The following is a letter addressed to Rich Leo, former manager of actress Dominique Swain, from her father David Swain regarding the omission of Leo’s name in a recent magazine story about the actress. Dominique Swain also wrote a note, which, in part, stated to Leo regarding his involvement in launching her career, “You have changed my career and my life.”
Rich,
I have verbally thanked you many times for the miracle you performed as Dominique’s manager in lining up the “Lolita” interview in New York city for Dominique with Jeremy Irons and Adrian Lyne. I don’t want to short-change Dominique’s performance at that interview. I know the miracle also consisted of your obtaining the permission to send a home video to Adrian Lyne and Jeremy Irons to review, of a selected scene performed by Dominique from Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita, which you directed and my son, David, filmed. It was accepted and you and Dominique and company were invited to New York to a personal interview with Adrian and Jeremy. Of course, there is much more to the story and it was truly a success for all of us. You deserve a great deal of credit for your championship effort.
The Malibu Times Magazine article should have included this manager “miracle” and perhaps it should be told in a story all by itself. The questions that were asked at the Malibu Times Magazine interview were focused on Dominique and resulted in omissions and errors, even her mother, Cindy, who spent months on the movie set was not mentioned. It was obvious the magazine did the best they could. However, the crew was intent on focusing on Dominique, as were their questions to us.
David Swain