ATTITUDE IS EVERYTHING

Chuck "THE ICEMAN" Liddell

May 5, 2010, Saharan Hotel, Hollywood

One fine day in Southern California, I got a room at the Saharan Hotel on Sunset Blvd to do a shoot with Chuck Liddell for the ICON issue of Fighters Only Magazine. It was going to be more of a lifestyle shoot which meant expanding Chuck’s day to day style but not pushing it too far to where he would be uncomfortable. Chuck shows up, a bit nervous but willing to try anything and he sat in a chair for the groomer to work with him. There was a hotel employee lurking around and he saw Chuck in the room with his shirt off getting his face and hair worked on and then the stylist was having him try on various outfits.

I was still loading my gear and grip into the room, and the hotel manage screams out at me..“Hey, there are no porno shoots here my friend. We don’t do that at this hotel. You can’t shoot porno’s here. When you got this room you said nothing about any kind of porno shoot! I’m calling the police!”

Hearing the words “I’m calling the Police” shot fear up my spine even though we were completely within our rights to use the room as a base camp. I wasn’t shooting anything on the property, so all should have been fine.

If the LAPD shown up, I know they were not going to listen to my side of they story and we would have had to leave. So I went to the hotel office, and paid him $250.00 extra to let us stay.

I get back to the room and Chuck was dressed in a black jacket with leather accents, no shirt, fat ass pinky ring, a necklace, bracelet and some Prada shades. His mohawk and goatee were lined up and honestly I was impressed. He wore it well and it fit that rebel style he likes. I asked him, how does it feel not to be in a Tapout shirt, jeans and flip flops? He responded with a smirk and a massive fist with a middle finger.

That was Chuck’s style and his initial gut response. That’s who Chuck is. Whatever his initial response is generally how he feels and anyone around, just has to navigate it.

As uncomfortable as Chuck may have been, he understood what I was trying to do with him and this image is one of my all time favorites.

This is a Limited Edition Giclée on cotton fiber paper. /  Edition Size is limited to 72 pieces.

The image Size is "16x20" / Approximate framed size “24 x 28”

Artwork will be signed by photographer Eric Williams.