The almost impossible transformation

Feb 18, 2006 13:51 GMT  ·  By

We all love the ravishing beauty of the catwalk heroines, don't we? Well, do we still love them when they get their minds set on turning into actresses? Why on earth would any decent person with loads of good looks and even bigger loads of money get suddenly desperate to star in movies?

And why in hell do they have to act totally dressed? It's not like they would be shy creatures, every Fashion Tv viewer has already seen most of their anatomy.

Well, let's consider some possible answers:

Maybe they want to have a job to help them support themselves when they get too old or to over-exposed for the fashion world. So they just try their chances with acting. And they make the mistake of trying to keep all their clothes on. Probably they think that fully dressed their performances will stress out more. And they're wrong, because so far their performances were just bad and some nudity would have helped a bit, especially the B.O scores.

Maybe they just do it because they really think it's their true calling. In which case, they're just wrong again.

Or maybe they're just drawn into the movie biz by some people that just needed some gorgeous famous model to be seen in the movie trailer.

Nevermind. Let's stick to the facts and start this cruise with the four successful transformations of models into actresses.

Many tried but only few managed to get acknowledged as actresses: Rene Russo, Laetitia Casta and Charlize Theron.

Rene Russo's career as an actress began in the late '80s and ever since she became well known for her performances in movies welcomed both by the audiences and the critics (Lethal Weapon 3&4, Ransom, The Thomas Crown Affair, Two for the Money).

Laetitia Casta went suddenly from the most desirable European model to a well quoted actress. She worked with Raoul Ruiz (Savage Souls) and Patrice Leconte (Love Street), and unlike most her top model friends didn't mind doing nude scenes.

The same man that discovered Russo talked Charlize Theron into giving acting a chance. Believe it or not, Theron didn't want to be an actress, she only started an acting career in order to pay the bills. And she is definitively THE model turned actress of all history as she has already won an academy award for her Aileen Wuornos performance in the biotic Monster. She's also very ok with any kind of nudity or sex related scene, as she declared "I'm a very sexual creature!"

A very special creature, Mila Jovovitch is the only super model who managed to act in decent (or even outstanding) movies and keep on track an ever fascinating model career. Her roles in Luc Besson's Fifth Element or The Messenger: The Story of Johanna D'Arc helped other actress-wanna-be models plan their way into the movie mainstream.

For a second start, let's think "Tyra Banks". What the hell was she doing in "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air"? Looking for fame in all the wrong places, most probably. Or just performing a decent paid job?

The tv series weren't THAT bad and we can skip this unfortunate acting (and character) slip but, some years later she does it again: plays in "Love Stinks" (a mediocre comedy), and even worse, in Tobe Hooper's tv movie "The Apartment Complex" (a cheap story partially based on Polanski's "The Tenant", partially inspired by the horror cult "Toolbox Murders" (nothing the director of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" could ever be proud of.)

And it gets even worse: in 2000 Tyra plays a Barbie doll that magically comes to life in "Life Size". Rather ironic/moronic, don't you think? At least this one is described by my fellow co-workers as "stupid", "silly" "funny".

She also had small appearances in "Coyote Ugly" and "Larceny" but later shot "the one billionth sequel" to the cult horror Halloween.

Taking Tyra Banks as an example, we can easily point out the major features of the top-model movies: no nudity (Life Size is a Disney movie), lack of preference for a particular gender (that is supposed to pass as versatility), no access to huge-budget movies. So why even bother?

As a human male I would certainly wonder why would Heidy Klum bother do anything else than walk around in Victoria's Secret underwear, but let's talk about the movie debut: Ella Enchanted.

The title sounds rather slutty, but the movie is in fact a kiddy tale about Ella (Anne Hathaway) who has to protect a magic prince and bla bla bla. Klum didn't even get her name on the poster, for Christ's sake!

Another wonder woman of the fashion universe, Gisele Bundchen took one first shot at a movie career in "Taxi", a mediocre remake of Luc Besson's French movies.

Every gorgeous bikini wearing model seems to be strangely and totally attracted to the movie star status: even the veterans Naomi Campbell and Claudia Schiffer had their very small and almost un-noticeable roles in movies.

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