14 DAY TRIAL // Cara Delevingne has been hinting at this move for months and it’s finally happening: she’s officially retiring from modeling. The plan is to focus on her acting career entirely: it didn’t get off to a great start with “Paper Towns” but she still has a few more movies coming out, and they could turn things around for her.
As for the reason she wants out, she tells The Times that the fashion industry is too sexist and demeaning, and ultimately horrible to a young woman’s self-esteem. Hollywood is all these things as well, but things are slightly better here, she believes.
Modeling “didn’t make [her] grow at all as a human being”
Cara can be seen now in the romantic drama “Paper Towns,” based on the best-selling novel of the same name from John Green. The film was met with mixed reviews by both critics and fans, and barely registered at the US box office.
Comparatively, Green’s previous adaptation, “The Fault in Our Stars,” became a smashing hit.
Still, Cara has more movies coming up, including a stint in David Ayer’s much publicized “Suicide Squad,” which is part of Warner Bros.’ new comic book-based Justice League universe. She is so convinced that her acting endeavors will ultimately pay off that she’s ok with knowing she’s burning all her bridges with the things she says about her decision to leave modeling.
Not only did it make her feel older than she was, but also more shallow. She never felt like she was growing as a person when she was working as a model, but instead, she often felt objectified and used in ways she should have never allowed for.
“[It] wasn’t a good time,” she says. “I was, like, fight and flight for months. Just constantly on edge. It is a mental thing as well because if you hate yourself and your body and the way you look, it just gets worse and worse. I am a bit of a feminist and it makes me feel sick. It’s horrible and it’s disgusting.”
Modeling was just the worst
She was young and she had no say in the way her image was being sold; she couldn’t object to a photographer’s idea of a certain pose or the clothes she was supposed to wear.
Things got so bad that she developed psoriasis because of stress, and it added a new layer of humiliation and isolation to the whole thing, because people would put on gloves before touching her. It made her feel as if she had the plague.
Sure, Cara concedes, Hollywood is sexist too, objectifying women whichever chance it gets. Nonetheless, to her as an outsider, it feels as though things are better here.
Even if they’re not, she’s now older and more famous, so she’ll be able to stand up for herself, make her own choices and then live with the consequences.