Lara Axelrod - Billions

Within the picture above you see Bobby ‘Axe’ Axelrod’s wife Lara. Within the show she is a billionaire’s wife who would be expected by the audience to never have to work a day in her life. Within her character she is self-taught on how she should act within her new lifestyle as she has come from a not so well off background, which now compared to the idea of being able to purchase pretty much anything she wants seems difficult for her to adjust to which is evident throughout the first series, especially when she sees what little her sister who is a chef has.

Lara who is played by Malin Akerman is naturally beautiful as she has the ideal wanted features for a typically attractive white woman, which are bright blue eyes and blond hair. A stereotype that she does move away from with having these features is that she does only have shoulder length hair, which helps to create her caring mother figure image for her children and her housewife image. Even with the short blond hair that frames her heart shaped face the shorter hair helps to create a more youthful look on her slightly aging skin. Her hair and makeup within the picture above are very simple and natural and both help to accentuate her natural beauty, which shows the audience that she is still very attractive even when being a mother of two young boys who are between 4 and 9 years old.

Her clothing within the shot above comes across as smart casual this is because she has gone into her husband’s company workplace. By dressing smartly shows that she has a level of respect for her husband within his professional working enviroment and wants to impress her husband’s colleagues. Also the clothing

that she is wearing is casual enough to show she may have been working at home or on one of her own projects and takes care of her appearance. The way she is dressed overall shows she is professional, caring and glamorous all at the same time accentuating the fact.

Her facial expression within the shot above is very professional and reserved due to wanting to show respect for her husband within his workspace around his colleagues. Especially within the trading and FBI situation they are all getting caught up in at the time. As you can see on her face she is showing a quite concerned face but caring face, as well as showing bluntly that she is annoyed mainly by the position and shape of her mouth in the shot. This is also emphasised by the direct eye contact which she has with Axe. Within this scene she comes across at this moment as very powerful and demanding as she wants to know some important information, which could be putting her family’s life at risk even though within the whole series she is more of a secondary character, especially for the first few episodes of the first series.