Photograph by Skye Dunlap
Six-year-old Sarah Richey, one of Panache's not-so-famous clients, tries on a pair of glamorous sunglasses.
Calvillos have stars in their eyes
Local opticians outfit stars like Mike Myers, Robin Williams with eyeglasses for movies
By Kelly Wilkinson
The only hint that Shawn and Sam Calvillo regularly rub elbows with the stars are the dozen or so framed photos perched above shelves of eyewear in their optical shop. There is a signed picture of Tom Arnold, a couple of photos of Robin Williams, a picture of Mike Myers in his Wayne's World role, and a picture of Nancy Travis with her arm slung around the Calvillo's daughter, among others.
As opticians and owners of Panache Optique on Murphy Avenue, the Calvillos have supplied eyewear for movies for the past seven years and have worked on over 40 films, including six with Robin Williams. They provided glasses for Pulp Fiction, Mrs. Doubtfire, Copycat, The Parent Trap, Patch Adams, So I Married an Axe Murderer, and The General's Daughter, to name a few.
"Every time I used to watch TV or the movies, I would always notice the glasses people were wearing," Sam says. "And I would think, this is totally wrong."
Shawn also says their involvement with movies grew out of their perfectionist tendencies.
"We would always pull [a movie] apart and say, 'If I were doing this, I would have done this, this and the other," she says. "We would try to perfect it since we knew the field."
The Calvillos got their chance when their oldest daughter auditioned for a TV movie, and they approached the producer to make a suggestion about the eyewear of a character in the movie. They wound up providing glasses for the movie series, and Shawn says, "From there, it was all recommendations."
The first feature film the Calvillos worked on was So I Married an Ax Murderer with Mike Myers and Nancy Travis, in which Mike Myers also plays his character's Scottish father, who wears glasses. "That was a real challenge because they needed special effects glasses for the father's character for glare and other effects," Shawn said.
The length of their involvement and actual presence on the set depends on the film, they say. While working on films primarily shot in and around San Francisco, to remain close to their four children, they have in some instances been on a set every day for three weeks, and in others only sent glasses into the props department.
Generally, the Calvillos are sent a script, character profile or the director's thoughts on the type of glasses a particular character would wear. From there, Shawn says, they bring suitcases of glasses to the set. "We go for the fittings, just as they have fittings for the wardrobe," Shawn says.
But since the Calvillos are locals, they remain close at hand for any potential accidents, of which there have been plenty. For Mrs. Doubtfire, the director chose a pair of glasses for which the eyewear company had lost the license--which meant backup pairs couldn't be ordered. In Copycat, Sigorney Weaver threw the wrong pair of glasses across the floor in one scene and a rolling chair destroyed them.
"You can never just have one pair of glasses, because you need one for the talent, one for the stunt double and one for the stand-in," Shawn says, "because God forbid anything happens to those glasses. Are you going to stop millions of dollars of filmmaking for this small thing?"
The Calvillos have produced a movie of their own, shot almost entirely in Sunnyvale. It is a family movie in which the central character finds self-esteem, temporarily, in a pair of sunglasses. "You know it has glasses in it!" Shawn says.
Shawn said that despite the movie involvements--she figures they participate in "a couple a year"--they have no intention of selling their store to move into filmmaking full-time. "Making our own movie has helped us pull the two together," Shawn said. "We never had any visions of making one ourselves, but you just get sucked in."
She credits both the generosity of their patrons as well as their movie contacts for their success.
"We have to say 'thank you' a lot," she says. "We've been very fortunate."
Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
