Celebs in elevators. Oh dear. Ignore everything you have read so far about this subject. All the talk about Tom Cruise or Robert Downey Jnr is really endlessly rehearsed and re-hashed rubbish – it’s same old same old dreary stuff. And what you see of it does not inspire confidence.
The footwear of both of these guys, particularly RDJ, does no favours to elevators and masks the fact that large numbers of celebrities – many very tall already – wear elevators well and convincingly. And with great style. And you, dear reader, have no idea. And those guys are of far greater interest.
I have seen shots of RDJ which are a truly truly horrendous look and if I had seen them in 2014 before buying my first elevators I would have thought: “If he has all that money as the highest paid actor in the world and he looks like that in elevators, then Pass on that please. Not for me”.
So if you will excuse me I am going to make no further comment on these two guys because they are an irrelevant distraction.
Many celebs add height
Here is my take on this and I have some experience because of what I do. For 20 years I have run club nights in many European cities. It’s my actual job. Some are really popular, some are run with others, we get loads of well-known people through the doors and I can say to you 100% that a huge number, even those you would be stunned to learn, many already very tall, wear added height.
Famous people (and their agents!) will of course push back on anyone who tries to say, for example, that they have cosmetic surgery, revive their hair through various interventions…or of course add height. Their business IS, after all, about illusion. So for example, one guy in action movies has had so much work done on his body by way of muscle implants etc. But of course you simply would never know because like most GOOD work on creating illusions, it is undetectable unless you know the person well. The illusion demands that you think it all natural and real – many guys in that position will not even say they work out. Just that they are naturally big and strong (again, all part of the illusion). Most actors in their 50s who colour their hair actually sue any journalist who claims (correctly) that they dye it! And unless you have a shot of someone sat by a sink dripping with jet black dye you cannot prove it and are therefore unable to prove ‘the lie’ (even though it’s true).
Image is the key
Image is right down to the tiniest thing like that and well known people and their agents collectively blacklist any journalist who will not write the story about them in a fawning and copy-approved way. No hint at anything like ‘artifice’ allowed. Period. Right down to the smallest detail. So you will NEVER learn that someone is wearing elevators unless they actually tell you. For some reason whatever that might be (money I guess).
This discretion is an extreme example, though, of how we all feel. For example take me. I under no circumstances want people who come to my club nights and be pointing at my boots and suggesting that I am probably really short. Devaluing my image.
If you work in any way with well known people, you have to be totally discreet. I know many for a fact who add height through lifts and elevators. And man they do it well. Many you would be amazed at. Because I have written about the subject a bit, I also get contacted a lot and end up learning (usually after years of trust building) the identity of some of these guys and they are occasionally seriously well known.
Top sportsmen, actors, musicians
The amazing thing is that you get guys like top sportsmen who want to be a few inches taller when away from the field. Actors (in huge huge quantities), musicians etc.
One of my great inspirations to add height (and I am tall myself) was a v v tall musician who came to my clubs in the early days in a group (waaaaay taller than anyone else) and I realised the boots he wore were designed to make him even taller. I also, as a kid in my late teens just starting in the business, worked for a club promoter who actually showed me one day in confidence that he added height! He told me of about a dozen really well known guys who did the same. But of course the caveat was that you were now in the ‘circle’ and there was no way you could ever blab or gossip with detail. If you ever call someone out or puncture their valuable brand/image then you yourself are basically at the end of the road in any business where you want the involvement of these people.
Impossible to detect
This is the real point – elevators are now sophisticated, technically clever and impossible to detect up to a certain height level. Above that level in the public eye and you need to think more carefully about what you wear and how.One action actor I know very well from my clubs (again already very tall and built) is famous for being big. And daily he wears stuff like 3 inch elevators and Cuban heel boots with big lifts in them.
For nights out and partying when he wants to look enormous and his feet are not in full view through potential photographs, he wears the thicker soled 5 or 6 inch elevators and everyone is ‘OMG he is just SO big wow’ etc.
His aim is always to keep that image up. And there is a lesson for all the rest of us mere mortals – it is that we too have an image we want to foster and then maintain, albeit not to the same degree for most. And if you are reading this, then added height is pretty much likely to be part of what you wantfor your image. The other lesson is that celebs are shameless in creating that image – and if they are, we should be too. It’s what I fortunately learned in my late teens back then. No shame, no embarrassment, no coyness. Just get on and do it and reap the rewards.
