Nigel Barker gets personal on Season 2 of Oxygen’s The Face

Having spent 17 cycles as a judge and photographer on America’s Next Top Model, Nigel Barker understands what makes a modeling show compelling. But even he had no idea when he left ANTM to host Naomi Campbell’s The Face how quickly that series would become a worldwide sensation, too, with Campbell helming British and Australian versions, and an international field of hopefuls auditioning for Season 2.

This time, Barker will also serve as confidant to the 12 “modeltestants” vying to become the face of Frédéric Fekkai’s 2014 ad campaign — a role he says allows him to ask the same questions viewers would and foster more in-depth storytelling as the girls navigate real-world assignments with the industry’s top names and brands. “I’m a photographer, so my role has always been to coax people out of their shells,” Barker says. “That’s something that comes naturally to me — breaking down boundaries to get people to reveal themselves.”

To keep the series fresh, Campbell will also compete against new supermodel coaches Lydia Hearst and Anne V to mold Season 2’s winning model.

The Face - Season 2

“For the modeltestants to watch someone like that go up to a Patrick Demarchelier or a Gilles Bensimon or some other massive photographer who is shooting one of our magazine spreads and to treat him with respect and to listen and to take direction and then transform in front of the camera is so precious,” Barker says. “It’s a fascinating part of the show.”

And the sort of unprecedented industry access that The Face is all about.

“You’ve never seen the actual inner workings of being a supermodel in a show before,” he says. “You see that on The Face. And you see it up close and very personal.”

Channel Guide Magazine: I love the idea behind your expanded role in Season 2 — getting to know the girls more as people and drawing them about their emotions and experiences. Tell me how that came to be.

Nigel Barker: What we discovered last season was that there was so much going on, and to have someone as sort of neutral territory that the girls could speak to, who wasn’t necessarily a coach or another contestant, and who wasn’t judging them but was really just there to listen or to talk or to perhaps ask the question that the audience would be asking — I started to do that a little last season and everyone loved it.

This season, I sort of have permission to go in there when I see something and say, ‘What’s up? What’s going on?’ and ask questions that I’m wondering. Why is one client asking a model to do this? Or why is a model asking a model to do this? Why they are feeling the way they are. That helps tell the whole story really well from a really organic perspective.”

CGM: You didn’t shy away from some tough stuff in Season 1 — eating disorders, race issues. Is it important for you to show all sides of the modeling world and what the girls are feeling and subjected to?

NB: That’s the thing that’s really exciting about The Face is that regardless of whether or not you’re into fashion or not, it’s an aspirational show. It’s a show about how to be a success. It’s obviously a show about modeling, but there’s a business side to modeling. There’s a spokesperson side to modeling. There’s a sort of ambassadorial role to being the face of a brand. Becoming the face of a brand is a huge business — and there isn’t one way to get there.

CGM: Give me your take on the new mentors’ greatest strength in that role?

NB: Lydia Hearst is fashion royalty, comes from the Hearst family, has done the covers of Vogue internationally many, many times and has worked with just about every photographer out there. Anne V is huge model in Europe, became a Sports Illustrated girl and a huge model in United States, and has worked for pretty much every major fashion house. And they all have very different looks.

One of the funny things is when the supermodels become coaches, in many respects it’s new to them. They live in a very very competitive world. Being at the top of any business is difficult, but being at the top of the Supermodel business is really tough. So there is a sense of family and there is a sense of ’these are my girls’ and that mothering instinct comes out. That nurturing extinct comes out. They cry when their girls get eliminated. They cry when their girls win. And they get enormously invested in their team in a way that the producers and myself had no idea was going to happen. And it’s because they’re such consummate professionals, and the way they know how to win is eating, sleeping and breathing it.

CGM: Having worked as a model and with models your entire career — and also having the first season under your belt — what do you think is the biggest roadblock for these girls both in winning the face and acclimating to the industry?

NB: This is a very, very big prize. This isn’t just winning prize money or winning a spread in a magazine. It’s not even saying you’re going to be “the face” in one ad. You’re going to be the face of an entire national brand, for an entire ad campaign, across every platform. You’ve going to be the ambassador and the spokesperson. That’s a huge job, even for a supermodel.

So these girls might think, ‘I can take a pretty picture. I can rehearse lines.’ It takes a lot more. For one thing, Frédéric wants to hang out with you; he wants to socialize with whomever is the face of his brand. He’s not going to have someone that he doesn’t particularly like. That can be intimidating for a girl who is 18 or 19 years old and has never really been out of her small town.  So realizing how multifaceted the business is at the high end. That’s one of the big things about The Face: Every single week, it’s a real job with a real client.

CGM: Give me your overall impression of the new crop of modeltestants. 

NB: Well, the word was out on the street. Naomi had done the Australian version and the UK version, so the word was out there and it had become a global phenomenon and we cast internationally. We’ve got Russian girls. We’ve got girls from the Islands, from Africa. This particular crop of girls is particularly exciting!

 The Face Season 2 airs Wednesdays at 10/9CT on Oxygen beginning March 5

 

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Lori just hasn't been the same since "thirtysomething" and "Northern Exposure" went off the air.