If all goes according to plan, Zoe Cipres’ glamorous (not really), pampered (think again), leisurely (keep thinking) life as a international model will someday soon reach its expiration date.
It’s not that Cipres, all of 17, has become jaded with the modeling world. She enjoys the work, appreciates the experiences it’s afforded her and finds useful the lessons in professionalism that she’s picked up along the way.
And, that, Cipres says, is sort of the point.
A gifted dancer and aspiring actress, the newly graduated Mid-Pacific Institute alumna is eager to see how her experiences as a model in Japan translate to a career in the performing arts.
"Since I was young, I’ve had a clear vision of acting and dancing as a career," says Cipres. "I see modeling as a steppingstone to where I want to be."
The youngest of three siblings, Cipres was born in Orange County, Calif., and moved to Hawaii with her family when she was 6 years old.
Cipres spent her childhood playing tennis but gave up the sport in high school when she became enamored with dance.
"Everyone has that one thing that they need to do, and for me it was dance," Cipres says. "It became my outlet when I was upset or stressed. I was blessed to have had a strong passion for something."
Cipres had done some acting and modeling, but it wasn’t until her junior year, when she caught the eye of a Japanese modeling agent, that her career took off.
With encouragement from her parents, Cipres spent a month in Japan, rushing to and from casting calls and meetings; attending classes in Japanese language, modeling and nutrition; and enduring wilting heat and humidity as she hoofed it to and from countless train stations.
Cipres said her fair complexion and hapa features helped her land jobs. But it was her professionalism and work ethic that endeared her to her manager, a woman whose own sense of responsibility impressed Cipres early on, and kept her in demand.
Cipres continued to model — she flew to Japan 17 times in her junior and senior years — while at the same time honing her dancing and acting skills at Mid-Pac’s renowned School of the Arts.
This fall Cipres will leave Hawaii for New York, where she will study acting at Marymount Manhattan College. She expects to continue modeling as her schedule allows, but her goal is to act in film and television.
"I know it will be a huge transition," Cipres says, "but I’m excited about what I’ll discover. I’m excited to see what comes next."
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Reach Michael Tsai at mtsai@staradvertiser.com.
