Cara Delevingne: In the 90s, I wouldnt have been a supermodel
Cara Delevingne covers the newest issue of WSJ. Magazine. I’m not the biggest believer in Cara’s modeling skills, but she looks attractive in this editorial. She looks less Angry-Baby-ish, although her eyebrows are even bigger here than they usually are. WSJ. Mag even comes out and basically says that Cara is enormously successful even though she’s not, like, the prettiest girl in the room. The whole point of this is that the modeling game has changed and all of the successful models these days are very active on social media. Cara is not only an example of how social media “made” her into an in-demand model, but how she parlayed that interest and that modeling career into a legitimate acting career. You can read the full WSJ. Magazine piece here. Some highlights:
Her social media helped her: “I wouldn’t have done as well if I hadn’t had that. Not at all. In the ’90s, I wouldn’t have been a supermodel.”
The downsides of the modeling industry: “It’s horrible living in a world where I’ll get a call from someone saying, So-and-so says you were partying a lot and you were looking this way and you need to lose weight. It makes me so angry. If you don’t want to hire me, don’t hire me.”
Putting her dream of becoming an actress on the back-burner to pursue modeling: “I basically gave up on acting, because trying to get an agent was impossible. Everyone said, ‘You’re just a model,’ …once I had my mind set that I was going to do this modeling thing, I really wanted to beat it, if that makes sense. Win it.”
Modeling not fulfilling her: “I ended up feeling a bit empty. Fashion is about what’s on the outside, and that’s it. There’s no searching, it’s just creating pretty things.”
Expanding her career and avoiding stereotypes: “I don’t want to be that cliché: model-slash-actress.”
Not limiting her career options: “I want to prove that you can be anything you want to be. I love working, and I love what I do. If I f—it up now, it’s all my fault.”
Her hopes of recording her own music album: “People are going to judge it so harshly that I think it has to be amazing.”
Finding herself in the tabloids: “It makes me never want to set foot outside ever again. I used to read them and torture myself.”
Finding inner peace in recent years: “I used to be in a constant state of panic and anxiety and have far too many voices in my head. I suddenly realized I’m peaceful inside, and I’ve never had that. Even when I was growing up.”
I have such mixed feelings about Cara and her fame. First of all, it’s a bit of humble-brag for her to say that she’s a “supermodel” now. She’s a socialite-slash-model-slash-actress. She came from a wealthy, well-connected family and she parlayed that into landing some big modeling campaigns and walking some important runways, but she’s basically only had a solid modeling career for like three years, and she’s already tapping out of modeling gigs to pursue acting. Maybe Cara will be accepted as an actress, maybe not. I have no doubt that she really wants that. But I do have doubts about the rest of it. Some of these younger models, like Cara, come across like they have never really worked or struggled for much. Her version of “struggle” is when photographers catch her handling cocaine.
Photos courtesy of Daniel Jackson for WSJ.Magazine.
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