Gemma Ward’s next big move
SUPERMODEL, actor and mother-of-two Gemma Ward has been out of the spotlight for a little while. Now she’s ready to open up about what comes next.
Stellar
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THERE’S a raft of roles Gemma Ward has taken on since her Australian Fashion Week debut in 2003.
The model was scouted by agents in her hometown of Perth; a year later, there she was on the catwalks, a doe-eyed teenager possessed of an other-worldly beauty. She quickly became a runway superstar, as well as a haute couture muse and, every once in a while, an actor. But as Ward, now 30, speaks down the phone to Stellar from her new home in New York, her most pressing job is that of mother to her two young children: daughter Naia, four, and son Jett, who was born in January last year.
It’s early evening there, and Naia is demanding some of her mum’s attention — she’s got a sore knee. Ward is doing a dance most parents will recognise: trying to console an upset child while taking a phone call and keeping a professional discussion on track. “Sorry, she’s a bit sensitive today,” Ward says. “She got hit by a soccer ball on her nose in the park. And she just banged her leg.”
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A few words of comfort and Naia settles, and Ward resumes the conversation. She wants to relay the reasons for her move to New York, where she’s been for three months, after a few years living in Byron Bay.
“It just felt like now is the right time,” she says of the relocation she took with her children and partner, photographer David Letts. “I’d gotten to a place where Jett was a year and a bit. He’s still pretty little, but definitely old enough for me to feel like I can start [working again]. I had wanted to come back here for a while, but it just felt like this was the perfect time because Naia is just about to start school.”
For someone who was declared a supermodel before she’d hit adulthood, Ward is remarkably unaffected. She’s thoughtful, self-possessed, and direct in a way that seems unusual when compared to the carefully cultivated answers of celebrities who want to stay “on brand”.
Perhaps it’s understandable, given Ward’s somewhat fluid relationship with the spotlight. She famously took time out from modelling in 2008 after the death of close friend and former boyfriend Heath Ledger. It may seem like the move of a very confident person, but Ward says her hiatus was less a decision than it was a necessity. “I felt pretty certain; to me, there was no other choice,” she says. “I had to prioritise my health at that point.”
Ward can’t isolate one element of her high-profile career that prompted her to put it aside. “It was complicated. There were so many things going on. The best way to put it was that it was just a storm — my life at that time, it felt like everything came to a head all at once. I had a lot of issues and I was struggling, and I needed to take a step back. I don’t know if I’ll ever fully unpack it. I did put a lot of pressure on myself, which definitely contributed to my psychological state.”
Ten years on from her professional pause, it seems that talk of Ward’s “retirement” — as it was described at the time — was premature. She still models, albeit at a more relaxed pace than in her teenage heyday. She has added the odd acting role to her repertoire — both onstage and in films such as The Great Gatsby and Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.
Ward is also keen to align with charitable causes where she can: she spoke out in support of Australia’s marriage-equality movement last year, and is an ambassador for Byron Bay label Auguste’s upcoming campaign that will see well-known females from a range of industries wearing specially designed T-shirts, with all proceeds from sales of the clothing going to UN Women.
“I’ve always been interested in that kind of work,” she says. “My mother and my father have always been big champions of feminism. My dad’s been involved with charity work for a really long time, and my grandmother worked with Mother Teresa. Any time fashion and charity work can be combined, then it’s just amazing.”
Auguste founder Ebony Eagles says that the upcoming collaboration is an important part of the label’s philanthropic commitments. “We wanted to push awareness on women’s empowerment, and found that UN Women were at the forefront, doing so much fantastic work across the Pacific region,” Eagles says. “They’re eliminating violence, they’re economically empowering women, they’re educating women and they’re [addressing] basic human rights, where women can actually catch a bus without being sexually assaulted. Supporting them is a way for Auguste to play a part in creating a positive future for women.”
Eagles says Ward was a natural choice for the campaign. “We have a lot of mutual friends, but we had never actually met prior to the shoot,” Eagles says. (Ironic, given they were both living in Byron Bay at the time.) Ward’s close friend Nicole Trunfio had previously modelled for Auguste, however, and thought the two would get along — and they did. “Gemma is a joy — she’s got this down-to-earth way of mothering her children,” Eagles says. “She’s really gentle, but she’s out there ready to take on the world as well.”
This fits in with her desire to always keep a home in Byron Bay, despite having returned to New York at a new stage in her life. But this time around, she has a family to share in the adventures. Art workshops, music lessons, dance classes and museum visits for her son and daughter are all on the agenda.
“New York’s great for kids. I was a little bit worried that Naia would miss Byron, but she’s loving it,” Ward says. “She just looks out the window and says, ‘The city is so beautiful.’ She absolutely loves it. It’s crazy for me to think that they’ll be creating memories, which later on they’ll think back: ‘I can’t believe I was only this age when I saw this.’”
Ward has already knocked off a modelling job in the weeks that she’s been in the city, and tells Stellar she is planning to try her hand at acting once more. She’s open-minded about what future roles might be: she admits she previously attended an acting workshop on Shakespeare and Chekhov, but baulks at the idea she’s ready to take on the classics in theatre. “No, oh my gosh. It’s definitely very high on the bucket list, but I’m still working on that!”