12 p.m. After touching down at 7 a.m., I'm finally situated in my room in the Opera district. I'm preparing for lunch at the trendy L'Avenue restaurant. Upon arrival, I'll be meeting up with Benson and her manager.
Stationed at an outside table together, Benson is warm and friendly. She is chewing on a toothpick, which I learn tastes like cinnamon and tea tree oil; Benson says she uses them for calming her anxiety. (Upon further research, they're typically used to freshen breath and in some cases to help quit smoking.) We exchange stories about everything, really: Scientology (which she is not affiliated with), traveling, well-done salmon (which we both ordered), upcoming projects she has in store, including Her Smell, which debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival, in which she costars with Elisabeth Moss, Amber Heard, and Cara Delevingne.
L'Avenue is a paparazzi's dream; it's not so much a sixth sense that you're going to get photographed, it's more like it comes with the territory. As we're leaving lunch, Benson sees a camera; she slips away to the car as we follow after.
2 p.m. To wind down our lazy afternoon, we grab a drink at Hotel Costes before heading to the Mandarin Oriental Spa for a massage. At Costes, Benson picks up a bottle of room spray. "I spray this on my clothes. I love it," she says. She's remodeling her LA home and mentions she's using the decor and ambience of the hotel as her inspiration.
