Suicide Squad is a smash hit so far despite the negative reviews, but supermodel-turned-actress Cara Delevingne, who plays the villain Enchantress, is hardly proving all that enchanting.
As is being extensively chronicled in the Internet Movie Database chatroom, the British ingenue with a very colorful private life isn’t given much to do in Suicide Squad, popping up at the beginning of the film and at the end. “The worst villain of the modern comic book era,” slammed one IMDb member. “Most of the time she is just doing the hula around a flash of light,” said another.
In her breakout Hollywood movie Paper Towns, based on the John Green novel, Cara wasn’t given all that much to do either, once more appearing at the beginning and at the end. Word was that her part got cut down in post-production resulting in her most memorable part in the film being a car-crash interview she gave during its promotion.
During the promotion of Suicide Squad, Delevingne has distracted the detractors by palling around with Margot Robbie and generating headlines by discussing her “drunk texts” with Prince Harry.
Given she has 31 million followers on Instagram, Cara won’t be leaving the movie runway anytime soon (her next significant role is next summer in Luc Besson’s sci-fi blockbuster Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets).
Despite the opprobrium Delevingne has received, she is in good company when it comes to the ‘Model, Actress, Whatever’ stigma. Delivering a quality performance in a film and carving out a meaningful acting career remains out of reach for most models who wish to be movie stars.
There are exceptions (Angelina Jolie, Renee Russo, Charlize Theron) but the number of models who have failed at acting might even be bigger than peak capacity attendance at next month’s New York Fashion Week.
Here are a few who might have looked the part but ultimately couldn’t play it.
CINDY CRAWFORD
When Cindy Crawford was the highest-paid model on the planet two decades ago, she decided she was fed up with playing herself in film and TV cameos and wanted a juicy movie role. Alas what ensued was pure cinematic-career-ending poison in the form of the 1995 ‘thriller’ Fair Game, in which she played a family law attorney alongside Billy Baldwin. The film receives a critical rating of 13% on Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer. The audience rating on the site is just 1% higher.
EVA HERZIGOVA
Unlike Cindy, Czech model Eva Herzigova has tried to crack Hollywood more than once. She appeared in some obscure European films—including playing Pablo Picasso’s first wife Olga in art biopic Modigliani—and was also the costume producer and designer on a sci-fi short called Twisted Tango under the auspices of her production company Lazyandcrazy. Yet when Stanley Kubrick, who directed Sci-Fi classic 2001: A Space Odyssey, came calling, she wasn’t interested, turning down a role in his last film Eyes Wide Shut on the grounds there was too much nudity. Let that sink in. Eva Herzigova turned down Stanley Kubrick.
KATE UPTON
“Follow your passions, follow your heart and the things you need will come,” said screen legend Elizabeth Taylor. Cinematic stardom has not yet come to Sports Illustrated swimsuit veteran Kate Upton. She made her acting debut as the eponymous mistress in The Other Woman; the film was a modest success, but her performance didn’t stir up too many passions. Next she’ll be seen in William H. Macy’s road trip movie The Layover and James Franco’s The Masterpiece. The first one might be worth seeing but regardless what happens her movie career is on firmer ground than Brooklyn Decker’s.
CHRISTIE BRINKLEY
Evergreen Christie Brinkley epitomizes the predicament of the glamorous model struggling to make it in Hollywood. She had a well-received cameo playing a girl in a red Ferrari who goes skinny-dipping with Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) in 1983’s National Lampoon’s Vacation, but the fact that her next major credit was “Woman in Ferrari” in 1997’s Vegas Vacation indicated a difficulty with range that has torpedoed most fashionistas’ film dreams. Her most memorable appearance remains starring in the 1983 video for Billy Joel’s Uptown Girl. She later married the diminutive musician, but the marriage went the way of her film career.
ELLE MACPHERSON
Elle “The Body” Macpherson never made it as an actress. After modest success showing off her full figure in 1994 arthouse movie Sirens opposite Hugh Grant, the Aussie supermodel developed leading lady ambitions. “In 1996, I moved to LA and downplayed everything,” Macpherson told Russh Magazine. “I cut my hair, [wore] flat shoes and jeans and really focused on a film career. I made 10 movies in two years.” Unfortunately small parts in Friends and Batman and Robin failed to do much for that career, and after appearing in ill-fated 2002 Notting Hill rip-off South Kensington opposite Rupert Everett, “The Body” wisely turned her attention to pursuits that didn’t involve putting rearends on cinema seats.
