When Brandon Sklenar rolled into our sunny Bel-Air cover shoot, we never would have known the charming actor doesn’t like having his picture taken. “A few years ago I probably would have been hiding behind the couch,” admits Sklenar with a crooked grin, “but I’m trying to embrace it.”
It may sound like an oxymoron, a camera-shy actor, but Brandon explains it perfectly. “When you’re on camera, you’re not thinking about yourself, you’re pretending the camera doesn’t exist. In a photoshoot there’s nothing to hide behind, you start thinking about yourself. It’s like this self-consciousness just breeds all this weird behavior. I start making weird faces, tensing up in weird places, it’s like one eyebrow goes up a little higher than the other one.” Though the Jersey native may have been worried, our team was none the wiser as Brandon tackled the beautiful California shoot with the quiet confidence of a seasoned pro. With 20,000 square feet of backdrop at the exceptional 1859 Bel Air Property, Sklenar seemed to fit right in at the sprawling 68-million dollar estate.
Born and raised in Northern New Jersey, Brandon’s passion for acting started young. “I had a really bad speech impediment – a stutter, and dyslexia when I was a kid,” he explains, “I was in a lot of public speaking classes to try and get rid of my crazy stutter, and they make you perform plays and whatnot, and I think that got me into it.” An obsession with movies turned into creating short films with his friends, and by the age of 14. Sklenar told his dad that as soon as he graduated high school he was moving to LA to become an actor. A few years later he made good on his promise, packing up his car two months into college and taking off for Los Angeles at 19 years old. “It’s kind of a classic story. I obviously didn’t know anyone and I started doing odd jobs and looking for an agent. I was at Mel’s diner and I ended up going up to this guy to ask him for a lighter and he happened to be an actor and he helped me get an agent.”
Now 32 years old, it’s safe to say Brandon’s teenage gamble paid off, garnering an impressive career in both film and television over the past decade – along with some truly unique job experience. – READ THE FULL ARTICLE IN PRINT
Photography by John Russo
Interview by Doug McLaughlin
Words by Emma Ungaro
Styled by Madeleine Kennedy
Styling assistant Grace Taylor
Grooming by Tim Muir
Shot on Location at 1859 Bel Air | listed for $68M by Sally Forster Jones, Compass
