LEGEND has it that Cindy Crawford became a US$9 million (about HK$69.5 million) a year supermodel because of two things: she is extraordinarily beautiful and she is an extremely hard worker. Her two days in Hong Kong turned the myth into reality. She is of course gorgeous, whether dressed in Herve Legere for Monday night's Planet Hollywood party to launch her first movie, Fair Game, or business-like Donna Karan for non-stop interviews with the Asian press.
She stands where she is told for as long as she is told. She poses for the cameras like the professional she is. But this is no tailor's dummy. While everyone knows about the Revlon contract, the MTV House of Style show, the endless Vogue covers, the shortlived marriage to Richard Gere, there has not been as much copy written about how smart this 29-year-old native of De Kalb, Illinois, actually is. Razor sharp, in fact.
Fair Game, a Joel Silver-produced action-adventure, has been trashed by the press. And if the truth be known, it is pretty average. Not Crawford, as a Miami-based lawyer on the run from a rag-tag bunch of renegade Russians, but the movie itself, which does not make too much sense. 'I read a review in New York which suggested that if you were casting a lawyer, Cindy Crawford should be the last person to call,' says Crawford. 'That's just not fair, it's not nice.
'I was a straight A student at school and I was very offended by that. Because I could have been a lawyer, or a doctor, or anything I wanted. I was on a scholarship for chemical engineering. Just because I look a certain way doesn't mean to say I'm stupid. And it was written by a woman too - that's unpleasant. Women need to stick together.' Crawford has not been bothered by other negative reviews - 'someone compared my acting debut to chipping a nail, and I thought, whatever, if that makes amusing copy' - but she obviously does not like her intelligence to be insulted.
She is nice, but not in a toothy down-home way. Her career is a business and Crawford is the chairman of Cindy Inc. 'Modelling has been really good to me, so I would never think I don't need that any more,' she says.
'I took a pay cut to do the movie. I make more money modelling than I do making movies. The crew would tease me because on a movie set you usually work six days and then take one day off. But on my day off, I would have to work - for Revlon or someone. And they would ask why? So I'd say, this is a hobby for me, I can't afford this, I have to go and make some real money now. It was true, you know.' Her co-star in Fair Game, William Baldwin, first met Crawford when they modelled together in New York more than 10 years ago. 'There's models, supermodels, and then there's Cindy,' he says. 'She's on a whole different level. If they could have her on the cover of Vogue every month, they would, because she sells. Every time.' Crawford was the first to turn modelling into a hot commodity, a bona fide profession. Now, close on the heels of negative reviews for Fair Game, reports are circulating that the era of the supermodel is dead. But do not bury Cindy Crawford yet.
'Anna Wintour [the editor of American] Vogue was interviewed about that - is the era of the supermodel over because a lot of the supermodels weren't in the shows? And she said it's not a story. The supermodels aren't in the shows because they don't want to be, they've other things going on. As far as I'm concerned, modelling is a start and you do it, and it opens up other opportunities. And if I have a better opportunity that day, then I'm going to do that. Like anyone would. And I think the business may be changing for all of the models who were fortunate enough to build up momentum in the 80s and the early 90s - they're pushing it to the next level. We're taken much more seriously as business people now, which is great; we're changing the business.' Still, if you ask Crawford what she really likes to do, the answer is quick and succinct: 'I like modelling because I know when I go to work that I can do my job well. I have confidence there. I like to go because I know the people who are paying me will be happy at the end of the day - that's nice. Especially after doing a movie, where I didn't know - it was scary every day.' But can she act? Will she continue to act? 'Everyone asks what will happen to me if this movie doesn't do very well,' she says. 'But my parents are still going to love me, I still have a Revlon contract, I still have my relationship with MTV, so my life will not be over. And it was worth taking a chance.' It probably was not the wisest move to headline a US$30 million feature for her debut. 'I thought, there's going to be negative press no matter what I do, so I might as well start out big,' she says. But she acquits herself well, despite a high quota of leering close-ups and wet T-shirt shots. She does want to act again and is considering a Warner Brothers romantic comedy. But she is certain she will not work with a first-time director next time around. 'That was probably the biggest surprise,' she says.