After completing her A Levels, Alexandra decided to continue modelling as an adult. During University she did as much work as she could fit in and since graduation partakes in as many jobs and test shoots as possible.
As a child, you’re told by your guardian when and where you need to be in terms of shoots. As an adult, you will receive various emails from your agent (or agentS if you have several) inquiring about your availability for castings- not jobs- and then you would gain a second point of contact about the job itself if successful at the casting. This leads to the need to quickly learn time management, especially if modelling isn’t what you do full time.
In adult modelling it is very rare that you are ‘given’ a job based on your online portfolio alone- you will nearly always be sent for a casting first, and it’s rare that you even get the job. This makes the industry very tough to be part of and you have to learn to be thick skinned- if you’re not, then I wouldn’t advise doing it as a career. For example, I got a shoot for Lipsy online clothes website, got halfway through the shoot and the designer changed her mind and cancelled. Luckily I was still paid some money, but it was very disappointing at the time.
On top of this, adult modelling can be a very odd experience compared to child modelling. You can find yourself in a dress, in a field, at dusk, freezing cold, lying backwards on a horse… while a sheep is eating your lunch in a shed nearby.
Modelling is something that I enjoy- I ignore the stigma attached, I eat healthily and I exercise, but not for modelling- and something that I’d like to pursue after University. All of my filming work has come through my original Oxford based agency, but I am also with three London based agencies and I aim to expand further to keep busy with jobs after graduating. I also plan to join as many acting agencies as possible to get some professional acting work into my show reel. I’m happy to ‘go with the flow’ while I figure out what direction I want to go in, in terms of my career. A huge part of the media industry is who you know so by keeping busy and meeting as many people as possible I hope that this will lead me towards something that I want to do.
Alexandra Ford 