With fashion month in the very recent past and Vogue World: Hollywood just around the corner, you can’t blame us for having models on our minds. They’re everywhere: strutting down the runways, zipping from one show to the next on the street, all over our Instagram feeds—and on our screens.
From leading roles to campy cameos, models continue to play integral parts in some of the most memorable films of our time, including Emily Ratajkowski in Gone Girl, Lauren Hutton in American Gigolo, and, of course, Gisele Bündchen in The Devil Wears Prada. Models also make for natural action stars: Grace Jones and Barbara Bach took up the Bond Girl mantle, while Devin Aoki raced a hot pink convertible in The Fast and the Furious franchise. There’s also a mother-daughter pair among our list: Cindy Crawford starred in the 1995 thriller Fair Game, while Kaia Gerber played a cheerleader in the 2023 satirical sex comedy Bottoms.
Here, in honor of those who have dabbled in showbiz, we take a look at 23 of our favorite models in movies.
In Roman Coppola’s 2001 directorial debut, Lindvall plays Valentine, an actor portraying a secret agent named Dragonfly, who becomes the subject of director Andrezej’s fascination.
After retiring from modeling, Twiggy turned her aspirations toward the screen, collaborating with her friend Ken Russell on 1971’s The Boy Friend. The MGM production cast Twiggy as Polly Browne, an assistant stage manager who steps in when the lead actress breaks her ankle.
While she had relatively little screen time, Moss was central to the plot of the AbFab movie: When the supermodel is presumed dead after an encounter with Edina and Patsy, the duo go on the lam.
EmRata made her mark on the silver screen as Ben Affleck’s college-age mistress, Andie Fitzgerald, in 2014’s Gone Girl. Since then, she has taken roles in Lena Dunham’s Too Much, We Are Your Friends, Entourage, and I Feel Pretty—although early fans will remember her turn as Gibby’s girlfriend, Tasha, in iCarly.
Crawford took the starring role in the 1995 thriller, playing Kate McQuean, a lawyer with a KGB hit out on her.
Gerber starred as Brittany, a popular cheerleader who joins a queer fight club, in the 2023 satirical high school sex comedy Bottoms. While she struck a similar vein as sorority girl Esther in Overcompensating, Gerber has also taken her talents to the stage in Evanston Salt Costs Climbing.
Hutton’s most notable role was in American Gigolo alongside Richard Gere. But the model’s most recent cameo was in Amy Schumer’s 2018 film, I Feel Pretty.
I Feel Pretty proved a supermodel casting coup. Campbell makes a cameo as Helen, the CFO of Lily LeClaire. The model, pictured here with Michelle Williams, interviews Amy Schumer’s character, Renee, for a receptionist job.
While Upton first appeared on the big screen in The Other Woman, she took on a leading role. She shared top billing with Alexandra Daddario in the 2017 sex comedy The Layover.
What would this list be without Gisele? The supermodel took the unexpected route in the 2006 film, playing the Runway “clacker” Serena. Bündchen admitted that she was hesitant about the movie when she was first offered the part, saying, “I’m not gonna play a model. I do that every day.” Can we expect her to reprise her role in The Devil Wears Prada 2 next year?
Decker showed off her comedic chops as Skyler, Dennis Quaid’s much-younger trophy wife, in this movie adaptation of the pregnancy manual. Decker, whose first big onscreen role was in the Adam Sandler comedy Just Go With It, also had a noteworthy part on Grace and Frankie.
In a departure from her previous role in Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Huntington-Whiteley joined the cast of 2015’s highly acclaimed Mad Max: Fury Road as the Splendid Angharad.
In her first major onscreen role, Valletta played Allegra Cole, a celebrity who becomes the object of Albert’s (Kevin James) affection.
One of many models to earn the title of Bond Girl, Grace Jones stands out as May Day, a worthy counterpart to Roger Moore’s James Bond.
Way before Jennifer Lawrence played Mystique in X-Men: First Class, the honor—and blue body paint—went to Romijn. Since then, Romijn has kept up her acting career as a series regular in Star Trek: Strange New World.
Aoki joined the first of many The Fast and the Furious sequels as Suki. While her character didn’t carry on in the franchise, Suki’s hot pink convertible and colorful wardrobe live on in our hearts nearly 20 years later.
As one of Ben’s (Matthew McConaughey) scheming coworkers, Harlow had an enviable office wardrobe we couldn’t stop lusting over.
Cole’s otherworldly looks sparkled in this dreamlike tale of a traveling theater troupe.
In perhaps the most unlikely pairing in movie history, Macpherson plays the wife of a billionaire (Anthony Hopkins) who may or may not be cheating on him with her fashion-photographer friend (Alec Baldwin).
While Banks made her mark in reality TV, who could forget her quintessential performance in Life Size, in which she starred alongside a young Lindsay Lohan? She reprised her role in 2018 for the sequel.
Another model turned Bond Girl, Bach did a turn as Russian spy Anya Amasova in The Spy Who Loved Me. After the movie, however, she told People that 007 was “a chauvinist pig who uses girls to shield him against bullets.”
In addition to her successful modeling career, Delevingne has carved out an impressive acting résumé. She nabbed the role of Margo Roth Spiegelman in the adaptation of John Green’s Paper Towns. More recently, she had an arc on Only Murders in the Building.
Jovovich made her acting comeback as the alien Leeloo in The Fifth Element. Having since developed a robust acting career, her other most famous roles are in Zoolander and the Resident Evil franchise.
