By Jacquelynn D. Powers, Photographs: Mark Liddell

evon Aoki is a sexy hyphenate with a bullet. The Asian-American heiress-model-actress-clothing designer has two movies out ( D.E.B.S. and Sin City) and is on her way to China to shoot a third, DOA, which is based on the wildly successful (and explicit) video game. The former face of Chanel, Aoki, 22, has transformed a bright modeling career into a more celluloid one with sets and sound stages taking the place of the runway. 2003's 2 Fast 2 Furious, the follow-up to The Fast and The Furious, proved that the Benihana scion could surpass her It Model status, and her next two flicks—especially Robert Rodriguez's much anticipated Sin City adventure—will surely cement her place in the competitive and crowded acting field.

Of course, Devon, the daughter of Benihana founder Rocky Aoki and jewelry designer Pamela Hilburger (who are divorced), possesses that easy confidence that comes with nearly a decade of modeling (she began at age 14) and world travel. Born in New York, Aoki lived with her mother in Malibu, London and Paris with frequent visits to Japan. Although she is petite for the modeling industry's standards, her exotic ethnic mix caught the eye of Chanel's Karl Lagerfeld, who quickly made Devon his muse. Big-time campaigns such as Versace and Lancôme soon followed, along with the requisite rock-star boyfriend (Lenny Kravitz) and clubhopping. Now, in her bid as an action heroine and clothing designer, Aoki, who lives in L.A., has put that superficial glamour behind her for a more serious cause—to break ground for her fellow Asian Americans, the same way Jennifer Lopez and Halle Berry did before her.

VEGAS: You are busy with two new movies. Tell me about D.E.B.S.

DEVON AOKI: It's a fun, laugh-out-loud movie. It's a cooler, edgier version of the clichéd guy-gets-girl romantic comedy. There's a romance between two girls. It was directed by a woman named Angela Robinson, and it has been her pet project since college. So we had a great person to lead us into the film.

Tell me about your character, Dominique.

She's a French spy, who is a lot of fun. She has a pretty thick accent and smokes many cigarettes. She's a bad-ass and is unforgiving.

Do you smoke?

No, I don't. They had to get me these natural herb cigarettes. I had to breathe in the smoke for the take because it had to look real. As soon the take was over, they'd rush over and come get my cigarette.

You are all wearing these schoolgirl uniforms in the movie. What's the allure of that outfit?

Young girls can relate to it and it's fun. We all remember Britney Spears' first video. I went to a school for a while where we had to wear uniforms. I don't remember being particularly attracted to them. In the movie, though, we're all supposed to be part of the same crime-solving syndicate. Maybe it helps to identify us as D.E.B.S.

Do you kick butt?

I don't do much fighting. I do more talking. I say pretty ridiculous things. I do a lot of fighting in Sin City, though.

What is Sin City about?

It's based on the series of graphic novels by Frank Miller. It's really distinctive because the movie is exactly the story and art translated onto the screen. It doesn't deviate from the graphic novel. They actually took some frames from the comic. That attention to detail was the beauty of the project. Everything was done with the utmost care.

Is the tone very dark?

Yeah. It's very graphic. They did most of it in black-and-white and then highlighted certain things with color. This movie is going to be different from anything that anyone has ever seen before.

Is Sin City based on any particular city? They call Las Vegas Sin City.

No, it's a fictitious story. Maybe Frank was inspired by certain things in Vegas, but to my knowledge, it's not one and the same...

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