Who said modeling isn’t a contact sport? In a recent interview, Gisele Bündchen opened up about a frightening incident she experienced while shooting a fragrance campaign in the late ’90s. The Brazilian bombshell recounted the story alongside Jimmy Fallon during a game of “True Confessions” in which she discussed almost falling off a “fake iceberg” while on set in Iceland.
“I was there going around like this,” Bündchen said, imitating modeling poses, adding “as a drone was filming me. I would have been dead in seconds because you know what happens when you fall inside the freezing water of the iceberg?” She then exclaimed, “[In] seconds, you’re dead! Dead.”
The photoshoot in question is a 1997 campaign for Lanvin’s “Oxygene” perfume. In the advertisement and accompanying images, lensed by photographer and filmmaker Bruno Aveillan between Iceland and New York City, Bündchen traverses icy terrain before finding herself on the Big Apple streets. The moment Bündchen referenced comes about half way through the commercial where she is striking a series of poses (in a slip dress, nonetheless) while situated in the middle of a body of water.
“It was for this fragrance called Oxygene,” she shared. “I was supposed to be in this slip dress while everyone was in a boat with like huge puffer jackets and life vests, while I was going around like this saying ‘Oxygene, Oxygene.’”
Models and photographers are notorious for pushing the boundaries to make magic happen. No one knows that better than someone like Naomi Campbell who perched herself on top of an elephant to be captured by Jean Paul Goude for Harper’s BAAZAR. Or Gigi Hadid who engaged in various extremities of water sports during a 2014 shoot with Mario Sorrenti. And who could forget Richard Avedon’s 1966 editorial for Vogue which featured the legendary Veruschka showing off various furs in an arctic Japan.
Thankfully, nowadays it seems like models are less likely to risk their well being to sell a few bottles of perfume. As Bündchen told Fallon of her Icelandic incident, “I’m alive, so thank God I’m here.”
