Vikings star Alyssa Sutherland’s shock claims on sex trafficking and white privilege in modelling

Australian Vikings star Alyssa Sutherland has unleashed on the modelling industry, claiming her own catwalk experience revealed a hotbed of sex trafficking and emotional abuse.

Aussie actor and model Alyssa Sutherland has given a scathing assessment of the fashion industry – and the modelling world in particular – saying “the industry is rife” with “emotional abuse, financial abuse (and) sex trafficking”.

The former Brisbane native who is now based in LA with decades of modelling behind her said she would “take acting over modelling any day of the week”.

“I think there are a lot of issues with the industry as a whole,” the 39-year-old Vikings star said.

“Putting on a dress and walking on a catwalk is not a challenge. It’s dealing with the emotional abuse, the financial abuse, sex trafficking, the industry is rife with it and I don’t believe a lot has changed. A lot of other industries have had their #MeToo reckoning and I think the fashion industry has fallen short and still has a lot of work to do to protect the very young women that they work with.”

Alyssa Sutherland has opened up about the pitfalls of modelling. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)

She said sex trafficking and abuse is rife in the modelling world. Pictured in 2003.

Sutherland, 39, moved to the US from the Queensland capital 20 years ago, a shift which has been eye-opening.

“I was fortunate because like most things in this world, if you’re white you have privilege but what I’ve seen some other women go through is shocking,” she said.

“I was fortunate and escaped mostly unscathed from some of the true horrors but there’s nothing to protect models, there are no unions, there are no regulations.

“Sexual harassment can just exist, sexual assault can just exist and there really aren’t people protecting you. The people that say they’re there to protect you are a lot of the time the people that are trafficking you. I think New York and Europe are a lot worse.”

Alyssa will star in new TV drama New Gold Mountain. Supplied

She acknowledges that the term “white privilege” can be triggering for some.

“I think moving to New York and seeing people of colour and seeing the difference in treatment, I mean there’s a huge difference and I have had arguments with people who try to claim that white privilege doesn’t exist,” she said.

Currently in New Zealand filming a new project, Sutherland will also star in the new gold rush drama New Gold Mountain this week.

She plays a widow named Belle Roberts who overcomes the struggle of being in an abusive marriage.

“I was intrigued by the fact that we’re looking at the Australian gold rush through the eyes of the Chinese immigrants at the time, because like most Australians in school, I wasn’t taught about the Chinese immigrants during the Australian gold rush,” she said.

“I really like that I can be part of something that will educate people and rewrite history a little bit so that Australians can understand the real populations of the time.”

New Gold Mountain premieres on October 13 at 9.30pm on SBS and SBS On Demand.