After ruling the modeling industry for a decade, supermodel Gigi Hadid decided to dip her toes in the acting industry. In a joint Vogue interview with her long-time best friend and fellow supermodel, Kendall Jenner, she opened up about auditioning for the role of the popular Disney princess Rapunzel for Tangled’s live-action remake.
While speaking with Kendall Jenner about how the modeling industry no longer felt challenging, Hadid revealed that her audition was rejected.
“I was really proud of my scene. The singing…I knew they were going to go with a real singer, but I’ll show you my audition scene later.”
Jenner said she was “stoked” to see Hadid’s audition tape later. As Hadid suspects, the dealbreaker for the casting team may have been her non-singing background, although the model claimed that she had taken singing lessons during Fashion Month for the audition.
To her credit, Gigi Hadid certainly looks the part. With her blue-green eyes, blonde hair, and tall stature, it’s easy to imagine her as Rapunzel. Her intense boxing-based fitness training (via Vogue) also makes her a natural fit for the film’s more physical moments, like the iconic scene where Rapunzel knocks out Flynn Rider with a frying pan.
As far as the singing is concerned, if Hadid’s dedication to the audition led her to take singing lessons, we can only imagine how hard she would have worked if she were actually to land the role.
Has Gigi Hadid Appeared in Any Movies?
While Gigi Hadid began modeling when she was a kid before making her breakthrough in 2013, she has not had her big acting break yet. She made her acting debut as Andrea in the 2012 short film, Virgin Eyes.
Hadid has also appeared in numerous reality TV series over the years. The first of these appearances was in The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, in which she appeared alongside her mother, Yolanda Hadid, and younger sister, Bella Hadid.
In 2016, she made the most reality TV appearances, from RuPaul’s Drag Race to Lip Sync Battle. That year, she also hosted the iHeartRadio Much Music Video Awards and the American Music Awards.
Additionally, she appeared as her ex-boyfriend Zayn Malik’s partner in his widely successful music video for the single, Pillowtalk. She also shares a daughter, Khai Malik, with the singer. She has made appearances in music videos of many famous artists, including Taylor Swift’s Blank Space.
Besides this, Gigi Hadid made a cameo as herself in the acclaimed heist film, Ocean’s 8. She has also served as the narrator of two episodes of the Netflix coming-of-age drama, Never Have I Ever.
Other Actresses Rumored to Be Cast as Rapunzel in the Live-action Tangled Movie
Since Disney embarked on its journey to make live-action remakes of some of its most popular animated movies, Tangled has been one of the highly anticipated ones. After Snow White’s disastrous performance, the studio seems to be taking a break from any more live-action remakes for the time being.
One of the actresses who has been widely rumored to be in the running for the role of Rapunzel is Thunderbolts* star Florence Pugh. Earlier this year, the popular internet sleuth and Hollywood insider MyTimeToShineHello took to X to claim that Taylor Swift was being considered for the role.
Besides Rapunzel, there have also been rumors about the casting of Mother Gothel. MyTimeToShineHello also claimed that Demi Moore might have been in the running for the role of Mother Gothel, Rapunzel’s manipulative captor. Industry insider Daniel Richtman took to his own Patreon to claim that Kathryn Hahn was also contending for the role.
Which actress do you think would look best in the role of Rapunzel? Let us know in the comments.
Tangled streaming on Disney+.