When models try to act

[bennet_7]

Just got back from seeing the Perth Theatre Company's production of The Ugly One which features supermodel Gemma Ward. She's been trying out acting for a while now - she was in an Australian film called The Black Balloon and is in the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie - but this is her debut on stage and it's a tricky play: she plays three different characters, two of them significant.

I thought she was decent but not a revelation. Her facial expressions were good but she doesn't know how to modulate her voice to show emotion - some of her line readings were too monotone (though she does have a very interesting voice: deeper than you would expect from her appearance). She was better as the older, more confident woman, rather than the young wife. Still, I think she has potential, she just needs training.

As for how she looks...beautiful and healthy, I'd say. I know that plenty of blogs and magazines were calling her fat after she stopped modelling, which was ridiculous. She just wasn't model-thin for the first time in years. In this she was still thin but not so waif-like - she had good muscle tone on her arms and legs. And as she's getting older and with perhaps a little extra weight, her features don't look quite so odd, though she's still remarkable to look at. Not typically pretty at all.

I know she stopped modelling partly because she was involved with Heath Ledger at the time of his death. In a twist of cosmic irony, the play was being shown in the Studio Underground at the State Theatre Centre, which also contains the Heath Ledger Theatre.