Cara Delevingne has said her background in fashion had a negative effect on her acting career because she was always “trying to look hot”.
The supermodel-turned-actress said that, while filming her first acting role in the 2012 big screen adaptation of Anna Karenina, she was constantly reminded by director Joe Wright to shake off techniques she had picked up from modelling.
The 27-year-old told Elle UK magazine: “Fashion really f***** me when it came to acting.
“When I did my first film – Anna Karenina, which I didn’t have a speaking part in – every time I was on screen, the director would come up to me and say ‘Cara, you’re modelling again. Stop trying to look pretty.’
“I was an extra with 6O other people on screen at the time. I was like ‘But what do you mean?’ And he’d tell me ‘You’re not in the moment, you’re just trying to look hot’.”
She added: “I never thought I did that. Modelling makes you know where the camera is at all times, and you have to forget that when you’re acting.”
Delevingne, who was considered one of the most sought-after models after her rise to fame in 2011, has carved out a career as an actress in recent years.
She has starred in films including Suicide Squad, Pan, and Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets, and currently appears in Amazon Prime Video’s new neo-noir fantasy series Carnival Row opposite Orlando Bloom.
The catwalk and screen star also said she did not deal with an alleged incident involving disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein until he was accused by a large number of women of sexual harassment in late 2017.
At the time, Delevingne claimed that Weinstein made advances towards her in a hotel room after asking her to kiss another woman.
She told the magazine she “hadn’t thought about it for five years, not until Rose McGowan came out with hers”.
“So, weirdly, it was therapeutic but I also hadn’t dealt with it at all. I didn’t really know what assault was,” she said.
“I hope (he) gets prosecuted and, of course, I want there to be justice.
“It turns out nearly every single woman I know or have worked with has been harassed or assaulted in some way. I just didn’t know about it.”
Weinstein, who recently pleaded not guilty to a new indictment that includes revised charges of predatory sexual assault in America, has denied all allegations of non-consensual sex.
The October issue of Elle UK is on sale from Thursday September 5.
