Today I’m speaking with a dear friend of mine, a wonderful human being, Chris McMillan. He also happens to be a magnificent, world class hairdresser. He’s probably best known by the public for cutting Jennifer Aniston’s hair, from when she played Rachel Green in ‘Friends’ and still to this day, but he’s so much more than that. He’s a master of his craft, he’s an incredible editorial hairdresser, he’s an advertising hairdresser, he’s a business owner, he has a salon in Beverly Hills, and really he’s one of those people that generates light and love and positive energy. And he also has an incredible story…
JOHN:
You look fantastic, man. You’ve got a great body, I’m envious of your body. You look absolutely awesome.
CHRIS MCMILLAN:
Keeping things simple. … I watched the Freedom video. You didn’t have gray hair.
JOHN:
Ha! I didn’t have gray hair! Anyway! On Mr Feelgood, what we like to do is cut away the fat and look at the essential of what can help us grow in our lives as human beings, and especially as men at this time. Chris, I’m really super excited to have you here. Thank you. I just want to know how you’re doing?
CHRIS:
Thank you, John, for having me. And thank you Mr Feelgood for creating a platform for men to feel good. I love this.
JOHN:
How have you been dealing with this Covid situation, as far as having a business. You own a salon, and you’ve got lots of different staff, lots of young kids who work with you, who look up to you. You’re the mentor, you take care of them, they’re learning from you. How are you dealing with this? How are you dealing with managing them in their lives during this time?
CHRIS:
Social media. And believe it or not, the telephone. FaceTiming, texting, and good old communication. I can see who’s doing what. I’m like Mrs. Kravitz. Remember the sitcom Bewitched? Remember the nosy neighbor? I’m watching all my hairdressers on Instagram, their shenanigans and what they’re up to and if they’re wearing masks or not. Who they’re hanging out with, if they’re really staying home, or what they’re doing out in public. When the protests were going on I saw who was going to protests and who wasn’t. I was keeping an eye on everybody. Everyone’s got to do what they’ve got to do.
JOHN:
And do you scold them if they’re out of order? Because I would think they’re like your family?
CHRIS:
No, but I know that they know that I know. I saw cute shoes at that protest. There’s some really cute masks that go with those shoes. If you need, I’ve got a box… I want everyone to be healthy. Because being a salon owner, the goal really was that June 8 goal and getting back into the salon to be open, and not having people see my hairdressers on Instagram in the middle of a protest with no mask on, because that will affect my business. My clients don’t want to come to the salon knowing that someone was on Instagram taking pictures in the middle of a protest with no mask on. I don’t feel comfortable. There’s that sort of artful balance.
The big picture is I’m running a business, I’m creating a space for you to come back to. You need to respect me for that. I’m not posting that side on social media, the sleepless nights, the phone conversations with the banks, the business manager meetings and the staying afloat and keeping that salon … you know. I still have to pay rent, even though nobody’s working.
JOHN:
Chris, tell me a bit more about how have you been dealing personally with COVID, with being isolated as it were? Clearly you’re in great shape. How did you cope?
CHRIS:
I stayed in my little perch apartment up here on Sunset Boulevard. I watched this city shut down. I watched April go by, I watched May go by, I saw the skies turn bright blue. I watched Sunset Boulevard empty, not a car on the street. There was no one driving on the road. I would wake … I would sleep in with no alarm. That was nice. Instead of waking up at 5am I woke up at 6:15.
JOHN:
So 5am is your usual time to wake up, is it, when you’ve got work. And why is that? You work out everyday?
CHRIS:
I like to work out before I go to work. I like to get my training in before I go to work.
JOHN:
And you do that at home? Do you have a gym?
CHRIS:
Right now I do it at home, and I don’t have a gym but I’ve created a workout space outside. I got some 20 pound weights, some 35 pound weights and 45 pound weights. I’ve got some yoga mats, and I’ve got a pool that I can do dips on. I can do push ups, I can do sit ups. I took to running, like everybody else.
JOHN:
Oh I didn’t at first, I’ve just taken to that actually. Then everyone got paranoid when runners were running by you and they didn’t have masks on. Did you run with your mask?
CHRIS:
Yeah, then when no one is around you lower it. To me wearing a mask is really basic. It’s look both ways before crossing the street. We learned that as children. That’s kind of how we have to be in the salon, it’s how we have to be in the grocery store, it’s how we have to be on the streets right now. I think we all have the same story. Pinch me, I’m having a nightmare. Twilight zone, the movie. Is this really happening? It just was so unreal. It hit us all so fast that I almost didn’t believe it was real. Then it was like everyday you wake up and it was real.
Like me, everybody has good days and bad days. Everybody. I don’t care how rich or poor you are. It has affected everybody. I have friends that are celebrities, I have friends that are in the beauty business, I have friends that are in the medical business, I have friends that are in the restaurant business. It’s affected everybody no matter who.
JOHN:
I feel lucky because we’ve got three kids, and we’re together and we’ve done really well I think. We’ve managed to not to get too crazy with each other, we’ve actually been really tolerant and it’s been okay. But presumably you’re on your own, you’ve got your dogs, but have you been lonely? I know your boyfriend is in Paris.
CHRIS:
Oh absolutely. I date a half French, half Belgian man. It’s very interesting because we really miss each other. Actually he started questioning the relationship that we’ve been so good about for two and a half years. COVID has definitely built a wall between us because I haven’t been able to see him. Also, because he’s French and Belgian, he’s a little more stubborn and not as easy going! He had a hard time, but now we’re in a really good place. We’re doing the work and talking every single day. There’s some days that I’m really positive, and some days that I’m all over the place and I don’t even know where I’m coming from.
JOHN:
And how do you cope with that? For instance, this is a good example, I’ll pass it back to you. I found that I was eating more, I was drinking more, and I just felt such a sort of intense heaviness around me.
CHRIS:
It is heavy. There’s a weight of the world on us. It’s been really hard. I’m a sober alcoholic, so trust me, I know. So I’m watching people hustle and make money around me, you know? I’m watching people escape through drugs and alcohol, a lot of people.
JOHN:
Yeah. I was definitely into the wine every night and it went from one glass to about a bottle. I didn’t have any control over what was going on in the world, and because I couldn’t travel, I couldn’t work. I couldn’t do what I did normally, so I felt powerless. On June 14 I actually stopped drinking, and I haven’t had anything since. Not drinking was my taking back control to some degree. At least I’m in charge of what I put in to my body.
CHRIS:
How great do you feel?
JOHN:
I feel great. I had my birthday on June 24 and I figured it was probably the first time in 40 years that I haven’t had a drink on my birthday! I feel great. I don’t feel particularly different. But I feel much more focused.
CHRIS:
You know what I found the running does for me? Because I hate running.
JOHN:
I do too.
CHRIS:
It helps me prioritize my thoughts. It’s weird. I can run to Beverly Hills Flats. I do a little uphill. It really helps, and I do that every other day. That’s how I stopped smoking. It’s been 18 years since I’ve smoked a cigarette.
JOHN:
And it’s 21 years since you had your last drink. Amazing man. Where we live, it’s very hilly, so I run then I walk, and I run and I walk. But at the moment I’m so inspired with ideas when I’m on this circuit, I have to keep stopping to write them down, then I carry on again.
CHRIS:
Yeah. That many years. You want to know what’s also been really nice, is I used to listen to music in ear buds … and I’m doing podcasts now. Because it’ll keep you going. I used to run to eight songs, nine songs. I’d be like, ‘Okay that’s song six, fuck.’ Now I can keep running because I’m in a podcast in a murder mystery or a World War II history channel.
JOHN:
Amazing, so you’re keeping yourself stimulated.
CHRIS:
I’m also into humor. I found all these comedy people on social media that I watch now. I stopped following a lot of people — hairdressers and influencers. If I watch one more person try to teach me how to do a bob cut, I’ll lose my mind! They are selling it, and I want to give it away. No-one is going to be looking at runway hair for a year or so, so move on, move forward. I found @bennydrama7 and @jtfirstman and all these funny guys that are hilarious on Instagram.
Chris McMillan at home // 📸: Sam Frost (Originally photographed for C Magazine)
JOHN:
Just going back a little, can we talk about growing up? I really don’t know that much about the early you. Can you tell me where you came from, your family?
CHRIS:
I come from the kind of a family that you have. I have three siblings. There’s three boys and one girl.
JOHN:
Right. Where are you in the pecking order?
CHRIS:
I’m the number two boy, middle boy. Always the gay one, the middle one.
JOHN:
And when did you know you were gay, may I ask? What age were you?
CHRIS:
My mom said when I was two. Yeah, that’s what she said. She knew I was her gay one when I was two.
JOHN:
And when did you realize it?
CHRIS:
I think it was when Tom Selleck was on TV or when Mark Spitz won [at the Olympics] in 1976. And I remember I had a Farrah Fawcett poster, you know the classic one? With the nipples and stuff. But I remember I’d wake up and look at it and I LOVED her hair, just loved it, it was perfect. But I was like, ‘They should have pierced her ears.’ So I remember taking a pair of my sister’s earrings and piercing the poster. I styled Farrah a little. I just added a little bling to her. Earrings and a bathing suit.
JOHN:
That’s kind of crazy because I fell in love with America and California when I saw that poster of Farrah Fawcett. I knew I wanted to go. Tell me about your dad.
CHRIS:
My dad was very interesting. My parents, by the time they were 24, they had four kids. First one at 18. Second kid at 20. Two, four, six, eight. We’re all two years apart exactly. My dad played college football, knocked his teeth out, got a woman pregnant, married her, started driving a potato chip delivery truck, and delivered Bell brand potato chips to grocery stores, then he became an insurance man with Farmers Insurance.
JOHN:
Whereabouts were you? Where are you from?
CHRIS:
Middle class America. Grew up in Manhattan Beach, California. Then upgraded to Palo Verde, then from there went to Palm Springs because my mom was an asthmatic. Dry heat and all that. My two brothers ended up going to prep school and I ended up going to beauty school. Mom has [since] passed and my dad lives in Hawaii.
JOHN:
Are you close?
CHRIS:
I have the kind of dad that basically wasn’t a hands-on dad. He worked, he provided, and he let you know that he worked and he provided. So if you weren’t wearing your rubber bands with your braces … I came from that guy. My dad was super tough.
JOHN:
How often do you speak to him now?
CHRIS:
I talk to him about once every few months. So, not that close. My brother Mark, who I’m very close with, we laugh about him all the time. I’m like, ‘Oh my god, you’re dad. You are our dad. You’re Art.’
JOHN:
Is your brother the one you have a beautiful black and white photograph in your hallway.
CHRIS:
Yeah. The Mark Seliger picture of us. It’s from the elevator collection. Mark did a series of pictures in the elevator shaft of his studio.
JOHN:
And how was your dad when you came out and said, ‘I’m gay, dad,’ how did that work?
CHRIS:
I was living in Palm Springs, I was maybe 17. Some older, handsome gentleman picked me up, and I went for a ride with him. And my dad followed us. Then I came home and my dad was like, ‘So, where were you?’ And I said ‘Just hanging out with a friend.’ … then I told him, ‘I’m gay.’ I said, ‘Don’t tell mom, whatever you do.’ And he told her. And she came in at 4am and started screaming and yelling at me and said, ‘Get the f*** out of my house, get out of my house now.’ I was like, ‘OK. Your hairdresser, gay; the guy that decorated the house, gay; the …whoever, gay.’ I was really confused. I’m in beauty school. This isn’t connecting? Are we really having this conversation? It was one of those things, it was the early 1980s…
She had a really hard time. It was my senior year of high school and I proceeded to run away. I went and lived with some friends of the family. Then she finally came around and was like, ‘Can you come over and cut my hair?’ We had a reconcile. Then I basically forced on her, ‘I’m gay, deal with it.’
JOHN:
It sounds like your dad was probably the most okay with it.
CHRIS:
He was the easier about it, yeah. He knew. He was fine with it.
JOHN:
It’s crazy, I feel a little bit of a similarity to you. My parents divorced when I was four. I went to live with my mom and my two older sisters. We were very middle class before, we were doing okay and my dad was an engineer, then we went from middle class into a housing estate, like the projects. Then my father died when I was 11 years old. It was a crazy and difficult household and I just wanted to leave. I just wanted to get out. I left home at 15 because I just couldn’t bear being there. I just thought I’m going to create my own life. And I did. At 18 I went down to London, and at 21, moved to New York, and then the rest is history.
I don’t know where that drive comes from. I don’t know whether you’re just born with it. You were saying about Farrah Fawcett earlier. I used to watch Hill Street Blues and Charlie’s Angels and Hawaii Five-O and all those great American TV shows, and I just thought, ‘I’ve got to live in America one day. I’ve got to go there and I’ve got to see it.’
As soon as I left, my relationships were much better with my family. Now we get along really well, I’ve always looked out for them and it’s been good for the most part.
CHRIS:
I think people are really interested in, is our stories, of what you just shared with me. At 15, I remember my dad used to say, ‘18 you’re out.’ And I used to look at him, and I would say, ‘How about 17?’ I got this, I got this. I always knew I knew how to make money. I always had to pay for myself, I always had a job. I’ve never not had a job. That was one thing that I knew how to do, make money. I used to blow dry the girl’s hair down the street for $10 a week. That was great. I could get their big old curly hair straight. And that was at 15 years old. So I knew always how to do that. I knew the hustle, knowing that hard work pays off, the simple value of hard work.
Chris McMillan // 📸: Sam Frost (Originally photographed for C Magazine)
JOHN:
So then, when you became super successful, around the time Friends started, I know people want to know that story, but you might be bored sick of talking about that?
CHRIS:
October 14, 1999. Evasion, possession, hit and run.
JOHN:
Wow. That’ll do it.
CHRIS:
That was the day that I had six cop cars and a helicopter chase me through Downtown Los Angeles. So that’s my sober date. That’s when I got this toolbox to learn about how to move forward, in my own skin, which has really helped in this sort of navigate this time that we’re in.
At the time I was smoking a lot of pot. I was smoking pot during the day, doing coke at night. I was always just doing hair in the ’80s then leading into the ’90s. That’s what I came from. I always say the summer of 1983, Madonna came out and so did I. Because that’s the year I graduated high school and went and worked at a hair salon. In 1983, I’m 18 years old, I’m working at a hair salon, and then f***ing Madonna hits … your head just explodes. She’s just coming out with idea after idea and she’s modern and she’s fresh and her hair is amazing. It’s blonde one day and messy, then it’s straight, then it’s cropped, then it’s brown. I’m watching people like her change. Go from this person to that person to this person. That was my business, like watching Linda Evangelista have long hair, then she cut her hair into a short haircut, then she’s in the Freedom video with bleach blonde hair. She looked great with long hair, she looks great with short hair, she looks great with blonde hair. It was that age, and I really absorbed that and learned my craft. Not one thing isn’t your thing. You can change. Each change can be better than the last.
JOHN:
But what about the drugs? Why were you into the drugs then? Was that just to have an exciting life or to rebel against your family?
CHRIS:
The salons. Hairdressing. If it had hair in it, I liked it. I didn’t do [drugs] because my dad wasn’t there for me, because I didn’t care if he was or not, or because he was an ass. My mom didn’t beat me, you know what I mean? I had no one to blame. I did it because I enjoyed it. I thought it made me creative.
JOHN:
Oh, you did?
CHRIS:
Sure.
JOHN:
So then when you decided you were done with it, that eventful evening 21 years ago, how were you able to regain your confidence in your craft and your art to continue when the drugs were gone? How did you manage that?
CHRIS:
I was arrested. Evasion, possession, hit and run. And I was sentenced to a men’s sober living house upon completion, meaning that it was up to them to decide when you’re ready. It’s not like I went for a month. I was there for 18 months. I lived in a house in Century City with 30 guys for a year and a half.
JOHN:
And how did that affect you?
CHRIS:
Loved it. And for a year I didn’t do hair. I quit hair. Then my first job back was Jennifer Aniston getting married to Brad Pitt.
JOHN:
No way, your first job back? How did you get that gig?
CHRIS:
Jennifer Aniston. She came and she asked me if I would do her hair. We had always talked about it. I remember that I took my sponsor, Damien, with me to the wedding. And when I got back to the [sober living] house after the wedding, they made me clean all five bathrooms. Because they wanted to remind me … number one, you’re an alcoholic, number two, you’re a hairdresser. I could hide behind ‘me doing your hair makes you happy and like me,’ so they wanted to make sure. What sobriety taught me was to like me for me, not for what I can do for you. Because it’s too easy for me, I could make everybody like me because I can do your hair. Doing hair is the easy part. But being a genuine person — I always say this every year — thank you for teaching me how to be a friend, how to have a friend, thank you for letting me be a brother and have a brother, thank you for all those things. Because I didn’t know how to do those things.
But we went to two AA meetings a day. Everybody had chores. And there were rules and regulations. And you learned to follow rules. Like one of the rules I’ll never forget was no shoes on carpet, no socks on marble. If you walked on the carpet with your shoes on, you had to write a 1000 word essay.
JOHN:
Wow. That’s hardcore.
CHRIS:
…and the guys would be like, ‘What does this have to do with sobriety?’ It has nothing to do with sobriety. It’s, ‘Can you follow simple directions?’ Period. And when I got that I was like, ‘I can follow directions.’
JOHN:
Did you find that you thought you were smarter than some of them? I mean the people that were in charge of you? Did you rebel at all, or did you just become passive and think, ‘I’m in my life and I need this.’
CHRIS:
I did the first three times I was there. I didn’t get it on my first one, but when you’re done and you surrender, you’re done. Then you open your mind up enough to listen to other people that have been sober longer than you, to basically get an extra day. The one day at a time truly means one day at a time. It doesn’t matter how smart you are, it doesn’t matter how rich you are. It’s kind of like that now in the pandemic. This has really really taught us money doesn’t buy happiness. Being super smart doesn’t make you better than the next person, you know what I mean?
JOHN:
Going back to the program, what tools did it give you? Are you allowed to talk about that, or not?
CHRIS:
Of course. There’s a huge toolbox. [Asking for help] is the number one tool. It’s one of the hardest things to do because our egos and our pride get in the way. But the minute you start asking for help, it’s called humility, and that’s the most beautiful tool. There nothing wrong with it. And actually there is more power in that than anything.
Like keeping it simple. Surrendering. And there’s a thing that says you’re powerless over people, places and things and situations. Until you have acceptance that you’re powerless over people, places, things and situations, you will have no serenity. It’s a line in the big book. And it’s one of the greatest tools that I have. Because the minute I start trying to control my environment, it never works. Until I surrender and let things happen the way they’re going to happen, in God’s world … I know we’re in the Republican National Convention week, and that they’re talking a lot about praying and Jesus Christ, but God can be whatever you want it to be. For me it was the ocean. Because when I go to the ocean and I jump in the ocean, I feel it’s like a natural antiseptic. Cleansing.
JOHN:
Yes, I hear you. I need to get to the ocean at least once a week just to stand there and just to breathe. I was having a really tough week, couple of weeks ago, I just had to get out. I went over to Malibu and Point Dume, and the beaches were terrible, they were so full. Too many people without masks. So I went and I found this little overlook. And I just stood there, I just literally stood. I didn’t sit down. Just for about half an hour and I breathed it all in. And I was still. It was like a standing meditation.
That kind of soothes me when I’m feeling really stressed. Do you meditate?
CHRIS:
I actually do meditate right here, where I’m sitting right now. I go through spurts of it. I’m not consistent with my meditation. And I like trans-meditation. I learned how to do TM. I have a lot of questions. It’s very interesting you ask, because the guy that taught it to me, that’s when I thought I was the smarter one … because I always have high energy. So meditation to me, when I go to places where people are meditating and stuff I’m like, ‘I’m not buying this.’ Because my head wanders. But I was able to ask all those questions, and I got the approval that everything that I do while I’m meditating is normal and okay. Just get right back on track, do your best. Someone gave me the mantra and I forgot that word. But it comes to me now. Like I count to 10 and, ‘Oh there it is.’ And I remember this is how … I say it out loud, then I whisper it, then I say it in my head, then I breathe it.
JOHN:
I forgot my mantra after about a year of doing TM everyday. I tried to retrieve it and they said you can only go back to the same guy who instructed you. He had moved away, but I found him. I was sure it was something mystical, a Sanskrit term, you know, some wonderful old ancient word. Then he gave me a new one and it’s really basic! But it works. And that made me realize that the mantra is really just a grounding rod to bring you back as your mind wanders.
I want to know, when are you in your element? Are you in it all the time? You come across as a moment to moment person … is it when you’re in love, when you’re with your boyfriend, when you’re on a beautiful boat somewhere and you’re just relaxing? Or is it when you’re working out?
CHRIS:
Definitely not when I’m working out!
JOHN:
But what about when you did the AIDS/LifeCycle Ride? How was that?
CHRIS:
That was an amazing time of my life and I couldn’t believe I did it. It’s one of the greatest things I’ve ever done. I can’t wait to do it again.
JOHN:
I want to do that with you one day. I really do.
CHRIS:
By the way, you and I, we’re doing it together.
JOHN:
I remember you coming back and you were on such a high.
CHRIS:
I’ll bring my bike up to you and we’ll get on a bike and we’ll go for a 10 mile bike ride. Then the next week we’ll go on a 12 mile then a 15 mile. We’ll work our way up. By the way, we’re not camping, we’re going to stay in…
JOHN:
…I know, going to stay in nice hotels!
What do you think your greatest strength is?
CHRIS:
My greatest strength is connecting to people I think. Just the basic connection. Being able to communicate. Just simply adapting. You’re the same guy John. It’s not like, ‘Oh I can connect.’
JOHN:
No, it’s just organic.
CHRIS:
And we don’t try, we just have this energy.
JOHN:
You enjoy it, don’t you? And I think you want to enhance every experience that you have, right? And you want to lift people.
CHRIS:
It’s easy and it doesn’t matter who … I’m not looking for any particular type or kind. It’s any type. All people. I have a gift of being able to communicate with people. You have it too though. We make people feel comfortable.
JOHN:
I want to see the best in people, I want to make the best of every situation I go into. I just want it to be a better experience for me being there. And it’s not about being arrogant. It’s about life, so let’s make it good.
I didn’t give you a chance to answer about your element. So would you say you’re in your element when you’re at work and you’re just running the salon, you’re making women feel beautiful?
CHRIS:
Today I went and I did Selma Blair’s hair. And she was bald, she’s growing it out. She has MS of course. I cut it short on the sides and back and left it long on top. It’s now kind of in sort of a shag, and I was really into it and kind of thinking the Charlotte Gainsborough haircut. And maybe let it grow in, these pieces, let’s not cut your hair off, let’s not do a Linda Evangelista, let’s do Mick Jagger. I wanted it to look rock and roll and cool. And I went there and I did it and she loved it, and her manager was watching me and he’s like, ‘You still are just as excited today as you were 20 years ago.’
JOHN:
Yeah, you’re in your element, you found it.
CHRIS:
Naturally without trying. It clicked in, it was a picture that David Bailey shot of Mick Jagger years ago when he was young, this little shag cut. It wasn’t long but it wasn’t short, and I just saw it. And I knew what we needed to do.
JOHN:
Amazing. How long did that take you? How long were you with her?
CHRIS:
Oh she was great. It took me an hour and a half. She got makeup done, she had a cute little Tommy Hilfiger dress on, she felt pretty. In a time of COVID right now, she’s gotten her hair done, she got her makeup done, and she got to sit in front of a camera.
JOHN:
Amazing. And you made her feel great. You lifted her.
CHRIS:
Which was nice. I got to do what I got to do, I got to see her kid. We’re all inching our ways back to each other right now slowly.
JOHN:
I know. I’m so obsessed with what I’m doing now with Mr Feelgood, I feel like I’ve been reborn. This is the best gift I’ve been given, really. And it’s been terrifying. It really is challenging, but it’s exhilarating as well, and I’m finding these places in myself that I never thought I had. Or I knew I had, but I had disconnected from. And now I’m working this energy. I haven’t been able to sleep for a week because we’ve got so much going on, but also as I’m so inspired.
CHRIS:
You write the most beautiful text messages and emails.
JOHN:
Oh, thank you. Well it’s sincere and heartfelt.
CHRIS:
I know you’re right in there, because they’re just like a good paragraph of where you’re at, what you’re doing. You’re communicating that out there [to me].
John and Chris attending an event at the Getty Museum in March 2017
JOHN:
I know one question that came to me today when I was running. What kind of advice would a gay man give to a straight man? And especially if the straight man was xenophobic or homophobic? If you’ve got the time and the inclination, is there a way to actually communicate to that person who is judgmental, that would alter their perspective? Does that make sense or is that too heady?
CHRIS:
No, no, no, let me think. Because I grew up in an era where … we’re 55 … where when we admitted we were gay, or when we admitted we were punk rockers, or admitted we were whatever we were, we forced it on you. There was that sort of rebellion, like I’m going to make out with a guy in front of a straight guy and just freak him out. You know what I mean?
There was a time I remember that we were like that. But I think now we all need to be a little more considerate to everybody’s feelings. I think everybody is actually OK deep down inside with [differences], but don’t force it on them. We’re being force fed what people want us to believe right now through social media. I think that we need to breathe and be patient with people. I think that xenophobe or that homophobe, just let them be who they are, and then we have this gift. And we get to use that gift to not put that person in fear. And be like, ‘Oh yeah, this person is not so bad.’ It doesn’t need to be addressed forcefully. I think that baby steps, gray areas, just really play in those areas and allow people to learn … you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. Everyone gets thirsty. They’ll drink the water eventually.
JOHN:
Where do you think you’ll be in five, 10 years time? Do you know? Have you got an idea? Have you got a dream?
CHRIS:
Paris.
JOHN:
I remember you saying to me actually, when I was in the salon with Marley once, you said, ‘Oh I’m going to be an old man in Paris. I’ve just bought an apartment. You can come over …’ and I was like, ‘I’m there!’
CHRIS:
I want to be an old man in Paris. I want to buy a baguette in the morning, I want to drink my coffee, I want to go sit in Luxembourg, the Tuileries, the Palais Royale. I want to be a little old man walking the streets.
JOHN:
Yeah. Well you’ll be fierce and fit, I know you will. Is there anything you would change about your past?
CHRIS:
Career-wise is there anything that I regret? Probably not taking advantage of the ‘Rachel’, of the moment when all the opportunities that knocked on my door at that time to create a hair product, all those things. But I’ve never mis-used Jennifer Aniston’s celebrity and/or the Rachel celebrity. I don’t regret it because I’m so lucky to have Jennifer in my life. I know that. She will always be there for me. She’s been the most loyal, not only personally but also allowing me to be creative, and sharing our creative ideas. We have a great friendship, it’s not a secret, people know it, and it’s old school. So it’s not a regret, but I wonder if there was a way I could have navigated it better.
JOHN:
But that was a crazy time in your life. You were coping with getting off drugs.
CHRIS:
Right, at the same time too. I didn’t feel worthy enough when I created the ‘Rachel.’ I just took a model’s haircut and put it on an actress. I tell Ward [Stegerhoek, hairdresser] all the time — he and I are very close — you’re the one that did the Rachel cut! You’re the one that inspired me!
JOHN:
Chris, one more question. When do you feel at peace… because you’re so high energy in the best possible way. You’re so vulnerable and open. This is something I’m sort of exploring at the moment, men and vulnerability. And I don’t really know what that’s supposed to mean. I am who I am, and you are who you are. So what I’m curious about is when do you actually feel peace? You, yourself. Is it in action, is it in prayer, is it in meditation?
CHRIS:
I’ll tell you where — it’s when him and I — when I’m with the one that I’m in love with.
He is really a true romantic, and he has also taught me how to love the simple things like going downstairs for breakfast in a hotel in Deauville, and just taking a walk and looking at the old houses. Taking the train ride from Paris to Deauville. That was an amazing trip, and I’ll never forget. You know, it was the simple things.
JOHN:
Bless you, I love you. Thank you. I’m going to let you go because you need to … and I need to eat!
