The life of a supermodel seems mind-bogglingly glamorous, but we do those glamazons a major disservice if we forget how much hard work goes into it all. Between the hours, the dedicated commitment to a health and fitness plan, and the travel schedule, it's a lot. Australian model Abbey Lee made her name as a catwalk star before segueing into acting, appearing in this summer's Mad Max: Fury Road, and is pulling back the curtain on how very brutal modeling work can be.
Abbey Lee at the Mad Max: Fury Road Los Angeles premiere in May 2015
"I've never worked so hard in my life," she told The Guardian of fashion month, where travel was required between New York, London, Paris, and Milan, and staying up until the early hours of the morning for fittings and then making a show call time at the crack of dawn was the norm. "By the time you get to Paris, you can barely open your eyes. Your skin is red raw from all the makeup, your scalp hurts, you're exhausted, you're hungry—you are that broken down."
Lee started modeling in 2004 after winning an Aussie mag's model-search competition and pretty much flew up the ranks, landing Vogue covers for the Australian, Russian, German, Japanese, and Korean editions and walking the runway for a laundry-list of notable designers. For Chanel's fall 2010 show, Lee was given the honor spot of opening the show (Cara Delevingne was the chosen one for fall 2015).
Lee walking in the Chanel fall 2011 show
Even now, she recognizes what a blessing it was to have made the money that comes with all the work; she called being paid a reported $100,000 for a Chanel campaign "the only thing that's fantastic about being a model. That it's given me the sort of freedom I would never have had. I'm financially stable for a long time, I don't have to worry and I'm really grateful for that."
And while the money is nothing to sneeze at, it was the industry's attention to looks that might have finally pushed her into the acting space. "You are so disposable as a model, there is no security in it, and you don't really believe people actually care about you. If I wasn't a hot flavor anymore, I was going to lose work." In an earlier interview, she told a reporter "they shoot models after they're 29."
Lee in Victoria's Secret's 2009 runway show
Her acting work has gotten good reviews, making it seem like a professional fit for the former catwalker. She's got The Neon Demon out next where, interestingly, she plays a former model whose glory days are behind her. The one role we aren't likely to see her inhabiting? The cute, sexy girlfriend. "I don't have interest in being in rom coms or playing just an average girl next door," she told The Sydney Morning Herald. "To be honest, I'd rather not waste my time."
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