Dr. Robert Rey
Known as "Dr. 90210" for his role on E!'s reality show about the Hollywood cosmetic surgeons, Dr. Robert Rey has enjoyed the publicity in the past few years. Known as the outgoing and very friendly surgeon, the martial arts enthusiast has grown his practice and popularity. Running a successful practice and having a wife and two children is not enough for the Doc in sleeveless scrubs. He now is opening up a new line of shapewear and lingerie to help women feel sexy in their own skin without surgery called Dr. Rey's Shapewear. We caught up with Dr. Rey while he was in Boston for his launch of the line at Sears.
KH: I read that you would like to be a Congressman in California and eventually become the Surgeon General. Is that still in your sights as something you would like to do?
RR: People think, well this is a doctor trying to be an actor. But if you look at my Screen Actor's Guild card, I mean it's older than your mom, haha, it dates back to 1980. So I put my way through college and medical school by doing commercials and things like that. The actor came first, because if you look at my medical license, it's dated 1993. I became a doctor 13 years later. I did the Hollywood thing, and to do the Hollywood thing you have to be a little silly at times. If you watch the show, sometimes me and my mother-in-law don't get along, you know we fight or whatever, but for sure it can be a great opportunity. It was a great opportunity for me to become a household name, thank the good Lord, and also do a lot of great things, I just came back from Honduras about 2 weeks ago. I did four cleft lips, and every year I go to two or three of these places worldwide and through the show, I am able to bring a lot of attention to these very very needy hospitals, these very needy humanitarian organizations, so Hollywood is a very helpful vehicle for people that may have an interest in politics. Yeah, and I originally wanted to be Surgeon General because I felt that there was a lot that needed to be done. Now the state of California is such a mess, which of course you know unless you live in a cave. It's insane, there's so much trouble that I think the time has come for a Latino governor for the state of California. I mean, after all, we've tried Austrian, haha. So you know, that's the goal, maybe something at the Congressional level, there's a lot of wonderful districts here in Los Angeles that I'd be interested to maybe consider a Congressional spot. But in three, four years from now I will be starting to tone down the Hollywood thing and prepare and hopefully head off to Washington or Sacramento.
KH: When you move over to politics, do you think you will miss the Hollywood scene because you have been in front of a camera for so many years?
RR: You know, I think someone asked President Regan one time, "How can you be an actor and President of the United States?" And he answered,"'How can you be President of the United States and not be an actor?" Haha! You know, we made a lot of friends in Hollywood. But the thing is we are in so much trouble. You know, I worship America. I emigrated to America, it was my dream to someday be an American and it was a land I fought so hard to come to, and it's really very humbling. I have a couple of ideas, and hopefully I have an opportunity to put them to work!
KH: Is America all you were thinking it was going to be?
RR: It was what I was thinking and more. Isn't that amazing? We elected the first African-American president. America really stepped up to the plate and showed the world that we are that dream. That we have not gone the way of other great nations and not lost what we were after, what our forefathers were after, isn't that amazing? I tell you baby, I had tears in my eyes when Obama was being sworn in, because my gosh, this is the America I look up to. So I think quite to the contrary, not only has America not disappointed me, it has so impressed me.
KH: So tell me a little about your Shapewear idea.
RR: I came from nothing, I had an opportunity to build successfulness, by the grace of God really, only by the grace of God, and I realized that material things don't really make you happy. I kid you not, the giant cars, the six-million dollar houses, they don't make you happy. First of all, it gets you more enemies. The more success you get, the more enemies you get. Number two, these darned objects are always falling apart! It's like $20,000 a month just to maintain my house! It's crazy! I bought Raquel Welch's house because she is a Latin sister I looked up to, and I have never been in that house when there wasn't a workman in the house every day. So I learned that material things don't make you happy. I had to do it because I came from the hood, the Brazilian hood is not like American hood baby, Brazilian hood is HOOD, haha! I did it and so glad that we shifted back to frugality because we have to tighten our belts a little bit, I think it would be good for America. Because frugality actually makes you happier.
KH: Everything in moderation.
RR: Everything in moderation, exactly! Learn that lesson. Everyone in Hollywood shops in Costco! The talk of the town, I live in Beverly Hills, Mark Wahlberg is my neighbor, Ashley Simpson, Demi Moore, you know the talk of my neighborhood is getting a Costco card, haha! I love it! And so I'm glad frugality is the rage. It's called being frugal that's going to save America and we're going to emerge a far, far better nation Not so wasteful, you know? That's why we kind of invented, right as the economy was crashing, we wanted to come up with an idea that would allow women to look great without going under the knife. The message we are trying to send is this:
Listen ladies, the recuperative powers of the human body are amazing. So you know, you're working, you're all stressed out with your exams, you've gained the freshmen fifteen, you're going to ask your parents for money to buy you liposuction. WRONG! Wrong, wrong, wrong. Why? Put on Shapewear, you know, we did reinvent the corset. Corsets have been around since the 1800s. All we did was made a breathable, we made it thin, it's so thin baby it's like a second skin, sexy, and in disguise! You look at the shapewear, it's about 50 pieces at Sears, and you think it's lingerie!
But at the same time, it's basically making you lose a couple of sizes. You know, 5, 6, 7 inches! No one knows you are wearing corsets. No one knows because it just looks like beautiful lingerie! Our audience is 18-54, working, with kids, going to school, whatever, and selling it at Sears is very inexpensive and it lasts for a long, long time. You're going to look great for that reunion tomorrow, or that job interview. You'll look great on your own without surgery! $10,000 for a tummy tuck, $10,000 for a Brazilian butt lift, $7,000 for a total body liposuction, I mean it's crazy! It doesn't make sense in this economy!
