By Dennis J. Freeman
Urban supermodel Esther Baxter plays second fiddle to no one. The video and hip hop magazine cover spread queen didn’t back down against the boys when she played tackle football for four years at a youth summer camp.
She didn’t run away from the stiff challenge of climbing the ladder in the urban modeling scene, an arena that has made her a swimsuit and video icon.
“It’s all about being tasteful and not showing too much,” said Baxter in a sit-down interview with News4usonline.com. “It’s about being productive without showing everything. There is a certain appeal to being coy and seductive.”
Baxter’s iconic stature in urban modeling has landed her on many magazines front pages, including being featured on the cover of the Sept. /Oct. edition of King Magazine. Baxter now has her eyes set on cornering the world of acting and becoming a credible thespian. Her ultimate goal is to be part of an award-winning film.
That’s high ambition for any veteran actor to aspire to. For a television and film industry novice that kind of thinking can be viewed as dreaming the impossible dream.
It is not about dreaming for Baxter. It’s about making it happen. It’s about setting goals and following through to achieve them. Growing up as one of 16 children, goal-achieving has been in Baxter’s DNA for a while. Achieving is a simple mandate for the 26-year-old breathtaking beauty.
Her competitive streak won’t allow her to fail. That’s why she believes she’ll become just as successful in acting as she has been in the modeling and video worlds.
“I’m very determined. I don’t like to fail,” Baxter said. “When I set a goal, I’m going to accomplish it. I would really like to have a box-office, winning film…that’s my goal right now. That’s the direction we’re heading into.
“My goals right now are to further my career into acting and to climb that ladder. I know there is that ladder that you have to climb. I had to climb that ladder doing the videos and doing the modeling. I’m trying to reach my goal, which is to be able to star in an award-winning film.”
Baxter has already three films under belt. Granted, the films in which she co-starred, were made up of minor roles, Baxter nonetheless will be using that experience for future projects, including her fourth film, “12 Reasons Why Men Cheat.” In “12 Reasons Why Men Cheat,” Baxter is scheduled to play the lead character in the independent film, a small victory for the budding actress.
“I’m so excited about it,” Baxter said. “It’s very funny. It’s so like real. I’ve had a few relationships issues going on. So, it’s sort of like something I can relate to. It’s going to be fun.”
After leaving the urban video and magazine scene for several years, Baxter worked on her acting chops, inhaling acting lessons and taking classes as she took time out to spend time with her young son. She relocated from New Jersey to Los Angeles to get closer to the Hollywood action. She received some kudos for her roles in “Speed Dating” and “Video Girl,” starring actress Meagan Good.
With the King Magazine spread and her new film, one can make the argument that Baxter is in full comeback mode. But in reality the Miami native never really left the scene; she just took a minor sabbatical to rejuvenate and to refocus on expanding her brand.
“We always had the plan to come back and dabble back into the magazines,” Baxter said. “We did not plan not to do anymore photo shoots ever. It was a break to get away from the video scene and to come back with the film, to have a whole separate entity than Esther Baxter as a video girl-to show that I can actually do the acting. I don’t want them stereotyping me as just another video girl trying to become an actor.
“I haven’t gone back into doing videos or anything like that. I came back to do the shoots, because I felt like a lot of my fans were contacting me, saying they missed seeing my pictures and really, really wanted me to do another spread. I had just done the movie, the film with Megan Good, titled, so I thought it was appropriate to come back and give the fans what they wanted and kind of show I was still here, I was still looking nice. I didn’t go out and get fat or anything like that.”
Baxter is anything but overweight. At 5-foot-7, 138 pounds, Baxter is a statuette beauty who blows you away with her stunning good looks, southern belle charisma and quiet swagger. She’s confident but exudes a dash of humbleness at the same time.
She’s fully aware her assets have been her money-maker. Baxter, who reportedly made $1 million in one year in her heyday as a video and urban magazine model, according to one publication, is not ashamed of that fact.
“God gave me this body,” Baxter said. “I’m proud of my body. It’s an amazing body.”
That amazing body has afforded Baxter the opportunity to move ahead to another level in her professional career, the former teacher said.
“I used that as a stepping stone to get higher,” Baxter said. “Once I got to the highest I could possibly get doing videos and doing the magazines, I quit. I wanted to do something else. I wanted a bigger challenge for me. It was no longer a challenge for me. I was on the cover of every single urban publication possible or that there was. I was requested for every top artist to be in their videos. I needed a bigger challenge. I wanted to do something else.”
In acting, Baxter has that challenge, a challenge she’s stoked about meeting head on and eventually conquering.
“I like being able to be other people,” said Baxter. “It’s really cool to be able to take on someone else’s life and just kind of being someone else. It’s a lot of fun to be able to portray someone else.”
Dennis has covered and written about politics, crime, race, sports, and entertainment. Dennis currently covers the NFL, MLB, NBA, NCAA, and Olympic sports. Dennis is the editor of News4usonline.com and serves as the publisher of the Compton Bulletin newspaper. He earned a journalism degree from Howard University. Email Dennis at dfreeman@news4usonline.com
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