Hearst is calm, candid, and easy to warm to. Her delicate features frequently break into laughter, and she certainly appears fairly normal.“ Yeah, I’ m pretty sure there won’ t be a movie of my life,” she grins.“ It would be pretty boring: She goes to the gym! She updates her blog! She does some online shopping! I don’ t see much of an audience for it …”
Which is not to say her life is uneventful. She’ s already carved out a highly successful career as a model, having been shot by the likes of Mario Testino, Ellen Von Unwerth, Peter Lindbergh, Terry Richardson et al. and graced dozens of covers including Elle, Harper’ s Bazaar, and numerous editions of Vogue. She’ s also served as a coach on the popular reality TV show The Face and has her own popular blog( lovelydiahearst. com) which she updates herself“ hopefully at least three or four times a week”.
“ Meeting Johnny Depp or having Ricki Lake babysit me was part of my childhood.”
“ I’ ve been very fortunate,” she claims. Though judging by the boundless energy she displays at our shoot, her luck is more likely earned than found. She possesses a fierce work ethic. Hour after hour, she tirelessly struck ever more elaborate poses, happy to listen and collaborate, bouncing around the LA Circus location gleefully.“ Actually, I’ m a bit obsessed with the circus,” she enthuses.“ I even went to circus school for a few months here in Hollywood about a year ago so doing this shoot was really exciting for me. It wasn’ t your typical model shoot but that’ s why I love Treats! You don’ t know what to expect and I love shooting with Tony D.”
She can’ t decide which was her favorite shot:“ I kinda love all of them- but maybe particularly the cannon. I didn’ t get to be shot out of it but it was still pretty cool! Just running around the circus and seeing everything was pretty remarkable … oh, and Tony made my butt look pretty good when I was in the ticket booth!”
Being naked seems to hold no fear. Last year Hearst got involved with the‘ Free The Nipple’ campaign that aimed to draw public attention to the issue of gender equality and encourage debate over America’ s repression of sexuality:“ I honestly think it’ s ridiculous that women aren’ t allowed to show nipples. They’ re not vulgar. Men have nipples too! I don’ t see why it’ s considered more acceptable to show a man’ s than a woman’ s. It’ s shocking that in this day and age there’ s still a double standard.”
Between the, er, nipple-freeing, the modeling, the blogging and the philanthropy( Hearst has worked for about ten years with Operation Smile, a charity that performs surgeries on children around the world suffering from uni and bilateral cleft lips and palates) Hearst has also managed to find time for her true creative passion: acting. She’ d always wanted to entertain but two years ago she moved to Los Angeles and has been working steadily ever since. After a few short films and an episode of Gossip Girl, she made her feature debut in the Tolstoy adaptation Two Jacks, alongside Sienna Miller and Danny Huston –“ I had about three lines and two scenes” she says but the roles have been getting bigger ever since.