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Sonia Fitch Interview
("All American Woman")
She’s a swimsuit model.
She’s a lingerie model.
She’s been a Playboy model.
She’s an “All American Woman”.
She is Sonia Fitch.
Q – Sonia, I usually hear those stories of models being “discovered” as they’re walking down the street or sitting by a pool or on the beach, and they’re approached by a photographer or an agent. But, you knew at the age of 13 that you wanted to be a model?
A – Oh, definitely. Actually probably younger than that. Maybe as early as 6 or 7. I knew I wanted to get involved with it, even at that young age because I had like an intuition. Kids sometime can sense that if they want to be a great gymnast or a great swimmer. They just have that built into them. I just knew at a very young age. I think my parents wanted me to mature a little bit and even though 13 is really not mature, in a sense they really wanted me to realize I definitely wanted to do that. You had to make sure of it. And they had to be sure of it before they invested their time and money actually to make it come to fruition.
Q – Was it expensive to go to modeling school?
A – Actually it was pretty expensive and I paid a great deal of money to go there and I actually paid a lot of that on my own because I was about 18 when I went there. Of course I was working and at a high school and had my first job and everything and kind of didn’t do the traditional thing where people go directly to college. I didn’t do any of that. I just chose to work instead and then pursued a modeling school which to me felt like college because it was tough. (Laughs).
Q – What is a modeling school looking for before they will accept you? They don’t accept just anybody do they?
A – Well, modeling schools can be that way because they’re kind of like a shark in a water. They just want to make the money and bring the profit.
Q – They’re you go.
A – Right. You gotta be careful and do your homework on agencies and modeling schools in particular. For me, it wasn’t like I walked in the door and they said, ‘Oh, you can come in’. There is a criteria the school I went to looked for. For me, I didn’t want to do Runway. I dropped out when I was really young and even though I’m tall enough, I’m 5’8” which is the lowest height you can be to do Runway work, I decided I really didn’t want to do that. I pursued the print aspect of modeling like commercial modeling and magazines. When I went to school I told them that’s what I wanted to focus on and they said, ‘o.k. we can help you a great deal. We’ll coach you through it and get you a great photographer’. And then they do a shoot with you through the school. They can actually see if you’re photogenic even if you’ve never modeled in your life which I did a little bit, but I never did the print aspect until I was older. The school I went to was really beneficial in being able to tell people if they were photogenic. You have to be half-way photogenic to do the print aspect of modeling. Not everybody that looks gorgeous in person is going to photograph well.
Q – Did you see modeling as being a stepping stone to something bigger?
A – Yes, I did. I think anybody that gets into modeling or acting immediately think it’s going to be a stepping stone to their fame, to become a celebrity or just advancing themselves in life and maybe the monetary gain. I did look at it that way.
Q – Have you ever done t.v. commercials or appeared in a t.v. show or a film?
A – No. Even as I got older I kind of wanted to branch off. Just now I’m willing to try infomercials. I’m in the process of trying to do an infomercial to represent a product. Actually a few years ago I was approached via e-mail by a co. and I didn’t even think it was real and legit until I really did my homework and looked into the co. They wanted to hire me to represent a piece of gym equipment that Christie Brinkley and Chuck Norris represented. The person they were going to hire was going to replace Christie Brinkley and they were going to go ahead and work with Chuck Norris doing the product. So, what happened was, she decided to stay onboard and I was never able to get that contract and that would’ve been my infomercial on television. I stuck with print work for so long that I didn’t even think about branching off until just recently. (Laughs).
Q – That would’ve been a great break for you.
A – Oh, definitely. That was gonna be one of my bigger breaks than Playboy probably was.
Q – Did you have an agent? How did you get your name and face out to these magazines?
A – I’ve been on the Internet since 1998 and before that, there was a big break in my modeling. I took a break and pursued another career for awhile. Then, when I got back into it, the Internet was becoming really big back in the 90’s. Right around 1998, when I got online, I noticed a lot of people were starting to deal with the Internet. It was kind of exploding by then. I met a contact right in Maryland where I’m from. I got really lucky because this particular small agency, it was a small outfit, they actually were in D.C. and they decided to represent me non-exclusive, which meant that I could go ahead and work with them and be able to work with other agencies as well, because even though they were representing me, they were doing it non-exclusive which made me feel like I had the freedom to go and be with someone else, represent with someone else. They found me a lot of work when I worked with them for a few years, but then I branched off and just started free-lancing and got a lot of my work through the Internet. So, that sort of helped me too. I didn’t go back to another agency. I decided to go ahead and free-lance for awhile.
Q – I see on your website, www.soniamodel.com you state “No pornographic work”. Does that mean you’ve been approached about doing that type of work in the past?
A – Oh, my gosh, on the Internet definitely. It runs rampant. There’s so much porn out there that literally what you think would not be porn I’ve been approached by people and actually tricked into doing a shoot I didn’t think was pornographic. I actually showed up at one modeling job and the man was explaining to me all the criteria and I do a lot of my homework before I even go on a modeling job just not to waste my time or their time. When I got there I soon realized what it was about and I just walked right back out the door. You have to be very, very careful.
Q – You showed up there alone?
A – No, no, no. I always have a chaperone wherever I go. I have my boyfriend, or a family member or a friend always on my shoots with me.
Q – You can’t protect yourself out there.
A – I know. I take mace with me and everything, believe it or not. I’ve been stalked and that’s not been fun.
Q – You come prepared. I’m impressed.
A – (Laughs). I also know self-defence. I kick-box. I know karate. I’m set-----unless they have a gun.
Q – That’s the big worry.
A – Right.
Q – You appeared in Playboy in May of 2000?
A – Yes.
Q – Did that help out your career in anyway? You weren’t the Centerfold?
A – No. I was a Grapevine Model. Playboy has a section in the back of their magazine called The Grapevine Girls. It just gives girls a chance, if they can’t make Centerfold, it gives them a chance to go ahead and get their name out there. If your new in the circuit they really like the girl that’s not over-exposed and been everywhere in every magazine. I was able to get a lot of jobs and a lot of contacts through being seen in Playboy. I actually gained a lot of fan base to my personal website from being in the magazine. And, that was good.
Q – You bill yourself as the “All American Woman”.
A – Right. When my website was created I just came up with that little I guess you could say catch-phrase. I thought it set me apart from a lot of the other models that are out there because they have kind of cutesy titles and stuff and I just wanted to be a little more unique.
Q – That’s smart.
A – Marketing. (Laughs).
Q – That’s an important part of show business.
A – Right. Exactly.
Q – You have your own radio show?
A – It’s an Internet radio show. It’s broadcast live through the network Blog talk radio. Anybody can pretty much up set an account with ‘em and create their own personal radio show. It’s just something I wanted to tinker with. I thought if I do interviews like you’re doing with me, it would help me with my infomercial skills, if I were to go ahead and represent a product. The radio show, to make a long story short, in general, is a variety show. I call it ‘The Variety Topics Talk’. I just came up with that little, snazzy phrase. I just thought I’m gonna make this a variety show and cover a lot of topics and I’m gonna interview a lot of guests for expertise in their area. On my show I’ve had a cosmetic surgeon. Just yesterday I interviewed David Dubois who’s worked with Renee Zelwiger. He’s an actor and producer and he comes from Maryland. I’ve interviewed the commercial actor; model Aaron Marcus who’s worked with ‘Law and Order’. I’m gonna be interviewing Areva Martin and she’s an expert on autism and a famous writer and been on Oprah. It’s just a variety of people. I like to keep the show nice and exciting and passionate about it. I think with modeling and things like that you gotta be passionate about it to want to do it.
Official website: www.soniamodel.com
© Gary James All Rights Reserved
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