Alex Consani Is Taking a Step Back From Modeling

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Alex Consani — one of the fashion industry’s top models and winner of the Model of the Year award at the 2024 Fashion Awards in London — is taking a step back from modeling. A small one. “You can either devote your whole pussy to fashion, or you could just take a step back and think about what you want to do,” she tells Harper’s Bazzar in the cover story for their Summer issue. And what Consani wants to do is act! And write. And direct. And with roles in the upcoming A24 film Peaked and the next season of American Horror Story, it looks like she’s getting her wish.

Check out our favorite excerpts from her interview below and read the full interview here.

On balancing her budding acting career with modeling

Right now, she fits acting jobs around her modeling gigs and is being more selective in what she chooses to take on. “Listen,” she tells Bazaar’s Lynette Nylander. “I’m a dedicated-ass bitch. And trust, I’ll be going out tonight with the lines in my hand. Don’t get that twisted. The only lines I’m doing are the ones on the acting script.”

On taking the fashion industry too seriously

“I say, why not ask for a bartender on your rider? Why not ask for an ice cream truck to come to the shoot? All these things make it fun, and everyone enjoys it,” says Consani. “I feel like I’ve definitely gotten to a point in my career where I’m more respected because I have fun with it. Because you can be so serious and strategic all you want, but at the end of the day, it’s a very fickle industry. Everyone is very like, ‘What’s in now? What’s not in now?’ But having fun is always going to be in. Period.”

On handling fame and fan interactions

“In Paris, they definitely know me more for modeling, but in America it’s definitely TikTok,” she says. “It’s a privilege that people even care to take a picture with me. That’s why when someone asks me for a picture, I’ll be like, ‘Yeah, but what’s your name? Do you live here?’ This is my favorite type of interaction. I think for me it only gets stressful when people just come up and just ask for my picture. Because I’m like, ‘I am a person.’ No shade. I love to talk. I love to chat. I want the tea.”

On staying grounded despite her success

It’s not that she thinks she’s learned everything there is to know about fashion. “There’s this feeling in fashion where you get to a certain point and it’s like everyone’s asking you about it,” she says. “But I’m still 22. I started working in high fashion in 2021. I’m not Kate Moss or Mariacarla. And I think it’s nice to remind myself of that, because you can get all jaded when people around you are always expecting me to be, like … on.”

On dating and what she’s looking for in a partner

“I like to fuck more than I like to date,” she says, although apparently she has a hard time getting a date. “Girl, nothing,” she says.

“Not even a DM?” Nylander asks.

Nothing, she insists. “Going through them would be a good video,” she says. “I do have a Notes list with my types, though: DL (down-low) events planner, European soccer player, female firefighter, chef, son or daughter of a family who owns a hotel chain. Kids of the Rosewood owners … call me!”

On whether she’ll ever stop modeling

“Never, bitch,” she says without hesitation. “Always going to be on a motherfucking runway. It forever has my heart. But I think that it gets to a point where you think, ‘I want to do things specifically for me.’”

On using her platform to support trans youth

“The support that I’m giving people is really about letting them do what they want, but you can’t even let your children do what they want anymore. I know people that have reached out and they get a suicide help number,” she continues. “I’m like, ‘Girl, that’s not doing s**t.’ There isn’t really an ability to converse positively about experiences. What I will say about the trans community as a whole and what I think is so special is that no matter what privilege you have within it, whether you’re Black and trans, white and trans, rich or poor, you’re still trans. Ultimately, you’re seen as trans people before anything else that you are. And I think, not to diminish anyone else’s struggles, that it’s a really beautiful connection that [trans] people have.”

On how her parents supported her and their evolving understanding of her identity

“I think my dad had a lesbian friend growing up, and my mom didn’t really have any queer people in her life at all. And she went to Catholic school,” Consani says. “It definitely took a lot of maybe unlearning, allowing themselves to be more open to the conversation of what that meant, because I’ve always been a girl. It’s never been a question.”

On her upcoming A24 film Peaked

“I’m so excited. It’s such an amazing cast of people.” Unlike modeling, where she’s at the top of her game, this role was hard-earned. She sent in her audition tapes and was on hold until she was confirmed. “I love to feel humbled,” she says. “I could always learn more.”

Harper’s Bazaar’s Summer issue hits newsstands June 2.