Talent, muse and model Cara Delevingne covers the October 2019 issue of ELLE UK, styled by Sasa Thomann. The 27-year-old face of Dior Beauty, whose godmother is Dame Joan Collins, is interviewed by long-time friend Derek Blasberg with images by Liz Collins.

Cara shares raw insights about how modeling made acting a challenge initially. It has to do with fakery.

Honestly, fashion really f*cked me when it came to acting. When I did my first film – Anna Karenina, which I didn’t have a speaking part in – every time I was on screen, the director (Joe Wright) would come up to me and say, ‘Cara, you’re modelling again. Stop trying to look pretty.’ I was an extra with 60 other people on screen at the time. I was like, ‘But what do you mean?’ And he’d tell me, ‘You’re not in the moment, you’re just trying to look hot.’ I never thought I did that. Modelling makes you know where the camera is at all times, and you have to forget that when you’re acting.