Tulsa, OK -
Are you obsessed with revenge? We're talking about the new hit ABC show. It airs Wednesday nights on Tulsa's Channel 8, and it features Tulsan Amber Valletta. She's busy shooting "Revenge" in Los Angeles, but before she landed that show, she was in a number of films like 2000s "Drop Back Ten", 2005's "Hitch" opposite Will smith, and last year's "The Spy Next Door." None of it would have happened if she hadn't hit the cat walk which catapulted her career.
There's just a bone structure you look for and height and weight and everything that needs to be there for high fashion, and she had all of those attributes," Linda Layman of the Linda Layman Agency in Midtown Tulsa. Valletta was only 14 years old when she walked into the Linda Layman Agency. Back then, the Booker T. Washington student was more into playing soccer than playing dress up. She admits, mom was the one who got her into modeling, and the rest is Hollywood history. "You know it was just one move that changed everything, me going to Linda Layman's changed everything," Valletta told Channel 8's Latoya Silmon.
Her her graduation date changed as a result of her new career. As the calls came for work, it was time to pack up for Paris. High School Principal James Furch remembers it well. He signed off her early graduation. "You just don't forget that, you know everybody wants to go to Paris and be a model. I didn't think it was well, she'll become a super model," he told Tulsa's Channel 8. Valletta wasn't just a super model, many consider her to be a fashion icon because she became the face of fashion houses, and she even appeared on the cover of TIME magazine.
Valletta she says she never forgot her roots. In 1995 just three years after she left Tulsa she returned with a small army of super models and designer Donnatella Versace for a charity fashion show to step out against hunger. "Where I come from is everything. You know your environment creates who you are," explained Valletta. Her cousin Piper Turner understands what that means more than most. Turner says the two are more like sisters than cousins. "She was always sweet and fun we tortured our other cousins together," joked Turner. Long before Amber started acting professionally, she and Piper performed plays that Piper penned for family get togethers. "She was like bossy pants," said Valletta. Piper agrees, but the two are still close. Piper has attended many of Amber's premieres, and she even appeared in one of Amber's films. "I'm actually had a small part in Hitch," Turner told Tulsa's Channel 8.
These days, Piper is a big fan of Amber's latest project. "revenge" is an ABC show about one woman's quest to destroy the rich and powerful who framed her father. Amber's character, Lydia, is one of the targets. "People are obsessed with the show. It's awesome," exclaimed Valletta. She says like her career, her character on the show has taken off. "They were going to kill me, that was what was going to happen, I was going to be dead. I don't know where I'm going at this point." However she plans on enjoying the ride, grateful for every stop in the journey, and making Tulsans proud along the way. "I think what it shows to students is that you can do anything that you want to do if you put your mind to it and work hard enough," said her high school principal. Her cousin Piper says she hasn't changed either, and her former agent says, "I'm very proud of her. I've got goose bumps."
Valletta says she comes home every chance she gets. She lives in the Los Angeles area with her husband Chip Mccaw. He's an Olympic volleyball player who is also from the area. The couple has an 11 year old son. Valletta's mom, who was a single parent, now lives in San Diego.
"Revenge" airs Wednesdays at 9pm on Tulsa's Channel 8.
