Kate Moss: No Fond Memories of Breakthrough Photo Shoot

Supermodel Kate Moss has opened up in rare form about her early, often controversial, days in the industry, notes the Guardian. The interview was via radio for the Desert Island Discs program of the BBC. Among the highlights:

• Age 15: Moss, now 48, recalls how a male photographer tried to pressure her into posing topless at age 15. "I was really shy then about my body, and he said, 'Take your bra off' and I could feel there was something wrong so I got my stuff and I ran away." She added that the experience "sharpened her instinct."

• Cocaine: Moss was famously photographed in 2005 as she appeared to do cocaine, and she felt she was made into a scapegoat for an industry-wide habit. “I felt sick and was quite angry,” she said, "because everybody I knew took drugs. So for them to focus on me, and to try to take my daughter away, I thought was really hypocritical.”
• Johnny Depp: Moss explained why she testified on behalf of former boyfriend Depp to discount a rumor. "I know the truth about Johnny. I know he never kicked me down the stairs. I had to say that truth."
• Another ex: Moss defended another ex, designer John Galliano, who was convicted of racist abuse in 2011. “People aren’t themselves when they drink,” said Moss, “and they say things that they would never say when they were sober.”
• Big break: Moss recalls her first major ad campaign, in 1992 for Calvin Klein, though not fondly. Still a teen, she was topless in the shoot with Mark Wahlberg and said she felt "vulnerable and scared". Moss added: "They played on my vulnerability. Calvin loved that." She said she had to take Valium to get through the experience.

Read the full interview. (More Kate Moss stories.)