With her bombshell beauty, it would be easy to dismiss KATE UPTON as just a pretty face. But this kickboxing, world-championship-winning, internet-breaking woman should not be underestimated, says APRIL LONG
If you want exceptional service in a restaurant, invite Kate Upton as your dinner guest. From the moment the 22-year-old strides into The Standard Grill in New York’s Meatpacking District – bundled up against the cold in a plush white turtleneck sweater, skinny black pants and riding boots – there are suddenly waiters everywhere: scurrying to refill her water glass after every sip, approaching in a relentless rotation to whisper, “Wine, miss?” or, “Can I offer you some bread?” (Upton accepts the former, waves away the latter).
Even if you didn’t recognize her from one of her Sports Illustrated: Swimsuit Issue covers or her comedic turn opposite Cameron Diaz and Leslie Mann in last year’s The Other Woman, you couldn’t fail to notice Upton in any room. She is glaringly beautiful, in that rare, all-American, girl-meets-Hollywood-bombshell way; and vivacious, with a loud, almost musical laugh. In person, despite all of the column inches devoted to her curves, at 5ft 10, she is more statuesque than voluptuous. She looks strong and healthy, a combination she credits to the weight training she does with fitness guru David Kirsch and her new obsession, kickboxing. “I just walked in and said, ‘I want to be trained like a fighter, like I’m going to get in the ring and fight someone,’” says Upton. “It makes me feel like I can handle anything.”
As someone whose body is such a vital part of her professional currency, a healthy approach to fitness is something Upton wholly embraces. “I am healthy, and I do work really hard, and I want to be a positive role model in that way. What I’ve learned is that it’s about putting the right fuel in your body and treating your body well. So I try to eat as well as I can, but I also always have a cheat day,” she says, raising her glass.
It would be easy to dismiss the breezily outgoing Upton as the “people pleaser” she describes herself as; someone who perhaps hasn’t had to overcome many challenges in life. “People always have low expectations of me,” she acknowledges, “but that makes it easy to impress them!”
Talk to her for just a few minutes though, and not only will Upton surpass your expectations, she will convince you that her success is the result of ambition and dedication, not luck. “If I make up my mind that I’m going to accomplish something, it’s like I have tunnel vision,” she says. “I block out everything else and that’s all I see.”
Such single-mindedness meant that by the age of 15, Upton – who was born in Michigan and raised in Florida – was already a star equestrian, having won five world championships. “I remember my mom telling me, ‘You need to take a break from horse riding because it’s a lot of travel,’ and I was like, ok…” she says. “Three months later I went to Miami to start modeling.”
It was 2008 and Upton’s bombshell looks were already arresting. In the beginning, she felt pigeonholed: “I was always trying to explain that I could do more... It took a long time.” After moving to New York and signing with agency IMG in 2010, Upton hit her stride: locking in a contract with Guess, and appearing in Sports Illustrated in 2011, then on two covers for the magazine in 2012 and 2013. She had her sights set on the world of high fashion, however, and covers of several major glossies came in quick succession, including Vanity Fair’s 100th-anniversary issue. Upton found herself posing for the likes of Mario Testino, Steven Meisel and Annie Leibovitz.
“I had to educate myself,” says Upton. “I knew nothing about fashion. I knew about rainbow flip-flops, and that’s about it! So I’d look everyone up, see which other people they’d shot and what their style was, to be as prepared as possible.” Now, when asked who her favorite designers are, she replies without hesitation and at length: “I love Lanvin, Narciso Rodriguez, Stella McCartney, Saint Laurent. And I love having one really good Chanel moment in your closet – something classic.”
She took the same focused, ultra-prepared approach to her acting career, taking classes for three years “to really learn the art”. She relished her performance in The Other Woman, playing the ‘dumb blond’ role with the kind of hammy aplomb that showed she was in on the joke. Next came a beauty contract with Bobbi Brown, who chose Upton as the face of her cosmetics line last year. “It’s amazing to work with Bobbi. She’s so pro-woman,” says Upton. “It’s insane that she’s in charge of this empire, and is such a positive influence for makeup. [For Bobbi] it’s all about loving yourself and appreciating your natural beauty.”
As someone who was raised with two older sisters and a younger brother in “a very female-dominated household, including our dogs”, Upton warms to the subject of female empowerment. “I love strong women who are able to do it all,” she says. Her mother was clearly a positive influence: “My mom always said I was born with rough edges and she didn’t want to cut them down, she just wanted to file them a little bit,” she smiles.
Although Upton rode into notoriety on a wave of social media – a viral video of her dancing at a Los Angeles Clippers game in 2011 pushed her career into overdrive – she isn’t exactly a cheerleader for it. “I feel like social media at this point is kind of b******t,” she says. “At the beginning it was amazing and a lot of fun. It was like, ‘Cool, I can talk to my fans!’ And now I think that we’re losing the art of it.” She admits, a little sadly, that her Twitter presence – with an audience of nearly two million – has become less spontaneous.
“When I joined Twitter it was just me, but [when] you’ve got contracts, it’s so planned,” she explains. “Now it’s about who has the best marketing, not who has a really good personality.” Upton’s online popularity has also proven to be a double-edged sword: at first, she says, it was “really hard” to deal with the scrutiny. “Because I actually cared what people thought. The only thing I do for other people now is cook,” she laughs. “That’s the only place in my life where I care what they think.”
It took her a long time to stop reading comments written about her, body or otherwise; now, she turns a blind eye. “I’ve heard people say, you put yourself in that position to be judged. But no,” she waves a finger, “I put myself in that position because I really liked that photographer, I wanted to do that piece of work. Not to be judged. The internet can be horrible, so I just don’t look at it anymore.” She pauses, then adds: “But maybe a little hate is good for me. Because if I’m in a spot where everyone loves me, I won’t try as hard.”
Although Upton is tight-lipped about when we might next see her on the big screen (“I can’t talk about it, but maybe there’s something in the works”), she isn’t likely to be someone whose meteoric rise will end in burnout. She laughs at the idea of a five-year strategy – “This industry is too insane to predict” – but that doesn’t mean she’s not planning. And when it all gets too much, Upton retreats to her house in Cocoa Beach, Florida. “I just take a step back. I ride my horse, I visit my parents, I get away from it. My greatest strength,” she says, “is that I have no fear."
Kate Upton is the face of Bobbi Brown cosmetics.
