Lots of goodies, a little exploitation for Bangkok’s expat ‘models’

Jessica arrived in Bangkok four years ago with empty pockets and no desire to return to the United Kingdom.

Fresh from backpacking across Asia, she took a teaching job she despised just to stick around. That’s when one of her condo neighbors, a casting agent, suggested she try modeling on the side.

“I never considered it before, but I didn’t have any money, and I didn’t have any friends,” Jessica said. “So it seemed like a good idea. I went to my first casting for a Japanese commercial.”

She didn’t get the job, but met a guy who invited her to one of Bangkok’s notorious “models nights” and her first dreamy taste of the expat “beautiful people” scene where skinny, statuesque eye-candy from Eastern Europe and South America bask in free stuff and can find themselves being groomed for prostitution.

“I have to say they were sort of like better-looking backpackers,” she remembers. “They all had three-month tourist visas and just wanted to have fun and party,” said Jessica, who didn’t want her name used because she is still working in Bangkok.

Back when she was the new girl in Bangkok, she started going five nights a week, but not for the pleasant company.

“A lot of time was spent talking about things like, ‘I want to go to Japan, but I need to lose weight,’” she recounted. Instead it was the ready supply of free food and booze – 10 drink tickets up front and free piles of king prawns and sashimi. There was a different bar or nightclub offering free goodies every night of the week, and this crowd loved to get wasted and blow lots of coke.

During that time, not much happened for Jessica’s professional modeling career. She got two jobs as a commercial extra. She wouldn’t have called herself a model, but hey – she had a “comp card” identifying her as such at bars and clubs.

“What defines a real model anyway?” said Jessica, who was 21 at the time and had just graduated from university with honors. “I guess some worked, but maybe just once every three months.”

 

A nightlife institution

The model scene has long held a warm and fuzzy spot in Bangkok’s nightlife, and so-called “Models Nights” remain a staple of the free-wheeling nightlife scene everywhere from low-rent discos to high-end eateries.

There are model nights almost every day of the week, and almost every upscale restaurant, bar or nightclub has advertised such parties, from Zuma and Limoncello to Maggie Choo’s. A decade after it was pioneered in Bangkok by Bed Supperclub, regular “models nights” can be found Tuesdays at Flix on RCA and Fridays at Circle on Soi Ruamrudee. That’s not to mention Fashion TV’s The Love F Bar in Mixx, which also offers 10 drinks and a free taxi for groups of three models on certain nights, and Koi is perhaps the most well-known model hangout.

So when  you’ve got hungry, attractive young people billed as “models” and Hi-So men eager to associate with them, a sort of symbiotic relationship follows.

“You have to expect that models are going to come and eat a lot and drink a lot,” said one promoter, who asked not to be named. “And you can’t cut them off, or they are going to leave. You can’t get customers with that … especially models who are friendly between themselves, but don’t let others into their own society.”

But there is one segment of regulars indispensable to this corner of Bangkok’s multifarious nightlife – businessmen with a lot of money to blow.

“Back then, there was a Thai in his 40s or 50s who ran these dinners,” Jessica recalled. “He told me every week he hires four-to-10 girls for 2,000 or sometimes 3,000 baht to go to dinner with a group of businessmen. It was always fancy restaurants, like Long Table or one of the restaurants at Sofitel, and you order anything you want, eat, drink and all you have to do is hang out.”

The perks came quickly.

“He told me he contacts everybody over Blackberry Messenger,” she said. “I didn’t have a Blackberry, so the next time I saw him, he showed up with one and gave it to me, so he could start contacting me.”

She started getting messages once or twice a week and went a couple times for the free meals and pocket cash. It was innocent but “totally awkward” as far as the small-talking and fake-smiling went. The businessmen were usually middle-aged Thais – one group was American – dining with models between 18 and 21. She remembers one model at such a dinner being 16.

“There were enough girls there that just thought, ‘Screw these guys, let’s just talk to each other,’ and they were nice enough and friendly,” Jessica said.

One model would be given the money at the start of the meal, and she would distribute it to the others at the end of the night. “You were to never ask about the money or acknowledge it was being given,” said Jessica, “but we all joked about it amongst ourselves.”

The businessman organizing these exclusive parties would also write the girls occasionally and invite them out for bowling, massages or spa treatments.

“I sort of knew it was going to get sketchy eventually, but I told myself as soon as I feel uncomfortable, I will stop doing this,” she said. “I wouldn’t go on a trip with him and he would bug me and send me random messages all the time. It was never sexual, just annoying. I just stopped answering him because he was just like the needy boyfriend I did not want.”

She stopped going to everything completely when she started hearing unsavory stories from other models. Not just the usual stuff, but rumors of sexual and physical assaults occuring. All the events started getting harder to sit through, even for the free sashimi.

“All of the Russians would just sit there, chain-smoke and look miserable and pick the fish off their sushi and scowl every now and then,” Jessica said. “And sometimes it would be quiet, then somebody would start yelling out of nowhere, ‘Let’s take shots!’”

At the last event Jessica attended, she was talking to another girl when a non-model guest walked up and said, “You aren’t here to talk, you’re here to make out.”

 

Too many models

That was four years ago, when Bangkok’s modeling industry was being overwhelmed by new arrivals. Then the lead spot in a car commercial could pay up to THB600,000. Now you’d be lucky to get the same gig for THB200,000. More common is finding work as an extra, which usually pays about THB3,000 for a 12-hour day.

And even those jobs are getting harder to come by as the local market is more saturated with pretty faces than ever before. Girls as young as 16 are being sent from agencies around the world to try their luck at modeling in Asian cities like Bangkok, Beijing and Hong Kong. Bangkok has emerged as the favorite, as agencies are less exclusive, and the cost of living is much lower than elsewhere.

The younger girls are hustled to multiple castings daily, and if they are under 18, live in shared apartments and forced to abide by a strict curfew of 11 pm. Of course, some still find ways to break the rules.

So while those who are serious about modeling would probably opt for China (or Europe and the United States for those who are able), the expat models in Bangkok usually arrive with little experience. They don’t need it for the lesser-paying jobs, but these days they are also competing with tourists and students have also caught onto modeling as a means of quick and easy cash.

Coconuts Bangkok talked to one casting agent who said the business is tougher than ever now. Four years ago in Bangkok, there were eight professional agencies and now there are around 15, not to mention freelancers who aim to cut out the agency “middle men” completely. It’s always possible to find someone to do the job for less, and that’s why she says professionalism has plummetted.

“I feel like foreigners have ruined the whole business,” said the agent, who did not want to be identified out of concern for her career. “Some of these expats come here, and they have nothing to do. It’s easy for them to do the job, and they have no problem taking a small job for less money.”

 

Is that a casting or a booty call?

The usual casting couch stories always float around, but that just seems to be part of the territory. “Tom” started modeling to pay his way through a Thai university. While the odd photo shoot or catwalk job only pays a few thousand baht, he’s been given plenty of big offers for more intimate services.

“A make-up artist said I could stay with her, and she would give me 80,000 baht per month plus 30,000 just for shopping,” he said. “All I would have to do is wake up in the morning, eat breakfast, go to the gym, eat lunch, relax, and in the evening go again to the gym, and then spend the night with her.”

It’s not common for expat male models to hook up with a Thai sugar mommy, said the casting agent. Though, she said, it’s usually their rich husbands unwittingly bankrolling everything.

The casting agent we talked to said she even knew of one agency running such sleazy transactions as part of their business.

“They call models to hang out with rich people, invite them for dinner at Sirocco and buy them gifts to get them into bed,” she said. “I know a guy that also got offered to have sex with a girl for money for a Russian couple to watch.”

The domestic modeling industry is known for being somewhat more professional than the expat scene but is known for its own exploitations.

“My girlfriend is a Thai actress and model,” Tom said. “She’s been offered a one-night boat trip for 500,000 baht,” he said. “There will always be people who want that in return.”

 

All in a day’s work

According to the casting agent, modeling is not such an easy job. You can stand around at an event for a few hours and make THB5,000 or do it all day for 12 hours under the tropical sun and make the same. Fights often break out on set between production teams and extras that believe they should be making more or are doing more than they originally agreed to.

“I do feel bad for models sometimes,” said the agent. “Sometimes, especially the younger girls, they feel like they don’t have a choice.”

Jessica has long since tossed her comp card and started a job in advertising. Tom says he’ll stop after graduation.

“The world I’m living is different than the world they are living in,” he said. “I’m not really interested in what kind of dress you have or which island you’re going to next.”

Photo: Igor Oussenko



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