When Abbey Lee fronted the cover of RUSSH in 2016, the supermodel had just embarked on her most daring journey to date – a career change. After almost a decade as one of the country’s most recognisable faces, Lee hit pause – then rewind – then restart. But that didn’t mean she had plans to slow down. Whether she knew it or not, Lee was on a steady trajectory to securing her icon status.

It’s been almost another decade since she stepped foot onto the sandy planes of George Miller’s desert, and into the world of acting; a practice she tells RUSSH gives her “the permission to explore parts of myself that I don’t always feel comfortable to in my own life.”

“The most obvious one for me is anger – I’m not someone who tends toward it. I metabolise and express anger internally, and acting has allowed me to lean into roles where you can simultaneously work through trapped emotions.”

“I love watching, in particular, women in film who allow themselves to, really let loose – women who get feral with their work. I think I admire it so much because I haven’t managed yet to find the thing that allows me to do that just yet. I’m not fully cooked. I can feel myself inching closer and closer, letting myself expand more…”

In every life, there’s one thing that Lee is not short on – drive. She has always been hungry for the next thing, unable to stay put in one place for too long (a trait, even she admits, might have been to her detriment at times). It explains, as she tells us, why she knew there was always something beyond modelling for her. At the same time, she had a fair idea of what that adventure would cost; “We go through life. We shed our skins. We become ourselves,” in the words of Patti Smith.

“The first four years of acting, I was relying a lot on instinct, and I realised at some point that I was a little bit limited in that way, and I was coming up against blocks. I needed and wanted a toolkit, I wanted to respect the craft of acting rather than just expecting that I would do it right.”

“As a model too, you’re very aware of your body and your face, and you learn to use it in a very particularly way. Acting is the same premise, but the rules are entirely different. So, I spent a lot of time breaking my body in the way that it moved. I would take movement classes and strange expressive dance classes that were all about letting go of how I thought my body should sit or stand in space,” she continued.

For a creative mind that needs no introduction, it is only fitting that Lee is our first-ever ICONS ONLY motion cover star, a new platform RUSSH is launching to not only honour those who are experts in their field, but whose legacy is almost insurmountable. To mark the inaugural cover, we captured Lee in London's iconic Broadwick Hotel, wearing Cartier, a jeweller that has been iconic since inception. A fire starter by nature, a chameleon intuitively, not by force, Lee is giving herself the space to make things happen.

“I don’t have a rigid creative process where I sit down and do these same five things, and then the work just pours out of me. It can feel very sporadic and spontaneous, and I think you need a bit of space to do that. I think a lot of creative people feel the need to do the same thing.”

For this inaugural edition, Lee speaks candidly with friend and fellow Australian actor and director, Eliza Scanlen, on the eternal value of learning, transition periods and the icons she holds close to her.

AL: Should we start at the very beginning? Did you always know this was your path?

ES: Acting and the theatre was something I found naturally at a young age and my passion for it grew as I got older. In high school I became quite obsessed with films and filmmaking – I made short films with friends and went to drama classes every weekend at NIDA. I knew I wanted to pursue acting professionally quite young and it was in my final year of high school that I got my first acting job. In the last few years, I’ve been building my knowledge and experience as a writer and director. It’s funny looking back on those younger years now and questioning why I chose acting before directing. I think women aren't usually encouraged to direct as much as men.

AL: It’s always interesting when you take a moment to reflect. I always think back to Mad Max. It was the first audition I ever did, and it became my initiation into acting. It felt like falling in love and I will always be so grateful to George Miller who entrusted me regardless of the fact I had literally zero acting experience.

ES: I’ve always admired your tenacity, ambition, and resilience. You just never stop wanting to learn.

AL: Learning is one of the things I love the most about the process. This is going to sound so basic, but I worked on a film where my character was a smoker. I wanted her to be able to flick a cigarette like a cowboy, so I spent weeks flicking cigarettes in my kitchen and I’m still very proud of being able to do that. I love learning things you may have never bothered to even pay attention to before. I could honestly go on all day about the brilliance of filmmaking and the collaborative experience of being an actor. The industry is so full of fascinating creatives.

ES: We’ve known each other for quite some time now…

AL: Yes, we met on a film, and I will never forget our first meeting was in the make-up trailer during tests. I instantly felt like I’d known you for years. There was such a natural kinship between us, which makes working together even easier.

ES: I love the collaborative aspect of being an actor. There are so many moving pieces in making a film and I love being a small part of that.

AL: From what I gather, through working with you and the conversations we’ve had, I feel like we both have a similar feeling towards the craft of acting…. That no amount of preparation should ever kill the sensation of being alive and in the moment.

ES: I’m so excited to see your own ideas continue to develop in the writing and directing space. Do you have any references that you look to that you consider truly iconic?

AL: Gena Rowlands in Opening Night, Sydney Poitier in A Raisin in the Sun, Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire, are some of my favourite iconic performances I always turn to as inspiration. In terms of filmmaking, I am obsessed with John Cassavetes. Not just his films but the way he made them. His unrelenting fight against the way the industry functioned, his belief in himself and his love for his wife and her brilliance. He created his own way of making films and the outcome is so raw and powerful and that’s my favourite type of film.

Abbey Lee wears Cartier Love and Juste un Clou. Shop the shoot on the Cartier website or in your nearest boutique.