Brooklyn Decker has opened up about the career gamble that took her from the top of the modeling world to starting over nearly from scratch.
The 39-year-old, who rocketed to fame with her 2010 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue cover, told CNBC in 2016 that she deliberately left behind a lucrative paycheck to chase something more stable. “I walked away from modeling and that was lucrative for me at the time. I could’ve easily gone back to what was comfortable and what was a sure thing and what I knew would make me an income, and I didn’t. I chose to be kind of unemployed for a while.”
She found that reset humbling but necessary. “That was one of the things that I was most proud of, is having a piece of humble pie and staying the course,” she added in the same interview.
Decker’s modeling breakthrough opened doors to Hollywood, landing her the role of Palmer Dodge in the 2011 romantic comedy Just Go with It alongside Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston. She later appeared in What to Expect When You’re Expecting and the Netflix series Grace and Frankie.
Yet the runway and photo shoot world had worn on her in ways that went beyond the usual pressures of celebrity. During a 2016 appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Decker laid bare the capriciousness that drove her exit.
“It’s the one profession where, no matter how hard you work, if you’re not trendy, nothing’s happening for you,” she explained to Colbert. “With acting, if you audition terribly, at least you know, ‘I messed that up. I was horrible. That’s why I didn’t get the job.'”
She drew a sharp contrast between the two industries. “With modelling, it’s like, ‘I’m not cool this year, therefore I’m unemployed for a while.’ With modelling, it’s just, either you’re liked or you’re not.”
Not everyone in her orbit endorsed the leap. Decker said in 2018 that she had received direct pushback when she floated expanding beyond the catwalk. “The worst advice would be when someone told me to stay in my lane,” she recalled.
The doubters framed it as protective counsel. “I was modelling and was going to make the very cliché transition into acting … but I think they had the best intentions in mind,” she continued. “They were trying to encourage me to go after job security and they’re like, ‘You have a good thing going, why would you ruffle feathers, why make a detour career-wise?'”
Decker ignored them. Alongside her acting work, she and husband Andy Roddick, the retired tennis star, built a formidable side business in real estate. The couple acquired, renovated, and flipped multiple high-end properties, including a 15-acre Austin compound they purchased for $3.7 million, extensively rebuilt, and listed for $4.65 million. They also held a $1.1 million New York City apartment and, in 2018, sold a custom-built four-bedroom mountain home in Cashiers, North Carolina, for $2.35 million.
The combined ventures have made Decker and Roddick millions beyond either of their original careers, validating the risk she took when she stepped away from guaranteed modeling income to prove she could build something on her own terms.