Lights, Camera, Armin!

The bold-faced Bungalow 8 gatekeeper is about to be smoking hot. “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” indeed.

Our seemingly unquenchable cultural thirst for celebrity gossip has gotten to the point where star watchers are not only obsessed with what’s going on behind the velvet ropes, but who’s out front manning them. To wit, Armin Amiri—best known as the gatekeeper at New York City’s enduring Bungalow 8—has parlayed his doorman “celebrity” status into a burgeoning movie career. In his breakout performance in this winter’s Factory Girl, he took on the daunting role of Ondine, Andy Warhol’s misunderstood cohort. But rumor had it that the fledgling actor almost got booted from the cast. “I read for director George Hickenlooper and he took a chance on me,” Amiri recalls. “Then the part got bigger and bigger, so the studio decided, ‘Hey, who’s this kid that we hired? Let’s get someone else.’ I almost got bounced; I thought that was going to be my karma.”

However, with support from the director and leading lady Sienna Miller—whom Amiri says “really took a liking to me”—the kid stayed in the picture. And he’s already wrapped his second film, Reservation Road with Joaquin Phoenix and Terry George (Hotel Rwanda).

Amiri’s Iranian-born mother, an actress herself, recognized her son’s non-conformist demeanor and spiritual side early on and knew that a life under the oppressive Iranian regime would have made it difficult for him to thrive. So at 12 years old, he was sent to Vienna before landing in New York in 1992 with a passion for acting and a distaste for that sense of entitlement possessed by those “spoiled kids” and celebrities.

Amiri, 35, studied acting under Susan Batson (well-known for schooling Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise) at the fabled Actors Studio, founded by Lee Strasberg. And as luck would have it, his Bungalow 8 experience not only brought him face-to-face with industry power brokers, it also gave him an insight into Hollywood politics.

Five years ago, Bungalow 8 owner Amy Sacco says she saw in the former bartender (at Kaos, Raoul’s, and Lotus) someone who could “create that character out in front” of her club and ensure that the rope was un-clipped for most celebrities and let in a “mixed crowd” comprised of “those that have something to add to the place and most importantly radiate good energy.”

By the time this story goes to press, Amiri will have passed on the Bungalow 8 throne to the daunting “Disco,” his former nightly co-star, and have moved on to focus on his acting and producing a movie of his own. “While the steady gig kept the money coming in, it also kept me up late and tired for auditions, and made me a little soft in my acting pursuits,” says Amiri. But it wasn’t all for naught. “I certainly played a role out there. Just like Ondine in Factory Girl, I created very clear boundaries, was cordial, and didn’t waste people’s time. But once you step on my tail? Snap!”

While you won’t find him working the door anymore, that doesn’t mean you won’t spot Amiri at Bungalow 8 in the future. “He is leaving soon, but he is always welcome back,” says Sacco, dryly adding, “We’re hoping that when he does, he returns as a celebrity investor.” Considering Bungalow 8 regular Bruce Willis made a similar crossover—from New York bartender to action-hero bard—it’s hardly out of the question.

Photography by Paul Costello