Before Foreigner, Caitriona Balfe’s modeling career was in transition to her acting career. Balfe’s first screen credit would be in 2011 Super 8but she appeared as a model in The devil wears Prada and started auditioning. Looking back on her modeling days, Balfe recalled the moment she decided it was time to try something different.
Balfe appeared on The Hollywood Reporter Awards Speech podcast on January 31 to discuss his film Belfast. When discussing her early days as a model, Balfe revealed the moment that ultimately made her quit modeling. Foreigner Season 6 arrives on March 6.
Before ‘Outlander’, being a model wasn’t so glamorous for Caitriona Balfe
Balfe left school in Dublin, Ireland at 19 to try modeling. She worked for the Ford agency and did campaigns for brands like Chanel and Louis Vuitton. However, Balfe said modeling has gotten old and she remembers the specific job that was her last straw.
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“I know exactly that moment,” Balfe said on Awards Speech. “I was hired to do a catalog in Dallas, Texas. And the producer/whoever was running it, he had a bell. Whenever he felt we had enough pictures of that particular outfit, he would ring the bell. And then we were supposed to run, get changed and put on a new outfit.
The Reason The Bell Destroyed Caitriona Balfe’s Soul
Balfe had traveled the world and worked on runways before, so she was used to the pressures of modeling. However, the bell was just too much.
“I think it was just the most soul-destroying moment of my life,” Balfe said. “I was like, ‘What am I doing here?’ You literally feel like a coat hanger. So that’s when I think I was like, ‘Okay, it’s time to re-evaluate this whole thing.’
Catriona Balfe’s modeling job wasn’t so bad
The modeling served its purpose for Balfe. She made money and moved on to acting, where she landed her role in Foreigner in 2014. Balfe still has fond memories of modeling, although he doesn’t miss it.
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“There was a lot of pounding on the pavement, a lot of rejection, a lot of ‘what am I doing with my life,’ but also every once in a while you’d get those cool jobs you’d travel to Morocco,” Balfe said. “I went for a three-month stay in Japan. Cool things like that, so I think back to that time and have to be very thankful for the life experience I got. It was pretty amazing, for 19 years old, to be able to travel the world that way.
In addition to travel, Balfe made many friends as models.
“Working with creative people was really amazing and I made friendships between the girls too,” Balfe said. “I think people don’t understand the camaraderie in this industry either. People think it’s bitchy young girls standing up against each other and that’s not my experience. I have lifelong friends that I met back then. These are the things that I cherish. I loved the theatrical nature of doing the track. Doing the big McQueen shows or the Chanel shows, it was always these spectacular and really cool events.
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