Kiss and Tell: An Interview With Nikki Reed

I recently interviewed Nikki Reed at an event called Kiss and Tell for Gillette. Gillette was interested in knowing if men and women prefer kisses with a smooth shaven face or some stubble. Before I get to the results of that survey, I want to talk to you about the adorable, hardworking and talented person that is Nikki Reed. (She is also a huge fan of HelloGiggles!)

Briefly before the interview we talked about how awesome HelloGiggles is but unfortunately, I couldn’t sit and gush with her about the wonderful HG community for long. I had much more important things to talk to her about, like facial hair, first kisses and also some pretty great advice for women (and men) who are following their passion even when it’s scary.

You can read the full interview below.

So, Mustaches seem to often dominate pop culture. It all seems to be very trendy lately. How do you feel about facial hair on men?

I like a man who takes care of himself. So one of the things that I think genuinely attracted me to Paul [McDonald, her husband] was that he really cares about what he looks like and he grooms himself, you know? And so even though I’ve only seen him a few times with a completely clean shaven face, I do appreciate that it’s either shaved or with a full beard and not an in between day and a half-old whiskery thing all the time.

So you prefer a smooth shave?

Yeah! If it was between a smooth shave or stubble, I prefer the smooth shave. But whatever Paul wants to do. I love him.

Oh that’s so cute! Okay, so I want to ask you about your first kiss…

Sure! Yes. Okay so I was just trying to think about this. I think my first kiss, I can’t remember my first “mouth” kiss for some reason but I do remember my first weird awkward cheek kiss. It was in Kindergarten and this guy came up to me and he put his arm around me and he said “You’re my girlfriend.” and I was like, “Okay!” He gave me his peanut butter sandwich and it was peanut butter and honey. I remember that because I’d never heard of that. So he gave me his peanut butter and honey sandwich and I was his girlfriend for nine minutes and he kissed me on the cheek and then he asked me to kiss him on the cheek back. And that was my first relationship- all nine and half minutes of it. Clearly, I’ve taken it with me to my adult life. He had a really smooth face by the way. He was six and a half years old.

That’s so good to hear. Some kids these days. They grow up way too fast and have a full beard going on! So many of our readers are young independent creative types.

I love that. That’s why I love the site!

Yeah it’s so great! Do you have advice for readers who are pursuing their passion?

Yes! You have to keep doing it. and I tell myself this everyday. Let me just tell you a small story?

Yes! Go for it!

So I launched my jewelry collection, about 3 and half months ago was the one-year anniversary. It’s called Mattlin Era [you can check it out here] and the journey to getting that done, I mean, if your readers are who you say they are, they’ll really appreciate this. I’m not saying I had a million opportunities and I was passing on them, because that’s not true, but I was very specific about what I wanted. I can only stand behind something if I feel like it came from the most genuine, organic place.

So I sketched my jewelry and I designed my jewelry and you have no idea how many people were resistant or scared of the idea of someone wanting to create something on their own, because then they don’t have the opportunity to do something they want. Getting to that place was really challenging. There were so many obstacles and so many things standing in my way.

I had to walk in and fight and toss my sketches down so when they would say “You can’t do this.” or “We don’t believe you.” I could say “Well here it is! I am doing this!” I feel like no matter where I’m at in my career whether I am successful right now or not, however I’m categorized, I am always fighting for what I want to do. Nothing is handed to me. Well, I mean, my mom still makes me dinner so that’s handed to me. This year I fought so hard for parts. No one sees me as a funny or quirky because I’ve played a lot of very serious and dark characters. It’s great that they can’t separate me from that because I guess it means I’ve done something right, but it is frustrating because I had to fight really hard for these roles this year in order to play these characters who were huge departures from what I normally do. I also wrote an entire record with Paul and that was also huge. [Nikki and Paul’s EP called “The Best Part” can be heard over on Spotify here!]

It’s not that I want and crave respect, it’s that I want people to believe in me and see what I know I’m capable of doing. In order to do that you just have to keep going. You have to keep going. If you love something and you want something, the only thing you have to do is keep educating yourself and working hard. If you want to be an actor, I would say stay in school and keep educating yourself. Not to have a back up plan but to be able to pursue other things as well.

Ah that’s exactly what I’m doing now! Thank you that’s comforting to hear!

Yes! Keep writing and working hard.

Isn’t she great?! The results of Gilette’s survey will be released on Valentine’s Day so keep your eyes peeled! In the meantime, you can follow Nikki on Twitter and also check out her EP, “The Best Part.“.

Featured image via ShutterStock