Agyness Deyn returns to the spotlight in new BBC drama Hard Sun after decade off-grid
AS the unusual beauty of the fashion world, the in-demand cover girl with rock stars as arm-candy, Agyness Deyn was everywhere.
Then, almost a decade ago, the chip-shop worker turned supermodel from Ramsbottom dropped off the radar.
In her time out of the limelight, Agyness has seen one marriage go down the pan, got hitched again, quit modelling and got her kit off in a series of dodgy films.
From the creator of Luther, the six-parter which starts next month is about a detective duo battling rising lawlessness as the apocalypse approaches.
Agyness sees her character DI Elaine Renko as a chance to finally prove she is not just a pretty face.
She says: “One of the things that really drew me to the part was the chance to play a woman who is enigmatic and strong-willed, but without the sexual projections that such roles usually have.
“Renko is driven by the need to do what she knows is right.
"She’d probably rather have a fight than an intimate conversation. She’s doing everything for a cause.”
It’s a major about-turn for the once sought-after model with androgynous looks who made a living wearing Burberry, Chanel, Vivienne Westwood and Giorgio Armani.
As her career took off she was named Model Of The Year at the 2007 British Fashion Awards.
In her heyday she flew first-class around the globe for photoshoots and was the cover girl for high-end magazines such as Vogue and Time.
But four years later she quit, unable to stand all the bitchiness and feeling isolated from other models.
Agyness said: “You get to travel but you get thrown into this adult world, which is kind of quite scary.
“It can be really lonely sometimes if they don’t talk to you.”
The glamorous life she now enjoys in New York with her second husband, financier Joel McAndrew, is very different from her humble beginnings in Rochdale, Greater Manchester.
She was born Laura Michelle Hollins, the second of three children, to Ken, a Royal Mail worker, and Lorraine, a nurse.
Following her parents’ divorce when she was 13, Agyness moved to Rawtenstall in Lancashire with her mother and siblings.
She was estranged from her father for a long time, although they have recently reconciled.
Ken told The Sun last week: “I do see her a lot. I’ve just been to New York.”
Her parents’ marriage split fuelled a teenage rebellion — she cut her hair short, dyed it pink and got into punk.
Agyness studied music and drama at a sixth-form college in Bacup and worked part-time manning the deep-fat fryer at The Village Chippy in Stubbins, near Ramsbottom.
Her looks saw her win a local newspaper’s Face Of ’99 competition but she was focused on getting her A-levels rather than modelling.
Then in 2004 she moved to London with her good friend, fashion designer Henry Holland, and was spotted by a model scout while out shopping in Kentish Town.
Her modelling career really took off in 2006 when she was 24 — after she pretended to be 18.
Agyness said: “At the time that was quite old for a new face, so we knocked off a few years.”
The Select model agency didn’t like her name much either.
She said: “They said there are loads of Lauras, you can change your name. I was like, ‘OK’.
"Then I thought about it and said, ‘OK, I’ll be Agnes, my grandmother was Agnes Dean’.”
She also consulted “names doctor” Laurence Y Payg, who used a 3,000-year-old Chinese technique involving numbers and personality traits to create a more successful handle.
He said the “U” of Laura was responsible for a “three-year period of losses” and came up with the “more fortuitous” spelling of Agyness.
Payg, who died three years ago, once said: “There wasn’t a lot of success ahead if she carried on as Laura Hollins, she needed a name that would enhance her career.
“Soon after her name change, Agyness’s career sky-rocketed . . . everything suddenly changed.”
Success did follow, though Agyness did not put it down to her new name.
By 2007 she was on the cover of Vogue, posing for top photographer Mario Testino and beating the likes of Lily Cole to Britain’s top modelling gong.
Agyness said: “By the time I was in my early twenties, I had done a lot.
"I went from being up North, having a normal job, and then all of a sudden going around the world on my own.
“I would be in China for a day and then on a plane to America to do something else.”
It was not all plain sailing — her mum Lorraine claimed that fashion brands in Italy tried to get her already slender daughter to lose weight, but Agyness refused.
Then in 2009, she turned her back on modelling completely to try to make it in Hollywood.
She said: “I got spotted and I’ve had this great chunk of time to find out what I really wanted to do, which is to act.”
Sadly, finding her way in film has not been easy.
Initially, many directors wanted to make the most of casting a former supermodel and Agyness — who once stripped naked for the edgy magazine 032c — started off flashing the flesh in a series of low-budget flops.
Her first full role was playing Flo, a heroin-addicted stripper in the 2012 British thriller Pusher.
In one scene she climbed naked out of a bath — something which hardly progressed the plot.
While for the impressive Electricity in 2014 she writhed about naked during one of the epileptic fits which plague her character.
Then a year later in director Terence Davies’s Sunset Song, Agyness showed off everything in front of the mirror.
And there was enough drama in her personal life to fill a movie of her own.
As a model she had dated Albert Hammond Jr, lead guitarist of The Strokes, Josh Hubbard, a guitarist with Hull band The Paddingtons, and was linked to US actor Josh Hartnett.
Then in 2012, after a whirlwind romance, she wed actor Giovanni Ribisi, who had played Phoebe’s brother in Friends.
Ribisi, 43, has been a Scientologist since birth, as his parents Al and Gay were devotees.
Friends feared Agyness would be sucked into the controversial religion.
At the time her reply to that was: “Brainwashed to what? The people who are saying this, have they ever read a book? Do they know what it’s all about?
“You meet someone and you fall in love with them. I’d go and live in a tent if I had to with him.”
The marriage lasted just two and a half years. Giovanni filed for divorce in January 2015, citing “irreconcilable differences”.
In very little time Agyness had found love again with hedge fund manager Joel McAndrew, who she calls her “best friend”.
They got married in New York in August 2016, just a year after first getting together.
With a new husband and a leading role in the heavily promoted Hard Sun, things are definitely looking up for Agyness.
She is tipped to become a household name all over again — but this time on her own terms.
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Other role models
AGYNESS Deyn is not the first – and certainly won’t be the last – model to ditch life as a clothes horse for the big screen.
Here we round up some of the most famous. . .
Cara Delevingne
The 25-year-old Brit began modelling aged ten and went on to feature in campaigns for Burberry, Chanel and Tom Ford.
In 2012 she had a change of career, making her movie debut in Anna Karenina.
Cara went on to land bigger roles in films including Paper Towns, Suicide Squad and, more recently, Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets.
Rosie Huntington-Whiteley
The blonde beauty, 30, started her career as a Victoria’s Secret Angel.
She still models – including her Rosie For Autograph lingerie range for M&S – and has had some success in the movie-world, starring in Transformers and alongside Charlize Theron in Mad Max: Fury Road.
Cameron Diaz
She may be best known as an actress, staring in hit films such as The Mask, The Holiday and There’s Something About Mary, but the 45-year-old actually started her working life as a model, aged 17.
Kate Upton
After making her name as a model in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue in 2011, Kate, 25, stepped into films – starring in The Other Woman, Wild Man and The Layover.
Lily Cole
Flame-haired Lily, 29, started modelling as a teenager and was a huge success.
She broke into acting in the 2007 comedy St Trinian’s, and got her first leading role two years later in The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus.
Diane Kruger
Now 41, she also went from catwalk to films.
Her first big role was in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, 2009.
Milla Jovovich
The Ukrainian-born star, 42, made her name in The Fifth Element and the Resident Evil sci-fi franchise, but started out as a child model, aged 11.
Jaime King
The 38-year-old American was modelling at 14.
She now combines fashion and acting and has earned roles in Pearl Harbor and Sin City.