Weston was just another struggling actress in Hollywood, going nowhere fast. Tired of waiting for the perfect part, she created it instead: teen writing prodigy on Felicity, The WB’s hit about an 18-year-old college freshman. She aced the part, too, delivering an Oscar-worthy performance capable of fooling a powerful studio (Disney), a network, a talent agency (United Talent Agency), and numerous publications, including this one (she appeared on our It List last June).
But reality and fantasy collided on Oct. 15: A former friend snitched, apparently angered at all the attention Weston was getting–not to mention her two-year, $300,000 development deal from Disney Touchstone TV. Faster than you can say Milli Vanilli, the phenom was unmasked as a fake.
Age wasn’t Weston’s only deception: She’d changed her name so many times she could adopt the Prince moniker "artist formerly known as…." Her birth name is Kimberlee Seaman, and Weston claims stalker problems instigated the aliases. But who knows if that’s true? She’s also told people she’s divorced from manager Brad Sexton, yet now she says they remain married.
…Weston had little trouble faking younger. At 4′ 11" and 93 pounds, with nary a wrinkle, she can easily pass for 19. She dresses the part (baggy jeans, sneakers) and acted it at work: According to Felicity staffers, she kept a Titanic poster on her office wall, brought her mom, Betsy (who Weston says was in on the deception), to work, and even professed to have a crush on Jonathan Taylor Thomas. "She seemed sweet, charming, a little needy, and searching for approval," says a Felicity exec. "We thought we [had found] a staffer who spoke the language."
Weston, who contributed to seven Felicity scripts before leaving the show (her option was up this summer), says fellow writers "treated me like they would any 19-year-old." But she hastens to add that "the person they knew is me. I talk like this, wear these clothes…. I challenge anybody to say I didn’t nail something as any teenager would have said it."
Perhaps a case can be made for arrested development. The Poughkeepsie, N.Y., native bolted to L.A. right after high school in 1984. Babysitting supplemented infrequent acting jobs–until 18 months ago, when she began writing "out of complete frustration [over] the misrepresenting [sic] of young people entirely." One of her scripts, about teenage sisters, was shopped around by UTA; Imagine TV bit and hired her for Felicity (coproduced by Touchstone).
From Time magazine, Oct. 26, 1998: "Any actress who can get away with trimming 13 years off her agewithout undergoing plastic surgery is bound to stir up someresentment. For several years, RILEY WESTON, a 32-year-old divorced actress and screenwriter, has been passing herself offas a 19-year-old, originally to get good roles and later to promote herself as a writing wunderkind. She successfully fooled her agent, the press, her colleagues and Disney, which recently signed her to a six-figure deal. Her secret was discovered last week when someone tipped off Entertainment Tonight that Weston, who wrote and guest-starred in an episode of the WB network’s teen drama Felicity, may be a better actress than anyone thought. She says she was able to maintain her ruse because she doesn’t have many friends. That may be one truth that grows into old age."
Bernard Weinraub writes for the January 1999 issue of Cosmopolitan:
Riley Weston was born Kimberlee Elizabeth Seaman in 1966. Her parents divorced and remarried, and Riley lived with her mother, a friendly woman who’s no taller than 5 feet 3 inches herself.
Weston grew up in Pleasant Valley, New York, and went to Arlington High School, where she was voted Most Popular and judged by yearbook editors to have the Nicest Smile in her class. She was a cheerleader for three years, in the chorus and drama clubs and was vice president of her senior class. A member of the high-school staff recalled Weston with fondness: "Kim was a friendly, outgoing girl who was very well-liked by everyone. I can’t imagine that she would ever scheme the way the papers have accused her of doing."
All along, her burning ambition was to be an actress. "She never wanted anything else," says Betsy Brown. While in high school, Kim went to New York City, knocked on casting agents’ doors, and hand-delivered head shots of herself. The move paid off in a few parts in community-theater plays and work as an extra on some soap operas.
After graduating in 1984, she moved to LA and started calling herself Kimberlee Kramer–it sounded more actressy, she felt, than Kimberlee Seaman. To support herself, she worked as a baby-sitter and nanny. As an actress, she found just enough success to keep her dream perking: a few commercials, some tiny roles on television shows.
It was in her late 20s that she began to feel the rub between her looks and her age and changed the age on her resume to 18. Says Brad Sexton, "As an actress, she’s been 18 for the last 10 years." When a stalker began harassing her, she changed her name again–to Riley Weston. By all accounts, Riley didn’t have much of a life outside of her career. She had few friends, rarely dated, and spent most of her time watching TV and movies, to study other actors and actresses. But in 1993, she met [manager Brad] Sexton in a local park. They were married soon after and split up two years later, staying friendly enough for her to keep him on as her manager.
…With Felicity behind her and her Disney contract in jeopardy, says Betsy Brown, Weston spends most of her time sitting in her apartment. She cries a lot.
"She’s terrified that this is going to be the end of her dream," says Brown. But Sexton doesn’t see Weston in the victim role for long. "She’s very optimistic. She’s so driven, more driven than anyone I’ve ever seen. And she’s immensely talented as an actress and singer. She knows exactly what she wants," he says.
"I feel badly about what Riley has gone through. I’m in part responsible for this. I was her manager. I encouraged it. I just thought it wasn’t any different from what is accepted practice in Hollywood."
Riley: "Why I lied about my age is simple — I’m an actor first. Actors lie about a lot of things, namely their age. When I kept getting older and started looking younger, it wasn’t even something I thought about. If they need a 14-year old and I look this part, I’ll say I was 18 and I’ll get the audition and I’ll book the part. Then the writing started. Not knowing there was huge age discrimination thing going on for writers… I didn’t think I’d last long… I’ll be a 19 year old writer. Who cares? If your writing is good and your acting is good, it doesn’t matter for an actor, it won’t matter for the writer. Apparently I was sorely mistaken.
"I ended up doing [Felicity] as a writer for six months. Then I booked an episode as an actor. There was a woman I worked with for four years before I started working a lot as an actor and writer, she decided it was in her best interest, after reading about a deal I got with Touchstone, to tell everybody about my age. She called everybody from every entertainment network…without any fair warning.
"I was leaving the show to go to the deal at Touchstone. I was going to talk to the president of Touchstone. You said in this meeting you don’t care if I’m 18 or 80. I’m neither.
"At the time, it destroyed everything I worked for."
"It’s been nine years. That would’ve destroyed anybody.
"I’m working more now than ever and I’m happier than ever. It’s sad that somebody felt they had to do that. On the other hand, it was going to come out eventually. I’m glad it did a long time ago. Now I can enjoy the rest of my life.
"That happened. If you want to talk about DUIs and the arrests and the things that people do that are illegal and endanger other people, this did not. Was it upsetting? Yes. Do I feel bad? Yes. If I had to do it again? I would. I’m an actor first. As an actor, I want to get the audition and to get the audition I had to lie about my age. It’s the same as saying, ‘You need someone with blue eyes? I’ll get contacts.’ Does it matter that my hair is dark brown and I dye it blonde? Does it matter if I’m 5′ and I say I’m 5’2" to get in the door?
"It’s the entertainment industry… If I entertained you, whether as an actor or a writer, and I did my job, I have a huge problem with someone saying that if I’m not a certain age, it makes a difference. It can’t. It shouldn’t. If it does, what kind of a world are we living in that we forget it’s entertainment?"
Luke: "I’m missing the lost years of Riley. You graduated high school in 1984. You say you came out here in 1993."
Riley: "It must’ve been before. I could call my mother and find out exactly."
Luke: "Were you doing a lot of drugs?"
Riley: "Ohmigod, no. I was a person by myself and hibernated in my apartment just because I didn’t know anybody. I think I was here during the riots. I think I watched it on TV."
Luke: "Did you blank out those years? Were they unpleasant?"
Riley: "Apparently. I don’t think they were unpleasant. I think I was alone and I was trying to figure it all out."
Luke: "Desperate years?"
Riley: "Any time you come to a place that’s foreign to you, that you don’t know anybody, and you’re trying to figure out your life, it’s some sort of desperation. I was very much in my shell at that point. I didn’t do anything."
Luke: "Who was president when you moved out here?"
Riley: "Are you serious? I don’t know."
Luke: "You got your first paying acting gigs around 1993?"
Riley: "Right. Maybe it was 1991. It could’ve been earlier."
Luke: "How did you eat?"
Riley: "My dad helped me when I first moved out here. A couple of commercials doesn’t pay too shabby when you get residual checks. I had a little apartment. I didn’t have a lot of expenses. I didn’t have a nice car like I do now. I started babysitting a lot… That’s how I met the woman who decided to out me."
Luke: "Where were you when you heard the news you were being outed?"
Riley: "I was in my trailer on the set of Felicity. I was working as an actor. I got a call from one of the trade magazines who said we were coming out with a story."
Luke: "Variety?"
Riley: "Yes."
Luke: "Who?"
Riley: "Jenny Hontz."
Eight months after Hontz published this story, she quit Variety and became the vice president of creative affairs at Disney’s Touchstone TV/ABC division. She lasted 15 months before returning to writing.
Riley: "It was just a message I got on my machine. Someone being extremely rude and very angry."
Luke: "The reporter was rude and angry?"
Riley: "Yes."
Luke: She asked for your comment?
Riley: "Not even. ‘We’re going forward with or without you.’"
Luke: "Did you call her back?"
Riley: "No. You’re talking about a girl from Pleasant Valley who just wanted to be an actress. And all I knew was it was OK to lie about your age to get in the door. Suddenly, not only was it not OK, I was on the verge of losing everything I had worked all my life for. And a huge deal that was on the table [at Touchstone] with my show that I wrote, star in it… It was probably the best time in my life.
"I called my attorney. He said, ‘We’ll stop that right now.’ I said, ‘Well, it’s true.’ It was extremely difficult for everybody involved. My agents didn’t know how to handle it."
I email Jenny Hontz: "[Riley] said you were extremely rude. I wondered if you had any memories of Riley and this story. Do you still have a copy of your story?"
Jenny Hontz responds:
Yes, I remember her. I’m sure in Riley’s mind, it was very rude of me to report the truth. You can find my articles about her on the Variety website…[Oct. 6, 1998 Oct. 15, 1998 Oct. 16, 1998].
Hontz was interviewed about the story on "60 Minutes" and "All Things Considered."
Jenny writes in the Oct. 15, 1998 edition of Variety:
Those who dealt with Weston say her age and her so-called "wunderkind" status were, in fact, used as major selling points. Kristi Kaylor, a senior vice president of creative affairs at Pacific Motion Pictures, who was initially attached as a producer to Weston’s TV script "Holliman’s Way," said she felt "conned."
"Yes, she told me she was 18. I thought she was this little genius," Kaylor said. "In negotiations, her attorney said, ‘Please don’t stand in the way of this poor 18-year-old’s career.’ She conned everybody."
Kaylor said she’s upset by the situation because "I introduced her to Showtime, to MTV — I put my reputation on the line."
…Weston’s decision to hide her age is being downplayed by some sources as a typical scenario in the youth-obsessed entertainment business. Kaylor’s attorney, Nancy Derwin, sees the situation as more serious, though.
"If a woman is willing to misrepresent herself, how do we even know her work is really her own writing?" Derwin asked.
Jenny writes in the Oct. 16, 1998 edition of Variety:
…Despite the apology, Weston remained defiant about her decision, stating that it is "accepted practice for actresses to lie about their age" and blaming Hollywood "age bias" for her feeling that it was necessary to lie.
…Weston’s rather innocent explanation of the events, however, masks the lengths to which the she went to perpetuate the deception. After changing her name, she created false identification to hide her true age, wore baggy clothing styles favored by teens and even brought her mother with her to meetings.
…Weston’s explanation for bringing her mother to meetings is that her mother is her "best friend," and she wears baggy clothes because "I’m very insecure about my body." Weston’s newly obtained public relations reps rationalize the fact that she falsified identification by saying that most college students have fake IDs, too.
…Weston herself remains unbowed: "I’m strong. I’m quirky. I’m weird, and I’m proud of it," she said.
Riley Weston: "Has it happened before? Yes. I’m not going to say who it’s happened to because it’s been swept under the rug. That many years? Probably not but they don’t look like me.
"There are going to be hundreds and thousands [of actors] after me who are going to do the same thing…
"Those were dark months and dark years after that. I’m suddenly hiring a crisis management publicist. It was suddenly watching myself do interviews that were completely manipulated to make it look like I thought it was funny. I didn’t think it was funny. I sent apology letters to everybody, from Imagine people (Ron Howard, Brian Grazer) to every person on Felicity… to the lowest person, to the PA, crafts service person, etc… I felt horrible. I was just an actress trying to get the audition."
"There were a lot of years after that where I thought I don’t know if this is what I’m meant to do. I’d like to think I’m a decent person who’d never hurt anyone and to go through that and be made a spectacle of was not what I intended. I just wanted to work. If you’re in this business, that’s what you’re thinking. Most do whatever they have to do to make that a reality. Some do things that are horribly inappropriate."
Luke: "So you did answer some interview requests?"
Riley: "I only answered those chosen by the publicist. I only did one electronic (Entertainment Tonight). It was strangely manipulated. I was laughing off camera with the reporter. You never know how someone is going to edit something… Everyone wanted to make it a bigger story…
"I did one print interview — Vanity Fair. They not only misprinted but outright lied about a lot of things. I had people they interviewed who called me afterward and said, ‘I never said that.’ They said I wore a pinafore to a meeting. I don’t know what a pinafore is. I had overalls. It was for an audition. I’m quoted as saying I wrote baby clothes before baby clothes were cool. I said ‘baggy clothes.’"
Luke: "Who was the reporter?"
Riley: "Ned Zeman.
"He tape recorded it so I know there were no misunderstandings."
The article appeared in the January 1999 issue of Vanity Fair.
"Youth Or Consequences: When youth-obsessed Hollywood thought Riley Weston was 18, the actress was showered with opportunities- a writing job and a guest role on the new Warner Bros. show ‘Felicity’ and a $500,000 deal with Disney. Her unmasking as an ancient 32 sent the entertainment industry into an uproar…"
Riley: "It taught me a lot about the business of Hollywood which I had no idea before this happened. It’s nasty. It can be cruel. It can be unfortunate. It can be full of lies. Me included. I lied. I’m the first one to take responsibility for that. Any time anyone asks me the truth about any project or script, I start off by saying, ‘We all know I lied once so I won’t do that again. I hate it and here’s why…’
"Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who won’t do that and cop to anything they have done."
"Do I wish anybody ill who interviewed me or lied or misprinted? No."
Luke: "Why not?"
Riley: "I’m really happy with my life. Those who live in that angry energy that want revenge, that want horrible things to happen to those who’ve done horrible things to them. What’s the point?
"My greatest day will be standing up on a stage one day and saying, ‘These are the people I’d like to thank: How many of you have said really mean stuff? Pretty much everybody. Everyone raise your hand. I thank all of you because you’ve made me this incredibly smart, incredibly talented, and incredibly strong person I never thought I was and gave me the opportunities I never would have had if you weren’t such boneheads.’
"No, I won’t say that part.
"My life is too great to wish bad things on other people."
Luke: "Can you relate to the delicious feeling it was for thousands of people when they saw you fall?"
Riley: "I would hope that most people would’ve related… I know that nine out of ten actors are lying about something… There were a tremendous amount of people that kept their mouth shut and did feel, not sympathy… I think a lot of people sat back and said, ‘That stinks.’ Because of what they do behind closed doors that they know not to be the truth. More people than not thought that’s too bad. They wouldn’t admit that because then people would say, ‘What are you lying about?’
"There are some people in this town that wait for the Britneys and Lindsays to fall…and that’s sad."
"It seems like such a waste of energy to put such negativity in other people’s lives."
Luke: "You don’t get any joy when you see people fall, like Britney and Lindsay?"
Riley: "I really don’t. I feel sympathy for them. You wonder where their families are… My family would never have allowed me to get to that point. They would’ve pulled me out of Hollywood so fast and put me in a place where they could smack some sense into me."
Luke: "Before this incident, did you get joy out of the destruction of other people?"
Riley: "I’d like to say no but maybe I did."
Luke: "It’s human. It’s as primal a human emotion as any… Your story was lying on the roadside [like a car wreck], what a great metaphor about Hollywood."
Riley: "Yeah."
Luke: "You don’t get joy out of gossiping about people?"
Riley: "You are a bad man."
"I try not to gossip, which does not mean I don’t read every weekly magazine out there."
Luke: "You read them because it is so delicious seeing these people fall apart. It makes you feel better about your own life."
Riley: "That upsets me. How could they throw it all away?"
"You’re very bad."
"In Riley-land, we don’t want to be negative. People love to come to Riley-land because of that. It’s a lot of fun. We go on rides and eat cotton candy and eat cookie dough nobody gets fat. There’s no negativity about others or ourselves."
Luke: "On a scale of one to ten, with ten being a saint-like devotion to truth, and one being completely manipulative?"
Riley: "A nine if not above a nine."
Riley says she was married "for under a few years."
"Just once."
She doesn’t want to talk about her marriage.
Luke: "What type of man do you find yourself attracted to?"
Riley: "Men who are real…. Someone who is not negative. Someone who sees that the glass is half-full all the time. If you put it out there that it’s going to be good, it’s going to be good… Someone who can love the Adirondacks."
Luke: "Are there any things that turn you on in a man that you wish didn’t?"
Riley: "Holy crap. What kind of interview is this?"
Luke: "You may be attracted to prisoners?"
Riley: "No."
Luke: "No violent ex-cons?"
Riley: "No. You’re a dark man. There’s a lot of stuff going on behind those dark eyes."
"There’s nothing that would embarrass me. I’m goofy and silly and at times immature."
Luke: "How important is a man’s professional success for you to find him attractive?"
Riley: "Nine or ten. Not financially. Just do they feel successful and are they happy with what they’re doing? They have to be…always striving to be better and do more. I’m so focused and determined, someone who’s not, it just wouldn’t fit… Every hour of the day is planned out… If somebody didn’t have that kind of energy, they just wouldn’t get me."
Luke: "Do Jack and Madison have sex [in Riley’s novel]?"
Riley: "They do. And in the movie version, you’ll see."
Luke: "When did this book come to you?"
Riley: "It was a script first. I gave it to a few people who seemed to really like it but without me starring in it. I kept thinking, ‘I’m not selling out.’ I just wasn’t ready to give it up… This was my Rocky. It’s in development as a feature."
"I sat down one summer, I had the script to go by, and I just started writing."
It took three months to turn into a novel.
"The first award was a Booksense award. They pick 20 books. It was with Stephen King and Nicholas Sparks… It was ridiculous. It was incredible."
Luke: "I want you to play a gossip columnist."
Riley: "You’re an evil evil man."
"One of my favorite shows is ‘Dirt.’"
"You especially would love the show. It’s so dark and so disturbing."
"It’s your kind of show because she runs a magazine called ‘Dirt.’"
Luke: "Is your mother like Ann [in Riley’s novel]?"
Riley: "Only in the good ways. The one that will totally support whatever her daughter wants to do."
Luke: "Did you get spanked?"
Riley: "I got hit once by my mother. Across the face. I was 15. It was well deserved."
Luke: "What was it for?"
Riley: "I can’t say. That’s a whole ‘nother area. It was to shock me out of a bad place. We’ll leave it at that until interview number two."
Luke: "What are you best at?"
Riley: "I’m best at being positive."
Luke: "Why do you write so much about high school?"
Riley: "It’s what comes easiest for me. Those characters are the easiest to write. I love writing about the angsty teen more than anybody."
Luke: "How do you feel about the interpretation that Being Bailey is really the story of Riley in Hollywood?"
Riley: "That could be… It’s true. Every one of my scripts, there’s a piece of me in it."
Luke: "How big a component of your happiness is your work?"
Riley: "A couple of years ago, all of it, which made me not as happy as I am now."
"I’m a part of a great church. I have great friends. I have great family. I love what I do."
Luke: "How do you feel about growing older?"
Riley: "If I looked older, I’d feel differently. I feel like I’m an infant. Age doesn’t matter. You can be anything you want at any age. It’s all a state of mind… There are friends I have, I don’t know how old they are. I don’t care. It wouldn’t matter if they were 19 or 99."
Luke: "Do you think human nature is basically good or basically bad?"
Riley: "I believe that human nature is basically great."
Luke: "Why?"
Riley: "If I believed it was negative, it would be negative. If I believed that human nature was filled with negativity, that’s what I would get."
Luke: "How much does empirical reality figure in your belief?"
Riley: "I don’t know what that means."
Luke: "In the 20th Century, 400 million were murdered. How much does that matter in deciding if human nature is good or bad?"
Riley: "There are unfortunate events that happen in the world that we have no control over. But if we believe that all of us that everyone was filled with negativity, I can’t imagine what a horrible place it would be to be alive."
In the past year, Riley completely changed her view on human nature. "The other side [that believes human nature is basically bad] doesn’t do any good for anybody."
Luke: "What does your church teach you about human nature?"
Riley: "That people are basically good."
"Hollywood, the entertainment industry, is what you make of it. The people I work with are amazing. The people I get to work with, I would not want to work with anyone else… They are fantastic people."
Luke: "You really believe that what we put out into the world comes back to us? Would you say that is 100% true?"
Riley: "One hundred per cent true."
Luke: "Is Hollywood a meritocracy?"
Riley: "In some aspects. Some people find sucess…on levels that have nothing to do with merit. Your last name can give you notoriety. How much money you can have can bring you notoriety. A reality show can bring you notoriety."
Luke: "Why is it so important to you to star in ‘Before I Go’?"
Riley: "Why was it so important to Sylvester Stallone to star in Rocky? If you have a dream… It’s funny that anybody cares. I want to star in it. I wrote it. I wrote the book. I wrote the future soundtrack… I only wrote it with me in mind."
Luke: "How much of a challenge will it be for you to pull off Madison [a teenage girl]?"
Riley: "None. The only challenge I’ll have is the skating. It’s not about me playing a 17-year old. That’s what I just did last week. The roles I play are all around that age range."
"When someone was interested in this project a couple of years ago, I hired a private coach and skated for a couple of months. She said that if she had me when I was age five, I would’ve gone to the Olympics because I was the right body type and the right size. I was doing single jumps within four weeks."
