Entertainment> Celebrities

Brooklyn Decker's model-to-actress challenge

(Agencies)
2011-02-16 09:43

The pitfalls in the film world are more vicious and plentiful than simply making sure you don't slip off a catwalk or get sand in your lady parts on a beach in the Seychelles. The battlefield is littered with false starts and embarrassing flameouts that show how often a pretty face is as deep as it goes.

As with well-known actors who try to paint or record music, the public often reflexively roots against models trying to break in as if they have the gall to win the lottery and then gild the lily by doubling down on fame and fortune in another field. Not helping ambitious models with genuine acting talent is that the cliche about their peers' lack of substance often is true.

"I'm not going to sit here and say, 'Pity me; I came from modeling,'" says Decker. "It's opened a lot of doors. People will take meetings because they've heard the name before. That's an advantage that I have. But at the same time, I will have to work really hard to show that I'm worthy of being in these films."

Decker knows her physical attributes are likely to be played up until she proves her acting chops. For "Just Go With It," the trailers and billboards unsurprisingly zero in on her bikini-clad body, in one shot rising up from the ocean dripping and undulating in slow motion.

That she trains with acting coaches Joan Rosenfels in New York and Cameron Thor in Los Angeles and has refrained from lining up new modeling gigs signals the seriousness of Decker's approach.

After growing up in Charlotte, N.C., Decker moved to New York in 2005 at age 18 after high school and eventually signed with the Paris-based Marilyn Agency, which has an office in New York. She quickly secured magazine spreads in Glamour, FHM and Cosmopolitan, as well as campaigns for the Gap and Victoria's Secret. Her annual appearance in the SI swimsuit issue beginning in 2006 led to the coveted cover spot last year.

By then, Decker had spent regular time co-hosting a CNN/SI Web sports show and a few years auditioning for TV and film roles, mostly without success. Acting wasn't an early passion for Decker and only became an interest as a way to compensate for not going to college -- she says she felt dumb and wanted to use her brain to study something while traveling the world for shoots. "It was stimulating my mind in a different way than modeling was," she says.

Parts in "Bedtime Stories," "Hall Pass" and "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" went to other actresses (fellow Victoria's Secret model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley ultimately got the latter after Megan Fox was jettisoned). A few TV series guest spots in 2009 on "Chuck," "Ugly Betty" and "Royal Pains" finally led to a string of auditions on two coasts, plus a table read that won her the part in "Just Go With It."

Relentlessly going over lines and scenes with director Dennis Dugan between setups, Decker wrestled with the counterintuitive nature of film comedy that required her to be funny by not being funny. As research, Dugan suggested that she watch a lot of Goldie Hawn movies (for her "Battleship" role, director Peter Berg handed her "Alien" and "The Blair Witch Project," presumably to figure out how to look petrified by the unknown).

"I was really just trying to learn the whole time," Decker says. "And keep up with Adam and Jen -- they're so good at what they do. It was incredibly intimidating. It was really nerve-wracking."

While her childhood favorite was "Forrest Gump," Decker says her current taste runs to such "smart" movies as "Thank You for Smoking,""Charlie Wilson's War" and "The Social Network."

Actresses who draw sex appeal from their strength and intelligence -- Julia Roberts, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Diaz, who "could have easily gone down that bombshell route but ended up working with Cameron Crowe, Oliver Stone, Martin Scorsese," Decker says -- strike her as suitable role models.

Decker admits that timewise -- for the moment, anyway -- modeling actually pays better. According to Forbes, Gisele Bundchen is the highest-paid model, grossing $25 million in 2009, but someone of Decker's stature can make something in the range of fellow Victoria's Secret model Miranda Kerr, who pulled in about $4 million in 2009. Decker probably made a tenth of that for the two films she shot last year.

Despite this, her plans are to focus solely on film auditions.

Decker, who lives in Austin with tennis star Andy Roddick, claims she's committed to acting, though as of now, her schedule is not just empty of modeling gigs but acting gigs as well. That might change with the success of "Just Go With It," but Decker attests that her ambitions are not going to change.

"With me and the world I come from -- and how people might perceive me -- I definitely need to start thinking seriously about what path I want to take," Decker says. "If I want to do work that is high-quality, and if I want to start growing and getting better, then I need to start working on being good at this. Quite frankly, I was really lucky to get these two roles. And I worked very hard once I got them."