Zappanicoxs52g: 'Runaway' Star Selita Ebanks Recalls Her Vogue Rejection

martedì 26 ottobre 2010

'Runaway' Star Selita Ebanks Recalls Her Vogue Rejection

Model-turned-actress once failed to impress editor Anna Wintour but is winning raves for her turn in Kanye West's clip.
By Kara Warner, with reporting by Sway Calloway

Selita Ebanks
Photo: MTV News

Selita Ebanks is riding high after the overwhelmingly positive response to her performance in Kanye West's "Runaway" film — not just from fans, but from 'Ye himself, who told MTV News' Sway that the model-turned-actress "killed it."

But the Victoria's Secret model's career hasn't been all roses and clover. When Ebanks sat down with Sway to talk about the film and where it fits in her career trajectory, she recalled her first (and last) meeting at Vogue magazine.

"I wore Timberland boots," she said. "I had on corduroy high-water flooded beige pants with a button-down plaid shirt. I was a tomboy," Ebanks explained of her first meeting at the famed glossy. "I remember walking in ... Trudy, from Vogue at the time, she looks at me startled and I didn't understand why. I was like, 'What up? Who am I here to meet?' "

Ebanks said she was told to take her jacket off and just "be herself" and she'd be fine. She was then ushered into another room.

"I walk into the office, I got maybe two steps into the room and I look and it's amazing [editor in chief] Ms. Anna Wintour. She goes [makes a dismissive wave] and dismisses me," Ebanks recalled. "Needless to say my cover did not come out, to say the least, and I have never shot Vogue magazine."

The 27-year-old beauty said that rather than hold onto any bad feelings about the incident, she took it as a valuable lesson.

"Now that I reflect back on it — and this goes back to my advice for these young women — [the lesson] is to always do your homework," she relayed. "Always be aware, don't just take people's word for it and walk into a room. ... I should've asked, 'Who am I here to see? Who will be in the room?' But this is something you live and you learn."

What did you think of Selita's "Runaway" performance? Tell us in the comments!

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