Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model Brooklyn Decker took jobs that she regrets when she was younger

Brooklyn Decker’s had a very active career. But she sort of regrets that.

After she moved to New York City as a teen with a dream, it didn’t take long to land herself in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. Since then, she’s covered that magazine, and been featured in others like Vogue, Elle, GQ, and Glamour.

Now, her modeling days are behind her, and she’s pursuing other interests. The co-founder of fashion app Finery has been in a handful of movies including Battleship and What to Expect When You’re Expecting. She’s also on Grace and Frankie, and has two children with her husband Andy Roddick.

So, yeah. The 31-year-old’s been busy. But not always because she wanted to be. She revealed in an interview with the BUILD Series on Monday that when you’re starting out as a model, it can feel like you can’t turn anything down.

“I did so many things when I was very young that I would not have done, that I regret because…when you’re a model specifically, your employment is based on just someone thinking you are cool or trendy, and so you feel that your employment and your job security is so fragile and so you tend to say yes to a lot of things that you shouldn’t,” she shared.

Brooklyn Decker visits BUILD to talk about her career.
Brooklyn Decker visits BUILD to talk about her career.

She didn’t say exactly what those regrets are. But, when an audience member mentioned seeing her film Battleship, she thanked him as if he were doing her a favor for sitting through the film. “Thank you…for watching that…that’s all I’ll say,” she joked with the fan.

She advises young models and actors to learn from her mistake. “Say no. And don’t explain yourself,” she insisted. “Just say no, and that’s OK…If you get that weird feeling inside that says, ‘you know what, you don’t have to do this,’ you can walk away from a shoot. You can. You have a lot of power.” This would have been useful information to her about 10 years ago. “I don’t think that was something that was told to me when I was starting out…You can say no and if doesn’t feel right, don’t do it. There will be more jobs.”

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