Naomi Campbell and Cindy Crawford quickly learned each other’s quirks as they came of age in the modeling industry together in the 1990s.
“Cindy was definitely the more serious [one],” Campbell, 53, recalled in the second episode of The Super Models, which drops on Apple TV+ on Wednesday, September 20. “But we knew how to get her to loose and have fun: Tequila.”
Campbell and Crawford, 57, are joined by Christy Turlington and Linda Evangelista in the docuseries to detail their career highlights and their friendship memories. Episode 2 specifically chronicled the foursome’s early experiences living in New York City.
“They were my sisters,” Campbell gushed, noting that she and Turlington, 54, used to be roommates.
Evangelista, 58, even referred to that period as “the glory days” of their careers and friendships.
“But remember, in those ‘glory days,’ it wasn’t perfect because Naomi wasn’t always booked to do the shows. I didn’t understand [it],” Evangelista said. “I thought [she] was more beautiful, had a much more rocking body than I did and a better strut. And I’m like, ‘Why aren’t they booking her?’ I said to them, ‘If you don’t book her, you don’t get me.’”
Campbell chimed in, praising both Evangelista and Turlington for “absolutely [putting] themselves on the lines” in order for her to book jobs. (Campbell previously claimed that she would frequently not be hired for ads or booked for shoots but not used in the final photographs.)
“I started to understand culturally [as a Black woman] that I was going to have work really hard to feel accepted,” she said of experiencing racism in the modeling world. “There was no way I could go back home with my tail between my legs saying, ‘It didn’t work out, I gave up.’ No way. I was going to go harder and further.”
In between hustling to land modeling jobs, the four women also learned the secrets of living in a major city like Manhattan.
“I put out my hands many times on New York City streets and the taxis would fly by,” Campbell quipped. “Then, Christy would put out the hand and they would stop! The guy would be like, ‘I don’t want to go to Brooklyn. I’m not going to Brooklyn.’ I was just like, ‘Why is he saying that?’ It didn’t strike me until Christy would have to stand out in front of me [and] get me a taxi to get to work.”
The ladies also hung out as pals after work — with and without tequila. “We liked going to Times Square before Times Square got cleaned up when there were peep shows,” Evangelista said. “We didn’t go to the peep shows. But I’m just saying. New York was a different place. A little seedy, it was fun.”
The Super Models premieres on Apple TV+ Wednesday, September 20.
