11 of Hollywoods Models Turned Movie Stars
Brooklyn Decker
This week's issue of The Hollywood Reporter explores the challenges of going from fashion magazine cover to the big screen.
Sports Illustrated swimsuit cover-girl Brooklyn Decker is making the jump with Just Go With It, opposite Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston, and later this summer in Battleship. Read the full story and see outtakes from Decker's THR photo shoot.
While critics and audiences have not always taken such career turns seriously, some have broken through in a big way, both in action roles and award-winning dramatic turns.
Models Into Movies: Milla Jovovich
The Ukraine-born 35-year-old went from L’Oreal and Versace to the firearms and toxic beasts of “Resident Evil: Afterlife,” which grossed $296 million worldwide.
Models Into Movies: Cameron Diaz
The 38-year-old San Diego native modeled in Europe before turning her goofy everygirl charm into more than $5 billion in worldwide grosses from “The Mask” to “The Green Hornet.”
Models Into Movies: Rene Russo
An early success, the 56-year-old graced Vogue and Cosmo, then went sultry and sassy in “Get Shorty,” “The Thomas Crown Affair” and two “Lethal Weapon” films.
Models Into Movies: Rebecca Romijn
The 38-year-old parlayed pinup poses in Sports Illustrated and Victoria’s Secret into a role in the “X-Men” franchise in which she played a mutant.
Models Into Movies: Monica Bellucci
The 46-year-old Italian went from Dolce & Gabbana to Dracula’s bride in “Dracula” (1992). Blockbusters “The Matrix Reloaded” and “The Passion of the Christ” followed.
Models Into Movies: Halle Berry
An Oscar winner, the Cleveland beauty queen, 44, has played a junkie (“Jungle Fever”), mutant (“X-Men”), widow (“Monster’s Ball”) and Bond girl (“Die Another Day”).
Charlize Theron
Born in South Africa, Theron modeled as a teenager to "pay the bills." She has appeared in action films such as Aeon Flux (2005, pictured). But her dramatic resume has been even more impressive. Critic Roger Ebert called her performance as serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Monster (2003) "one of the greatest performances in the history of the cinema." Theron also produced the film, and won the Academy Award, Golden Globe and SAG Award for her performance. She was nominated for an Oscar again in 2005 for North Country.
Famke Janssen
The Dutch model has played Bond femme fatale Xenia Onatopp in GoldenEye (1995) opposite Pierce Brosnan and the mutant scientist Jean Grey (pictured at right) in the hugely successful X-Men films, in addition to a recurring role in the second season of Nip/Tuck.
Janssen's next project is the action-comedy Hansel and Gretel, where she'll star opposite Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton.
Rising Stars: Gemma Ward
The 24-year-old Australian has been on the runway wearing Prada, Gucci, Versace, Chanel, Valentino and more, where she worked with some of the industry's most renowned photographers. When she was 16 she was listed by American Vogue as one of the nine "It Girls" in the modeling world.
Ward acted in two low budget feature films — The Black Balloon (pictured) and The Strangers — before being cast alongside Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz in Pirates of the Carribbean: On Stranger Tides, hitting theaters in May.
Rising Stars: Olga Kurylenko
The Ukraine-borne model has played Camille Montes in the James Bond film Quantum of Solace (2008) opposite Daniel Craig, and a veangeful tribal warrior in Centurion (pictured, 2010).
Kurylenko is attached to the next Terrence Malick project.
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