<<< The Australian, 12.28.01

Tell Travis Fimmel he has a great body and he shoots back smartly: "No, mate, it's all trick photography." Tell him he has pulled off a coup in becoming the first model since Kate Moss to sign an exclusive six-figure contract with Calvin Klein and he sings out: "I'm not a model, mate. Only models call themselves that. I don't because I am not, mate."

Well gee, mate, you want to say, with your perfect face and killer bod looming large over banks of traffic on Sunset Strip and Broadway, you certainly look like a model. Yet you don't because the 22-year-old, who grew up on a dairy farm near Echuca in Victoria to become the darling of the New York fashion world would just keep denying it. But, to paraphrase Shakespeare, the boy doth protest too much.

He is a model, albeit the most reluctant, ambivalent one you will find. He fell into it for the money, he tells you. The fame, celebrity and Hollywood agents now thrusting their business cards into his hands -- he finds it all incomprehensible.

"I'm hoping my mates don't find out about the billboards," he says of the 18m photographs of him in nothing but briefs adorning US freeways. "They're going to give me more shit."

He's right, they will. Fimmel is firmly of the tribe of Australian men who treat footy as a religion, call each other mate and take the piss out of anyone getting too big for their boots. So Fimmel knows he is in for it. But maybe the money he is earning will soften the blow.

"Oh, don't say I make a lot," he pleads. "My mates will expect me to shout all the time."

If Fimmel's story isn't your classic rags to riches tale, it's close. After working on his parents' farm, Fimmel moved to Melbourne to play football and study project management at RMIT University. But a broken leg ended his sporting career and a scout from Chadwicks (who discovered him in the gym) booked him, after much persuasion, to work some small jobs. Fimmel quit studying and headed for London to do the traditional Australian year abroad. He planned trips and events for tourists. Done with Britain, Fimmel returned to Australia to model again to raise cash to go to the US. To model there? "No, just to see the country. I keep saying, I am not a model, mate. It's just a job to make money to travel."

Fimmel arrived in Los Angeles in April and, after running out of cash, walked into the offices of L.A. Models without "a book, anywhere to stay or any shoes at that point". The agency liked what they saw and he was booking work only days later.

"The jobs were awesome," he says. He did print shoots for L'Oreal, Motorola and Skechers. Things were going well for the 1.8m blond, green-eyed Aussie until his agent suggested he try for the new Calvin Klein campaign. Fimmel bristled.

"I said, no, not interested. I don't want to do underwear." They sent his composite card to New York behind his back and the rest is history. With his lean swimmer's build, Fimmel was in luck. Klein wanted a change from the beefy, pumped-up bodies of Mark Wahlberg, Antonio Sabato Jr and Michael Bergin to a more sinewy, sexual look. Fimmel was his man. Within weeks he was shooting the underwear campaign with Stephen Klein.

"When I got the job, I said, 'Oh, nice one.' And my agent said: 'Do you know what a big deal this is?"'

He signed exclusively for bodywear, jeans and fragrance for one year. As for the campaign, Fimmel thinks the pictures are great, but it wasn't easy shooting in his jocks. "I was very self-conscious I have to say, mate." Since the ads have come out, the attention on Fimmel has been close to frenzied. "It's a nice compliment. But seeing myself on a billboard just cracks me up, mate. I mean, where I am from in the country, this is so not me, this modelling thing."

One interesting thing is that Klein insisted Fimmel, who surfs, swims, boxes and generally can't sit still, stop going to the gym.

"They don't want me to bulk up. I have to stay lean. So I am not allowed near a gym while the campaign is on." (What a life -- ordered to stop working out.)

Naturally Fimmel's chiselled face and torso has found him a legion of fans. Yes, he admits, gay men and straight women are coming on to him in droves. "Oh, mate, it's all good, but pretty funny right? I'm just Travis from country Victoria."