Although Mad Max: Fury Road got rave reviews,
Rosie Huntington-Whiteley didn't use her part as a springboard to advance her acting career.
In fact, you might not have seen Rosie in a hot minute. Here's why.
Mad Max: Fury Road was universally praised, and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley's performance
was well received. However, her big screen debut in Transformers: Dark of the Moon
was panned by critics. In the third installment of the Transformers franchise, Huntington-Whiteley
replaced Megan Fox as Shia LaBeouf's love interest. The reviews were so scathing it's
no wonder she didn't appear in another film for four years. A review from Total Film remarked,
"[Rosie Huntington-Whiteley was] sucking the life out of every scene she appeared in."
Every entertainer knows that they can't please everyone, and the Transformers franchise was
never a hit with critics no matter who was part of the human cast. However,
Huntington-Whiteley said she did her best to pay attention and learn from the role.
Shortly after the release of Mad Max: Fury Road, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley
and her boyfriend Jason Statham went public with the exciting news that they'd gotten engaged.
Huntington-Whiteley showed off her sparkly new rock at the Golden Globes in January 2016.
The couple has been together since 2010, and Huntington-Whiteley says that Statham has been
much more understanding of her ambitious career goals than some of her previous boyfriends.
"Are you threatened by him?"
Huntington-Whiteley and Statham are both extremely passionate about their work, and this connection
only makes their relationship stronger. As the model and actress told Elle Australia,
"When you're a career-driven person, it works best when your partner is equally as excited
for you and supportive. And that's what Jason is. He's my biggest cheerleader and I'm his."
Although they're both quite busy with their respective careers,
they like to have plenty of family time outside of the spotlight, and Huntington-Whiteley makes
it a point to keep their relationship fairly private. They both make an effort to make the
most of their time off together, which means not taking on every project that comes their way.
Rosie Huntington-Whiteley wears many professional hats, and by putting
acting on the back burner, she was able to focus on some of her other passions,
like fashion design. She had already worked on a lingerie line for British brand Marks and Spencer,
which turned out to be a massive success, so it's easy to see why the label Paige chose
to partner with her for a collaborative collection. This was a huge undertaking,
but Huntington-Whiteley was happy to take on the challenge. As she told Elle,
"I've always wanted to be a designer, ever since I can remember. [...] It's brilliant to come to work
and bring something else to the table beside my modeling; it's great when people want to listen
to you and want you to be a part of something bigger than just being the face of a brand."
The first collection was launched in February 2017,
and a second was launched in the fall of 2017. It's clear that this is an area where
Huntington-Whiteley really excels and feels comfortable expressing herself creatively.
With all the time she's spent acting, modeling, and working on her other business ventures,
it's hard to imagine how Rosie Huntington-Whiteley could possibly fit anything more into her busy
life. Eventually, juggling all of these commitments was bound to become too much,
and as a result, certain projects inevitably fell by the wayside.
Shortly before being cast in Mad Max: Fury Road, Huntington-Whiteley had been pushing
for the presenter spot on the long-running reality TV series Project Runway All Stars.
After getting confirmation that she'd landed the job, she abruptly backpedaled.
Unfortunately for the show, this all went down mere weeks before filming was slated to begin.
When she was offered the part in Mad Max: Fury Road, she decided that her role in the film was
more important, which unexpectedly left the cast and crew of Project Runway All Stars
in search of a different host. It isn't uncommon for scheduling conflicts to happen in Hollywood,
but it still probably didn't do her any favors with the people behind the scenes at Project
Runway All Stars, and she may have realized that choosing Hollywood over the fashion industry might
not be such a smart career move. Trying to do it all would just mean spreading herself too thin.
In June 2017, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Jason Statham welcomed their son, Jack. Like pretty much
any doting mom, Huntington-Whiteley never misses a chance to gush about how much she loves him.
Although she did take several months off to stay home with Jack and adjust to being a new mom,
she says that since she came back to work,
she and Statham now try to split their parenting responsibilities equally.
With Statham's time on film sets, it would be difficult for both of
them to balance time with Jack if Huntington-Whiteley was acting too.
Now, their schedule works out perfectly. Statham is in charge of Jack in the morning,
while Huntington-Whiteley takes care of the nighttime routine and puts him to bed.
"He is very happy to get up at 5 a.m. in the morning and like do daddy duties."
The couple is adamant that their son should be raised with plenty
of involvement from both parents. As the model told Harper's Bazaar,
"I think it's so much about raising boys and girls the same. [...] That's how I
was brought up, it's how the people I love were brought up,
and they are the values I hope to instill in my loved ones."
Ask any parent how their life has changed after they've had a kid,
and many will probably tell you that they're not too keen on staying late at the office anymore,
as they would rather get home early and have plenty of time with their family instead.
As it turns out, even celebrities struggle to strike that balance. Rosie Huntington-Whiteley
has been very forthcoming about the fact that she now considers her son
Jack's needs before she agrees to take any potential new job. She told Harper's Bazaar,
"The first thing in your mind before accepting a job is,
what's right for my family? [...] The new thing is getting used to having a
lot of responsibilities in my personal life and career. [...] For every woman, it's a juggle."
"We've been so like focused on our work for so long, and then Jack came along."
In the early days of her career, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley couldn't afford to be
picky with her projects, and just like any new model, she had to be open-minded about the jobs
that came her way. But now, she's certainly not scrounging for work. As one of the most in-demand
models in the industry, she can be as choosy as she wants to be, and she calls the shots.
It seems that 30 was the magic turning point for Huntington-Whiteley. After
spending nearly 15 years in the industry, she felt like she had finally gained a solid grasp
on the kinds of jobs that she did or didn't want to take on. As she told Harper's Bazaar UK,
"I've settled into my life [...] I know myself and what makes me happy."
Rosie Huntington-Whiteley started her lifestyle brand, Rose Inc.,
while taking her hiatus from modeling to stay home with son Jack. Huntington-Whiteley says that while
acting or modeling, other people are typically in control of the decisions and final product,
but she wanted to pursue a project where she would have the final say.
After years of taking direction from others, she was ready to make a statement
and kick off a whole new phase in her career. She told Net-a-Porter,
"I just never felt comfortable sitting back and waiting for other people to make
decisions for me. [...] I've always wanted to be in control of where my life is going."
Right now, the site features interviews with models and beauty industry moguls,
updates on innovative new products, and makeup tutorials.
It's clear that this is Huntington-Whiteley's passion, and it's a space where she gets
to share all of her interests and beauty know-how with her friends.
As for why she didn't try to establish herself as an actress after the success of Mad Max:
Fury Road, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley is a model first and foremost. As of 2018,
Huntington-Whiteley was ranked sixth on the Forbes official rankings of the highest earning models in
the world. And those rankings were released while she was on her maternity break. At this point,
she has the freedom to fully lean into the talents that have taken her to the top of the ladder,
and she knows that she has always had a certain natural gift for modeling and fashion design.
There's a time for trying new things, and there's a time for embracing your innate
talents and just running with them, and that seems to be where Huntington-Whiteley is at right now.
"It's really about, you know,
enhancing the things that you love about yourself and playing on those things."
At the beginning of her modeling career, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley
said she was simply expected to sit in front of the camera and look pretty,
and she was frustrated with the expectation that models should stay silent. She says that over
the past few years, she's gotten sick of that feeling, and if she can't give her input and
take part in the artistic process, she's just not interested. Huntington-Whiteley told Net-a-Porter,
"If shoots aren't a collaborative process then I'm not really interested,
because I don't want to feel like I did for the first ten years of my career,
which is that I was just having stuff done to me."
And as a newcomer to Hollywood, Huntington-Whiteley probably didn't
have much sway when it came to how she played her roles. Perhaps she missed feeling confident
and having a certain level of authority while having a director in charge of her every move.
Rosie Huntington-Whiteley's dream was always to become a model,
and she made that dream come true at a young age. But becoming an actress
was never one of her goals. Those roles happened to fall into her lap,
and while she was grateful for the chance to be part of two franchises that she was a fan of,
acting wasn't part of her long-term career plan. Huntington-Whiteley told The Daily Telegraph,
"They were just incredible opportunities that I've grasped [...] I think you'll agree when you get
to be in a film like Mad Max or Transformers, you'd be crazy to say no and turn that down."
Huntington-Whiteley has always seen herself as a model before anything else.
She has the incredible career that she has always envisioned,
and while she's glad that she gave acting a shot, it just wasn't for her.
After spending years in Hollywood, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and her family decided
to pack up and move to London in the U.K. On Instagram, Huntington-Whiteley frequently
shares photos from her spacious new home, and she occasionally posts shots from around the city.
Since Huntington-Whiteley was born and raised in England, it's safe to say that she wanted
to be closer to her family, and perhaps she was just feeling a little homesick after living so
far from her loved ones. While there are plenty of opportunities for actors in London, it's unlikely
that Huntington-Whiteley would want to relocate there if she intended to return to acting.
Of course, actors don't necessarily need to be based in Los Angeles in order to land roles,
but it certainly does help. Maybe she'll decide to come back to California one day, but for now,
it looks like Huntington-Whiteley and her family will be staying on the other side of the pond.
Huntington-Whiteley wanted to go beyond running her own beauty site.
She's also passionate about high-quality cosmetics,
and she's had the opportunity to collaborate with several top beauty brands to create new products.
In 2020, Huntington-Whiteley became the first celebrity ambassador for Hourglass
Cosmetics, and she launched a new line of concealers and lipsticks with the brand.
In January 2021, Huntington-Whiteley worked with another beauty brand, La Bouche Rouge
to release two new shades of lipstick. She announced that a portion of the proceeds
from this particular collection would go to the non-profit organization Eau Vive Internationale,
which provides communities with clean drinking water. Huntington-Whiteley has
spoken of her admiration for the beauty brand on numerous occasions, and told The Zoe Report,
"I first came across La Bouche Rouge soon after it launched in 2017 and instantly
fell in love with the sustainability mission, the clean formulations,
and how the lipstick cases felt like a keepsake."
While Huntington-Whiteley may not be acting right now,
she's certainly busy enough with other projects.
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