FULL NAME: Vivienne Pessemier
OCCUPATION: Out of work, stage actress
AGE & D.O.B.: 35 & 10/11/1985
HOW LONG THEY’VE BEEN IN TOWN: Four years.
The second daughter of a prestigious scholar and a beloved soprano, the children of David and Edith pessemeir were only meant to be golden. Born into the theatrics of New York City, there was little opportunity to be anything but spectacular. Eloise, the oldest, was presented with every opportunity to rise above her peers. Vivienne, the middle child, was shoved before the screech of the spotlight and their youngest, Desiree, was built to survive.
Vivienne (by chance, the only member of the immediate family without a d or an e) began to shout before she had learned to talk and learned to run before she started to crawl. As such, it shouldn’t have surprised a soul that she sought the eye of the critics… and yet, it seemed the world hadn’t prepared itself for Vivienne’s short-lived acting career as a child - between preparatory school and cat-like screams towards her sisters, Vivienne took to acting as her sanctuary. There, between the scripts and make-up, she could become anyone. In fact, some would say that she had blossomed; that she had found her rhythm when pretending to be anyone other than herself. But her career on the silver screen came to stop when Vivienne was enrolled into boarding school against her wishes.
David, the professor, had hoped that his second child would give up on her dreams of stardom. Whilst Edith, the beloved voice of New York City, urged her forward with a faux flourish. And though she was accepted into the Tisch School of the Arts beside the hottest competition of 2002, Vivenne put her degree on pause half-way through the second year once she was offered a prestigious role in the 2003 revival of Gypsy . And though her part was critically celebrated, the glare of fame blurred Vivenne’s moral conduct. With her degree aside, her years of reckless abandonment took the young starlet by force. She fell into the wrong crowds, ignored her family and began to arrive late (if at all) to her booked performances. “Who cares?” she would call, “they only wish to hear me sing!”
A year and a half into her career, Vivienne went through a stint of therapy to both attest to her upbringing and her lose control on obsessional flings. With her role on broadway suddenly hindered by her director’s replacement of her, Vivienne was firmly pushed back to the bottom of the prestigious ladder of fame. In 2006, she picked her degree back up (with severe leverage and kind words from her parents) and finally graduated in 2008. With her graduation came roles here and there, but nothing stuck as much as her one gamble years ago. By the turn of the decade Vivienne was unemployed, indebted to her agent and high on painkillers.
But there was a turning point; still shaken by the lack of success from her graduation, Vivienne began to travel. She spent her summers in Paris, her winters in the Caribbean and her springs with girlfriends who were becoming engaged and married in quick succession. At one wedding she met a man who’d later become both her husband and the father to her child - they hit it off. He was a successful soul from a high society family who fulfilled all of her parents’ needs and wants. Even if Vivienne feared succumbing to the same fate as her older sister Eloise (who was, at the end of it all, a housewife), Vivienne made herself financially independent by taking jobs in clubs and off-broadway theatre. There she became attuned to her voice, understanding that her creativity was the key to her happiness - and though she never saw the bright lights again, it was enough to secure her in a great manner of things. Oh, and it helped that her parents kept her on their bankroll.
Once engaged in 2014, Vivienne took one last job in theatre; she stunned the critics with her new voice and look - engaging new and old audiences with her throwback to the golden age of Hollywood and her modern truthful tongue. But, it seemed that she was to fall to the same faults of her older sister. With her engagement came an expensive wedding - and afterwards she began to chase her husband’s work down to towards Florida’s secret piece of heaven. Settled in the finer neighbours in 2016, Vivienne began her next steps. No longer a neighbour to broadway, she invested in the upkeep of Monleon’s jazz club and became interested in the world of art. Trading in her voice and theatrics for swims in the country club or the long strolls through the various walls that housed Florida’s procured masterpieces, Vivienne found peace.
With her investments bringing retinue to secure her own financial freedom, Vivienne’s world began to turn. At only 32, in 2017, Vivienne had her first child. And what should’ve been a happy period soon turned venomous with babysitters, maids and lack of sleep she began to pick on her husband. And though divorce had yet to dig its claws into the relationship between the married couple, perhaps it is only a matter of time. Nonetheless, anything can change in Monleon and Vivienne has always been keen in playing various roles.
VIVIENNE PESSEMIER is portrayed by GUGU MBATHA-RAW and written by VELVET.
