The documentarian Roger Ross Williams usually establishes trust by getting a meal with his subjects before shooting. In the case of “The Super Models,” he and co-director Larissa Bills were meeting four legends.
Cindy Crawford hosted the pair at her Malibu home; Christy Turlington took them to a bookstore in Manhattan; Naomi Campbell Zoomed them from her closet. (“She was very apologetic,” says Bills, but “her closet was as big as my apartment.”) In early 2020, Crawford, Turlington, Campbell and Linda Evangelista came to Imagine Entertainment with the notion of executive producing a documentary about their reign over fashion in the 1980s and ’90s. Williams, an Oscar winner for 2009’s “Music by Prudence,” and Bills were brought in to tell their collective story of living as icons — and finding themselves as women.
And that’s how Williams ended up telling Evangelista about the House of Evangelista. On FX’s “Pose,” a group of drag ballroom performers borrow her name, and her hauteur. “I made this whole speech,” says Williams. “‘You’re iconic to these Black gay men. Your power defines them.’”
Evangelista, known in her moment as a fashion chameleon, exerted a special pull — but seemed to need a touch of “Pose’s” high-stepping spirit. Having come forward in 2022 with claims that she had been disfigured during a cosmetic procedure, and having also survived both cancer and spousal abuse, Evangelista has lived a lot of life. On-screen, she’s more open than ever, her famous face expressing not a designer’s vision but her inner turmoil. (The women are interviewed separately, but prepare together for a group photo shoot with Steven Meisel.) Williams says Evangelista’s was “the most ridiculously emotional interview you could imagine. There was a lot of guilt, and there was a lot of processing. We were comforting Linda, and she was comforting us — because we were in tears.”
The series was a safe landing place. Indeed, says Sara Bernstein, president of Imagine documentaries, all four models wanted to ensure “they weren’t just handing over their stories, but they were actively involved.” The end result gives voice to stars known for their visages, with an emphasis on sensitively tracking their journeys. (They gave input, adds Bernstein, but “the final cut really did stay with us.”) Crawford and Turlington speak about re-claiming their images, and Campbell addresses her recovery from addiction. “Naomi owns her mistakes,” says Bills, “and she owns her own truth. But it was interesting to see this other side of her — this vulnerable bit.”
The documentary (premiering on Sept. 20 on Apple TV+) intriguingly circles another vulnerability: the passage of time. Crawford notes that nowadays, she’s best known as Kaia Gerber’s mom. And the repeated use of George Michael’s “Freedom! ’90” — the David Fincher-directed video that starred the four subjects and the late Tatjana Patitz — emphasizes both what a massive moment the clip was for the monoculture, and how far away 1990 now seems. Campbell, Crawford, Evangelista and Turlington, masterful before film cameras, are now finding a new place in an Instagram-filter world where fame has been democratized. “It was the last of the analog,” Bills says wistfully. “It’s like vinyl. You have a richness of experience that you don’t [otherwise] get.”
For “The Super Models,” that depth of experience translated to serious preparation; these subjects knew how they wanted to be shot. “Cindy Inc. is no joke,” recalls Williams. “Cindy shows up ahead of time. And we did many prep calls: ‘What is your lighting scheme?’” The series’ gaffer had the idea to blast the interviews with bright white light like an Avedon portrait. It worked. “You know what the greatest compliment is?” Williams says. “When a supermodel tells you they love your lighting.”
The cameras catch the women readying for their shoot with pinpoint precision. “Cindy had a very professional team; Naomi had multiple seamstresses,” says Williams. The exception was the perpetually yoga-chic Turlington, who is impeccably turned out on camera but “showed up by herself with a plastic bag with a wrinkled-up blouse.” Perhaps models really can make anything look good.
