Rosie Huntington-Whiteley: The Future Is Rosie (2011 Cover Story & Gallery)

A Victoria’s Secret model starring in a Transformers movie? Check and check. Gentlemen, meet Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, the lady who’s turning your adolescent wet dreams into reality.

This feature appears in Complex's June/July 2011 issue.

Rosie Huntington-Whiteley was looking for work while she was in college, so she applied for and was hired as a booker at a modeling agency. When she showed up for her first day of work, the agency heads immediately fired her as a booker and hired her as a model. Then the other models from that agency exploded.

A few years later Rosie became a Victoria’s Secret Angel, therebyentering the fantasies of millions of normal and weird men. Now she’s the female lead in Transformers.
Preparation, struggle, rejection? Bah! All jokes aside, the girl is friendly, silly, and easy to talk to. The 24-year-old Brit grew up on a farm, which goes a long way toward making someone totally normal…or completely batballs crazy. You draw your own conclusions, but at the photo shoot for this piece, she talked about killing chickens (normal, to us) and how she didn’t feel like she looked her best that day (batballs crazy, clearly).

Did you watch Transformers cartoons to prepare for your role?
No. I’ve seen the Transformers movies before, but I haven’t seen the cartoons or played with the toys. I grew up on a farm in the southwest of England. I think I had about two toys my whole childhood. I was in the woods, riding my bike and my horse.

Do you think Transformers role-play when they have sex?
Do I think they role-play when they have sex? [Laughs.] What, like Bumblebee and Optimus Prime? No! ’Cause there’s no lady Transformers!

Yes there are.
I don’t know. It’s not in the movies. They’re all males. No, I don’t reckon they do. I don’t think they have sex.

That seems like an unfair existence.
Well, I’m sure they find enjoyment in other ways.

How’s working with Michael Bay?
Michael was great. We shot a commercial in 2009 for Victoria’s Secret, that’s where we met. Then he sent me an email last summer. He said, “I’d like to put you on tape for this role for Transformers.” I figured it was going to be a small role, or an extra. I didn’t jump on the idea, but I believe you should always take a meeting, so I went to the casting and went on tape. A couple days later, Michael sent me a message saying, “We want you for the female lead, is that something you’d consider?” I met Shia that evening, then a week later I was doing a screen test, and two weeks after that I was doing my first scene. So it happened really, really quick.

Do you have any insight as to how that role opened up?
Well, the character Carly is Sam’s new girlfriend, and she’s a British girl. She’s a new character so I got to really put my stamp on it.

Have you ever heard of Unicron?
Unicron? No. What is it?

It’s a Transformer.
Is it? Unicron! Don’t test me on Transformers!

Are you a fast runner?
Yeah, I had to get really fast for this role. We closed down all these major streets in Chicago. We shut them down for weeks at a time, and I had to run, a lot, and in heels.

Have you ever had to run for your life?
I had to run from a bull once.

In Spain?
No, on the farm back home, on Christmas actually. In the mud, in Wellington boots, and I was running fast.

Why was he chasing you?
’Cause he’s a bull! That’s what they do. You step onto their land and they’ve got their lady cows with them.

You escaped.
I had to! I jumped over a fence. [Laughs.]

What does your family farm produce?
My parents have [other] jobs. It’s just a small farm that we eat from. We don’t sell produce or anything.

But it’s self-sufficient?
Yeah, so it’s eggs, pigs, sheep, and chickens.

Do you get sad when it’s time to kill a chicken?
No.

That’s good. There’s a disconnect in this generation about where food comes from.
No, I know where my food comes from. I don’t get sad ’cause you don’t build relationships with those animals. I’m a farm girl; there’s the pigs, that’s the dog that I play with and love, but it’s the pig that’s gonna be in the freezer next month.