"Boyd Holbrook had an auspicious beginning to his career, landing the Christian Dior exclusive campaign. It was a thrill to see him start off with such a bang!"

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We were trying to come up with ten, but many of those we considered for the list are already popular and have been featured by lots of blogs and sites (Channing Tatum, Ian Somerhalder for example), so what the heck! We're featuring not necessarily the most talented nor the most amazing of the young actors who were previously working as male models, but those who really rocked the modeling world and who have many fans who wanted to see them on the big screen. Some of these guys wanted to become actors in the first place and only turned to modeling as an afterthought.

They guys have had some of the biggest modeling gigs the fashion industry has to offer, and they definitely have unique and amazing looks, making them some of the highest paid in the industry.

tMF Top Five – Coolest Models-Turned-Actors
By Jed Medina

Boyd Holbrook: If you capture either the Gucci or the Dior Homme campaign, then you're one of fashion's superstars. Yes, it's not Armani or Calvin Klein any more: Gucci and Dior Homme rule! One of the earliest to ever be offered an exclusive for Dior is none other than American male model Boyd Holbrook.

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Looking back at Boyd the model: Says Nathalie Bernier, mentor, agent and friend:

"Boyd had quite an auspicious beginning to his career, landing the Christian Dior exclusive campaign. It was a thrill to see him start off with such a bang!"

Already a favorite among top fashion photographers, Boyd is now being labeled as the "male model" ideal. He is probably the most popular male model on the editorial front, amassing back-to-back gigs from across the Continent.

Only 21 years old, the 6'1" looker is famous in Europe as well as in Asia, particularly in Japan where model watchers in the Asian fashion hotspots are some of the most sophisticated. Elite NYC considers him as one of their top bets in the current race for the next male "megamodel". Competing with Boyd for this title are David Smith at IMG, Nick Bryant at VModels, Derek Hunchins at NY Models and Jeppe Zeller, also at IMG. [ read more from Modelwatch ]

See Boyd strut his stuff at the runway shows!

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The Start of a Film Career: Boyd plays Denton Smith in Gus Van Sant's latest movie, Milk: The story of California's first openly gay elected official, Harvey Milk, a San Francisco supervisor who was assassinated along with Mayor George Moscone by San Francisco supervisor Dan White.

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Trent Ford : It has been said that for every 1000 aspiring male models, only one or two will make it big. In the case of Trent Ford, not only did he turn heads in the modeling industry but he also successfully made the transition into acting.

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"I did that as a financial thing but I never told anybody in acting that I did that. I think that LA doesn’t really understand what fashion is, just in terms of the fashion industry. They have lovely clothes here and people do dress well from time to time. I mean come on, wearing dental floss just doesn’t count," says Ford [ read more from our spotlight of the week article ]

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In Eric Rohmer's latest directorial project, Andy Gillet was chosen to play the leading role. Adapted from the novel of Honoré d’Urfé, Les Amours d’Astrée et de Céladon (The Romance of Astrea and Celadon), the film is about two shepherds in 5th century Gaul. Gillet plays the role of Celadon.

Fu'ad Ait Aattou always wanted to be an actor.

"I grew up in the north of France and I came to Paris almost 10 years ago, to be an actor. I went to acting school for three years. I went to lots of auditions, but nothing happened," says Fuad.

In order to remain in Paris and pursue his dream, he turned to modelling instead. With his good looks, he immediately became a sensation. Some of his modeling gigs include Lacoste, an editorial photoshoot for Numero Homme, and a variety of runway shows in Paris and Milan.

His first big break into movies turned out to be both controversial and sensational. There was news about French director Catherine Breillat searching for a young actor to play the lead in her new film, An Old Mistress. It was said that she needed someone who represented an ideal of male beauty, someone who looked like a Renaissance painting. And, at the moment when she despaired of ever finding him, she says, she saw a young man in a crowded cafe, and knew immediately that he was the one.

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The young man sitting in the cafe was Fu'ad Ait Aattou.

Philippa Hawker reports:

When Breillat called, she brought him in for a reading, and it didn't go well. "I did a scene from La Maman et la Putain" — Jean Eustache's devastating 1973 exploration of male-female relationships — "it's one she does for all her movies, when I'm begging a girl not to leave me. And she didn't like it. She told me to try again, two weeks later, with a scene from An Old Mistress, and this time" — he says with a smile, the relief still palpable — "she liked it".

He was cast on his 25th birthday. "Maybe you won't believe me, but it's true. I told myself, I have until 25 for my dream to come true, or I was going to go home to the north of France."

Having to play Ryno de Marigny, an impoverished but elegant young man of the early 19th century, he immersed himself in the period, reading novels and listening to music, trying to understand what lay behind the cult of the dandy, thinking about his character's psychology.

Ryno is a man caught between the world to which he aspires, represented by the young aristocrat to whom he is engaged, and the life he has lived: above all, his consuming bond with his mistress, the fiercely independent Vellini (played with assertive intensity by Asia Argento).

Here's Catherine BREILLAT's movie, UNE VIEILLE MAÎTRESSE:

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What's next for Monsieur Ait Aattou? It's sad to note that because he was first known as a male model, people are not really taking him seriously as an actor. He said with some impatience:

"It took me 10 years to get my first part. I don't want to wait another 10."

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Jamie Dornan: Jamie Dornan is well-known in modelling circles in Northern Ireland, after making it through the Belfast auditions for the Channel 4 series, Model Behaviour, in 2001. For the next two years, Jamie was working from job to job, but nothing big really happened. Finally, Jamie’s New York agency took notice of him and had him audition for some American clients.

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He has done various modelling jobs from advertising campaigns for Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger to editorial spreads for GQ. He currently has a three-year contract with Christian Dior. Jamie’s success as a model is attributed to the fact he doesn’t take the precarious modelling world too seriously.

See Jamie in his Dior Homme campaign shoot:

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His former band, Sons of Jim, released a couple of songs for download. They had huge success doing shows around London before splitting up.

Jamie at the Movies: Jamie’s first film was Marie-Antoinette, directed by Sophia Coppola. Yes, he's that mystery guy who had an affair with the doomed Queen. He currently has two films awaiting release: The Wreck and Beyond The Rave.

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Comments (2)

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I had no idea Trent Ford was a model before an actor. He just doesn't seem to have that 'model' look to me! You should have one for female models turned actresses, if you haven't already.

Elizabeth , March 23, 2008

The ladies turn!

yes, we're doing the top 5 for the ladies, coming up!

jedmed , March 25, 2008

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