Cara Delevingne Talks Past, Present & Future in WSJ. Magazine

Supermodel and social media maven Cara Delevingne graces the cover of WSJ. Magazine’s June issue. In a candid interview with WSJ.’s Deputy Editor Elisa Lipsky-Karasz, Delevingne delves into the past, present and future roadmap of her career. She talks about the pitfalls of the modeling industry and her true passions: acting and singing. Out next month, Delevingne makes her debut as an actress in Paper Towns, followed by roles in London Fields (with Johnny Depp); Tulip Fever; and Suicide Squad (alongside co-stars Will Smith, Jared Leto and Margot Robbie).

In addition to her budding Hollywood career, Delevingne talks about why she was a “terrifying” child; the advice Rihanna gave her when she lost a role; and the items she’s guilty of hoarding.

The article is now available online, while the June Pre-Fall Fashion/Collectibles issue hits newsstands on May 30.
 

CARA DELEVINGNE ON:

• The downsides of the modeling industry: “It’s horrible living in a world where I’ll get a call from someone saying, So-and-so says you were partying a lot and you were looking this way and you need to lose weight. It makes me so angry. If you don’t want to hire me, don’t hire me.”
• Putting her dream of becoming an actress on the back-burner to pursue modeling: “I basically gave up on acting, because trying to get an agent was impossible. Everyone said, ‘You’re just a model,’ …once I had my mind set that I was going to do this modeling thing, I really wanted to beat it, if that makes sense. Win it.”
• Modeling not fulfilling her: “I ended up feeling a bit empty. Fashion is about what’s on the outside, and that’s it. There’s no searching, it’s just creating pretty things.”
• Expanding her career and avoiding stereotypes: “I don’t want to be that cliché: model-slash-actress.”
• Being “brokenhearted” about the cancellation of a Beach Boys film in which she had a role: “With modeling, if someone else gets a job, I’m like, Yeah, of course, there are so many better models. But with acting, you grow such an attachment to each role.”
• What Rihanna told her when the Beach Boys film was cancelled: “Everything happens for a reason. You are going to call me back in a week or two and say, ‘You are right.’”
• How social media helped catapult her career: “I wouldn’t have done as well if I hadn’t had that. Not at all. In the ’90s, I wouldn’t have been a supermodel.”
• Not limiting her career options: “I want to prove that you can be anything you want to be. I love working, and I love what I do. If I f—it up now, it’s all my fault.”
• Her hopes of recording her own music album: “People are going to judge it so harshly that I think it has to be amazing.”
• Finding herself in the tabloids: “It makes me never want to set foot outside ever again. I used to read them and torture myself.”
• Finding inner peace in recent years: “I used to be in a constant state of panic and anxiety and have far too many voices in my head. I suddenly realized I’m peaceful inside, and I’ve never had that. Even when I was growing up.”

PHARRELL ON CARA’S TALENTS:

• “I look at Cara as a pluralist—she is ambitious about many things. She’s a natural—she jumps into whatever character she is supposed to be.”

Photo Credit: Photography by Daniel Jackson for WSJ. Magazine