Only Mario [Testino] could make me take those pictures. Ah! The only person that can get me to do stuff like this is Mario. You know what he’s like…

Gisele Bundchen V #54 July/August 2008

- When I was 14 years old I did this job because it was a way to make money and help my parents out. It happens that I’ve been successful. Now I’m 27 and I keep doing it because it works for me. I remember the paparazzi when I moved to L.A. in 2000. I used to smoke, so maybe a picture of me would come out where I’m smoking and I would be like, “Oh no, my mother is going to kill me.” But I didn’t know that picture was taken; I didn’t feel invaded. Now they sit in front of my house all day. The first thing in the morning is them this close to me. And if you touch them they yell that they’re going to sue. Believe me, if I had my way I would go around punching people.

- I remember when I was a kid and how I was inspired. I read stories about Gandhi and world leaders—they were amazing. What are the kids aspiring to be in American culture? I worry about having children.

- People don’t want to become good people now. They want to become famous. Whatever they have to do for that they’ll do. The media should take more responsi-bility for what it’s creating.

- Okay, let me tell you something: I’ve been a model for ten years and I don’t have a publicist. I am the only person I know that does not have one. Do you know why? Because I don’t want them to talk about me. For my job I need an agent. Where am I going? What time is my flight? Who am I working with? That’s what I need to know. I have nothing to say to people who gossip about me. The more I talk, the more I feed into this craziness that I don’t want to be associated with.

- I work in fashion but I’m not really a fashion person. I don’t follow trends. I couldn’t tell you which designer made that shoe or that bag. I like jeans. I like comfortable clothes. I’m all for feeling good in what you wear. I don’t do shows anymore, so I don’t even know who is doing what now. I do my job, which is to make the clothes look like they’re supposed to, and to interpret what the photographer, designer, and stylist want in a picture.

- Look, I just think that everybody deals with their demons in different ways, and everybody finds a different way to express their frustrations. I’m a fortunate person. This job has given me a lot of opportunities—I speak five languages, know half the world, meet very interesting people, and I’m 27 years old and financially independent. So I’m not going to spit on the plate that feeds me. When I go to a job people are relying on me. Everyone—from the hair person to the caterer to the stylist—is there to do a job, and if I screw it up I’m screwing up twenty people’s day. That’s not fair. Who am I to do that? I just do what is expected of me and become the persona they want. When I’m there I’m not Gisele—’cause believe me I have opinions about everything—I’m a canvas. I’ve accepted that.

- The other day at the airport I stopped to buy a magazine—I like design magazines, like Architectural Digest—and saw this little girl, maybe 15, who had five magazines, all gossip magazines! I wanted to ask her mother, “Why is your daughter reading this garbage? What do you think it’s going to inspire your daughter to be in her life?”

- I have a line of flip-flops in Brazil [with Ipanema], and in the last three years we’ve been donating proceeds to protect local water sources and replant forests. Look, I have a huge concern for so many other things going on in the world. I paid for a study about violence that is being edited into a book at the end of the year; we researched for three and a half years with fifty sociologists. While everyone is going around saying crazy things about my life I’m concerned with the destruction of our planet. Why don’t they talk about that? Or, forget about what I’m doing altogether, why don’t they talk about what’s going on in the environment in these magazines?