“I just want to be wonderful”

Laura Nixon spends much of her working life performing for men, wearing corsets and posing in the nude. It’s not your average nine-to-five. But then it’s not your average woman who transforms herself into a Fifties’ sex bomb at the age of 16.

After seeing a Marilyn Monroe impersonator at one of her favourite Brighton jazz clubs, Laura began to study the way she performed, her make-up and her costumes, and soon came to realise that she could do it all herself. She now gets paid more than she is willing to divulge to appear as the blonde icon at corporate events.

“No one ever told me I looked like Marilyn and it took months for me to learn how to imitate her,” Laura says. “But once I had everything perfect I took to the stage.

“When I had her down I signed up with every London lookalike agent and started getting work straight away. Never in a million years did I think that I would be a Marilyn Monroe lookalike for a living but I had nothing to lose and just threw myself into it.”

While Laura spends most of her life as the bubbly blonde, she admits that Marilyn wasn’t a particular idol of hers: “I always thought she was great and very beautiful, but I still find it strange that I am a lookalike of her. I think she continues to appeal to people because of her unique mixture of innocence and smoking hot sexiness.

“Also, in the Forties and Fifties women looked like women, and men looked like men.”

From Peterborough to Portugal

Laura’s first gig was for car maker Chrysler in Peterborough six years ago - “I sat on the bonnet of a sports car for three hours and had my photo taken my hundreds of people” – and since then her work has taken her to the more exotic locations of Seattle, Bulgaria and Portugal, although the majority of her work is in London.

“I travel by train to wherever I am performing, get a cab to my hotel, change into Marilyn and then get picked up and taken to the event,” she explains.

“I do a 30-minute cabaret performance singing all of her songs and always end up surrounded by the big shots: Men bend over backwards just to make Marilyn smile at them.”

However, some have been known to get a little too excited by ‘Marilyn’: “I got offered £3,000 to have sex with a business man in my hotel room,” says Laura. “I gave him a kiss on the cheek and took £50.”

Although finding it difficult to pick out a favourite gig, Laura plumps for the time she sung live on Bulgarian TV - “I stayed in the penthouse suit in the Hilton and got driven everywhere in a limo” - and says that the most interesting person she’s met through her work was another lookalike: “The Frank Sinatra I met was amazing.”

Model image
As well as making a living through Marilyn, Laura also works as herself, modelling for fashion shoots and nude art, yet says that her alter-ego also plays a part in this.

“I was very awkward with myself as a child but Marilyn helped me realise my own unique beauty and I feel very comfortable naked,” she explains.

“I love my body and I’m very proud of my nude photos because I know one day I won’t look like that anymore. When I’m naked, I feel like a woman.

Laura recently died her peroxide blonde hair red to match the electric guitar she was using for a shoot, realising a childhood dream of “being a red-haired rock star.”

It remains to be seen how long her locks will stay this colour, after all Marilyn never strayed from her trademark blonde, and Laura is keen to keep making a living “doing what she loves”. But the recent change of image makes it clear that Marilyn doesn’t own Laura. Rather it’s Laura that calls the shots in this relationship.

To find out more about Laura and to hire Marilyn for events, visit www.lauranixon.co.uk
IMAGES: 1 & 2 Ridge Photography 3 & 4 Sam Eddison