Abbey Lee: ‘I didn’t stand up for myself’
MODEL and actor Abbey Lee on gun control, equal pay, fainting on the runway and why she prefers to leave her surname behind.
Stellar
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MODEL and actor Abbey Lee on gun control, equal pay, fainting on the runway and why she prefers to leave her surname behind.
You recently dropped your surname, Kershaw. Why?
The weird thing is, it’s not just in the last few years. When I started modelling at 15, I liked the look and sound and feel of Abbey Lee. So on all my modelling cards, I’ve never had Kershaw printed. One press person finds out my last name and prints it and it gets all confusing but whatever, it’s just a name.
In 2008 you fainted on the runway at the Alexander McQueen show in Paris due to fatigue and an unbearably tight corset. You’ve spoken about the poor treatment of models — what words of wisdom would you now offer your younger self?
I didn’t stand up for myself enough when I should have. It’s a very tricky industry and there’s not a lot of protection for young models. So if you don’t know how to protect yourself, you can find yourself in situations where it would be nice to have somebody who’s got your back. Sometimes when you’re at an elite level, saying no or speaking out can be scary. And I’m someone who pushes myself.
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You kicked off your acting career with 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road. What was that like? That movie changed the course of my life in a really huge way. I didn’t feel like I was in some strange situation that I didn’t deserve to be in or cope with; I felt I’d landed where I was supposed to. I’m also not the type of person who gets starstruck. So to me, that whole process was about having to learn and adapt really quickly. I was absorbing everything I could at a very rapid rate.
You became close friends with actor Riley Keough [granddaughter of Elvis and Priscilla Presley] on set. Since then, you’ve fronted a Vogue cover together and were later rumoured to be a bridesmaid at her wedding [in 2015].
She’s like my sister now. We have a lot of fun; we have a stupid relationship where we can be silly with each other. Living in the desert for six months, there was literally nothing else around, so we all sort of really needed each other. Me, Riley, Zoë [Kravitz], Rosie [Huntington-Whiteley], Nicholas [Hoult] — we were a tight unit. We spent every waking minute with each other.
In your new film 1%, you play Katrina, the vindictive, opportunistic girlfriend of a bikie gang member. Is it fun to play the bad girl?
I seem to draw those types of roles; I’m not sure what that says about me! I don’t know if I find it more fun, but I do like playing those characters. You have to tap into a part of yourself that maybe is uncomfortable. It’s a part of why I like doing this job.
In 2013, a photo of you lifting your dress at the Met Gala to reveal you had ‘Gun Control’ written on your stomach went viral. Do you feel even more strongly about the issue now?
Very much. It’s always been a problem, but I think the world has gone mad a little bit and madmen shouldn’t have guns. All of the discussions and debates and the crap that I hear... It just seems so simple; if we take away the guns, we take away a lot of the problem. It’s insane there’s even an argument.
What would you write on your stomach if you did it again?
Probably ‘Equal Pay’. I’ve gone from being in a world where the average female model gets paid more than a man to an industry where I get paid less purely for the fact that I don’t have a c*ck. I was blind to it for so long because it didn’t affect me. But now I’ve done the research and it makes me so angry.
1% is in cinemas nationally from Thursday.