Deyn On Screen

From Style.

Agyness Deyn, whose film debut premiered Friday night at the Bowery Hotel, had butterflies in her stomach—never mind that Mean to Me, a short written and directed by artist Peter McGough, has the Manchester-born model playing a steely 1930’s femme fatale. “I’m so nervous!” Deyn fretted before the screening.

McGough’s 12-minute film noir is drenched in period glamour, with gorgeous sets and a wardrobe by Zac Posen. (In keeping with the fashionable theme, Guerlain and Mikimoto co-sponsored the event.) Still, it’s a major job shift for Deyn, who’s now skipping along the same path that Lauren Bacall, Audrey Hepburn, and Charlize Theron took from model to movie star—not so much A to B, perhaps, as A to Z. “For me, acting is the opposite,” Deyn explained. “With modeling, I don’t think you’re allowed to feel vulnerable. When I’m acting, I’m risking, I’m in touch with all these emotions. I feel like I have to be in a really vulnerable place.”

Not that that’s a problem for Deyn, who’s eager to peel off the Posen dresses and thick makeup for her next role, which she said she wants to be “something really gritty, intense—a bit of a tortured-soul kind of thing.” Hear that, Lars von Trier?