Kristina and Karissa Shannon -- a.k.a. The Shannon Twins -- have made the unlikely step from Playboy reality show starlets to actual stars of a respectable movie.As if it were some sort of indie-movie master plan, "The Girls Next Door" blonde-duo hold down serious screen-time in Sofia Coppola's "Somewhere."
"Sofia says it was meant to be," Kristina tells PopcornBiz.
Indeed, fate and Google lent helping hands. Coppola was not aware of the wildly popular E! programs detailing the lives of Hugh Hefner's various female/blonde housemates when she went casting for the part of hot twins for the movie about an actor living in the decadent Chateau Marmont.
"She just went on the computer and Googled twins," Kristina explains. "And me and Karissa's pictures popped up. We're like the only hot twins out there besides the Olsen twins."
The two met with Coppola who immediately snapped up the duo. The director decided that the "girl-ier" twin Kristina was right for the part of Stephen Dorff's dancer/girlfriend. Karissa plays her fellow dancer/twin sister.
"I was cool with it," Karissa says about not getting the bigger part, "She's girl-ier than me. I'm more tomboyish."
Kristina says that during the shoot, Karissa would give the kind of advice only a sister can give. "Sofia would let her watch the monitor while me and Stephen were filming. Karissa would then tell me you look better when you do this or that. We were all working together."
Since filming the movie, Karissa and her longtime boyfriend Sam Jones III have been working on a reality show following their lives.
"The movie is going to be iconic."
Credit: NBC Connecticut
